Hello from Thailand: Porch life & cold brew

My AirPods are set to transparency mode, so I can hear the birds through my latest music obsession. Rainy season was supposed to end in November, but somebody did not get the memo and it's been all drama and no chill for days. But this morning there are no ominous clouds in sight.

My porch wraps around half of the petite bungalow I'm staying in. It's on stilts, painted in an intense blue color I somehow don't mind. Every morning I walk to Indigo Coffee to pick up a cold brew, and for a few hours I sit on a meditation cushion with my laptop placed on a bright green stool in front of me. Sipping my coffee, looking at birds, writing, working.

It's 31 degrees in March and I'm not hating it.

This is a welcome change from last year. At that time I was fed up with traveling and all I wanted was to be wrapped in a blanket on my couch at home, and never see an airport again. I was in Lisbon for more than ten months 2024, the longest I've stayed in one place since 2014.

But, by December the familiar sense of restlessness begun to brew. Like being hangry, but instead of eating a Snickers I needed to wake up to a different view in the morning. And now, I feel satisfied. Driving around on my scooter to new coffee shops and hidden spots to work from. Living out of a suitcase is calming to my nervous system. It appears my traveling days are not quite behind me. Who knows if they ever will be.

I'm a routine junkie at heart and maybe that's why I crave switching it up more than most people do. If I don't relocate every once in a while, my tracks of habit run so deep it buries me in the ground, and my creativity with it.

Anyway. I'm grateful for being able to live this weird little life. Rain or not.

The Status Report 📋

... reading Rejection, by Tony Tulathimutte. My reading year has kicked off strong and I'm just finishing a collection of interconnected short stories about romantic rejection with some of the most well-crafted non-likable characters I've read. It's somehow repulsive and delicious? Pls read it so we can have a book club about it.

... listening to Sofi Tukker, because I crave sassy female energy that has nothing to do with spirituality.

... working on wrapping up projects for a client, it's been a hectic week. Also working on the newsletter I started about project management, Between Deadlines, which is really fun to experiment with.

... thinking about my conflict with spirituality and certain beliefs in this area. Like the concept of "masculine and feminine energy", where some people argue it's biological nature for women to follow and men to lead – excuse me while I'm trying to stop my brain from exploding. It's also tying into pseudoscience and I'm trying to sort out my thoughts on it. Will likely become an essay series here.

... writing longer posts that will take a while to be ready for publishing.

... watching the birds bopping around the trees here and also Apple Cider Vinegar on Netflix, highly entertaining about the wellness grifting industry. Maintenance Phase did an episode about the real Belle Gibson, if you want to dive deeper.

... practicing some calisthenics to keep my strength up while I'm here, but also: my aerial teacher started sharing flexibility classes on Youtube and they are legit so good.

... enjoying every sip of my morning cold brew.

... looking forward to having almost two more weeks in this exact spot. 😌