This week has been busy; one of my closest friends got engaged, as well as had a birthday, Scott and I celebrated 15 years of marriage, my son had a complete meltdown about middle school and my agent asked me to revise a not-dead-yet manuscript.

Whew!

So I have been hunkering down and trying to Get It All Done, which means I have been going without as much leisure time reading, watching British dramas and sleeping (hate that one!).

There are some things, however, without which I will not do:

–Coffee (the picture of me is when I am pointing to where there is no coffee at a conference a few years ago. My expression says it all).

–Playing Scramble 2 on my iPhone. I like playing until I place in the top 3, which doesn’t take long on off hours. During peak times, it never happens–I’m just not good enough.

–Twitter. I love interacting with friends there, and I usually get book recommendations, too.

–Exercising. I’m trying to work out five times a week (the summer was unusually weighty for me, and I am too cheap to buy new clothing).

–Fun errands–yes, they exist. A couple of days ago, I took my bike to Sunset Park, the Chinese section of Brooklyn, where I bought a ginormous container of soy sauce for less than $4. And more sambal oelek, a necessity for our spicy-loving house. Then yesterday I headed the opposite direction to an artisanal cheese shop, where I got three different types of nifty cheese to pair with Pinot Noir or Syrah. Fun errands do tend to be food-related.

So if you had to pare everything down to the necessities, what would be the necessary frivolities you’d keep in your schedule?