That period I thought would never get here is here: the period after Reunions. Now I should have to time to focus, and to think. Should. How am I going to manage it?
1) There are the prosaic, domestic things to take care of: getting the rugs sent out to clean, repairing my grandmother’s bed (badly assembled by the movers, the blessed thing won’t hold together; I’ve been sleeping in the study for a month or so), adding the running of the condo association into my monthly routine, and at last, organizing a blessed yard sale to offload my junk, so I can make room for all the family junk that’s just come up!
1a) Long term, renovating the kitchen begins to loom on the horizon . . .
2) There are the summer things: ferry and train tickets, cocktail meetups, cleaning up my back porch for impromptu gatherings, the planning of weekend excursions.
2a) Then there’s all the details of my summer vacation to flesh out and reconfirm: things to do and see over two days in London, trains to Kenilworth (where I’ll stay with friends for a week), and what on earth am I going to wear for a week on board the Queen Mary II?! Can I lose 20 pounds in six weeks?
3) Creatively I have to return to my Etiquetteer schedule (just got a question about the President’s white tie waistcoat, but it’s probably too late to write about it now), start preparing for next September’s talk at the Gibson House (“The Etiquette of the Brahmin Summer”), and lay a foundation under plans for new projects.
4) This morning’s reading from The Art of Worldly Wisdom helped me focus: “Take the measure of your luck: in order to act, and in order to commit yourself . . . If [Fortune] has favored you, proceed with boldness, for she often loves the daring and, like a dazzling woman, the young. If you are unlucky, act not. Withdraw and save yourself from failing twice. If you master her, you have taken a great step forward.”