Pick Up Line Pick Me Ups

It’s your trusted, good-looking Ice Cold Air Newsletter here with a few hints for the season. What season is that? Back to school season. We’ve returned to school zone slow downs and braking when a yellow bus flips out that stop sign (make sure you stop, folks, the tickets are pricey if they catch you barreling through). We’re back to packing lunches and checking homework, and of course, sitting in those long pick-up lines.

Yes, that kind of pick-up line. I told you we’re family-friendly over here.

Pick-up lines of the school year variety can be brutal. Everyone waiting to make that turn into the horseshoe to pick up their little crumb-snatcher with the overstuffed backpack and gargantuan appetite for an afterschool snack. The lines move along but they move along slowly, no matter what the system is–laminated pick-up placards for your windshield or special passcodes and passwords for navigating the official guardian/parent/authorized kid picker-upper list.

Whatever the process, the pick-up line includes some idle time, time where you can give a listen to your car’s engine (turn your music, book, or podcast down and doublecheck that you’re not missing any rattling, whining, or thumping that you would miss otherwise...

It’s also time you can use to do a lot of other things–only a few of which require scrolling.‍

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Ways to Pass the Time in the Pick-Up Line

Think of Ways to Take Over the World: And by world, I mean YOUR WORLD. You can use the idle time to think through challenges and goals using your creative “day dream” mind. Creative solutions are waiting for you but they’re often stifled by scrolling through ads, negative news cycles, ads, gossip sites, ads, dance crazes, ads, political rage bait, and did I mention ads? With so much input (a lot of it made to make us feel sad, angry, or not good enough), it's difficult to get in touch with our own experiences, ideas, and inner-wisdom that can lead to better, more creative output for the things we're facing in our lives, so take the time to think, to reflect, to strategize, to create!

Research Recipes: Tired of eating the same meals (or ordering out from the same places to get disappointed by soggy, lukewarm onion rings?), use the time to do some generative, productive scrolling. Find recipes to try or share with your family for fresh new dinner ideas.

Cancel Subscriptions: Everything is a subscription these days, from frequent buyer programs in stores you’ve only been to once to news sites you joined to read one article. While you’re sitting in that line, foot on the brake or maybe even shifted into park, you can run through your email and accounts to unsubscribe from things you don’t use and cancel memberships to things you don’t even remember signing up for! This idea could lead to savings just as sweet as being in the $49 Sticky Club!

Delete Old Emails: Change your inbox sort to list OLDEST to Newest and just click away. I know you have emails in your inbox from 2016. No judgement. Just delete them. Even the ones you "marked unread" for some reason you probably can't even remember. 2016 was a decade ago. A decade.

Call a Friend: Dial up a friend to chat for ten to fifteen minutes, especially a friend you think about often but never “get the time” to check on. Connecting on socials is nice, but connecting for real is even better.

Space Out: Our creative mind is starved for engagement more than ever, so sitting still is a great time to just daydream and veg out on ideas, fond memories, or questions, even silly ones that can send your imagination on a journey. Have you ever considered how a tardigrade would wear pants?

Those pick-up line wait times just got a whole new life, right?

Well, that's all I have for this installment. May we all use our time a little more wisely!

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Until next time friends,

Your Ice Cold Air "Time is on our side" Newsletter

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P.S. Okay, okay. A couple pick-up lines since you read this far…

“Are you a manual transmission? ‘Cause you make my heart skip a gear.” or “Girl, you must be my check engine light, because you’re always on my mind.” But for real. If your check engine light is on, come see us. :-)

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