Howdy, Thee Who Traipseth.

I haven’t written a newsletter for a month. When I tried, my focus scattered to the four winds, blown off course by the process of selling our rental condo in Portland.

I handle some tricky adulting situations well, sailing through in my sanguine style. Not the condo. Thanks to past drama there, any related interaction throws me and Chelsea into a poor communication and stress. I even started biting my nails again!

Anyway, I missed a few newsletters. I kicked myself a little for not sticking to my weekly posting schedule, but mostly I extended myself grace. Hard things happen and optional activities fall by the wayside.

What I want to know is this: if we do enough adulting, does it make us wiser? Or if we're wise, do we aim to avoid adulting?




Trifling About, Edition 101 features:

-16 years together

-Life instructions

-Time vs. timing

-Street photography

Onward!
Dakota

One more year in the bank
Sixteen years ago, Chelsea hopped off a plane in Prague to meet me for the first time. A month-long first date in Europe ensued.
 

What’s made it work all these years? I chalk it up to three primary things:

I stopped trying to change her into me.

When I let go and decided I didn’t want to date another Dakota (YEGADS), our relationship leapt to higher trust levels.

Supporting each other’s personal growth.

We share some hobbies, but also love our independent activities and time alone.

Connecting to share our needs and dreams.

We try to regularly share what’s going on in our life and clearly state what we need. Early missteps with assuming Chelsea could read my mind (if she loves me, she should be able to!) showed me that wasn’t the case.

At the end of our lives, we both hope to look back on a life that felt an excellent story. Many more chapters to write together!

Time vs. Timing

We bought our condo in 2007. Our vision: flip it in 1-2 years and buy another property. Repeat. The start of our Real Estate Empire.

Uh, nope. We closed roughly a day after the mania crested and the housing free fall began. The condo value sank far below what we’d paid for it.

And yet, fifteen years later we’re eyeing a tidy profit...
Which reminds me that it’s not timing the market that matters, it’s time IN the market. Dovetails nicely with Einstein saying compounding interest is the most powerful force in the universe.

Pay attention
Be astonished
Tell about it

(From the poem Sometimes by Mary Oliver via Austin Kleon.)

This week's unsolicited advice: get adulting done...and also simplify and eliminate the adulting things you hate (e.g. being a landlord!)
 

P.S. These "digital sleight of hand" YouTube videos from Zach King brightened a condo-beleaguered morning this month.
P.P.S. My deepest apologies for no T. Rex drawing this week. BLAME THE CONDO.