Outside Work

Outside work, I have a lot of work.

The first activity is raising a two-year-old. It's the most demanding role on my calendar, and the only one where my performance review can happen at 5am.

You could say I'm a bodyguard, mostly protecting a small person from themselves. I'm a scooter pusher, a pebble-wall architect whose structures never survive the afternoon, a painting teacher who badly needs a painting teacher, a storyteller, a companion to sleep, officially the second to fall asleep, unofficially the first every single time.

And through all of it, I give and receive a lot of love. That is what everything comes down to.

Baking

Baking is where I can express creativity with my hands: mix things, combine them, and make something new.

It's cost-saving too, as long as you don't count the butter, the specialist flour, or the batches that never made it out of the oven.

Part of the pleasure is stepping back for a few minutes and watching whether the process is actually going well.

Sometimes it isn't. There are failures you have to accept, learn from, and adjust your methodology for next time.