Memorial Day Weekend

I was planning to spend large chunks of time this weekend sketching out ideas for an article, but so far I've been getting sidetracked with last-minute invitations to spend time with folks I've not seen for a while. And even talking to strangers now and then -- what a concept. Hmmm. At least I still have two days left. Although, realistically, it looks I'll have only half a day free at most now. Maybe that's enough, it just won't unfold the way I imagined. It always comes down to a question of priorities: What do I most want to do, and what can I jettison to make room for that?

I remember the one spring break trip I took in college. It was not to Cancun or Daytona Beach, but to a beach house on Long Beach Island, NJ. I spent a week in idyllic surroundings -- a house literally on the beach, just beautiful in the off-season with the sound of waves giving me the sense of home -- and worked on my resume and job applications. It was so amazingly productive and deeply fulfilling. Just me. No distractions. I remember setting up at least one interview during that week, and I bought my first suit on the way to that interview. Off the rack, of course, but it looked tailor made for me. I bonded well with the interviewers too, chatting easily about this and that.

Today, I helped a friend move from Harlem to Brooklyn, where he will stay for 4 months until he is unceremoniously booted (his new roommate, a mutual friend, is getting married in September and -- oddly -- does not want to continue to rent out the spare room thereafter). My friend has a lot of stuff, although he swears it all fits into a 10'x10' room. I'm not one to throw stones, since I've certainly grown into my 850 square foot apartment. And yet for most purposes, I've started to realize I could live in my living room. (In fact, I did the other night after I stirred up all the dust in my bedroom with a fan on full blast and awoke with my throat almost completely closed up.) So technically, that means a studio could work for me. When I have people over -- and especially guests who stay for a weekend or longer -- the apartment seems just the right size. But that's not my everyday need. So I could conceivably live in a Manhattan studio and, if I pick the right neighborhood, minimize all my transportation time. But it's hard to justify throwing money down the drain for rent, especially at Manhattan prices. And what to do with my apartment? Renovate and sell it? Keep it as my country home for weekends away? Keep it as a backup for when I get tired of shelling out a third (or more) of my salary for rent? All the more reason to spend some time writing and reflecting this weekend as originally planned. In the mean time, I continue to stay put.

Then again, there are some subtle things I can do right now to improve my life, and I think they will have a big impact. I'll start the experiment tomorrow in a spirit of scientific inquiry. Should be interesting.