The title of this post is in reference to my friend Rat, who took something that I said tonight as an invitation to be my maid of honor and was then hurt when I rescinded the offer. Ha. He would actually make a lovely maid of honor, so we shall see what we shall see!

Today was a lovely day; I got up in time to actually wear a dress, tights, and heels to work (not that this really requires more effort, but it looks more put-together than the cashmere hoodies I've been rocking since successfully acquiring my promotion). I made it to work in plenty of time for my eight a.m. meeting, sat through two hours of discussion, did some work, and then had a lovely lunch with Sarah, my coworker/friend who started the same month that I did but is now based out of Singapore. It was great to catch up and spend some one-on-one time with her, although it did make me miss having her here all over again. Then, I slogged through the afternoon, had a meeting with my boss (the big boss, although I can't keep calling her that if she's just my boss) that went well, and then pretended to work for another hour before peacing out. My company is apparently bringing back a handful of the old ridiculous perks we used to have; today there was a holiday soiree outside, and they covered the sidewalks with slush (possibly real slush from the snow-covered foothills near us?) brought in a few real reindeer, and served champagne, raw oysters, crab cakes, kobe beef meatballs, caviar, etc. So I loaded up on a few appetizers before leaving early and making my way back to the evil city, talking to my parents on the way.

I tried to write when I got home, and did just a little bit, but then got sidetracked by stuff for the day job. Then, in a highly uncharacteristic move, I actually *went out for drinks* on a Wednesday. I met up with Vidya, Julie, Rat, and Deano at a bar a couple of blocks from the Chandlord's; it would have been more convenient if I still lived at Vidya's, but since I do not, I had to drive and so did not consume much alcohol (in fact, half of two different drinks -- one strawberry champagne martini that Vidya claimed tasted like poison, and she might have been right, and then half a glass of riesling). We hung out there for a couple of hours and had a generally lovely time, reminiscing and letting Rat tell ridiculously awful jhokes. Then, I chauffeured them all home so that they wouldn't have to brave the cold (it was 37 degrees when I got to work this morning, which is unheard of, and worth complaining about even if my family is buried under 12" of snow), and now it's time for bed. Tomorrow promises to be busy, so sleep is essential. Goodnight!

This is a four-minute post. I had a pretty good day, all in all; I slept until almost eight and was at work by ten, which was v. good for my energy levels and overall willingness to tolerate annoyances. Not that I had many annoyances to tolerate today -- I worked for a couple of hours, and then had a ninety-minute lunch with Gyre, Lizzie, and Sarah (Sarah is fresh off the plane from Singapore, and so she crashed the every-six-weeks lunch that Gyre and I have with our former coworker Lizzie). It was lovely as usual to catch up with all of them, and I'm looking forward to having lunch with Sarah again tomorrow. Then, I had a conference all with Heather (aka dear respected madam), followed by a good meeting about customer satisfaction. I worked for one more hour, and then peaced out for the day -- we've slowly, tentatively started having (cheap) offsites again, and while I have no team and no one to have an offsite with, a team that I'm marginally affiliated with invited me to come to theirs.

So, five of us went up to Belmont/San Mateo (apparently called Bel-Mateo?) for some bowling action. Wii Bowling has apparently wiped out any ability that I ever had; not that I was ever any good, but I should have been able to bowl better than a 55. So we bowled and talked in the nearly empty bowling alley, and then adjourned to a nearby diner for totally delicious burgers and fries. Then, I drove the rest of the way back to the evil city, where I spent the last two hours doing the work that I clearly would have been able to get done if I had not gone bowling instead.

Now, though, my four minutes are up; luckily, tomorrow is shaping up okay, and if I maintain some base level of productivity, I will hopefully get through everything I need to take care of before the holidays. Goodnight!

So perhaps this story will amuse you, even though it did not amuse me. Several months ago, perhaps last May, I got a notification from my credit card company that they were changing the rules on my rewards points so that they expired virtually on arrival, which would render all of my years' worth of careful hoarding useless. There were no big-ticket items on their site that I wanted, so I exchanged the points for several $100 gift cards at Sephora, Bed Bath and Beyond, and Staples (yes, Staples, because I am a dork). The Sephora ones were gone in a flash, but I was saving the Bed Bath and Beyond ones to make a bedding purchase.

Tonight was finally the night; armed with my gift cards and a rare, magical coupon for 20% off everything in the store (rather than just 20% off one item, as usual), I went to Bed Bath and Beyond. There was a lovely shirred grey duvet cover, with a throw pillow and a set of silvery sheets, that I had my eye on, as well as a lighter down comforter to make up for the fact that my standard comforter is 'extra warm' (silly in California, I bought it during the winter here when my Palo Alto apartment's heat wasn't up to snuff) and therefore much too warm most of the time. But, when I got to the cash register, imagine my horror -- somewhere, either through user error or a mixup at the fulfillment center, I didn't have cards for Bed Bath and Beyond, but instead for Bath and Body Works.

Luckily I noticed before handing them to the cashier, but I was mortified, horrified, and annoyed. How I didn't notice before is beyond me, but they have the same number of syllables and the same blue color scheme that I expected. I ended up buying the bedding anyway because the 20% off coupon actually shouldn't have worked on the duvet cover and sheets but it did anyway, and I had my heart set on them at this point. But what in the hell am I going to do with $300 worth of gift cards for Bath and Body Works?! If you hit the sales, you could use that to buy 50 bottles of bubble bath. Granted, I love bubble bath and many other shower- and bath-related accessories, but $300 is a bit much even for me.

I shall persevere; the cards don't expire (supposedly), so I'm in no rush to stockpile a lifetime supply of bubble bath. And if any family members have already purchased or intend to purchase the bubble bath items on my Christmas list, please feel free and know that I will love it despite this; a couple more bottles of the stuff makes no difference in the ocean of bubble bath that I will have in the future, and I won't make it to Bath and Body Works before Christmas anyway.

That was the most annoying aspect of an otherwise mildly annoying day. I got up way too early to try to beat traffic, which succeeded, but since I only got five and a half hours of sleep, I wasn't very productive as a result. I got done what I absolutely needed to get done, but I was pretty surly by the end of it, and the bedding situation didn't help. When I got home, I discovered that the guy who I'm renting the garage from had put another car in there and not moved it, and I lacked about eight inches of being able to pull in far enough to be able to park there. Luckily I was able to find parking on the street, but if the car is still there tomorrow, I will be pissed. But, I calmed down when I got home, eating some frozen enchilada and finishing the book I started yesterday ("Soulless" by Gail Carriger; quite entertaining book about a woman in Victorian England who falls in love with a werewolf even though she personally has no soul and so is able to neutralize werewolves, vampires, and various other supernatural beings on contact). And now, I shall go to bed; morning will come all too soon, and I must be more productive than I was today. Goodnight!

Today was, on the whole, quite excellent, beginning and ending on particularly good notes. I had brunch with Shedletsky and Joanna at Samovar in Yerba Buena; even though it was cold and overcast outside, the inside was still lovely, and it was great to catch up with them since I hadn't seen Shedletsky since my birthday and Joanna for even longer. We had the requisite masala chais and a variety of foodstuffs, and seeing them reminding me how much I'm missing by embracing my hermitage.

However, I promptly forgot the lesson and came home to embrace my hermitage. I cleaned up around the apartment, cleaned my room, Swiffered up all my hair in anticipation of Adit's return, and painted my toenails. I also talked to my parents for over an hour, which was nice; I'm really looking forward to the holidays, and there are many things to plan in anticipation of that time. Then, I took care of myriad tasks, and took a brief nap in anticipation of my unusually late Sunday night. And, I read part of a book set in an alternate-reality Victorian London -- I'm trying to read more, which is working out almost too well given that I have hundreds of books on my to-be-read list and it's way too easy to read instead of write.

Due to the book, I was almost late picking Adit up from the airport; however, I retrieved him successfully, and we met up with Katrina for a 10pm dinner at Flour + Water. The place is apparently a complete scene on busy nights, but on a slow Sunday night with rain coming down and an uncharacteristically cold 45-degree temperature outside, the place felt cozy and charming. We had a great bottle of wine (it was described to us as 'hot and jammy', hence the title) and some of the best pasta I've ever had. My dish was a ravioli-type pocket pasta filled with ground pork and onions that reminded me a lot of pelminis, if I could have had pelminis in Ukraine that were made with top-notch ingredients and cooked perfectly instead of the versions we actually had, which (while tasty) were likely made with flour that had only recently had the rat feces sifted out of it and pork that was just this side of trichinosis.

sssanyway, it was lovely to see Adit after what feels like weeks without him around, since he and I only overlapped for a couple of days between when I left for Thanksgiving and now. It was also lovely to see Katrina, whom I hadn't see in ages, and generally a good time seemed to be had by all. Now, though, I really need to go to bed -- since it will likely rain two inches in the next twenty-four hours, my commute tomorrow morning will be brutal. It rains two inches in Iowa like every other day, but here the people aren't equipped to drive and the infrastructure is so bad that there are already patches showing up on the 511 traffic site that are apparently stop-and-go even though traffic at midnight on a Sunday should be perfectly clear. Ridiculous. So I'm getting up at six and getting my ass in the car before all hell breaks loose; wish me luck!

I had a fine day - it was certainly v. relaxing, although I didn't accomplish nearly as much as I intended to. I slept until almost ten, tidied up around the apartment, took my time getting ready, and caught up on the news (dangerous, since I can surf the internet forever). I spent a couple of hours this afternoon at the Samovar in Hayes Valley; this was a bit of a weird choice since I'm going to the Samovar in Yerba Buena for brunch with Shedletsky tomorrow, but I was in the mood for some masala chai and people-watching, and Samovar fit the bill. I was happy with what I got done there, since I wrote several pages of Madeleine's new back-story in my journal. Obviously I need to be writing the actual book at some point v. soon, but this was a useful exercise.

I wandered back to my apartment while stopping off at two stores to look at Christmas cards (didn't find any, but one of the boutiques did end up selling me a dress) and at the grocery store for milk. I ventured out into the cold again in search of sustenance, returning with some delicious takeout sushi. Then, I spent the rest of the night curled up with my Kindle, which was a nice way to end the day.

I must start forcing myself to write even if I feel like it's too hard; this book isn't going to write itself, and I'm having trouble understanding why I can't get going with it when I'm actually v. excited by the premise and the characters. I know that I'm capable of finishing a book because I've done it once already, but for the life of me I can't remember how I did the last one. I need to figure it out, though; time is slipping away and I want nothing more than to have a finished book by the spring. Now is not the time to work on it, though - I'm going to bed, going to have brunch tomorrow, and then going to try to force myself to write if it kills me. Goodnight!

I'm about to fall asleep, a combination of too much fun and a later-than-usual bedtime. My workday was only so-so; I was productive throughout the day, but it was with fairly mindnumbing tasks that didn't exactly make me feel accomplished. I left around five, grabbed some coffee at Philz, and made the trek back to the evil city with the intention of coming home and reading a book. However, Vidya (aka Vidius Chandicus) called while I was driving back and asked if I wanted to meet up for drinks and dinner with her and her friend Kathy. I readily agreed, and after I got home and freshened up, I walked over to meet them at Martuni's. The clientele is almost uniformly older gay men, but it's one of Vidya's favorite bars. I had a Bailey's on the rocks in honor of the season (for some reason Bailey's makes me think winter), and we sat on bar stools pulled up to the piano where a musician was playing/singing such classics as Billy Joel's "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant" and some song by Earth, Wind and Fire.

We had a generally lovely time at Martuni's, but decided to go out in search of dinner. We ended up at a Middle Eastern place a few blocks away, which was a total scene but was fun enough that I forgave the annoying waitress, the more-annoying clientele, and the group of small-time opera singers having a birthday party near us. The place was pretty quiet when we showed up, and so we had dinner inside but made a reservation to have hookah on the patio after dinner. I had a chicken dish with couscous and a nice cucumber yogurt; we also split a bottle of Malbec, which was v. much enjoyed. We also discovered that Kathy and I have a scary amount of stuff in common (quilting, secret affection for sci-fi books, hermit-like tendencies, etc.)

We then adjourned to the patio, where we spent a couple of hours puffing on a mint-flavored hookah. It was lovely; the mint vapor was v. refreshing, and it was nice to lounge on a couch and hang out for awhile. The people watching was excellent, particularly when some dude whom I deemed 'the Angel' showed up - he had ringlets of shoulder-length blonde hair and was wearing a white cable-knit sweater and brown leather pants with some sort of weird side-slung fanny-pack like thing that looked like a knife pouch from days of yore. And of course, the company was good too, although I was quite disappointed that Vidya didn't attempt to befriend the Angel so that we could see the inside of what I am positive is an amazingly ridiculous apartment.

So, it was exactly the type of evening that I needed, even if I have a stomach ache from too much food + too much hookah + too much alcohol (actually I didn't have that much, but I probably should have refrained from the mango and cucumber cocktail -- I mostly ordered it so that the waitress would stop trying to describe it to me and annoying me with her awful voice). Now, though, I should sleep; I have hot plans to get a pedicure and write most of the day, so I should sleep. Goodnight!

This is a four-minute post. Today was v. good, and I need to figure out how to replicate it more often. I didn't get out of bed until eight, and strolled into work at ten; since I didn't break for lunch and stayed until 6:30, I felt not the slightest bit of guilt. Then, I was steadily productive all day, getting through all of the tasks on my to-do list, and so I when I left the office, I had absolutely nothing that needed to get done. I drove to Menlo Park and spent a quality hour at Cafe Borrone, eating my favorite turkey and gouda sandwich while brainstorming Madeleine's backstory. Since I've changed my mind about what her issues are, I'm going to have to rewrite significant portions of what I already have, and so I'm trying to get to know the "new" Madeleine before I jump in. This is the weekend when I start writing again, so spending some time with her tonight was good.

When I got home around nine, I didn't want to go to bed, and since I oddly had no work to do, I decided to read a book. I browsed through all the unread books on my Kindle (no wonder e-books are selling well -- it's so easy to order them and then let them pile up) and decided to read the Kresley Cole story in DEEP KISS OF WINTER. The book is a combo of two novellas by Kresley Cole and Gena Showalter; I usually don't read short romances (no jokes about my stature from the peanut gallery!), but the Kresley Cole story is part of her longer multibook story arc about some Valkyries, vampires, werewolves, and demons, and so I wanted to read it for the sake of continuity. I stayed up later than I intended and finished the whole story, although the premise (the heroine is part-Valkryie, part-ice queen, and so her skin is ice-cold and she can't touch anyone without getting burned) wasn't entirely sexy and certainly wasn't hot. But, I still enjoyed it, and I reveled in my evening of absolute freedom.

Now, though, the four minutes are well past up, and it's time for me to go to bed. Goodnight!

I didn't accomplish enough today, but in my defense I felt sick to my stomach most of the day; I had to be at work by 8am for a two-hour meeting during which I had to present a segment, and I was afraid I was going to throw up during my presentation. After that, I went to the doctor (luckily, I already had a checkup scheduled unrelated to my recent plague), and she confirmed that I don't have swine flu and instead just have a cold + the usual stomachaches I get when I'm stressed/tired/have been traveling. The cold is actually much better; my throat doesn't hurt anymore, so I just have the sniffles.

After that, I went back to my office and tried to work for a few hours, but was only partially successful. The only real things I accomplished were a nice twenty-minute conversation with Joy and a long end-of-day conversation with Gyre -- it's amazing that Gyre and I still sit on the same floor, but because we are located in areas that the other one never walks by, we never see each other. We happened to run into each other in the kitchen, so we hung out in my office for awhile and caught up, which was nice. I kind of feel like I don't have friends at work anymore, since most of my friends from the good old days have either switched departments, switched offices, or quit, but Gyre and I are still holding down the fort (after six years, crazy).

I was home by six p.m., and I did about an hour and a half of real work to compensate for the time I spent gossiping. Adit asked me to take him to the airport tonight, and I convinced him that we should go to the Korean hot pot place first, since I had been craving spicy soup. Unfortunately, it turned into a complete debacle; it only took ten minutes to get seated, but half an hour after we ordered, they still hadn't started cooking our food, and so we left without eating so that he wouldn't miss his flight. We made it to the airport in time, and then I came home and ate the reheated hot and sour soup that I would have eaten anyway, but it was much more disappointing and disgusting since I had come so tantalizingly close to having hot pot instead. Sigh.

Now, though, I should really really get some sleep; I need to be more productive tomorrow if I have any hope of getting out of there and writing (and even more importantly, writing this weekend). Goodnight!