I had a car service booked to pick me up at 7:45 a.m. for a 10 a.m. speech. Normally they show up 15 minutes ahead of time, so I was ready by 7:30 to give us a cushion, since the traffic report said it would take 2 hours at rush hour.

Then I waited and waited. I called dispatch, and got put on hold, then had someone answer who tried to track down my driver, but that took a while for them to get through. Meanwhile the minutes were ticking away.

I (and dispatch) finally found out that the driver had gotten a flat tire. That was in the process of getting fixed, and they could send a replacement car, but of course that was going to take quite a while too. So I got in my own car at a little after 8 a.m. to drive to a 10 a.m. speech two hours away. You always lose time in transit on the NJ Turnpike, and I did too.

So, irony: I was late to my own speech on time management.

It has happened to me before (I joke about it in my TED talk). I imagine it will happen again. I’d sent an email to the organizers and my speaking agent, and they all worked it out so the group could re-arrange the morning schedule. I spoke at 10:30 instead of 10. All was fine.

So at least that wasn’t disastrous, though we shall see what mood my 7-year-old is in when I get him at camp. He opened his lunch and apparently found an ice pack but no food. I know I packed it – I did that last night and put it in the fridge…so where did the food go?? Mysteries. The camp called while I was giving the speech so I couldn’t pick up the phone. They fed him a camp lunch (they do have a purchase option) but given his “selectivity” I suspect it all went in the trash. So I will pack a hearty snack for the car and prepare for the complaints.

Life goes on. Two days until the weekend!

My flight from Des Moines to Chicago left at 6:25 p.m. Thursday, after my speech. I saw there was an earlier one, 4:55 p.m., and I thought about trying to switch, but I would have had to rush after my talk, and I was chatting with people and listening to the last speaker, and I couldn’t have gotten on an earlier flight to Philly from Chicago anyway, so it wouldn’t have gotten me home any earlier. So I stuck with the 6:25. I had a 48-minute layover in O’Hare. Not my favorite option, but that was what there was to make the last Philly flight (8:45 p.m.).

Despite the rain, we took off on time. We landed early! I was thrilled how well this was going. And then we taxied and taxied and…circled all of O’Hare, finally parking somewhere on the tarmac to wait for a gate that did not become available until 8:35 p.m. About 10 of us ran to the Philly flight, and all “missed” it. As in, the plane was still there at the gate, and was for several more minutes, but they’d shut the door so that was that. While everyone was yelling about that I went online and grabbed a seat on the 6:20 a.m. flight (the 9:30 a.m. one disappeared before my eyes) and booked a room at the nearby Marriott. Alas, I wound up getting only about 4 hours of disjointed sleep because I was a bit worked up by the evening sprint through O’Hare. After writing a blog post about not running every day, I wound up running twice in one day! Only once by choice.

The speech itself went well. Alas, this was the first trip where my new dietary issues wound up being something of a bummer. Longtime readers have heard my lament of suffering from sore throats and congestion. It appears to be a combo of “silent reflux” and certain food sensitivities. Dairy is a big one.

Anyway, I spent a lot of time in airports over the last three days and it turns out to be a lot harder to avoid dairy than I’d realized when you’re eating at the sorts of places that pop up in airports. Everything has cheese on it. Almost any salad has a layer of cheese. Sandwiches all have cheese. Pizza is of course covered with it. Many random other entrees are served with, say, a cream-based topping. I wound up eating a sandwich with cheese on the flight out because I was hungry and I am pretty sure the “special sauce” on a burger I got later was dairy-based (I’m not experienced enough in this to ask…and maybe it’s denial. I want to be a person who can eat anything and it looked good.) Sure enough, throat trouble.

(I now realize that some of my older episodes of Before Breakfast sound a lot more gravelly because of my chronic congestion. While I am bummed about the dairy issue, my singing voice is more clear in its absence!)

I am back home now. I think things will calm down next week. I turned in the Tranquility by Tuesday manuscript. My four speeches this week are all done and I only have one event next week (virtual). We listed the house, and while keeping it clean for showings won’t be easy, at least the ground work is done. There is still a move to orchestrate at some point soon but not quite yet. So time to pause and breathe. Well, and take the kids trick-or-treating….

Photo: 5 a.m. airport selfie. Good times. 

Of course, travel has its challenges too. I got on my 4:09 p.m. flight out of Portland, we taxied toward the runway, and then there we sat, because Philadelphia had a ground stop. We did eventually make it out a little after 5:00, though, so we were on the ground in PHL at 6:20, which meant I walked into choir practice only 2 minutes late (they were already warming up…it is a very punctual choir).

A few announcements. First, if you have ever been interested in hearing me speak…the University of North Carolina School of Medicine is hosting a fall Women in Medical Sciences retreat on Friday, September 24. This was going to be an in-person event, but with the delta variant of Covid, it has gone virtual. So they are opening it up to the general public. You can register here. The event is free. I’m probably speaking around 10:30 eastern, but if you’re going to register, please do try to come for the whole thing (which is approximately 9 a.m. to noon). There are other good speakers, including former podcast guests Lori Mihalich-Levin and Christina Shenvi. We’ll all be talking work and life and productivity.

Second, and speaking of work and life and productivity…When Sarah Hart-Unger and I began the Best of Both Worlds podcast four years ago, we wanted to reach a market we thought was under-served: women who loved their careers and their families, and wanted strategies for thriving in all spheres of life.

We love talking about these topics, and we love hearing from listeners, but we’ve really been wanting to create more of a community for the show. So this fall we’re launching the Best of Both Worlds Patreon community for those who’d like to get more involved beyond listening week to week.

Nothing about the podcast itself will change right now. But BOBW Patreon members will have access to monthly online meet-ups where we’ll talk about perennial Best of Both Worlds topics: childcare logistics, family activity schedules, setting career goals, and so forth. Our discussion forum will allow people to interact with others in the same boat. And we’re publishing monthly guides with all our best tips (September’s, on kid activity schedules, is already up and ready for reading!)

The first discussion will be on Tuesday, Sept 28th at 8 p.m. eastern (don’t worry, we’ll record them for members who can’t make it). So if you’d like to join us, please join the Patreon community by then! Membership is $9/month. We look forward to building a network where we can all help each other get the most out of life. If you have any questions or you are on the fence about it feel free to reach out to me at laura at lauravanderkam dot com. I am really excited about this — it’s a community I would want to join, just like BOBW was a podcast I wanted to exist! So, we create them

Speaking of kid activity schedules, it’s going to be quite a weekend, with a kid’s scout camping trip, karate, soccer, baseball, tennis, a wedding, and a half-marathon. In theory it all fits…