My Almost Productive Week: World Events, Business Launches, and Shipping Plugin Drama
It was all going to plan...until it wasn’t. A preview of the launch, a trip down memory lane, and a writer's retreat you might actually want to attend.
Hi friends,
I was tucked in my apartment, having a Carrie Bradshaw weekend1, planning my content calendar across all of my accounts, excited that, yes, I was going to delivery everything.
Saturday night, I started writing the first essay you told me you wanted to read in this survey (that’s still open…). I announced the virtual launch of my business and was working through the rollercoaster of emotions that come with launching a business.
And then, well, Wednesday morning Central European Standard Time happened and I was shot back to the morning after the 2016 election.
In November 2016, I had just moved to Switzerland. I was fresh off of my divorce. and in strong denial that my heart was shattered. And I had to wake up to…that. While all of my blue friends were drowning their sorrows, I had to go to work. To a company factory tour that was really hard to schedule so could not be missed.
At 5pm when I returned to the office, my boss at the time, who was not American, busted through my door: “Laura!! What happened????”
That was the first time over the next four years that when people found out I was American, they had things to say.
On that day, it was the first time that I met
, who helped me survive the years that followed. So maybe something good happened that day…I have to get to QA’ing my site. There’s a lot of work to be done. Stupid shit like making sure the shipping plugins work and VAT renders correctly PER country/market.
So, there’s a preview of what I’m writing at the end of this post. It’ll be in your inbox…after next Sunday’s launch. :)
Two retreats you might actually want to attend
In June 2023, I went on my first writer’s retreat. It was in Paros, Greece and hosted by the amazing
. As soon as I walked into the retreat and the beautiful location, I was a writer, through and through. All of those doubts and voices were gone. It was powerful. And I have to thank Ali for facilitating such a safe, inclusive, and welcoming place for a bunch of writers who were all going through their own…stuff.I know there are a lot of writers and writer-curious people reading this. If you’ve been looking for a writer’s retreat, this is the one you should register for with Ali in Costa Rica:
Ali’s background is in TV and film writing (scripts). I went as a memoirist. We also had a few playwrights and novelists too. It was a wonderful ensemble of characters, some of whom I’ve traveled with again since we met just over a year ago :)
This retreat is open to all genders.
There’s also our friends, Cummari, for women looking for a different kind of retreat. I traveled with Cummari to Sicily this past September. If you want to go to Sicily and experience a part of the island that’s not related to White Lotus, this community might be for you:
Cummari is open to women only.
Here’s the preview at the end of this post
:)
Don’t forget to subscribe if you want to read this story:
From Sex and the City 2 — Carrie and Big were living together in their just-below-penthouse-level apartment. Carrie was having trouble writing an article to promote her forthcoming book. After working in a space of her own, she pressed print on her article, and just like that her life was filled back in with sparkle.