Saturday, July 25, 2015

don't bite the apple eve

I'm so full that my belly is distended, which makes me feel decidedly less chic than I'd felt early while walking through the city in my silk Marc by Marc Jacobs dress...but the conference came to an utterly fabulous end tonight (even if I will likely experience karmic retribution...but more on that in a moment).

When I woke up this morning, I was not feeling it - I've been going nonstop with the people stuff for a week, which is a bizarre switch after many weeks of solitude, and I haven't gotten enough sleep, etc., etc. However, I managed to get up, shower, make myself presentable, and get some iced coffee and a yogurt to tide me over until lunch. I consumed those things while sitting in the hotel lobby, where I ran into Sarah, who invited me to dinner tonight. Etiquette dictates that I should have turned her down since I had plans already...but I had wanted to see her throughout the conference and hadn't gotten a chance to, and I'm here to network, and I was already feeling a little bad about skipping the end of the conference to have dinner with non-romance friends when this only comes once a year.

Still, it was a total asshole move in many respects, but I ditched my dinner plans and went out with her instead....and as usual, assholes are rewarded and nice guys finish last. More on that in a moment.

Before dinner could happen, I had to get through the rest of my day. That involved going to lunch at Five Napkin Burger (two blocks from the hotel) with some people with whom I was giving a workshop this afternoon so that we could plan what we were saying over lunch. Despite how last-minute that sounds, it actually went really well, and I think people were engaged. The workshop included my friend Maya, so I got to hang out and say goodbye to her, and it included some other people I like, so that was all lovely.

After the workshop, I really just wanted a nap, but I forced myself to change clothes and leave the hotel immediately to go meet up with some of the people whose dinner I was ditching. Ritu and Bill came into NYC (even though I'm going back to Boston with them tomorrow night), and they were hanging out with Steph and Jon, who came in from DC. These are some of my favorite people, and we were supposed to have dinner with Chris and Priyanka (from the German wedding; we could have discussed Greek sovereign debt like we did then, although we might not have found it quite so funny now). So I went and spent a couple of hours drinking with Ritu/Bill/Steph/Jon before they went to Brooklyn for the dinner I was skipping. It was awesome to see them, and I'm planning to get brunch with them tomorrow, so hopefully that happens.

But then they had to go be good friends, and I had to go be an asshole, so we parted ways. My dinner was a fifteen-course tasting menu at Momofuku, which was an entirely extravagant, entirely ridiculous way to spend four hours. I wasn't expecting four hours - I wasn't expecting anything at all, beyond the fact that it was at Momofuku, since I was invited this morning (to replace someone who canceled). I shan't name-drop since we were in a cone of silence (and most of you don't know most of them anyway), but there were five other writers there, and it was all amazing. And by that I mean there was a lot of gossip while we ate really strange and delicious things. So I may get some karmic retribution for ditching my initial plans, but if I do, tonight was super fun and exactly what I came to conference for.

But now, my stomach is truly hurting (I really, really regret having nachos at the bar before going to Momofuku), and I need to sleep so I can survive tomorrow.  As awesome as this conference has been, I'm looking forward to hanging out with my non-romance friends again, and also to getting back to work and making that money so I can pay them billz. Goodnight!

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