I keep showing you doors

I had an excellent first day at my writing conference. I got off to a slow start because I’m still feeling sick and didn’t get enough sleep, but I made it to the event before the first session, and I even had time to grab cold brew on the way, so I’m counting it as a win.

Almost all of my sessions today were great, and I sloughed off the less great last session by going out to an early dinner to revive myself. And now I’m going to go to bed (after already having taken a nap) in an attempt to recoup some sleep - goodnight!

must have seen too much in the blotted ink

I am in Okoboji, in some ways despite my better judgment - I woke up this morning still feeling pretty ill, but I knew that would turn into feeling sorry for myself if I stayed home and skipped the retreat. So I puttered around the garden and dealt with a lot of very wet things, took care of some things around the house, packed up, and left around one.

My drive was long but uneventful - Okoboji is on the other end of the state from me, so I saw a lot of (fairly similar-looking) countryside. It's been one of the wettest Septembers on record and no one seems to be harvesting, so traffic was fairly light, and I got into Okoboji a little after 6:30 (after a stop at Starbucks, and then pulling through five or six different gas stations around northwest Iowa before finding one that sold premium fuel for my Audi). I was starving after I checked in, so I went down the street to have dinner at a place I went to last year. My burger was v. tasty, and I was getting some decent work done when I was interrupted by the kind of guy who does not take any hints that you are not interested in having a conversation. Parts of it were entertaining (especially making eye contact with some of the staff + talking to another guest as he was walking out, all of whom seem to be long-suffering as a result of this guy), but I eventually absconded to my hotel so I could unpack and do some writing before bed.

And now I must sleep immediately since things start too early tomorrow - goodnight!

tell all the magazines i'm a celebrity

So, I did end up getting quite sick, which has been a brutal thing to carry back with me from an otherwise-great trip to San Francisco. I made it through Thursday morning's packing + checking out of the hotel sprint, and I even made time to run to a nearby Walgreens to get some cold medicine (although the pharmacy itself wasn't open yet, so I had to make do with what I could get in the regular aisles, which turned out to not be enough - although getting a bunch of travel packs of kleenex and some cough drops was v. helpful). Then I went to the office, where I had several meetings before heading to the airport.

The airport was easy peasy, and I grabbed a decent salad for lunch before taking a meeting from the boarding area and another meeting on my phone while boarding continued (I hate to be that person, but I was off the phone before the door closed, so c'est la vie). If I hadn't had to fly, perhaps I would have recovered more easily - but taking off and landing twice on Thursday did a number on my ears. They didn't pop on the first landing very easily, and they barely popped on the second, so I was in an unfortunate bit of pain by the time we hit the ground in Des Moines. It was also midnight in Iowa, and so I was really not in the best shape.

So I spent the night in Des Moines (which I had already planned), but it wasn't enough sleep to save me. In the morning I grabbed some real drug-filled Sudafed, ran the one errand that I couldn't cancel, had a late lunch at Green Olive, and holed up at a Starbucks for awhile to take some meetings that I couldn't skip before driving home. When I got home, I chatted with [censored] for a bit (although I didn't want to get him sick), and I ate some gluten free kraft mac and cheese before retiring to my room.

My sleep was suspect last night, but I woke up at nine thinking that I was over the worst of it - until I went downstairs, said hi to [censored], and realized my ears are still jacked up. I then spent most of the day lounging and feeling sorry for myself - it doesn't help that it's rather dreary and rainy, nor does it help that my ears are still plugged. I did do a wee bit of writing and other tasks at my desk in the morning, and I did a load of laundry and changed my sheets, so it could be worse. And [censored] very kindly picked up Mexican despite typically hating to go inside to pick up food, so I v. much appreciated having some real food (although the 9-month-old chili made with ground turkey and white beans and green chiles that I found in the freezer for lunch was better than you might have guessed).

And now I need to go to bed - I'm supposed to leave tomorrow to drive to a writing conference in Okoboji, but tbd on whether I'll feel well enough to go. Goodnight!

so caught up in you

I had a reasonably good day, although I fear I might be getting sick - which often happens after these team super spreader events, but I hope I'm wrong. I woke up at 6:30 and spent the morning working from the hotel - first catching up on some work while drinking coffee in the lobby, and then taking three hours of video calls from my room. Somewhere in there, I ordered a gluten free bagel with salmon and cream cheese on doordash, and it went a long way to sustain me. 

I thought about staying in my room and resting the rest of the afternoon, but I convinced myself that I was just experiencing allergies and so ubered to the office. Sadly this did not make me feel better. So I ended up cancelling my dinner plans tonight, which was a real bummer, and doing a bunch of work instead (a bummer that I'm used to).

But now I need to sleep and hopefully stave off whatever is lurking - goodnight!

all my worst nights are the best times

I had a v nice day in the city of sin. I got up early enough to get some work done while also drinking coffee and showering and washing some pants in the sink, and I still made it to the office by 8:30. I took a waymo to the office so I could work on my laptop while the robot drove, and I had a pretty entertaining conversation with some dude through my half open passenger window at a stoplight, so that was a real highlight. 

At the office, I worked some more, grabbed a coffee and some gluten free banana bread with Martha, and then went to the north bay to do a site visit for an event next year. We had lunch at the main restaurant on site, which was fantastic, and then we got a tour of the hotel so we could get a vibe check in advance of setting our agenda. I think it will be a v nice time, and I'm excited to go back for more than just a couple of hours. 

Then we came back to the city, dropped our stuff at the hotel, and met the rest of the team for happy hour at spark social (an outdoor area with food trucks etc). For most of us this evolved into dinner at rooh, which I always love; the food was excellent, as were the two bottles of wine some of us split, as was the company (I sat next to Geoff, Emre, Trevor, Timothy, and Ali, and it was all v hilarious). I also realized that I should be writing a book because I can probably convince my coworkers to buy several thousand copies if I play my cards right. And I would have kept going, but everyone was losing steam, and I suddenly realized that if we didn't leave immediately we would get screwed by the ending of the Giants game, so I bounced abruptly. 

And now it's time for bed - goodnight!

I thought you were gonna catch me

No blog tonight - I was up and slogging by sevenish (with free coffee in the lobby), and I worked straight through until 4:30 (including a site visit to a place where we're having an event next year, which went well despite some backseat driving on my part when a teammate drove us to the location (although my backseat driving was perhaps warranted?)).

Then I took a break to sneak out and get a mani/pedi at my favorite nail place. It was long overdue, since my last nail salon visit was when I came here in July and snuck away to see them on that trip. Then I lured Chandlord here so that we could grab Thai food across the street from my hotel. We properly caught up and debriefed on seeing each other yesterday, which was great. Then I came back to my hotel and worked until I started involuntarily falling asleep, so it's time for bed. Goodnight!

i love the way we synchronize

I've had a v nice weekend and now I'm enveloped in San Francisco's fog, which is a good way to end my Sunday. On Friday I slogged all day and much more diligently than I wanted to, and then Mom and [censored] and I went to Seymour for steak (partially because Mom likes it, partially because I didn't feel like cooking). We saw our usual staff + a bonus baby, and we also went to the cemetery to pick up floral saddles before the end of the season, so that was all quite nice. 

Yesterday, I got up fairly early for a Saturday, made coffee, and did some desk work. Then I ran out to the barn to see Mom (the barn was open this weekend for the Iowa Barn Association fall tour) before running back into town to catch the parade. It was the town celebration this weekend, and as an elected public servant I felt I should be there. The parade lasted approximately eight minutes, and then [censored] and I talked to various people about various things (but mostly the gas station). [Censored] got a tenderloin from the fire department - I heard later that they sold like 260 tenderloins - while I deferred to my gluten issues and got a baked potato loaded with pulled pork from the (only) food truck.

All in all, I was pretty impressed with the turnout and organization - they also managed to pull off a car show that had close to forty cars, which was impressive for a first effort. Unfortunately the weather was not very cooperative, but there was no rain for the parade, so it was all good. 

Then [censored] and I walked home and I spent the afternoon procrastinating and attempting to force myself to pack. I also made dinner (taco salad), and just as we were eating, the weather radio went off - and we decided to put my car in the garage, which required moving a bunch of stuff, which was too bad.

But we survived the night, and after watching some TV and cleaning things up,I spent the rest of the evening packing. Today was more of the same - I packed, did a bunch of gardening and tidying etc, and then drove to the airport. 

Now I'm falling asleep, but I should add that I'm currently safe in SF afterì me to only be ten minutes late to family dinner. Dinner was accomplishedat Clementina with Adit, Claude, and Vidya, and it was quite nice. 

And now I must sleep immediately - goodnight!

a hundred good stories makes me interesting at parties

I have been slogging, quite diligently, so week, which makes me start to believe a crash is imminent because I rarely string this many highly productive days together. Yesterday I slogged, and then I talked to Tanya (whom I haven't talked to in months), and it was good to talk to her since in many ways we have very similar lives. Then I slogged all day before meeting Bonita for a margarita - we were supposed to meet Brenda too, but she's busy installing the mastodon exhibit at the museum. When I got home last night, I procrastinated, ate takeout from the Mexican place, and talked to [censored].

Today was a relentless slog too - but I signed off at six, sat on my balcony with some wine, and then made a mid (but okay) dinner of chicken breasts and sweet corn. Then, [censored] and I watched Conan's podcast with Taylor Tomlinson, which was quite excellent and thought provoking. And now I must go to sleep - goodnight!