Month: January 2026

I was more or less unable to work on Monday and Tuesday this week, and not because I’m on vacation. I’ll be fine and things are under control, but it’s not been a great start to the week. People have been understanding when I’ve needed to cancel meetings, but I must admit to a gnawing sense of anticipation and anxiety as more and more things have piled up. I’ll start chipping away at them as soon as I finish writing this short post, but my to-do list is currently sitting at 24 items. It’s called a focus list in the software tool we use, but nothing with 24 things on it as a focus list. Oh well. This is one of the times when it’s great to have an assistant team I trust and to be in a partnership instead of being a solo practitioner. For the couple of items that have been most pressing, my partner has stepped in. I’ve done the same for him. As for any current clients reading this, I appreciate you bearing with me.

Last week, my parents visited. There wasn’t a particular reason for the visit, but they’re retired and so can travel when they wish. While it was still a normal workweek for me, I made sure to schedule some nicer dinners while they were here.

For the first, we went to a French bistro in Chapel Hill. This marked my third visit to that restaurant, and I’ve yet to walk away disappointed. I also get the same main dish every time, so maybe that has something to do with it. And not that anyone’s asking, but I have varied the other aspects of the meal. On my two prior visits, I dined alone. This time not only was I joined by my parents but also by a gentleman who lives locally, shares a connection with the town where I grew up, and with whom we’ve gone on multiple trips through the years. The time flew in easy conversation and the meal was delightful again.

For the second, we went to a steakhouse in downtown Durham. This is not just any steakhouse either, but the one connected with the theater where it is normally impossible to get a reservation before 8:30. For whatever reason, though, there wasn’t a performance that evening so I was able to reserve a table in the 6:30 slot with the few weeks’ notice that I had. Dad and I split one of the steak specials and Mom got her own so that hers would be cooked more to her liking. We did not order French fries like some of the other tables did, and that may have been a missed trick as the quantity of fries was impressive. The Brussels sprouts were good though. In truth, everything about the meal was very good in the way a classic steakhouse should be, most of all the beef.

I normally eat out for only dinner per week, and this week that number might be zero if the weather forecast proves accurate, but it was nice to double dip last week. It’s also always nice when I can add a positive review to my restaurant spreadsheet.

During this month when so many choose not to partake of any alcohol in Dry January, I’ll reflect on my own chosen abstinence. I didn’t turn on my television in December. It just sat upon its table in my living room, blocking the fireplace that I’ll never use. This isn’t the first time I’ve done something like this with the television. I’ve done it a couple of times in the past, every time with the same goal of a reset when I’ve felt too many hours slipping away. It’s not that I went the month without screens or without video; there were still plenty of hours spent on Zoom and typing away. But I did opt for other things in my hours of recreation.

I have watched a couple of things so far in January. This began with the first movie in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, which I watched once I completed that portion of the book. I’ll do the same with the other two movies as I progress, but it will be at least another week before I start watching the second movie. I’ve also watched a few other things, but my default has been to read in the evening instead of watching something on Netflix. It helps that I’ve been uninterested in watching football this season given just how awful the Titans were, but it might have helped even more that December saw its normal spike in the quantity of work I needed to get through.

Those caveats aside, though, I don’t feel as if I missed much and it’s not like I’ve had a tremendous desire to binge watch something now that the television is an option again. I expect it will stay that way for a while at least, and having the television be something that I only do on occasion makes it more of an event. It will also make me even less tolerant of filler content since I won’t want to waste the little time I devote to watching things. Has anyone else done a similar experiment? Or perhaps taken things even further and done away with their television entirely? If you have, I’m curious what results you saw.

Last night, I took my third visit to the theater this season to see a Broadway show. Unless I decide to spring for a ticket to Hamilton or otherwise decide to watch something else, it will be my last trip to DPAC for a while.

This show was Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, nostalgia bait for my generation. And fair enough, I read the series twice and am familiar enough with the story that I listened to and read much of the first book in Spanish as I made a concerted effort to improve in that language. There were plenty of children wearing Gryffindor attire. There were plenty of adults wearing Gryffindor attire too. There were not as many people wearing colors of the other houses, but there were a few who acknowledged openly that the Sorting Hat would have placed them in Slytherin. I didn’t have it on my 2026 bingo card that I would hear a gentleman of about sixty tell his wife to be careful with her wand as they made their way to their seats, much less that statement would be literal and that both of them were carrying wands to go along with their wizarding robes. Not that I had a problem with any of this, but I would have had I gotten poked in the head.

Since I expected that the production value and special effects would be such a large part of the entertainment on offer, I decided that this show would be my first foray into the lowest level of seating in the triple-deck venue. I don’t know that I’ll want to be where I was at every show, but it certainly made this one better. The flames, sparks, smoke, and swooping people filled up more of my field of vision and the sound effects were more visceral being closer to the speakers. It really added to the spectacle. I won’t dwell on the plot at all as I have a no-spoilers policy, but I splurged on dinner beforehand too. Steak frites at a French bistro downtown. It was very good, though on balance I wish I hadn’t ordered any dessert as it didn’t uphold the same standard. I was also several years younger than any of the other patrons and the wait staff seemed a little confused as to why I was there at all. Had I told them that I was going to the theater, I expect it would have made much more sense to them. Regardless, it was nice to have an evening of activities that I chose at the start of this new year.