A Moment with Jean, July 2025
H: So, what are you excited about these days?
Jean: Honestly? The Vespa has been really fun lately. It's interesting to me because it's something that I use as transportation every day, but it's fun. Gary and I have been doing longer rides on it and I very much enjoy motorcycling, but I'm excited about just trying out something different and taking the Vespa on longer rides, like to the coast. We went to Big Basin this weekend!
Not being on the motorcycles and being on these, it seems somehow a little easier just to stop and say, “I'm gonna pull over for a second”, put your feet down and take a picture or just enjoy a view. So that's just nice in and of itself, but I'm excited about that because I want to address something I've been thinking about the last maybe months or year or so, which is, “am I bored? Am I just doing what I need to do all the time? Am I planning to do interesting, fun things?” Which kind of goes back to “am I doing some things for me?” And that definitely checks that box. So that's exciting. Yeah. I don't tend to do huge things, but that's kind of a big thing.
H: What's something that you are struggling with?
Jean: Okay. Ooh.. I sometimes think about, again, kind of the opposite of “what am I excited about?” The flip side of that is just managing life and knowing if I'm leaning into the right things, and I have two very lovely children, and they have amazing lives of their own, and yet I'm a trusted confidant and a mentor. Thankfully, we're on good terms. So, in a sense, that's a struggle. I'm trying to always think about what's the right amount to lean into something. For me, people's lives, my kids, thinking about, just let em figure it out, you just dangle them out there. That's one strategy, or do you help them every day, set up a schedule? That's way at the other end of the scale. And I'm, of course, something healthier is in between, but in my mind, I find myself going to the, “But I could give them this advice and they really should be doing that!” And it kind of goes for my husband's too, but I think for my kids, they're adults, they can do they can navigate life perfectly well.
Jean: Something I've always wanted to do. I would like to be comfortable enough going on another big trip, like going to Italy. I've always wanted to do that. Or south of France somewhere…And be like other people who, when they come back from their trips, they say, “ohh, it was great. We rented a villa, and we explored the neighborhood, and we did a little bit of sightseeing, but it was good mostly we did this thing,” and that's appealing to me. I think I would really like that, but it's not just doing nothing. It's not just traveling and saying, "Okay, then go do the travel,” I would like to be comfortable doing that. I would like to want to do that. And instead, I tend to think about the money and think about the challenges and, “Well, is everybody gonna be bored?” or “Do we need to plan more things?" So I would like somehow to be whisked away and just go do something like that.
H: What's something you've always wanted to do?
I just wonder if I'm always hoping that I can help them. Maybe they don't need my help in the ways that I think they need it. But darn it, I'm pretty good at advice and saying the right thing. So I'm struggling with how to navigate that well, I think. And in some people's lives at work, too, right? People become important to me over time, and sometimes even at a first meeting, I want to be...appropriate with everybody I meet, and sometimes ‘appropriate’ means giving some personal advice in that ten seconds that you're just meeting someone, and sometimes ‘appropriate’ is, "Hey, isn't it nice weather living here?" I guess that's not a struggle. It's just something I'm being more intentional about, I think. And then part of me just says “screw it.” Just say what I want to say, know that I have good intentions.
And I'm not sure what that exactly is, but: plan a trip for the fun's sake and the relaxation of it and learning a local place. I do really enjoy that. Whenever we're going anywhere, even if it's just sort of local here, I like to imagine what it would be like living there, or talk to people who live there and understand it. What's it like? I sort of picture myself there, so… I would like to… Wow. Yeah, I know, this is stirring up a lot of stuff. I'm at the age where people start talking about retiring, like, “when are you going to retire?” You have your financial people saying, "are you planning for that?" And so, you know, my husband and I, we talked about it from time to time, and everywhere we travel, we think, well, what could a retirement career look like? I think it would be interesting to run a bed and breakfast, an interesting, lovely place that I myself could take advantage of, and welcome people and host them and have fun meeting people. That's kind of, sort of this retirement job dream. Yeah.
H: Well, thank you so much for chatting. I appreciate all the responses. Wanna take some photos?
Jean: Sure!
