“Just coming back from vacation.”
That was what I wrote while scheduling another Wahoo interview.
Vacation was a generous word.
Amanda and I were in California for a few days. I had been traveling for work and tried, very late, to make one night feel like an actual break. I emailed the hotel asking if they could put roses, macaroons, and champagne in the room. Then I tried to squeeze in the spa before check-in because we had to leave for the airport the next morning.
It was not elegant planning. It worked well enough.
We sat on the beach at sunset with plastic cups and a bottle between us. For a minute there was nowhere else to be.
Apply was still running in the background. Orders and daily reports kept hitting the inbox. A Warhol Marilyn sample order had exact colors, materials, packing instructions, and a warning not to let the corners touch the box. The RISD collaboration needed a banner, product images, copy, artist bios, and a video by the end of the month. Work on the Whitney Biennial collection was starting too.
While all of that was moving, I was looking at what might come next for me.
The Wahoo process had already started. I had calls with people leading subscription work and was scheduling another one as soon as I got back. An investor introduced me to BeReal. A contact at Meta wanted to talk. I was not chasing one perfectly defined job. I was trying to understand which problem, company, and group of people could pull me all the way in.
There was a house in the middle of this too.
One I wanted had fallen through, and my mortgage pre-approval was about to expire. I wrote the lender to ask if it could be extended because I was still looking. That was the whole update. No house, expiring paperwork, keep going.
By Thursday I had Apply work at WeWork, another Wahoo conversation on the calendar, and calls with two other technology companies taking shape. Amanda and I were back in New York. The California sunset already felt far away.
The roses were gone. The house was gone. Apply was still open in one tab, and the next Wahoo call was on the calendar.