As readers know, the past two months have been a mixed bag of ups and downs and mismanagement of selfcare and it feels like just about everything else. I feel like I spent all of July and August doing a very bad job of spinning plates. Last week, things lightened up a bit with clients sharing good news and this week, things lightened up quite a bit because we have taken what I like to think of as a lovers’ getaway to a town not (too) far from our own. Taking short little trips out of town with a mix of staycations where we don’t do anything is an important part of how I keep all my plates spinning. I like the term “plate spinning” because when I was about 5 years old I went to Disneyland and as part of the parade they had a person who would spin plates that were resting on the tops of sticks and they had to run back and forth to keep them all spinning or they would fall to the ground and break. Lately my PhD, podcasting, work, family, and chronic illness has felt like plate spinning. I have felt as though my life is on fire and I have been in crisis-management mode for the past two months. Long extended periods of health decline always make me feel this way.

This year I feel like I dropped a very crucial plate, and that is the timing of my vacation. I know that I need to take a week off every summer to heal from the summer lupus and HCP flare. Last year, I had to go to Spain for my PhD at the beginning of August and really wished I had been able to take the summer break in September because last September the heat was too much. This year, I am taking it the first week of September (this week) and wished I had taken it the second-to-last week in August, when I had a break from school. To be honest, no matter when I take it the summer break never feels like I timed it correctly. Having survived August, I am glad to be off this week. Business-wise I think taking time off in August may have been a better choice because August had five Saturdays and a lot of clients were out of town. The main issue with planning my summer selfcare is that clients often don’t tell me until the last possible moment that they will be out of town. In a perfect world, I would be able to simply focus on earning my PhD and not have to work, but this is not a perfect world. I feel like after I relax this week I will have more energy to get back to properly spinning plates. I think the weather should be cooling down soonish and that will help a lot because that always comes with an energy boost.