In Other Words with Dave

Admittedly, Alison and I have fallen into some routines. The “repetitive” and the “familiar” have comforted us through the last year. Breaking out of routines takes perseverance. We’re trying – but we are not there, yet. 

Every night, after knocking off work around 6, we commute to the kitchen from our respective home offices. While we prepare our separate meals (she’s Keto and I’m carbs), we flip on the national news. Our conversations are loud – louder than the news and are usually punctuated by me voicing “what?” multiple times. Dinner is served, and we dine in full view of the news. 

Our rut, or rather our routine continues as we segway into one of the greatest time-sucks of our happy little existence: Shark Tank. We’re obsessed. If you aren’t familiar with the show, don’t start. We’ve lost many evenings as we stream back-to-back episodes. I enjoy the entrepreneur spirit of the business-building participants, and Alison likes to order the products they pitch to the billionaire sharks.

Her impulse shopping adds an element of drama to our nightly routine. I don’t know if Alison is simply scrolling or ordering what’s being pitched realtime in our den. Sometimes I get a heads-up from her “I just ordered that,” other times mystery packages simply arrive. 

Every night she watches/scrolls/shops. And every night I dream up products I can someday pitch to the Sharks. My latest sure-fire million dollar product idea is good for the environment – reusable dog poop bags. On second thought – yuck. Maybe not a Shark Tank deal. 

But that product concept does pause the routine. We’re reminded it’s dog walking weather again. Alison and I break our Shark Tank viewing cycle and venture outside with our doggies. We quickly find ourselves walking that same familiar neighborhood loop. Sometimes you need to break a routine with another routine.