You're Never Going to Be This Young.

It's Monday. I'm Here for You.

The Pick Me Up is a Monday morning newsletter filled with advice, personal stories, and tips to help you get out of bed and jumpstart your week.

Greetings friend.

It’s me — Jen Glantz.

I walked past a mirror the other day in the park that said:

You are never going to be this young.

I see this and wonder who it's talking to.

Gemma, belly on the ground like a swimming turtle, desperate to walk already, willing to skip the slow crawl?

Or me?

Little old me — who can't help but see deep-rooted forehead wrinkles, wild gray hairs, varicose veins, and sagging little triceps.

Is the mirror telling me to look past all of that or look closer, before it all gets worse?

I know it's trying to tell us all to:

Stop, for a second. We'll never be this way again.

Sleep deprived, yes.

Anxious, of course.

Doubtful, always.

But this way, the way we are on this cool-breezed September morning, frenzied and fortunate, no. We'll never have this, like this, again.

Maybe more, perhaps less, but never this.

I took this photo because I don’t want to forget that.

Especially on a Monday.

In this issue:

Why you’re getting this: I'm Jen Glantz and this is The Pick-Me-Up newsletter. I've been sending it every Monday, for 8-years, to thousands of awesome humans, just like you. Thank you for letting this email live in your inbox. It truly makes my heart explode with joy.

Ps. I’m so grateful that you’re reading this because writing this newsletter every week is my favorite thing. If you know anyone who would adore getting this in their inbox, it would mean the world if you’d share it.

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⚡Instant Pick Me Ups

Ps. All of the picks from the past few months are all inside this list here!

📚: I keep seeing people chat about this book. I hope to give it a read in October when I have some more downtime.

📄: An article on why friendships often fall apart when one person has a baby. I’ve noticed some of my friends (who don’t have kids) became distant once they found out I was pregnant and when I had my baby. But I’ve noticed other friendships boom. So I think it depends on so many factors and found this article interesting.

🎵: I just love all of her music.

🛍️: Quick fall upgrades to my wardrobe include:

• I’ve never owned one of these but excited to style this and wear it for my morning strolls.

• I keep this by my front door and toss it on when I see the weather dip below 70 degrees.

• My go-to going out top. I style this with jeans (white or denim) and a gold necklace.

• A simple sweatshirt for Adam that looks good with jeans. I also grabbed this for him too.

🛠️: I built a tool! It can write you a custom maid of honor speech in minutes. We just added a feature where you can test it out too in case you want a glimpse of how it all works. Plus, it was the #2 product on Product Launch.

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That’s Show Business.

I saw an email at 7:20pm on Tuesday from Good Morning America. They were doing a piece on bridesmaids and they wanted to jump on a call to see if I was the right fit for the segment. I had just spent a grueling 45-minutes negotiating with Gemma, trying to get her to go to sleep, and the day was such mayhem my stomach was screaming at me because I had completely ignored my own hunger cues. But I phoned the producer. After sharing with her who I am and why I’d be great for the show, she said:

Are you available today to film an interview over Zoom.

It was not 8:05pm. I was wearing pajamas from the dirty clothes pile and my hair was twisted in a messy bun. My makeup and clothing were in our bedroom, sitting still in my closet, which was blocked by Gemma’s crib. Going inside the room was off-limits.

But she obviously meant tomorrow. Right?

“Yes! I’m free anytime tomorrow,” I replied.

“No, not tomorrow, today.”

The baby is waking up a lot during the night these days so I crawl into bed at 10pm to sneak in a few hours of sleep. My day was ending soon. But I told her:

Of course.

That’s show business.

I looked at myself in the mirror. No makeup, no hair brush, no clothing.

But that’s no reason to say no to a TV interview. So I opened up the only other closet in our house, the one that stores miscellaneous items from a bassinet mattress to suitcases. I found a winter coat that was bright and fun. I told myself I’d wear that. Sure it was 95 degrees outside but there’s no temperature on television.

I ran downstairs to the bodega attached to my apartment building. I was hunting for makeup. I found a $2.99 lipstick that looked like it had been there since 1982. Perfect.

I came back upstairs, ran my fingers through my hair, zipped up the winter coat, put on the cheap lipstick, and waited for my call to log onto Zoom and be interviewed for the morning show.

9:55pm.

“We cut the segment short. We don’t need you anymore.”

I looked at myself in the mirror before dragging a makeup remover pad across my lips and grinned.

That’s show business.

And I have to say, even when it doesn’t work out, it can still be a lot of fun.

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👩 Real Life Pick-Me-Ups

• We almost said yes to a two bedroom apartment. It’s 10 minutes away from where we live but there were just a few things about it that made my gut scream: noooo this isn’t right. Plus, the price was double what we’re paying now ($6k) and it just wasn’t the best move so we said no. We have to sign our lease this week or tell them we’re out. Next week, I’ll update you.

• One of my best friends, who recently moved away, came to visit this weekend. She’s the kind of friend who is ALWAYS down for an adventure so we packed in a handful of fun things while she was here. We did a dance class and got lymphatic drainage massages (soooo painful - omg). There are many different types of friends you’ll have in life, but a friend who likes to do the same odd stuff you do is really just the greatest pick-me-up. Plus Gemma adores her (she’s known Gemma from day one) and when we said goodbye to the friend, Gemma would not let go of her hand. Tears!!!! Even though so many of my besties live far away now, I’m so freaking grateful to have these people in my life. Friendship is magic.

• This weekend was the Jewish new year (Rosh Hashanah). I always look at this holiday as a way to realize the year is almost over and because of that - how can I make it a little bit sweeter? One thing I want to do is get over some of my new mom anxiety and take Gemma on more adventures. It’s been hard to do that because of nap schedules and fussy periods but she’s almost 6-months!!! and I want to make a push to create more new and big memories before the end of the year.

Until next week (say hello in the comments),

Jen Glantz