The Place for a Good Time Is Everywhere

This year, we will spend our summer vacation at home. Why not? Our new place and neighborhood still feel fresh and exciting, and we live in a city with plenty of attractions and things to do. We can see streams of tourists from our terrace walking down to the Seaport any day, so why not join them for a week?

However, free time at home does not equate to vacation. A significant benefit of going away and living in a different place is that the day-to-day chores do not jump at you every day. An unfamiliar environment breaks habits and contributes to a fresh, open mindset. For me, this is the most rewarding part of traveling.

Replicating this effect at home requires some preparation and effort in advance. So, what do you need to make this work? Here are some of the ideas we are tossing around:

• A plan. Actually, we have a written plan for most of our vacations since a friend did this for us when we visited her in Hong Kong. Time is precious, and we don’t want to waste it debating what to do next. Also, making a plan ahead ups the anticipation, which is arguably a large part of the vacation fun.

• Get work out of the way. glamglare never takes off, but we can prepare the copy for the song picks and the newsletter ahead of time, so all we need to do is press a button to publish.

• Change your diet. A fun part of traveling is trying out new food and shelving your usual diet. At home, you can indulge in dishes you normally don’t eat. We have already decided to try baking some Portuguese pasteis de nata and indulge in some carbs.

  

• ** Habit-breaking rules **. A good one would be to avoid using a laptop. That frees you up from many day-to-day tasks. You could also put all devices in airplane mode and go completely offline.

• New vacation habits. How about starting the day by meditating together? Go to the bakery in the morning for fresh bread? Go outside to a park for your morning coffee?

• Plan a creative project. Free time frees up your mind, making it an excellent opportunity to create something. Staying home also reduces distractions and improves the chance of following through with the plan—so I hope, at least.

• Make a playlist. Music creates atmosphere, so collect songs that make you feel like you are on a summer vacation. We will start with our summer playlist from last year and build it from there.

If we succeed, we can replicate the feeling of lazy days at the beach and start our everyday lives refreshed with new energy. If not, we wasted a few vacation days. We will report back here what worked and what did not.

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New Albums out tomorrow

Tomorrow, Celeste Tauchar, aka talker releases her debut album I’m Telling You the Truth. Celeste wrote us in the summer of 2018 to pitch her debut single, “Collateral Damage” and we realized that we had met in person a year earlier at SWSX when she toured with Frenship. Since then, she has released multiple EPs, but the first full album is another big milestone.

talker makes honest, emotional indie rock about navigating life and love in your twenties. She is also a gifted filmmaker who created videos for pretty much all of her songs. Check out her behind-the-scenes commentary for some of her videos here.

Addie Sartino started playing in the Kansas City-based The Greeting Committee when she was 15. Older and wiser, she reflects on the good and bad things that happened. Is Everyone’s Gone and I Know I’m The Cause the conclusion? We will learn tomorrow!

Nine Photos of a Foodie’s Summer in the City

Summer and a dear friend from Germany in the city call for fresh (seafood) dishes!
(2) Cooked shrimp with homemade cocktail sauce.
(4) Six different East Coast Oysters at the Tin Building.
(6) Sustainably fished salmon with blackberries and seaweed, one of our summer staples, inspired by this recipe.
(7) A Saturday afternoon at Central Park.
(8) Another Summer must: Mozzarella, tomatoes, and fresh basil.