You know when you have that sensation that you have forgotten something? It’s right there at the back of your mind, like a small irritating noise? That’s a feeling I have been having for the past couple of months.

For example, this week I went to London for a conference and I left all my power cords on the train. I went to find an open shop the next morning to get new power cords and didn’t buy the ones I wanted to, instead choosing against my decision and ended up with cords that didn’t work properly. Then with meals, struggling to choose. And it’s not exactly like it was fine dining with so many delicious choices to choose from…

The Dutch have a word for this “keuzestress” which translates to “choice stress”. I am a good example of this. When things get really busy and my brain is on overdrive, I spend too much time on the little choices. I go back and forth 57 times. Which is really annoying and leads to things like forgotten power chargers. With big decisions, no problem. It’s like the more important the decision, the more clearly I can see it. But ask me if I want to spend 24 pounds to buy a new charger and I will agonize over whether or not I really need it.

Aside from the irritating habit of checking every small decision multiple times, I can’t complain. The boys are healthy and have charmed a whole new group of people in our new work building. My current group of students will finish this week. I have hired two more employees. The cats are fine, coming home much more often now that the weather is crisp.

Next week is Thanksgiving, which means it’s the time of year that my former interns come for dinner and share all their stories of what they have been doing. I think tomorrow I should probably figure out what we are going to serve them and start cooking ahead since it is another one of those crazy weeks. I’ve also just realized that a conference I have tickets for this week, I really don’t have time to go to.

My goal is to close out the year with a bit of peace and quiet. Which means I am thinking of escaping the whole holiday mess by taking the boys off into the woods somewhere and recharging. When I saw how much they enjoyed themselves in the Ardennes, I feel like I need to do that again with them. Of course, I should have planned this months ago.