Happy Friday fam! Our first Friday of August. Where does the time go? Hope everyone had a great week and is getting great weather going into the weekend!
What’s on my mind:
For any Warriors fans out there, there can only be one thing top of mind on this fine, fine day. Mr. Andre Iguodala returns to the Bay after 2ish years in Miami. Not going to harp on this too much (as I assume most people don’t care), but I am very, very happy about this!
In other news, next year (Jan & Feb?) and where we will be is on my mind. I believe we will (highly likely) need to remain +/- 3 hours to Pacific Time, so that certainly narrows our options. Will we return to Mexico? If so, where in Mexico? Mexico City or somewhere beachside–PV, Playa del Carmen, or Cabo/La Paz–are all options.
Do we take the plunge further south? Depending on Covid and countries reopening borders, I’d love for Argentina/Buenos Aires to be a choice. Brazil should be open, but will it be safe? I’ve recently read more about Florianopolis or Floripa, and that is a place that piques my interest.
Wedding planning continues to be on my mind and a bit hard to sort. With Covid cases rising, it makes planning harder. I can/should stop procrastinating and at least email some food/restaurant venues.
What I’m watching (just finished): Never Have I Ever
I’m a sucker for high school TV shows, so I’m not sure why I never had plans to watch this show. With season 2 recently coming out, I finally took the plunge to give this show a shot.
Wow, was I wrong not to try this show sooner. Yes, it’s a high school sitcom/TV show, but it’s so much more than that–duh, Mindy Kaling is behind it. The show does a great job of covering deeper topics like culture, race, gender, and sexuality.
The show takes place in Sherman Oaks (wealthy suburb of LA), and if you’re from Southern (or Northern) California, it’s probably not odd at all how diverse the cast is. The show is funny and makes you want to keep watching but doesn’t shy away from addressing real, heavy topics. I love it and can’t wait for season 3.
#teamBen
What I’m reading:
After finishing Bryson’s The Body I wanted to read his other book I’d had in my queue for awhile: A Short History of Nearly Everything. While I am enjoying this book, it is definitely not what I expected.
I totally thought this would be way more about world history than about the beginning of the universe/Science. The early part of this book gave me heavy Astrophysics for People in a Hurry vibes.
Idea I’m pondering
Can/should we be happy all the time/enjoy every hour of every day? Or are we always waiting for the “weekend”?
When I had a full-time job, I felt like I was always waiting for lunch (or the end of the day, or the weekend). I assumed that when I was “retired” I would just do whatever I wanted (all the time?) and life would be one big party.
That was probably a faulty assumption as a 24/7/365 party would require a lot of money (that I don’t have). I’ve been really fortunate to find and enjoy writing and filming/editing YouTube videos. With that said, I still sort of feel like I am waiting for the weekend, or I am waiting for the next city we go to. I’m not sure if this constant looking toward the future will ever go away. I do know it’s probably something I need to deal with internally.
From the little I know about Buddhism, it seems like Nirvana is reached by wanting for nothing–that means enjoying the moment and not constantly looking to the future and/or the next thing.
What do you think? Are we always waiting for the next thing?
Market recap
Want to try something new and just give a very high level weekly recap. It was a mostly flat week (not bad news to be flat when things have been as positive as they have been).
Big news of the week was the strong July jobs report: “943,000 jobs came back last month as the unemployment rate fell to the lowest level since March 2020.” This led to the S&P and Dow hitting record highs.
What’s up this weekend?
Originally, I had planned to take a day trip to nearby Pueblo Magico, Bernal, tomorrow. With a busy week and not the best week of sleep, we’re currently thinking of staying in town, sleeping in and spending the day here–with some ample pool time.
When we first got to Queretaro we went to this awesome cocktail bar that is also a restaurant. They also serve beer from the top breweries locally. Hercules, where we spent last Saturday, was on this list among three others. One of the remaining three breweries is an hour walk north from our Airbnb, so we may grab brunch and then head out there for some early afternoon beer tasting.
Coming soon…
Another passing week means more content coming down the pipeline.
This previous week I didn’t write a single thing I forecasted last week and actually rolled out the 4% rule Or (how much do I need to retire?).
This coming week, I’ll take another stab at one of the following: intristang.com and YouTube analytics walkthrough (Google Analytics & YouTube), Puebla cost of living, and “Let’s Move to Europe” series. I actually did the cost/spend analysis of Puebla earlier this week, and it was much lower than I expected!
On YouTube I’ll be releasing Tacos Arabes Tour (Saturday, July 31 @ 6:30pm CT)–don’t worry, I’ll explain what those are–followed by Puebla Cost of Living and/or Comida Tipica Poblanca (typical Pueblan food).
Here’s my most recent YouTube video: