Tuesday July 1, 4:33pm, New York City Dear Friend, I hope you’re doing great. Yesterday I conducted a little experiment and had to think of you and I think you’ll appreciate this. You see, I know you’re working a hard job every day and sometimes things get stressful. I think I’ve found something for you that’ll help you get your mind off of work for a few minutes every once in a while. You know how they say to leave a problem by itself when you can’t figure out a solution? That works really well for me and probably for you, too. **_Relaxation Means Creative Problem-Solving_** A lot of the creative problem-solving happens when we’re not actively thinking about the issue but kind of let it work in the background. For example. I’ve been building this piece of software over the past 3 weeks. Very intense stuff. I’d been staring at my screen for hours and days and weeks on end. By yesterday afternoon my brain was fried. I needed to do something _completely different_ just to clear out my “Brain Random Access Memory (RAM).” What I did helped me take a mental step back from the project and rethink a bunch of core assumptions I had about “how things should work.” I got in the office this morning and refactored 5 parts of the application. It’s now much easier to use, easier to extend and much easier to maintain. **_YOU’LL THINK I’M NUTS_** Now, maybe you’ll think I’m nuts when I tell you what I did all evening but MAN, it was so relaxing and so different to programming that I want to do it AGAIN tonight. Just to give myself time to think through some of those pesky algorithms. Okay, now I gotta tell you what I’ve been doing… In two words… Giant. Bubbles. Yup, you read that correctly. Giant bubbles. As in: Making giant, huge-ass, humungous, wobbling soap bubbles. Larger-than-life-sized, bubbly, squiggly, soapy bubbles floating through the air. And I made them. And it was glorious. For hours. You see, last week I started experimenting with a few different ‘recipes’ for making a soap solution that would allow me to make those big buggers. The first experiment failed. The internet said to use dish washing detergent and GLYCERIN but let me tell you that doesn’t work. I finally wound up finding a recipe that called for a very hard-to-find powder that turns the soap/water mix into sort of a slimy soap sludge. It gets really thick. But, as it turns out, that secret ingredient turned into bubbles 3 feet, 5 feet, 10 FEET LONG and more! As you can tell, I’m really excited about this. **_So. Much. Fun._** It was. So. Much. Fun. And that’s why I had to think of you. I know you love fun. (Also, it’s summer!) And I think you need to take your mind off your day-to-day thoughts. To get the creative juices flowing again. To kick back, mentally, and let things happen by themselves. Using a special solution (it _really_ works), two sticks and a piece of string as your wand, you’ll make mega-sized bubbles in MINUTES and you’ll relax your mind and just enjoy the moment. **_Can’t Wait_** I can’t wait to show ya. And I can’t wait to hear what new ideas this will spark in you. Which is why I would like to invite you to come over to my place where I’ve got a gallon of solution, a wand and a super sweet rooftop waiting for us to make bubbles. **Email me if this Saturday works for ya and we’ll make this happen.** With best wishes and talk soon, Alexis   **PS**: I’ve found a few factors that make the biggest, best bubbles: - A little wind is very good because you basically don’t have to do anything but hold up the wand. - Too much wind will break your bubbles almost immediately. - Dry air will make it hard but usually New York is nice and humid during the summer. - It’s better to make the bubbles in shade because direct sunlight will make them pop quickly. **PPS**: Oh, and yes, the mixture I’ve figured out is fool-proof otherwise. Let me know if you’d like the recipe. **PPPS:** Obviously, this post isn't about bubbles but the act of mentally shelving a hard problem for a while and instead doing something completely different.