What I’m Doing Now

This is my “now” page, inspired by Derek Sivers.

Updated July 5th, 2024

Writing from my home in Austin, TX, the cicadas buzzing loudly, the summer heat beating me to air conditioning or bodies of water.

Cohousing with my closest friends

I’ve long had the desire to live next to the people I love most while still keeping a place. We would cook together, spontaneously connect, raise our kids together. The dream’s been to make it big and live on some kind of commune. Last fall, I noticed something: A handful of friends had moved into apartments at an otherwise nondescript complex in south Austin. Lo and behold, the cohousing dream! Sans the farmsy commune aesthetic. I moved in this spring and now live next to a handful of my closest friends, with more coming this year (my best friend is moving directly next to me; my sister joins in the fall). There’s a delight to the spontaneous acts of friendship made so easy by the proximity, and a deep joy as the relationships deepen. And, the whole experiment was a much easier process than I thought it would be! No organizing, just a spontaneous order.

Resuming gymnastics

From about the ages of 25 to 30, I trained gymnastics. What started out as a club sport in college turned into an obsession; at one point, I was training 20 hours a week until the pandemic shut down gym facilities. I then moved to Austin and my life became too high an opportunity cost to train as regularly. And with gyms nearby, my practice eventually stopped entirely. Until! I moved this year to a place not far from a gymnastics facility with some drop-in classes. Now I’m back at it.

I maintain that gymnastics is the best general training stimulus, with high transfer into other sports, not to mention its rockin’ benefits of vitality and physique (bonus points for rings specialist). I’m glad to see that despite the last few years of diminished practice, I haven’t lost everything. I’m curious to see what this new chapter brings.