What I'm Up To
​Volume 91

Hey friends,
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Here’s what I’ve been up to since Vol. 90…
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1. January Happenings
​Welcome to 2025. Please join me in placing 2024 in the trash and walking it to the curb. I kicked off the New Year at Better Ranch with friends and fireworks. We suspended Dry January until after watching Texas Beat Arizona State in the Peach Bowl. They lost to a great Ohio State team in the Cotton Bowl but I was thankful for a fun season.
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Wendy kicked off the year adventuring and masterminding in Cancun with Her Best Life. They curate some pretty amazing experiences for women in leadership. I’m so proud of what Wendy and her partners have built.
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After breakfast, Taco does his morning launch. He vibrates by the sliding glass door. As soon as I open it, he bounds onto the deck and launches into the yard. His usual routine is to run the perimeter barking, making sure everyone knows he is the king of his domain. He’ll then do his business and come in to snuggle on the couch. One morning while Wendy was away, he just kept barking.
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I grabbed a flashlight to investigate. A portly raccoon was treading water in the pool while an apoplectic Taco circled. I chased my dog away and the raccoon made a break for it. Unfortunately, Taco caught him and they battled briefly before the raccoon escaped over the fence. Taco was bloodied, clawed, and bitten on the neck. I cleaned him up and laid towels everywhere he likes to bed down. I left a message for our vet and started Googling rabies. Fact: raccoon saliva can carry active rabies for up to two hours. Cue compulsive handwashing. Rabies is a bad way to go. About this time, Wendy texted to let me know about her morning walk on the beach…. Taco is fine. His vaccinations were up-to-date. I’m okay, too.

Over MLK weekend, we visited our friend's ranch near Terlingua and Big Bend National Park. It’s pretty cool when you can get three couples together and everyone gets along. We hiked on the ranch and in the park, picnicked on Leon Mountain, stargazed by the firepit, and ran the Big Bend Ultra 10K. Lonnie won the masters division and placed 3rd or 4th overall. Ben cooked arroz con pollo. I managed to wrap up my second round of edits on my book. I’ll have one more pass in February and then it’s off to the printer!

Some other January highlights included a trip to Better Ranch with my pals Chris, Perry, and Dan, a long overdue dinner at Uchi with Carly and Adam, and a crazy shopping trip at Nordstrom. Carly booked me a “personal stylist” to select some new outfits for keynotes and public speaking. I did this when I first started getting speaking gigs a decade ago. This time, instead of suits, I picked up some mix and match outfits that could work for stage appearances or date nights. If you have a reason, it’s a cool experience and free.

2. What I’m Reading
​I finished Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris. It was his first book and I’d compare it to the first season of The Office. It came off as a bit mean instead of funny. The title story is great, though. I also wrapped up Who Not How by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy. I think I started it in January of 2024. I know a lot of business people who think it’s transformational. I felt like they covered a lot of familiar ground. I enjoyed Colleen Hoover’s thriller, Verity, which was a solid page-turner.
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​Outwitting History by Aaron Lansky was my favorite read of the month. I actually listened to it on Audible, which is perfect. At age 23, Lansky decided to save the world’s Yiddish language books. He pretty much did it, too. Over the decades Lansky and his volunteers saved over a million titles and established the Yiddish Book Center. If you love books and are curious about Jewish history, you will love it.
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Many of the stories are quite moving. If you’re like me, you have moved your favorite books from apartment to apartment or home to home. They are hard to part with. They are mementos of our past. Imagine if your favorite books were written in a dying language and connected you to a home from which you’d been exiled. Lansky would often spend hours with elderly Jews to collect a handful of books. Each book had a story that the giver felt obligated to share. Lansky frequently referred to these sessions as receiving their “yerusha” (יירושה), the Yiddish word for inheritance.
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​3. What I’m Watching
​Wendy and I binged our way through the first two seasons of Shrinking (Apple+). It’s touching, hilarious, and perfectly cast. Some of the best television I’ve seen in years. I highly recommend checking it out. We also wrapped up the second season of Silo (Apple+), which follows the excellent book trilogy nicely.
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With an eye to the Oscars, we started playing catchup with some Best Animated Movie nominees. Gus loved seeing Wild Robot in the theater. It’s a love letter to the sacrifices moms make for their kids. We loved it. Next, we watched Flow from Gints Zilbalodis. There is no dialogue. It’s about a cat, a capybara, a lemur, a secretary bird, and a dog that band together for survival after a flood. It’s captivating. I kinda wish we had seen it on a big screen. Maybe we will.

That’s it for this month. Please reply back and let me know what you’re up to!

Be well, do good deeds, and eat tacos!
Jay

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