we sang dirges in the dark

I was rather unproductive today; I need to stop going into my old office, because I don't think the free food is worth the productivity hit (although it's hard to say that when I'm actually going for the companionship, and I don't want to cut either of the people I saw today). My lunch date with Joy was at 1:15, and while I got out of bed around ten, I lazed about eating a bowl of cereal and reading recaps of last night's PROJECT RUNWAY (approximately 90% of the blogosphere agrees with my assessment of the complete travesty that was last night's judging). Then, I took my sweet time getting ready, blowdrying my hair even though I had no one to impress, and so I didn't get anything done before going in.

I met my friend Joy at my old building; she gave me an awesome little vampire-themed Android figurine and one of the best cards I've ever gotten, which she made herself, so that was lovely. We walked across the street to Big Table, where I overindulged in beef stew and mashed potatoes (which I could have made myself, and probably will one of these weeks), and hung out and exchanged gossip for an hour or so. Then, I parted ways with her and went over to the complex where I used to sit to meet up with Alaska Matt, who has just returned permanently from his stint in Dublin. He was only in town for a few days, since he's on his way to Alaska to reunite with his lovely wife Kia, and so I was honored that he squeezed me into his schedule. The bastard was supposed to be quitting (this was supposed to be close to his last day), but he reneged on our suicide pact and has agreed to stay with our company for another eighteen months -- which means that Kia, who had already moved to Alaska, is now moving back here and they're getting a place in SF. Bah. Actually, it's not bah at all, since I would love to have them around; they've been not-around more than they've been around the past few years, with time served in Dublin, Tokyo, and China, in addition to Matthew's travels in India (which is where I met him).

So, I'm really glad we got to catch up, even if we did it on the outermost fringes of the annual Halloween party (which has certainly been going downhill; this year the main snacks appeared to be nachos and dry sugar cookies, which is a far cry from the calamari tentacles, hard alcohol punches, and other scary delicacies of my first Halloween there seven years ago). I did get outed by Dontae and Andy, who noticed that I was sitting off on the edge of the lawn, but as I enjoy seeing both of them, this wasn't such a bad thing. I finally left when one of Alaska Matt's friends came over and killed the mood by discussing how much money he was losing in his divorce, the fact that he's living with his parents and has left everything in storage but his playstation, and his male-pattern baldness all within five minutes of meeting me -- unless his intent was to come as an oversharer for Halloween, he wasn't really my type. So, I came home (with an aborted stop at Philz, where I realized before going in that I had forgotten my wallet, and so had to turn away coffeeless), took a nap, ate some chili (even better the second day), ordered books for my blogging class (which starts next week), and generally procrastinated.

I finally stopped procrastinating for a couple of hours, not to write, but to list out some comprehensive goals for the next few quarters/years/decades. I started with all my dreams (which are laughably lofty), then broke out what I want to realistically accomplish in three years, then what I want to have done by this time next year, and then my goals for this quarter. I may hope to leave corporate America behind, but I'm going to steal the quarterly goal-setting process from my old job -- I laid out a bunch of "objectives and key results" for myself, picking three or four main objectives and outlining what has to be accomplished to successfully meet the objective. I think they're comprehensive, sufficiently challenging while still being doable, and easy to track -- the key, as always with me, is going to be to actually do them steadily and not just make a mad dash at the end of every quarter.

So now, it's time for bed; I also made a list of all the stuff I have to do to complete this week's goal of sending the first half of my book to my beta readers, and the list is disappointingly long -- so I'm going to be working this weekend. Teach me to spend too much time socializing during the week -- but then again, things likes "weeks" and "weekends" don't matter so much anymore, so I'll take my socializing when I can get it. Goodnight!