💙 Taking advantage of the flight delay this morning to come up with a list of some events for our local Wellesley alum club. We have more than 5000 alums living in the greater Boston area, close to the mothership.
Boston friends, any ideas? What I’m looking for:
I’m looking for ideas around:
Learning something together
Socializing in a new way
Eating something together
Creating something together
Service projects in our community
Connecting to Wellesley
Cross Club events (reaching out to the presidents and SIG leaders)
So far, some of the ideas + planned events (with attention to the fact that many of our events will be virtual or outdoors). Both the College and the alumnae association at large already puts a ton of virtual lectures, so this is primarily locally focused:
🎨 Creating Arts:
Botanical painting class with the Wellesley greenhouse people (Zoom)
MFA drawing class
Songwriting for non-musicians class
Plant workshops (maybe at Mahoneys? Who is offering these?)
🖼 Museum-ish Visits:
We already have a group Art in Bloom Zoom scheduled with the MFA
There’s an upcoming trip to the Fogg/Harvard Arts
Mt. Auburn Cemetery Tour
Symphony (we went to BMOP and it was popular!)
🛶 Physical Activities:
Ompractice class with Reggie Hubbard
Kayaking at the Boathouse (could we do an on-campus day?)
On The Mark Archery at Gore Place
Hiking in Blue Hills
🍋Food:
Virtual cheese tasting with Formaggio
Dim Sum (we’re going to Hei La Moon)
Dumpling making class (Mei Mei? Any reccs?)
Cross-Club cooking class zooms with “virtual restaurant touristing!” of local faves across states.
❤️ Service Opportunities:
Boston Marathon Volunteering
Cradles to Crayons
Any ideas for this for a small group? Either in person, or that we can do from our homes? What else should I be adding to my list? Looking for any suggestions at different price points!
On Writing: Who do you write for? Last night I spent a few hours reading through my old online journals through college, and sharing the best nuggets with friends. One thing that surprised me was the frequency in which I wrote. Faithfully, 3 or 4 times a week. The detail. The thinking in those pages. What a gift to my future self.
I think there’s something wonderful about writing to yourself and for yourself.
Who do you serve? There’s an Adam Grant tweet going around this week. (I’m currently mid-read of Think Again, which I’m enjoying.) “Too many people spend their lives being dutiful descendants instead of good ancestors. The responsibility of each generation is not to please their predecessors. It’s to improve things for their offspring. It’s more important to make your children proud than your parents proud.”
A few of the things that I’ve been very consistent at in the new year: going to bed with a clean sink and setting the coffee maker, and meal planning for the week.
I picked up a few extra bouquets of yellow flowers to surround myself with COLOR today. Two bunches from Trader Joe’s. The pink bouquet was from a delightful zoom flower arranging class with Alice’s Table.
⚡️ This week, I’ve been thinking about activation energy. Specifically, it takes me a disproportionate amount of effort to get started on things, even if I *desperately want* to do them. So cutting down any steps at the beginning of doing something, and making the first one or two steps I do simple to focus on action is key.
For tidying dishes, for instance, if I think about the effort to wash them, my brain overwhelms. Instead, I shift the focus to the first small step: turn on the water and let it get warm. This is enough to get the whole process going, and stay consistent with it.
Weekly Meal Plan 2/19/22
Next week I’ve outsourced most of my meals to WeCo, a local food delivery service. Why? Because much of my focus is going to be on working on our platform re-launch at Ompractice! The past several months have been low on energy. And WeCo meals are delicious, and the kind of food I enjoy cooking for myself, so I don’t feel deprived of the thing that brings me joy. (They’ve now expanded to New Hampshire!)
Dinners:
Sat: WeCo sweet chili shrimp + rice bowl sweet chili shrimp, brown rice, pickled celery + cucumber and kimchi + ginger slaw with sesame garlic vinaigrette
Sun: Turkish Spinach and Meat (although this might get swapped!)
Mon: Canadian Blue Box Kraft Mac and Cheese (thanks to my sibling crossing the border for food two weeks ago.)
Fri: WeCo hot oil udon noodle bowl – udon noodles with miso-roasted greens, charred broccoli with fried garlic, torn herbs and chili oil for pouring on top!
Sat: WeCo grilled cheese + tomato soup the classic! griddled white bread with cheddar and creamy tomato soup on the side… and a pickle because why not!
What’s on your plate this week?
xo, Sam
PS: Next Retro workshop is up and live for next week. It’s a 90 minute *Do The Thing: Monthly Review – we’ll work together on a monthly review for the month of February on Sunday morning.
The Second Lunch is a (mostly) food blog by Sam Tackeff about recipes, food writing, ingredient hunting, travel, healthy living, fitness, and everything in between.
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