Today was excellent in all ways -- except for the fact that I'm still blocked on the stupid scene that I'm working on, and I can't figure out why. It's driving me close to screamingly insane, to the point that the urge to hurl my laptop through the window is a nearly tangible thing. It's a good thing I have decent impulse control, or else there would be glass everywhere and the giant spiders hanging out around the perimeter of my house would be streaming in (seriously -- Vidya saw two giant ones next to my front door, which explains in retrospect why there've been fewer bugs congregating around the outdoor light -- when I went outside after Vidya left, I saw one of the spiders biting into a still-wriggling insect, which was quite unappealing).
The day started off in a promising way; I got up, showered, etc. and called my salon to see if my stylist could fit me in for a bang trim, since my hair was so far into my eyes that I looked ultra stylish but was functionally blind. She was able to book me in under an hour, giving me time for a bowl of cereal before I headed to University Ave. It's a good thing I went in this weekend; it turns out my stylist is defecting to start her own salon with four of their other top-performing stylists, so I'm glad I found this out and got her new contact info before she left. After the bang trim, I wandered down University and decided to work for a bit at Epi Cafe (which replace Fratelli Deli -- you would never guess it was the same place unless you knew exactly where Fratelli Deli used to be, since this place is quite chic inside). I tried writing the scene by hand, which usually works wonders for getting me refocused, but even that effort failed. So I came home (with a stop to buy milk -- my fridge is going to have to get a lot less sad when I'm responsible for feeding myself for every meal, and not just weekends and the occasional dinner), and sat down to write.
And I stared at the manuscript...and I stared at the wonderful photos and inspiring quotes hanging from my bulletin board, none of which inspired me today...and I stared at my desk, which encouraged me to reorganize my desk. Reorganizing my desk led me back to the question of whether I should try to find shelves to put beside my desk, even though there isn't space, so I was in the middle of browsing online for a set that worked when Vidya showed up, unexpected, and let me trade one form of procrastination for another.
We left shortly thereafter to go to John and Jess's place in Sunnyvale for their Oktoberfest party. Jess was decked out in a gorgeous dirndl that she had gotten for a wedding that she was in in Germany this summer, and John had some leiderhosen to match. They were serving sausages, pretzels, beer, etc., although I gravitated to the Diet Coke (no surprise there). I didn't say hi to as many people as I should have, but I did have a nice conversation with John's mother (who reminded me that she and John bonded by cleaning my dorm room after John dropped me off at the airport at the end of my junior year; I had run out of time to pack and finally just had to leave, expecting to pay the cleaning fee, but even though John had just graduated the day before, he and his mom cleaned my room, which was shockingly nice -- even if it's more than slightly embarrassing that she remembers that above all things about me). Vidya and I also talked to this girl Crystal (who I cannot for the life of me remember meeting, although I know that I know her -- it's the connection that is lost to the fog of time) and another girl named Renee (who sits a few cubes away from me at work, and whose husband now works there too but was a post-doc in John's group at Berkeley). Renee's husband says that he has read romance novels, which seemed to take Renee by surprise, so I expect that there will be an interesting conversation in that household tonight.
Vidya and I took our leave shortly thereafter; we didn't really get to hang out with John and Jess, as was expected since they had like fifty people there, so we'll have to have dinner sometime instead. We came back to Palo Alto so that Vidya could get her car, and had dinner at Palo Alto Sol (which may have been a bad call, since neither of us were that hungry, but it was super delicious as usual). Then, I made Vidya watch the Oprah/JK Rowling interview before Vidya left to go watch "The Social Network" with a couple of her other friends.
I was going to write then, but I procrastinated again by making an extremely quick run to the Apple store to get a keyboard and trackpad for my laptop; during my endless examination of my workspace this afternoon, I realized that I would be more comfortable at my desk if I had a keyboard/mouse to put on the keyboard tray under the work surface, since the desk is too tall for my dwarflike proportions. And I was right...I came home, installed the keyboard/trackpad combo (wirelessly connected to the laptop via bluetooth, slick)...
...and couldn't write a damn word. I finally decided to stop forcing it and give it a break, so I watched "The Proposal" with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. I'd been meaning to watch it since it came out and had never gotten around to it -- but I'm glad I did, because I *adored* it. It wasn't perfect; there were places that they could have lingered, and some scenes that went on too long. But all in all, I loved it, and it gave me as many warm fuzzy feelings as it's possible to have before remembering that you're watching a romantic comedy alone in a cabin in the woods on a Saturday night. Ha.
So now, I'm going to go to bed. I have brunch plans tomorrow, and then I should write, but I kind of feel like running away to the ocean, or going on a fast drive through the foothills, so we'll see how the day unwinds. Goodnight!
Daily word count: 0 (0% of goal)
Productive time: -
RescueTime productivity rating: - (global average: 0.34)
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