Vol. 10, No. 6 | When Plans Fall Apart (and Jamaica Fixes Them)
Hey Ya’ll!
I’m in Jamaica.
It’s crazy how much peace that one little sentence gives me. I’ve been fighting for this moment. Work has been incredibly busy these past couple of weeks, but this moment of writing and hearing the ocean in the background is exactly what I knew it would be.
Before I started writing this, I was sitting here with my mind still drifting about work and then this thought came to me, “I’m really good.” It’s not something that I say to myself often, but it’s true. I’m very good at my job. I’m very good at creating a story and bringing that to life. Even when a piece doesn’t work out, I can pivot to something else and still bring it all together and it’s even better than what I originally planned. When I’m at my most brilliant, it’s because I’ve fully trusted that. I’m not giving into the idea that the plans are falling apart. I lean into the new direction coming together even better than what I could have dreamed of.
This is what my last 24 hours looked like:
12:45 PM yesterday: I’m currently planning a trip for bartenders centered around visiting the Bombay Sapphire distillery. I had to make about 10 pivots this week. At every turn, there was an obstacle. I woke up early in New York yesterday to knock out a few more arrangements and finally felt like I was in a great place. Then, on my layover in Atlanta (yes, it’s weird to have a layover in the city you live in) I realized I’d missed a crucial piece. One of the bars that I’d built a whole day around hadn’t been confirmed. I dropped the ball on something. Oof. Uggh. Sigh. This crushed me. I thought about it the entire plane ride to Jamaica as I worked on wrangling a few more pieces for the trip.
1:15 PM yesterday: I text Thandi to let her know that I was going to announce Shebeen in my next newsletter. (I’m not actually going to announce it today because this newsletter went into a different direction than what I planned…the direction you’re now reading. But, I’ve got the next Holy Sip event lined up. It’s called Shebeen and I’ll tell you all about it in two weeks or on Instagram. It will be on October 18th in Atlanta….I guess I announced it.)
3:25 PM yesterday: We landed in Jamaica and I told my boyfriend what was happening with the Bombay trip and he said: “You’ll figure it out. You always do.” You’re wondering why I didn’t tell him on the plane. He was upgraded to first class and because he’s so wonderful he gave me the seat. I was on the phone trying to lock in a speaker for the London trip the whole time, so as I boarded the gate agent said I can’t believe you took the seat and split up. As if I didn’t take it he wouldn’t have taken it. Crazy. Ma’am, clearly one of us is using the ticket. Clearly. Also, at this time, I realized that Jamaica is an hour behind because of US daylight savings and the 5:00 PM call that I thought I’d take at the hotel, I’d have to take in the airport.
5:15 PM yesterday: We arrived at Half Moon and I immediately felt my stress level go down…and that was before the rum punch. I wrote about this place when we first stayed here in November. It’s the only large hotel on the island that I can confidently recommend. As soon as I got out of the car, I felt at ease, and that’s difficult for me.
6:28 PM yesterday: Half Moon isn’t an all-inclusive. So we skipped the $100 BBQ night (because ain’t no way) and went to somewhere local that we like. I felt the stress come back a little bit though, but maybe that’s because I got jerk chicken that was actually baked chicken doused in sauce…hmm. The hotel would have actually been more authentic. This statement is probably confusing. It’s actually confusing to me. Of course you can get good jerk chicken on the street somewhere, but lately I’ve found that this is much harder than it was 20 years ago. As a kid, I used to look forward to coming to Jamaica and stopping on the side of the road for some jerk chicken as we took the trek to Mandeville.
9:13 PM yesterday: After getting ready for bed, I opened my laptop to work on the new D’USSÉ program we’re launching in a couple of weeks. In a few hours, I was able to format the program to tell a perfect story for the brand and tie it to the bars that we’re partnering with. I also created the shell of the deck. I also figured out a solution for my Bombay issue and fell in love with that idea more than what the original one was. I don’t know if it will work out, but it reminded me that if it didn’t, an even better answer would come. All was. not lost. I went to bed a little after midnight satisfied and confident that I could enjoy this vacation.
7:33 AM this morning: I grabbed some coffee and started at the ocean in pure bliss and peace. A soft jazz instrumental of “My Way” played in the background. It reminded me of the Jay Z version. Which then gave me an answer for the D’USSÈ program. In that moment, I realized: my genius is back. I just needed to be quiet enough to hear it.
And with that…I’m about to grab some ackee and saltfish and see where else the day takes me. I hope you all have a great holiday weekend.
Shannon