My birthday celebrations continued in Los Cabos as my friend Jeff planned a trip for our friends. I’m not big on celebrating my birthday, so having essentially a week-long celebration was a little weird, but I’m grateful to be able to use it as an excuse to hang out with friends.
As I get older my friend group is further spread out around the world. It’s difficult to have any meaningful get-together at the same time. There’s also an inherent complacency that sets in, as well as not wanting to feel like a burden obligating anyone to travel far for an event. People have kids, busy lives, etc. This trip reminded me that people do want to get out and do things occasionally, it just takes someone to really plan it all. Major thanks to Jeff for being that guy this time.
I had my first alcoholic drinks in 2.5 months on all three days of the trip. They tasted good, but it made me lethargic and my digestion was rocky the whole time. There wasn’t any peer pressure, but I was self conscious not wanting anyone to feel awkward. I was also curious if I missed social drinking. I have no inclinations towards drinking now that I’m back in Mexico City. The cocktails and alcohol here are some of the best in the world for me (I’m a big fan of Mezcal and Tequila), but I care too much about being able to enjoy my days. I hate even a mild case of lethargy. I need a lot of energy for writing and trading work, and even if I’m not working hard, I like to read, hang out with friends, walk, etc.
Outside of the Cabo trip, I’ve been writing everyday. I finished a short story and even gave it a minor edit. I can’t remember the last time I’ve finished something besides this blog, so it felt great. I’m going further though, and researching editors to send it off to. It’s a crime story set in the underground poker world. I’m not sure if it’s going to blow anyone away, but I’m excited to go through the full process. My main goal is to get some good feedback from a solid editor, and use it to improve my writing. Hopefully I get some great advice for edits, make the necessary revisions, and then if everything feels right I’m going to send it to a magazine (likely multiple assuming standard rejections) for publication. This part of the process is long and usually full of rejections, but I’ve never done it, and want to get the experience. Instead of sitting around during this process I’m jumping into the next story this week.
Otherwise I’m back to a check-list style life that I enjoy. I get a short meditation session in, a Spanish lesson on Duolingo, I try and make my trading 1% better, some mobility at home, four kettlebell workouts per week at the gym, and lots of reading.
I’ve been plowing through books about writing, getting my head back into that space. Some of the best advice comes in a succinct form in this blog series by Hugh Howey:
I also have been loving reading these notes almost once a week lately before my morning journals for motivation/clarity (I’m not a fan of TR’s current work finding some of the stuff borderline con-ish, but I think his original work was great). The person who did the notes, Derek Sivers, has a great blog too. I love his book reviews/notes as well such as the one below.
https://sive.rs/book/AwakenGiant
With that I’m going to leave you with a few pics from Cabo. I live pretty modestly now, but this was a fun chance to relive the baller days of my youth.
Andrew Manser 