Sunday, April 26, 2009

i don't care for sugar, honey, if i can't have you

Today was extremely laid-back. Terry and I had brunch at Olea, which is surprisingly nice for somewhere within a few blocks of my apartment (or perhaps I don't give my random neighborhood enough credit). We split the challah custard toast and the flat omelette with chicken and pesto -- Olea has, hands down, the best French toast I've ever had in my entire life, and it was in fine form again today. So, brunch was lovely, and then I saw Terry off to the Caltrain station so that she could return to the security and comfort of the glorious south bay.

After brunch, I had my requisite Sunday afternoon call with my parents, who seemed to be in fine form despite the fact that my father spent the weekend painting (or rather, priming, which means he still has to paint) the garage. After that, I intended to write, but instead I didn't do much of anything. I spent a couple of hours reading some of Ann Radcliffe's THE MYSTERIES OF UDOLPHO, one of the quintessential Gothic romances written in the late 1700s. It was in the name of research, but it was also entertaining, if only to see that back in the day you could get away with -- and were, in fact, encouraged to -- pour out page after page of scenery descriptions and use omniscient narrators rather than the more limited narrators of today's works. I gave it up for awhile when it became clear that I was on page 150 and the plot was only just starting to kick into gear; the book is supposedly about Emily's sufferings at the hands of her aunt's husband in a remote castle, and the aunt was just introduced and isn't even married yet, so it's rather slow going.

My exertions in reading UDOLPHO were remedied by a long nap in the late afternoon. Just as I was debating what to spend the evening working on, Katrina called, and we ended up having dinner at Cafe Zitouna, the Moroccan place that we went to with Walter, Julia, and Adit a few weeks ago. My chicken schwarma sandwich was quite nice, as was my Moroccan mint tea, and catching up with Katrina was lovely (even if I usually only spend time with three people in any given week, she's one of them, and I had seen her on Friday, so there wasn't a ton to catch up on -- but it was nice nonetheless). Then, I came home and continued to procrastinate by watching an episode of Craig while painting my nails. Craig was hilarious, as usual, and now my nails are a nice sparkly pink that will carry me through the week.

It's time for bed; I have to get up super early to sign up for editor/agent appointments at the RWA conference, since signups start tomorrow morning at 8am CDT, and then I have to go to work afterward. Bleh. Goodnight!

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