What I'm Up To
​Volume 93

Here’s what I’ve been up to since Vol. 92.

1. March Happenings
​After a stressful, bustling February with Family Reunion and the asset sale, March was about counter-balancing. I tapped the brakes, traveled, and enjoyed adventures with family.
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We left for Portugal 🇵🇹 on March 1st. 🛫 ATX > JFK > Lisbon. Our friend Joao picked us up, dropped our bags at the Tivoli Hotel, and then showed us around. We enjoyed an amazing lunch at Cascais at Mar do Inferno by the “Rocha do Inferno.” After, we visited Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe. We explored Lisbon in a tuk tuk hitting many of the sites. Obviously, we ate Pastel de Natas every chance we got.
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We did a side trip to the summer palace in Sintra. 🏰 We had the best pastries of our trip there at Casa Fundada, aka “Casa Piriquita” 🦜(est 1862). They are known for their travesseiro, pillow-shaped delights. It seemed like every town had a signature pastry, often made with almonds and egg yolks (as the egg whites were historically used to starch nuns’ habits.) Our guides took us to the Convent of the Capuchos, which is largely overlooked by tourists. The monks lived austere lives. Tiny rooms, stone floors for beds, cork blankets for warmth. It was magical and we had it largely to ourselves.

Next, we drove to the Algarve on the southwestern coast where we stayed at the Vita Vila Parc Resort. It sports a two-star Michelin restaurant, Ocean, and has a private beach nestled among the cliffs. It’s the kind of place you could imagine a future season of White Lotus. Celebrating our thrift (we booked it on credit card points), we enjoyed an 11-course meal at Ocean, our first Michelin dining experience. 🍽️ So much for the savings. We also hiked the “Seven Hanging Valleys” trail along the coast. 🥾The sun emerged with a cool breeze. We ate a warm baguette sandwich with soup and white wine along the way. It was one of my favorite days.

We drove north to Évora where we toured the Chapel of Bones. ☠ We toured a winery, stayed at another, and ended our trip in Porto to speak at the KW Portugal Family Reunion. We visited the Instagram-famous Livaria Lello, which markets itself as the most beautiful book store in the world. We sampled some port wines and toured the city, which might be our favorite town. 🛬 We stopped in NYC for a night on the way home, holing up at the TWA Hotel. If you get a chance, it’s worth a visit. It’s like time stopped in 1965.
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Thanks to Portugal, I have become the kind of person who wants soup before a meal. I am far more adventurous with white wines. I never knew pumpkin jam was a thing and now I can’t forget it. AND I also want to know the name of every bird I see. (How to say you’re getting old without saying you’re getting old!)
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After just four days in the office, we joined my family at Disney World. 🧚‍♂️ My mom treated us so my great niece, Mia, could go before her baby brother arrives in April. Gus joined us and we loved every minute. My favorite rides: Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run, Avatar— Flight of Passage, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Tron. Mia met all her favorite princesses and got a princess 👸🏻 makeover at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique!
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I have a Proud Papa moment. Gus is the assistant editor-in-chief 📝 for the Southwestern University newspaper, The Megaphone. At the end of 2024, there was a budget crisis, and the newspaper was nearly taken out of print. He was part of the team that saved the print edition. They won the top prize at the King Creativity Symposium for their work. They also got to split the $2,500 grant that came with it! 💰Go, Gus!

2. What I’m Reading
​I got to read some fantastic books on my travels. The Wedding People by Alison Espach is a darkly comic novel about a divorcee figuring out if she wants to live and who she will be if she does. “I didn’t want to be saved from myself. Nobody does! All we want is permission to stand there naked and be our damned selves.” The scene where the vintage car gets “vandalized” is over the top. 😂 Next, I lost myself in Chris Whitaker’s All the Colors of the Dark. “In the dark, we’re always smiling. We’re all the same. We’re all well and happy and shining.” I found it heartwrenching, hopeful, and impossible to put down. I missed a lot of Portugal with my nose in these pages…

​God of the Woods by Liz Moore started great, stalled, and then finished in a whirl. “‘Panic,’ said T.J. But no one raised a hand. She explained. It came from the Greek god Pan: the god of the woods. He liked to trick people, to confuse and disorient them until they lost their bearings, and their minds. To panic, said T.J., was to make an enemy of the forest. To stay calm was to be its friend.” It’s sold a bajillion copies and been optioned for a film. So maybe I was distracted in the middle?
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Lastly, I read Grief is for People by Sloane Crosley. It’s her memoir of having her apartment burglarized and losing her best friend to suicide a month later. “To mourn the death of a friend is to feel as if you are walking around with a vase, knowing you have to set it down but nowhere is obvious. Others will assure you that there’s no right way to do this. Put it anywhere. But you know better. You know that if you put your grief in a place that’s too prominent or too hidden, you will take it back when no one’s looking.” Crosley can flat-out write. She is poignant and poetry on one page, and ironic and insightful the next. The book was also surprisingly funny despite the dark material.

3. What I’m Watching
​On the flight home, I watched Moana 2 and Wendy watched Marcel the Shell with Shoes On. Wendy picked better. She liked Marcel so much we watched it again together. She never watches movies twice. I binged all four episodes of CB Strike Season 4 (HBO Max) while recovering from a cold. Somehow we found time to watch seasons 3 and 4 of Slow Horses (Apple+). Great show, great writing, and short, manageable seasons. Bravo, Apple!
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Finally, we took the whole family to Mickey 17, from Bong Joon Ho. It’s Sci-Fi satire which is a description I’ve never written before. It didn’t quite work but it was bold and not boring. If you’re a fan of Bong Joon Ho, stream it.
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That's it for this month. Please reply back and let me know what you're up to!
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Be well, do good deeds, and eat tacos!
Jay

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