That kind of socializing is so restorative! I love how when you're with a group and the conversation is flowing so well that you lose all sense of time.

I'm sorry to hear about the burn-out but glad you were able to recover! Thanks for the book suggestion, I'll look that up. It sounds like the perfect follow up to the one I'm currently reading. My family is very goal-oriented too. If I don't feel like I'm being productive there's a certain guilt that sets in. I'm getting better about balancing that now after I started working for myself in 2017. It's crazy how so many of us are programmed to be worker bees from a young age. It's like our entire sense of self-worth is tied up in how much we can get done.

It's my dream to become an expat but I'm not sure it will ever happen at this point. Being in the US is like whirling around in a cyclone of stress sometimes. At least we don't live in the city center anymore. It was much worse with the rampant crime and noise.