On being an early-stage entrepreneur cliché

Frangipane and skin gloves allegedly worn by Catherine de Medici, the 16th-century Queen of France.

My days this quarter like the last two are allotted to writing copy to foot the bill. Routine follow-ups with editors. And divvying up the running list of tasks for Darling Anaïs that I under no circumstance can delegate. That, to make matters more stressful, I have to squeeze into a <17 waking hour slot.

(Yep —she is learning to prioritize sleep again!)

With there being a remote alternative for most things these days, and self-checkout options abound, I sometimes will go up to two whole days without verbally speaking to a single human. When in the throes of oscillating between entrepreneur and writer mode, back-to-back.

Besides, say, small talk with the concierge at Equinox, a gregarious taxi driver, or the nice baristas at Sant Ambroeus coffee bar on E 61st Street.

Like most Upper East Siders, I exclusively text or DM with friends during the week unless there’s an extraordinary reason that warrants a voice call.

My generation, if you needed a reminder, was never the calling or FaceTime generation. We normally schedule all intimate exchanges of this kind (even with loved ones) hours, if not days (read: weeks), in advance.

Today, I’m feeling particularly stir-crazy in my silo. And even a bit cut off from the world after opting for a routine Instagram detox as the Queen Consort of habitually-going-off-the-grid that I am. …No regrets, of course.

Highlights that have underscored the day’s toil

1. Locking in a meeting with the Executive Director of a 501(C)(3) organization whose mission is to educate and rehome disadvantaged girls in India. (I am to discuss my joining their board and can hardly wait to see what all we accomplish together.)
2. After a week of radio silence, getting a genuinely appreciative albeit concise reply from Maggie Coughlan at Vanity Fair who runs the “Vanities” section. She relayed that VF has ultimately decided to veto my operatic pitch. But the start of our relationship is what counts!
3. Squeezing in 20 full minutes of sauna time (!).
4. Reaching out to some ~50 new angel investors to ramp up our pre-seed fundraising efforts at Darling Anaïs headquarters.
5. Fangirling about a girls' trip in Marrakech with my Moroccan gal-pal of over 13 years, for whom I opted to bite the bullet and reinstall WhatsApp (…also primarily used for texting, to prove a point).

Sigh. Someday I’ll look back and though hyper-regimented, focused days like these will be my badges of honour in the event that business should fail. Or my journalism goals wilt into some ill-fated pipedream.

Neither of which, of course, is an option from where I stand.