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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.

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Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. This

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Speaker 1: episode is going to be a longer one part of

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Speaker 1: the series where I interview fascinating people about how they

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Speaker 1: take their days from great to awesome and any advice

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Speaker 1: they have for the rest of us. So today I

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Speaker 1: am delighted to welcome Mary Laura Philpott to the program.

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Speaker 1: Mary Laura is the author of two books of essays,

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Speaker 1: I Miss You When I Blink and Bomb Shelter. She

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Speaker 1: lives in Nashville. So, Mary Laura, welcome to the show.

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Speaker 2: Hey Laura, thanks for having me.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, thanks for doing this. So why don't you tell

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Speaker 1: our listeners a little bit more about yourself.

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Speaker 2: Okay, I live in Nashville. As you said, I'm a

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Speaker 2: brand new empty nester, which has thrown all of my

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Speaker 2: routines just completely out the window and upside down. I'm

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Speaker 2: a writer, so you know, there's some portion of my

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Speaker 2: day or my life that's always been typing and kind

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Speaker 2: of putting my thoughts into words. I'm an outdoorsy person.

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Speaker 2: I'm not in like a you know, camping kind of way,

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Speaker 2: but then I like to look out the window at

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Speaker 2: birds kind of way, which is what I'm doing while

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Speaker 2: I'm talking to you right now. On the other side

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Speaker 2: of my screen, there are birds on the roof outside

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Speaker 2: my office. And yeah, I'm just like a happy, little

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Speaker 2: middle aged hermit right now. It's great.

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Speaker 1: I love it. I love it. So maybe you could

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Speaker 1: talk a little bit about how your career has evolved.

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Speaker 1: I know you've always been writing in some capacity, but

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Speaker 1: you've done a couple other different things.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, So early early on, like in my twenties,

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Speaker 2: I did corporate communication, so that was how I had,

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Speaker 2: like a job with health insurance, was writing for companies

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Speaker 2: or organizations. Probably my favorite of those jobs was I

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Speaker 2: worked for the American Cancer Society's national home office for

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Speaker 2: a while, and I love that, you know. It felt

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Speaker 2: like I had a sense of a mission. But I

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Speaker 2: was also getting to kind of do that good, brain

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Speaker 2: crunchy work of working with words every day. And I

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Speaker 2: transitioned sort of out of that and into freelance writing

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Speaker 2: when I had my first baby, and it was I

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Speaker 2: just couldn't figure out how to do the childcare and

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Speaker 2: the corporate life at the same time, and I wrote

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Speaker 2: for again, mostly writing for other people companies. I did

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Speaker 2: a lot of speech writing, I did some ghost writing,

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Speaker 2: and then kind of throughout my thirties, I started tilting

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Speaker 2: the balance more toward writing in my own voice about

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Speaker 2: things that I cared about and publishing those things in magazines, newspapers,

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Speaker 2: that kind of stuff. And that led to books of

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Speaker 2: essays and memoirs and writing personal nonfiction, which is what

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Speaker 2: my last two books have been. I Miss You When

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Speaker 2: I Blink and Bomb Shelter.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and you did a brief stint in a actual bookstore, Yes,

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Speaker 1: I did.

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Speaker 2: I did when before I Miss You and I Blink

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Speaker 2: came out for about well and kind of during for

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Speaker 2: about six years, I worked for Parnassa's Books, which is

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Speaker 2: an indie bookstore here in Nashville, and I sort of

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Speaker 2: was I don't know, I guess I was kind of

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Speaker 2: their marketing director. We didn't really have titles back then,

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Speaker 2: but I've sort of got their social media started up

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Speaker 2: and it was really fun. It was a really fun job.

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Speaker 2: I love, you know, I love bookstores.

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Speaker 1: As you know, bookstores are the best ever. I just

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Speaker 1: hang out there all day. Yeah. So, you know, both

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Speaker 1: of your books have just been incredibly well reviewed. But

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Speaker 1: I know that can always make it a little difficult

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Speaker 1: to try to do the next thing, you know, like

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Speaker 1: what am I going to do next? So you wrote

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Speaker 1: in a recent social media post, though, that you've had

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Speaker 1: what you called a nice gentle year creatively since your

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Speaker 1: last book has come out. What does that mean to

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Speaker 1: have a nice gentle year creatively?

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Speaker 2: Oh? Man, it's it's something that is really new to

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Speaker 2: me in my life. I mean, I think one of

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Speaker 2: the things that makes you and my friends is we

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Speaker 2: both love like preductivity, hecks, and we like to be

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Speaker 2: you know, we like to figure out how to maximize

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Speaker 2: our time, and we both balance a lot of things.

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Speaker 2: You know, we've balanced like parenthood and working and our

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Speaker 2: private lives and our public lives and our interactions with

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Speaker 2: you know, I don't want to say strangers, but you know, readers, audiences,

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Speaker 2: that kind of thing. And I've done that for so

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Speaker 2: long that really crowded balance that when I hit this

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Speaker 2: period of Okay, so my last book has come out,

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Speaker 2: the book tour is over. You know, there's always that

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Speaker 2: lull where it's like, now what are you going to do?

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Speaker 2: And like you said, that book had been really well reviewed,

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Speaker 2: so there was a kind of a natural tendency in

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Speaker 2: my type a brain to be like, how am I

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Speaker 2: going to outdo that one? You know, where do you

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Speaker 2: even go from here? And at the same time in

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Speaker 2: my personal life, I was reaching this moment where I had,

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Speaker 2: like the last year with a kid under my roof,

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Speaker 2: My youngest was in her senior year of high school.

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Speaker 2: It was it was truly the end of raising children

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Speaker 2: in my house. And so I I kind of a

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Speaker 2: moment in my my grand timeline of life where I

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Speaker 2: had an opportunity to do things differently, and I wanted

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Speaker 2: to do things differently, Like I really wanted to have

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Speaker 2: a shift away from public facing life, away from you know, hustle, hustle, hustle,

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Speaker 2: you know what idea do I have next? How can

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Speaker 2: I pitch it? Who can I pitch it to? And

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Speaker 2: just kind of focus on what was here and around me.

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Speaker 2: And that meant that the creativity part of my life,

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Speaker 2: which of course creativity and productivity are tightly related when

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Speaker 2: you have a creative job. It quieted down and it

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Speaker 2: got slow, and I let myself neglect work some in

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Speaker 2: a way that I wouldn't have at any previous point

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Speaker 2: in my life. And it turned out to be kind

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Speaker 2: of fun, and I enjoyed it and it felt like

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Speaker 2: a vacation and I just kept it going and it's great.

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Speaker 1: Well, that's exciting. So just and have you been able

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Speaker 1: to like tell yourself like it's okay. I mean, I'm

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Speaker 1: very curious because when you're used to yah doing the

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Speaker 1: like why I got to get up and do something? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: you know, and then you don't do something necessarily that

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Speaker 1: looks like what you've been doing.

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Speaker 2: Right, and you feel like you're feeling Yeah, you feel

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Speaker 2: like you're breaking the rules, Like when you had a

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Speaker 2: sick day in school when you were little and you're like,

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Speaker 2: I shouldn't be home during the day. It's that same

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Speaker 2: sort of feeling at first. So it took time. It

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Speaker 2: took a pro It took prolonged practice actually to be

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Speaker 2: able to get up and say, I'm not going to

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Speaker 2: go straight to my desk. I'm going to have my

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Speaker 2: coffee and then I am going to go read something,

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Speaker 2: and then I'm going to do some task that is

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Speaker 2: unrelated to work. You know. One of the things that

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Speaker 2: made it possible for me to have this prolonged practice

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Speaker 2: until I could get comfortable with this kind of new

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Speaker 2: routine in new life was when my daughter was in

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Speaker 2: her final year of high school. She was she's an

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Speaker 2: actor and so she's an acting school, and she had

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Speaker 2: all these auditions that she was flying around for this.

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Speaker 2: The life of a high school senior applying to BFA

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Speaker 2: programs is insane, like what they are balancing. And so

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Speaker 2: I kind of said, hey, this is my last year

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Speaker 2: having a kid at home. Let me be your assistant.

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Speaker 2: I will help you book flights, I will help you,

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Speaker 2: you know, with the logistics of this stuff. I know

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Speaker 2: you don't want to hang out with me all the

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Speaker 2: time because I'm your mom, but you know, in whatever

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Speaker 2: way I can help you, I will help you. And

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Speaker 2: so I sort of had the practice of let me

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Speaker 2: serve you a little bit and get my mind off

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Speaker 2: myself and that, you know, as things go in a

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Speaker 2: school year, you look up in six months have passed.

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Speaker 2: Once some time had passed where I had broken some

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Speaker 2: of those habits of intense productivity. I felt better about it.

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Speaker 2: But yeah, at the beginning, I've felt like, ooh, I

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Speaker 2: am breaking a rule. I didn't email my agent today,

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Speaker 2: I'm going to get in trouble. But you know, I

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Speaker 2: didn't get in trouble because there's actually no one watching

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Speaker 2: and monitoring and going how much time did you log

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Speaker 2: at your computer today? That's not a thing.

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Speaker 1: It's not a thing, although that is hard for some

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Speaker 1: of us to realize. So we're going to take a

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Speaker 1: quick ad break and then I will be back with

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Speaker 1: more from Mary Laura. Well, I am back talking with

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Speaker 1: Mary Laura Philpott, who's the author of two books of essays,

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Speaker 1: I Miss You When I Blink and Bomb Shelter. She

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Speaker 1: has been talking about taking her nice gentle year creatively,

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Speaker 1: which she transitioned to with helping launch her youngest child

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Speaker 1: out of the nest. But then, you know, you're not

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Speaker 1: hanging up your hat here, like I don't think you're

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Speaker 1: planning on retiring.

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Speaker 2: No, no, no.

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Speaker 1: So how does one then say, well, I'm open to

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Speaker 1: a new good idea coming to me, but I'm also

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Speaker 1: just going to be patient.

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Speaker 2: That's I mean, you just said it so well. It's

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Speaker 2: finding a state of openness and for me, a state

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Speaker 2: of curiosity like I can do anything that I'm curious about,

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Speaker 2: Like if I if I care enough to wonder, I

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Speaker 2: can do anything. And I think that's part of what

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Speaker 2: helped me make this shift from like super productive person

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Speaker 2: to a quiet or slower pace of creativity and productivity.

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Speaker 2: I was curious about if I sort of disconnected from

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Speaker 2: Like if I snipped the wire between my sense of

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Speaker 2: self and what have I produced lately and how has

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Speaker 2: it been received? What would happen? Like what would my

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Speaker 2: brain do if I let it just wander around? And

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Speaker 2: if I let it consider concepts and even future projects

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Speaker 2: without any sense that they might actually happen or succeed,

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Speaker 2: Like I actually am kind of working on something right

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Speaker 2: now that is new and very different from what I've

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Speaker 2: done before, and I'm approaching it with the sense of

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Speaker 2: this is probably never gonna happen, Like the odds of

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Speaker 2: this actually working out are so low, And that is

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Speaker 2: so freeing to be, like, I'm just gonna work on this.

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Speaker 2: It's fun, I'm trying something different, I'm enjoying it, and

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Speaker 2: it probably won't work. That is so freeing and so

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Speaker 2: fun to sit down and go I am typing in

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Speaker 2: maybe no one will ever see this, I wondered, Like,

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Speaker 2: that's what got me, That's what kind of got me.

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Speaker 2: There is going I wonder what would happen if I

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Speaker 2: worked on something with no sense that it would ever

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Speaker 2: see the light of day. And I wonder what would

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Speaker 2: happen if I let myself some days go, I'm not

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Speaker 2: feeling it, I'm not going to sit down. Well, where

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Speaker 2: will my brain wonder?

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Speaker 1: And my brain has wondered to some fun places, so

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Speaker 1: with a sense of curiosity, then yeah, But I think

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Speaker 1: what you know, as I'm hearing this, what one has

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Speaker 1: to kind of do mentally is be like, Okay, I know,

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Speaker 1: but at some point in the future, yes, I will

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Speaker 1: produce some wonderful work that I am so proud of

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Speaker 1: to put out into the universe. It's going to be there.

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Speaker 1: I could even maybe even see it in my brain

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Speaker 1: sitting next to the other books, or I don't know,

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Speaker 1: maybe in the future we're doing some other medium. Who

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Speaker 1: even knows what this future project is. But so I

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Speaker 1: know it's there. I know it's there in the future.

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Speaker 1: I just don't know exactly when. I don't know what

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Speaker 1: it looks like. I can have total faith that this

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Speaker 1: thing will be Yes, but I just do not know

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Speaker 1: the timeline, and I don't have to rush it.

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Speaker 2: I do not have to rush it, I think, and

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Speaker 2: you probably have experienced this as well. You know, there's

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Speaker 2: this kind of natural life cycle when you've written more

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Speaker 2: than one book, or you've done more than one thing,

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Speaker 2: where you see what the time is in between project

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Speaker 2: one and project two, and then you kind of subconsciously

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Speaker 2: tie yourself to that timeline, like, Okay, I had a

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Speaker 2: book in twenty nineteen, and then I had a book

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Speaker 2: in twenty twenty two, and that means I've got to

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Speaker 2: have another book in twenty twenty five. Actually, once I

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Speaker 2: passed enough time after bomb Shelter that it became physically

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Speaker 2: impossible to have a book by twenty twenty five, I

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Speaker 2: was like, I've done it. I'm free. I have slipped

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Speaker 2: the shackles. I'm free from this three year thing I

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Speaker 2: had in my brain where I, you know, for what

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Speaker 2: dumb reason, thought I have to have a new thing

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Speaker 2: every three years. And once I got free of it,

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Speaker 2: it felt kind of fun. And and but here's the

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Speaker 2: other thing. It's fun as long as you let it

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Speaker 2: be fun. Or that's what I tell myself. I think

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Speaker 2: the way it would not work for me personally is

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Speaker 2: if I looked at this as a like secret hack,

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Speaker 2: if I was like, the secret to actually creating something

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Speaker 2: awesome is telling myself I don't have to create something awesome,

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Speaker 2: because I would know there was the ulterior motive. You know.

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Speaker 2: It's like when you I'm thinking back to being like

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Speaker 2: a very very young single woman and being like, I'm

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Speaker 2: not going to date anyone because everyone says that's when

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Speaker 2: you meet the one. If that's your if that's the goal,

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Speaker 2: well then you're not not looking, you know, So you

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Speaker 2: I really had to. I mean this has been about

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Speaker 2: a year and a half, and I would say about

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Speaker 2: midway into it is when I finally like got really

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Speaker 2: comfortable with the openness and the gentleness of letting this

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Speaker 2: creativity be. And I you know, I pulled back from

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Speaker 2: social media. Every summer, I pull back from social media

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Speaker 2: and I usually take a break from my newsletter, and

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Speaker 2: summer before last I did that and I didn't really

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Speaker 2: come back. I mean I came back a little. I'll

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Speaker 2: check Instagram every day. I like to see what people

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Speaker 2: are doing, but I'm not posting all the time. I

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Speaker 2: still pay the fee to have my mailing list, but

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Speaker 2: I haven't sent my newsletter in a year and a half.

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Speaker 2: I'll send it again sometime, but I'm not in any rush.

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Speaker 2: And it's it's just fun.

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Speaker 1: How will you know when it's the right idea, though.

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Speaker 2: I have to trust, and I think I'm old enough

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Speaker 2: not I I just turned fifty a few months ago,

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Speaker 2: and I think I've lived enough cycles of life and

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Speaker 2: creativity and lessons learned to trust that I'll just know,

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Speaker 2: the same way I knew that it was time to

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Speaker 2: pull back. I will know when there's something it makes

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Speaker 2: me go, okay, I want to call my agent today,

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Speaker 2: or you know what, I'm ready to fire this stuff

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Speaker 2: back up and have more give and take with you know,

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Speaker 2: public facing stuff. I mean, one of the things I

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Speaker 2: love about your work is you're so articulate about what

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Speaker 2: it feels like to have more things going on than

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Speaker 2: there is time in the day. And I, as a

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Speaker 2: human being, tend to crave whatever it is that I

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Speaker 2: don't have enough time to get to. So when I

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Speaker 2: had little kids at home and a lot of daily

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Speaker 2: logistical grind stuff happening, what I craved was time alone

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Speaker 2: and time to do deep work and think. And I

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Speaker 2: found myself last year when I had that, you know,

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Speaker 2: my final year with a kid under my roof, As

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Speaker 2: I saw that time dwindling, suddenly what I I craved

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Speaker 2: was time at home, and I was like, Okay, you

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Speaker 2: know what this is about to be over. Now. What

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Speaker 2: I crave is what I'm about to not have, which

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Speaker 2: is this, you know, making dinner. Like I remember the

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Speaker 2: phase of motherhood was like I cannot make another dang

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Speaker 2: dinner for these people and last day.

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Speaker 1: Need to eat every day crazy et them once and

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Speaker 1: they think they can just come right back. They want

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Speaker 1: another I don't know, five hours later.

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Speaker 2: But you know, last year I found myself like making

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Speaker 2: these not elaborate but like slow cooking dinners and really

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Speaker 2: cherishing that time because it was about to be over.

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Speaker 2: And so right now I think I am enjoying and

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Speaker 2: cherishing what I haven't had for the past several years,

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Speaker 2: which is a break from public facing stuff and no

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Speaker 2: sense of impending schedule. And I think there will come

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Speaker 2: a point where I crave something different and I'll just

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Speaker 2: have to trust that I'll know when that time is.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, right now, you're sort of in the slow mode

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Speaker 1: You've got our listeners can't see this, but you have

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Speaker 1: a poster behind you of your most recent book, which

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Speaker 1: happens to have a turtle yes on the cover. So turnleye,

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Speaker 1: is there a tie in of the turtle and how

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Speaker 1: Mary Laura is sort of operating at that.

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Speaker 2: That's right, I'm in slow mode. I'm inside my show.

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Speaker 2: I mean, the metaphors are all right there.

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Speaker 1: Shoot, I wish everyone could see the turtle. Then, for

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Speaker 1: our listeners who maybe haven't read your books, you had

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Speaker 1: it somewhat of a pet turtle, but he was a

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Speaker 1: wild pet turtle. Correct.

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Speaker 2: Yes, yes, he was not our pet, but he has

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Speaker 2: part of our family and as far as I know,

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Speaker 2: he is still alive. We've lived in this house for

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Speaker 2: ten years and there is a There are many box

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Speaker 2: turtles here, but there's one with a very distinctive shell pattern,

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Speaker 2: so we know it is him. And he is more

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Speaker 2: gregarious than the other ones and really took a liking

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Speaker 2: to the human beings and our family. And when we

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Speaker 2: would go outside on our back porch, he would come up.

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Speaker 2: And we named him Frank, which is you know, I'm

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Speaker 2: sure not with his turtle. Mama named him, but we

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Speaker 2: had to call him something. And we see him every

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Speaker 2: now and then, and he's just he's wild. We don't,

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Speaker 2: you know, we don't like feed him breakfast and build

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Speaker 2: him a house. He lives somewhere out there, but Yeah,

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Speaker 2: he's a weird, little wild member of our family. And

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Speaker 2: he disappeared for a bit. He disappears in the winter.

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Speaker 2: It's called brewmating. It's like hibernating, sort of the turtle box.

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Speaker 2: Turtles kind of go under the dirt a little bit.

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Speaker 2: And so every spring we kind of hold our breath

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Speaker 2: because he's we can tell he's he's old. Every spring

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Speaker 2: we're like, is he gonna come back? And so far,

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Speaker 2: knock on wood, we've seen him late spring, early summer

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Speaker 2: every year.

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Speaker 1: It's like ideas, right, they come back metaphor it, whatever

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Speaker 1: it is. I'll think about it now.

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Speaker 2: I'm brewmaiding Laura right now.

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Speaker 1: All right, I love that. All Right, We're going to

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Speaker 1: take one more quick ad break and I will be

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Speaker 1: back with Mary Laura. All right, well, I am back

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Speaker 1: with Mary Laura Philpott, who is an essays writer, author

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Speaker 1: many things. So let's talk a little bit about daily

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Speaker 1: routines though, because one of the things I in the

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Speaker 1: times of my life that have been more open, I

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Speaker 1: felt like it's been helpful to have some sort of

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Speaker 1: daily routine lest you feel like time is completely amorphous,

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Speaker 1: you know, which maybe you don't suffer from that problem,

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Speaker 1: but I certainly have. So I wonder if you have

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Speaker 1: any sort of routines that kind of keep you ground

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Speaker 1: in what a day looks like, even if time is

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Speaker 1: a little bit more open for you.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I absolutely have that problem where if I don't

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Speaker 2: have a routine, I'm like, what even is? Like? What

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Speaker 2: did this day even happen? And in the spirit of

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Speaker 2: curiosity and wondering what my brain would do if, you know,

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Speaker 2: loosened up from a routine. I have had some days,

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Speaker 2: like probably once a week, I have a day where

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Speaker 2: I just stay in my pajamas and I have my

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Speaker 2: coffee at ten instead of six, and I think some

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Speaker 2: interesting thoughts on those days. But I do feel at

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Speaker 2: the end like I get to six o'clock and I'm like,

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Speaker 2: that was a weird day. I don't take them off

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Speaker 2: a time was off. So I do feel better when

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Speaker 2: there's a routine, And for me, that routine is usually

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Speaker 2: like have the coffee, read some things, and I mean

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Speaker 2: like not on my phone, like read a piece of

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Speaker 2: a book or read like a really good article by

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Speaker 2: somebody'smart walk. I have to move, like either walk all

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Speaker 2: around the hills of my neighborhood or go to pilate's

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Speaker 2: or do something where I move my body and go

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Speaker 2: out in the world at least once, Like even if

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Speaker 2: it's just a trip to Walgreens, I could do. It

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Speaker 2: helps me to leave my house. And I keep my laptop.

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Speaker 2: These days, I keep it open on my kitchen counter,

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Speaker 2: like right now you and I are talking and I'm

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Speaker 2: up in my office because that's where my microphone is.

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Speaker 2: But day to day now, in this more gentle kind

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Speaker 2: of unscheduled time, I keep it open and it sits there,

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Speaker 2: and it doesn't like taunt me. It's not going, it's

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Speaker 2: not guilty me for not working, but it's there. So

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Speaker 2: usually by afternoon some thought has bubbled where I'm like, oh,

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Speaker 2: I'm just going to go jot this down, and I

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Speaker 2: don't set a timer, and I don't know give myself

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Speaker 2: any sort of sticker or accountability anything. I just got

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Speaker 2: it and I sit there for however long I want

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Speaker 2: to sit. And if it's ten minutes, fine, and if

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Speaker 2: it's one minute, great. And if I don't sit down

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Speaker 2: that day, the computer sits there. It's not going anywhere.

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Speaker 2: It's fine. It's a much looser sense of schedule and

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Speaker 2: time than I've ever had, and as a brand new

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Speaker 2: empty nester, it is the first time in twenty one

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Speaker 2: years where the structure of my daytime isn't cut up

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Speaker 2: into school time and not school time, and that is

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Speaker 2: so new to me that I'm trying to kind of

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Speaker 2: refamiliarize myself with like actual circadian rhythms and actual you know,

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Speaker 2: three o'clock as a time of day that is just daytime.

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Speaker 2: It's not go pick up somebody time. And that's new.

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Speaker 2: So it's it's it's in flux. It's changing.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, do you have some way where you've decided the

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Speaker 1: day is over or is there some point where you

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Speaker 1: transition into evening? Yeah, anything like that.

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Speaker 2: Yes, it's well. So right now as we record this,

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Speaker 2: it is winter in Nashville, and Nashville is about five

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Speaker 2: seconds into the Central time Zone, which means it gets

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Speaker 2: dark in the in the middle of winter. It gets

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Speaker 2: dark at like three thirty in the afternoon, which is

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Speaker 2: really weird. So this is my first winter as an

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Speaker 2: empty nester in Nashville. So what I was doing for

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Speaker 2: a while was going, well, when the sun goes down,

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Speaker 2: it's evening, But then sud started going down me and

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Speaker 2: I was like, I can't eat. Remember, the evening has

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Speaker 2: come early. I cannot eat dinner at three thirty. This

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Speaker 2: is not cool. So I've sort of tied it to

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Speaker 2: and this is you know, the lovely thing about being

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Speaker 2: an empty nester if you have a partner is you

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Speaker 2: get to spend more time together. So I've kind of

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Speaker 2: tied it to the end of my husband's workday. So

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Speaker 2: he he works outside our house in an office in

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Speaker 2: kind of a quote unquote normal job. So when he

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Speaker 2: comes home at the end of the day, that's when

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Speaker 2: I closed, you know, flip the lid of the laptop,

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Speaker 2: and it's like, oh, here we are, let's have dinner,

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Speaker 2: let's do our you know, whatever we do at the

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Speaker 2: end of the day. So I've kind of I've made

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Speaker 2: the end of his work day the end of my

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Speaker 2: day basically.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, makes sense, makes sense. And you don't have to

433
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Speaker 1: get up at the crack of dawn for somebody's you know,

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00:22:14,000 --> 00:22:16,040
Speaker 1: early morning sports schedule or whatever it is.

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00:22:16,119 --> 00:22:20,000
Speaker 2: Yes, Laura, it's amazing. I can't tell you. I mean,

436
00:22:20,040 --> 00:22:23,600
Speaker 2: I am a morning person. I'm not anyone. Even when

437
00:22:23,600 --> 00:22:25,520
Speaker 2: I was twenty I didn't like to sleep until noon.

438
00:22:25,960 --> 00:22:29,160
Speaker 2: But just not having to get up at six. I mean,

439
00:22:29,240 --> 00:22:33,000
Speaker 2: just staying in the bed till seven. It is. It's

440
00:22:33,040 --> 00:22:35,520
Speaker 2: a vacation every day. Like every morning, I'm like, I

441
00:22:35,560 --> 00:22:37,720
Speaker 2: can't believe I'm in bed and at seven o'clock. This

442
00:22:37,840 --> 00:22:40,720
Speaker 2: is insane. It's great, it's great.

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Speaker 1: I know, well many years from then, but I will

444
00:22:44,119 --> 00:22:47,040
Speaker 1: get there, event you will get there. We have a

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00:22:47,040 --> 00:22:49,000
Speaker 1: lot of years of six am wake up still. Yeah,

446
00:22:49,119 --> 00:22:51,359
Speaker 1: but you know it's all good, different phases of life

447
00:22:51,400 --> 00:22:55,000
Speaker 1: that it's ahead of you. Yeah, exactly. Well, So what

448
00:22:55,200 --> 00:22:57,440
Speaker 1: I always asked guests, what is something you have done

449
00:22:57,560 --> 00:23:00,640
Speaker 1: lately to take a day from great too awesome?

450
00:23:01,720 --> 00:23:05,320
Speaker 2: I think the best thing lately has been this. And

451
00:23:05,359 --> 00:23:09,280
Speaker 2: this is kind of a new evening routine, speaking of

452
00:23:09,640 --> 00:23:11,080
Speaker 2: my husband getting home at the end of the day.

453
00:23:11,119 --> 00:23:13,479
Speaker 2: He does travel some for work, and I still travel

454
00:23:13,520 --> 00:23:15,199
Speaker 2: every now and then for speaking and things. But when

455
00:23:15,240 --> 00:23:20,200
Speaker 2: we're both home at the same time at night, we

456
00:23:20,280 --> 00:23:24,320
Speaker 2: have started doing our word games together in the evenings.

457
00:23:24,760 --> 00:23:27,440
Speaker 2: And it started out just kind of like I would

458
00:23:27,480 --> 00:23:28,879
Speaker 2: do them at the end of the day and then

459
00:23:28,920 --> 00:23:30,520
Speaker 2: he would do them before we went to bed, and

460
00:23:30,520 --> 00:23:32,960
Speaker 2: then one night, at like you know, seven point thirty,

461
00:23:33,160 --> 00:23:35,720
Speaker 2: we were like, oh, let's let's play our word games together. Okay,

462
00:23:35,800 --> 00:23:38,480
Speaker 2: let's start with wordle and we would sit there and

463
00:23:38,520 --> 00:23:40,480
Speaker 2: do the wordle and they go, I got it in three?

464
00:23:40,520 --> 00:23:42,199
Speaker 2: How many did you get it in? And then you know,

465
00:23:42,240 --> 00:23:44,479
Speaker 2: and then we would do it world totally, and then

466
00:23:44,520 --> 00:23:47,320
Speaker 2: we would do connections, you know, all the different ones.

467
00:23:47,800 --> 00:23:50,120
Speaker 2: And now we really look forward to it, Like after

468
00:23:50,160 --> 00:23:52,359
Speaker 2: dinner every night, he's like, Okay, I'm going to wash

469
00:23:52,400 --> 00:23:55,600
Speaker 2: the dishes and then word games. So like that has

470
00:23:55,680 --> 00:24:00,600
Speaker 2: been like the dumbest yet most delightful addition to the day.

471
00:24:00,840 --> 00:24:01,320
Speaker 2: And I love it.

472
00:24:01,400 --> 00:24:01,720
Speaker 1: I love it.

473
00:24:01,760 --> 00:24:03,120
Speaker 2: I look forward to it every night.

474
00:24:03,520 --> 00:24:04,560
Speaker 1: Well, I was going to ask you, what are you

475
00:24:04,640 --> 00:24:07,920
Speaker 1: looking forward to? But apparently you're looking forward to wordle tonight.

476
00:24:08,320 --> 00:24:10,360
Speaker 1: So I look for to wordle In a few hours,

477
00:24:10,480 --> 00:24:11,840
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what I'm looking forward to.

478
00:24:11,960 --> 00:24:16,160
Speaker 2: I have a wonderful group of friends who have been

479
00:24:16,520 --> 00:24:20,639
Speaker 2: just girlfriends for all of adulthood. And next week we

480
00:24:20,680 --> 00:24:23,879
Speaker 2: are all getting together for the first time. And quite

481
00:24:23,920 --> 00:24:28,000
Speaker 2: some time we had a trip planned. Uh the week

482
00:24:28,160 --> 00:24:31,120
Speaker 2: that hurricane is it Helene?

483
00:24:31,359 --> 00:24:31,600
Speaker 1: Yeah?

484
00:24:31,720 --> 00:24:34,719
Speaker 2: Yeah, that the week that that hit and basically blasted

485
00:24:34,760 --> 00:24:37,560
Speaker 2: the entire Southeast and it had to be canceled, but

486
00:24:37,640 --> 00:24:40,520
Speaker 2: we managed to reschedule for a bunch of people, which,

487
00:24:40,560 --> 00:24:43,680
Speaker 2: as you know, is a miracle, and I'm really looking

488
00:24:43,680 --> 00:24:47,439
Speaker 2: forward to seeing them and just relaxing and enjoying one

489
00:24:47,480 --> 00:24:51,320
Speaker 2: another and just appreciating each other for a few days.

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Speaker 1: That's awesome. I love it. I love it well, Mary, Laura,

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Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for

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00:24:57,440 --> 00:25:00,680
Speaker 1: everyone who has been listening to this longer epis. If

493
00:25:00,680 --> 00:25:02,639
Speaker 1: you have feedback about this or any other episode, you

494
00:25:02,680 --> 00:25:06,200
Speaker 1: can always reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.

495
00:25:06,240 --> 00:25:09,320
Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and

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00:25:09,400 --> 00:25:18,439
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Thanks for

497
00:25:18,480 --> 00:25:23,280
Speaker 1: listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,

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00:25:23,600 --> 00:25:32,920
Speaker 1: you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.

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Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts

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00:25:37,080 --> 00:25:41,720
Speaker 1: from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

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00:25:41,720 --> 00:25:43,600
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.