Hey Reader,

Lots of streams of consciousness here for this one.

In Toronto last week, my slides wouldn’t display. All 35 of them. So I winged it. Turned out pretty good!

I got to meet some really great people. And on the flight home, a colleague called. He’d just spoken in Vancouver (of all places) and asked if I’d speak at an event. He wants to introduce me.

I’ve also started a course to apply for a grant, which means I’m interviewing people. Each conversation confirms an assumption or challenges it, and I’m pivoting as I go. I love how open I’m being to that. I’m genuinely listening, even with my own agenda (and my own biases) sitting right there.

Some news I’m really thankful for: my panel was accepted at CSUN, the Assistive Technology Conference, this March. First time after four years of applying.

Meanwhile, I’m about halfway through recording close to a hundred episodes of one series. On Sunday I recorded over 1,000 cues, each placed to picture.

Saturday was a retreat, and it was intense.

There are some personal setbacks too (all temporary).

Gasp. I need a nap.

With everything moving at once, I’m behind on things I WANT to do. Choosing what to let go of has been hard.

I’d recently set aside a day for a project that went away. I kept the day anyway, and protected it like it was my lifeblood. Anything that came up got a no.

Otherwise, some of this won’t get done.

A few mentors and friends have been nudging me toward a full week like that: no commitments, no schedule, just the business. It sounds gloriously beautiful. And it's easy to forget there will always be another project.

Maybe you know this one: you know what to do, and you don’t do it. Or I don't want to do it, but I do it anyway. What gets me is the feeling after it's done (or not done). Do I want to feel what I'm feeling again? I'm familiar with dwelling on the past and living in shame. But that doesn't work for me. Maybe I can break the loop and do something a little different. That’s where the choice is. A pickup of sorts.

The AD Playback Lounge (https://RoySamuelson.com/lounge) is still standing through all of this, and it's where I'm finding a ton of joy. There are over 50 workouts waiting, and a new one drops every Monday.

November’s theme is Pickups: how to go back to something you already recorded and matching it, weeks later, in a different headspace. That’s pretty close to giving a talk after the slides fail. And it's also where these pickups can slide in, as if they were part of the whole picture. I don't need to reinvent the whole wheel, just make some adjustments (here and there), now that I know more.

Even when the whole picture feels like too much all at once, or totally off, it might mean that just a few little tweaks (again, here and there) make it whole.

The first pickups workout is ready Monday, at least the Audio Description version of pickups. And you’ll be doing it alongside other members. Join us at RoySamuelson.com/lounge. And if you're already there, see you for the training call coming soon.

And for those of you that are still in the midst of picking up other pieces like I am right now, I'd welcome a reminder that it's just pickups, it's not needing a whole reset.

Right? I think so.

Roy