I dream of love as time runs through my hands

I had an excellent day in NYC, and I need to go to bed immediately if I'm going to trust similar feats tomorrow. I woke up early (after exactly the right amount of sleep... so far after two nights in NYC my official sleep deficit is zero and my heart rate is still low, so I'm doing something right), and I swung by Starbucks before getting to the office at 8:15 and slogging v diligently for an hour.

Then I escaped the office for a brief interlude to have breakfast at Friend of a Farmer with a podcaster who I've connected with through various writing and Stanford channels. I am not likely to make a podcast (although I'm always tempted) and she is not likely to work in tech, but we have many other things in common, so it was a v fun meetup. And breakfast was great, so I went back to the office in fine form. 

Unfortunately I then had meetings for many many hours. I also ordered an açai bowl for lunch, which I have literally never done and will probably never do again, but in this moment (still full from breakfast), some cold açai with fruit and coconut and almond butter actually hit the spot. I ate it while participating in various convos about various tings, and somehow I survived until leaving the office at 6:15.

Then I came back to my hotel (with some window shopping along the way), relaxed in a way that came dangerously close to turning into a nap, and then frantically got ready when I realized that I was about to be late for dinner. This would have been particularly embarrassing since dinner was less than a block away. But I got there just in time to meet up with Emily. We had dinner at Lola's, which was an absolute delight. Emily's company is always a delight, but the food was astonishingly good. We had a tuna sashimi dish that was excellent, some gumbo grilled oysters that were extremely delicious, and a beef and barley tartare that was out of this world good. Of course, barley has gluten in it, which means I may pay for this decision, but the tartare is probably the best thing that we had, so #noregrets.

The main course was a surprisingly interesting and good Carolina rice grit cake, which I can't really explain, so you'll have to trust me. We also had a short rib that was a delight as well. And we had two hours of excellent conversation, which was long overdue. It was great to get a chance to catch up outside of the office, and hopefully we'll have more fun in the next few days.

Then I came back to my hotel, and now it's time for bed. Goodnight!

space ghost coast to coast

I got a glorious 8.5 hours of sleep last night, and while I woke up to a slightly sore leg (thanks to a bed that's not exactly to my ergonomic tastes), I felt very much rejuvenated. Since I had gone to bed so early last night, that meant that I was able to get going this morning early enough to grab a benti cold brew to fuel my walk to the office. I was in the office by 8:30, and I had quite a fun day. It's always great to hang out with co-workers in person, and my meetings were an appropriate blend of productive and entertaining. I also got to have sushi for lunch, as well as another coffee at some point in the afternoon, so I felt pretty well fueled for the day.

After work, we had a finance and friends happy hour, which meant that the finance team went out with a variety of other folks. There were nine of us in total, and Adit happens to be in town for the week as well, so we had quite a delightful happy hour/early dinner. My dinner was perhaps too early since I'm feeling a little bit hungry right now, but since my only options are $8 M&Ms from the mini bar or braving the real bar downstairs during the Knicks game, I think I'll refrain.

Happy hour was relatively sedate, though. I had one cocktail and a burger, which was just the right amount to have fun without going overboard. Then I walked back to my hotel with a couple of coworkers since we were all headed to the same general vicinity. The blocks near me are closed due to the Knicks game, but I was able to get to my hotel with no issue.

I should have done some work tonight, but I was feeling a little bit too wiped out. So I mostly caught up on the news on my phone, went on a fruitless search through the hotel for ice, and then handwrote my to-do list since I was feeling a little bit scattered. And now I need to go to bed since I have many plans tomorrow - goodnight!

I wanna see you in another light

I'm completely exhausted, so I may go to bed by 10 / 9 central, which is unheard of. Yesterday was excellent, but I did far more than I usually do on a Saturday - I was prepping to fly to NYC today and so felt compelled to do all the things.

This mostly meant gardening, although I did run some errands and do some basic tidying around the house. I had finally hardened off various seedlings enough that I didn't think I would kill them (although I'm planting two weeks later than planned, so we'll see what they do). Also, a rascally rabbit or some other non-apex predator had wrought havoc in my raised beds, killing two of my four tomatillos outright and also damaging my eggplant. Luckily I still had two more tomatillos on deck (literally, since I was storing them on my deck), but still. 

So I planted many things in grow bags, and we will see how they do. [Censored] also came up with a plan to fence the garden, which was exciting. And I did some Florida weave to support the tomatoes, tomatillos, and eggplants that still survive, so hopefully things get better (until some new pest arrives).

That took basically all day though, which was perhaps ill advised since I had to wake up at 5:15 this morning to go to the airport. I took a break last night to pick up Mexican so that [censored] and I could eat with Mom. Sadly I was too busy to hang out very long, since I hadn't started packing - and I forgot a couple of things that I basically never forget, so that's a sign that I was a little too last minute on this. But I got five hours of sleep and made it to the airport in time to have breakfast, so it could have been worse.

My flight was uneventful, and while my Uber failed to get me the last couple of blacks due to a parade, everything was otherwise smooth. This may be my favorite hotel that I've stayed in in NYC (pending how I sleep tonight) - the rooms are small and the bathroom is laughable, but the bed seems nice and the lobby bar is great. My room wasn't ready, so I journaled while eating a Caesar salad and having a glass of rosé.

My room was ready just in time for me to drop stuff off and switch shoes, and then I walked down the street to get my nails done. Then I came back, unpacked, thought about going to bed, was too hungry to go to bed, and so went to La Pecora Bianca for tasty gf pasta. 

And now I must sleep immediately despite the hour - goodnight!

have you had enough wine

I had a surprisingly productive day - probably because I didn't shower and instead started puttering around the house and taking care of various tasks. Then I sat on my balcony and worked for several hours. I am v fortunate that I work somewhere where I can dial into a meeting with my camera off...or with my camera on, thus revealing that I'm wearing sunglasses, which conveniently cover up my lack of makeup. 

So I worked outside until after one, and then I finally ate lunch, showered, and got back to it. My meetings were all good, and I ended with a call with Natalie (an old coworker), which was quite nice. 

Then I was supposed to water plants in town, but Mom and I took a chance on delaying since it looked like it would rain tonight - which was the right call since it seems to be pouring now. So I started rice in the rice cooker, did some tasks, and then made salmon teriyaki for me and [censored]. I hadn't made it in ages, so it was nice to have it again. 

And then I mostly procrastinated until now, but I'm going to go to bed and hopefully hit it early tomorrow. Goodnight!

the city's gonna love you and leave you alone

I have had a fairly boring couple of days, which is why I have not been blogging - it's all work meetings and household tasks and watering plants (my own and the town's), with some attempts at journaling and writing sprinkled in. It's finally warm enough that I can consistently work on my balcony - although that just reminds me that I want to do several big outdoor projects involving my balcony and deck and maybe a fence and also the gazebo, and potentially a fire pit too. So sitting outside isn't as relaxing as it could be, but it's better than being inside. 

However, I have nothing else to report and a million things I want to do tomorrow, so it's time for bed - goodnight!

i'm on fire, but i'm trying not to show it

I had my usual Monday - got up fairly early, tried to write (with limited success), started working, ended up taking a meeting in my pajamas, and then got ready so I could slog through meetings the rest of the day. I did run into town quickly to grab milk for tonight's dinner, so at least there was that. But it was too hot to work on my balcony, and various neighbors were burning various tings, so I decided to stay inside and attempt to focus.

By 5ish I was done, and then Mom picked me up so that we could water the planters downtown. When I got home, I inspected my plants (rabbits are attempting to eat them before they can produce anything tastier than leaves), took a break, and then made dinner. [Censored] was home tonight, unusually for a Monday, and I had picked up some swiss chard in Des Moines on Friday, so I made this rigatoni with sausage and chard and lemon zest that I occasionally make when the stars align. It's quite delicious, and it's not that much more effort than any other pasta dish - but since it requires chard, and I can't get chard within 75 miles of here, it's a rare treat.

So we ate pasta, and then I cleaned up, came upstairs with the intention of getting something done, and instead procrastinated completely. And now it's time for bed so that I can reset tomorrow - goodnight!

or am I origami, fold it up and just pretend

I got a lot done this weekend, which felt great... but now I'm heading into the work week feeling like I could use another day, or possibly week, or maybe month of time to get things done. Yesterday I did some writing in the morning, as well as various other tings on my laptop, and then I spent the afternoon tidying up my office, doing laundry, and taking care of various other household tasks. While the weather was certainly nice enough from a temperature standpoint that I should have been outside, it was overcast and seemed to be threatening a storm most of the day. So I had quite a productive chunk of time in my office instead, which felt unusually good.

Eventually I got ready, and then [censored] and I picked up Mom and we went to Seymour for dinner. My steak was so rare that I almost sent it back, which is unheard of for me - I don't think I have ever had a steak that I thought was too rare. It's like they forgot to cook one side of it, which, since it was a really thin ribeye, maybe could have worked out to all of our advantages, but in this case it was simply too rare for my tastes. However, that means it will make for an excellent reheated steak if I actually cook the other side and make some eggs to go with it, so I'm looking forward to having leftovers later this week.

Today wasn't quite as productive because I struggled to get enough sleep, but I woke up this morning and did some good writing until about noon, which felt great. Then I messed around online for a while and procrastinated just a little bit too much, but I eventually made it outside. I spent several very nice hours planting things on my patio - I've now planted basically all of the vegetable plants that I purchased, although I still haven't finished my seedling experiment. I'm trying growing peppers in grow bags this year because I felt like they got too much heat and sun in my raised beds last year. So now I have several grow bags with poblanos, anaheims, and jalapenos sitting on my patio, and I have a couple more peppers to plant once I get a bit more dirt. 

I also planted almost all of the flowers that I bought - at least the annuals that go into containers. I skipped planting a dahlia because it was looking a little sickly anyway, and I also discovered that the nursery pot it was in was a very nice home for a toad that looked like it didn't want to be disturbed. I still need to plant some perennial succulents that I bought, and so I'm hoping that this week I can clean out some of the bed next to the house so that I can get those in the ground.

By the time I was done with all of this, it was almost 6:00, and so I cleaned up, took the trash, and watered one of the containers on the main strip in town. Mom and I are in charge of watering this week, and usually there are eight containers to water. But I walked downtown this afternoon to check them, and we'd gotten just enough rain yesterday that seven of the eight didn't seem to need any water. We'll need to water everything tomorrow, but at least I was able to take care of the one pot today without any issues.

Then I came home, took a quick shower, and made chicken and chorizo burrito bowls in the instant pot. I hadn't made them in so long that I had to look up the recipe, which is almost embarrassing, but they turned out just as good as they always do. And then I came upstairs with good intentions to write, but I didn't get as much accomplished as I wanted to. So now I'm going to go to bed early, hope I get more sleep than I did last night, and wake up early enough to hit it hard tomorrow. Goodnight!