let the beat drop

Today was a very Monday kind of Monday. I woke up, poured some cold brew, and attempted to write with mixed results (not zero results, which is good; but not enough results to satisfy me). I got interrupted by some sirens, which turned into me and [censored] listening to the scanner, which sounded potentially tragic for a few minutes - but even though they had lifeflight on standby for what sounded like a farm accident, the victim refused treatment, so I guess that's good?

After that excitement, I got back to day job stuff and slogged v. diligently all day. This went on until around 6pm, when Mom picked me up and we watered the planters in town. Then I came home, was desperate for a break from all screens, and so sat on my balcony (even though it was too hot) and drank rosé while reading a book, which went a long way toward restoring me.

Eventually, though, I was too hungry to continue. So, I shucked some sweet corn and boiled it, which [censored] and I ate with a container of four ham balls that I'd found in the freezer from Christmas (and were remarkably still pretty good after 7.5mo). Then I cleaned up the kitchen, came back upstairs, and read for another couple of hours. And now I need to go to sleep since I have many meetings and many tings to do tomorrow - goodnight!

scheming on a thing that's a mirage, i'm trying to tell you now it's sabotage

I apparently have not blogged since Tuesday, which is perhaps a new record. I have had basically nothing to report, and have also gotten into a bad habit of falling asleep on my chaise at nine, waking up at 10:30, and then staying up until after midnight, which is really cramping my style (and making blogging unappealing).

But I had a decent enough week despite all that, at least as far as I can remember. Wednesday I slogged, and then took a break from cooking by picking up pizza for dinner. Thursday I also slogged, and then subsisted on leftovers - and then spent the evening reading the book for my work book club. We read 'Small Things Like These', which was like seventy pages long, and so I had no excuse not to read it - and it was pretty good, albeit depressing.

Friday, I slogged (again), and it was all alternating between boring and annoying, but I got through the day. [Censored] and I ended up watching a recent podcast between Neal Brennan and Craig Ferguson that was an absolute delight - Craig's still got it, although it's hard to believe the late night scene is totally dead now.

Yesterday, I woke up and did some fertilizing of my patio tomatoes - they aren't producing much, and while some of it is due to the extreme heat we've had, and other issues are due to the inconsistent watering caused by heavy rains, I think they need some extra fertilizer help. Then I scrambled to get ready and go into town - it was Old Settlers this weekend, and I was working the library book sale yesterday morning. The book sale turnout was quite good and I had fun hanging out with Sammi while we sold books. Turnout for the rest of the festival seemed pretty light, so I'll be curious to hear the full debrief from various folks over the next few days.

Then I picked up sweet corn from a vendor on the square, skipped the parade, came home, and spent the afternoon working on my taxes (something most people do in the spring, but I had to file for an extension and then had no incentive to finish). In the evening, I took the corn + some steaks out to Mom's, where I grilled while [censored] worked on the gator. We had a v. nice supper, and then I came home and spent the evening journaling, falling asleep early, and then scrolling too late.

Today was more of the same - I drank cold brew, journaled for awhile, watered the patio plants, and then let myself get sucked into several hours of screen time while working on my taxes / finances. This made me very fatigued and completely hangry, but it was better than doomscrolling. I also took various moments to help [censored] with the garage remodel, which is proceeding apace (and with very little effort on my side, which is great / slightly guilt-inducing).

By four p.m. I really needed to do something other than look at my laptop, so I took a shower, and then Mom and I watered the planters in town together. When I got home, I tended to my raised beds, which I've somewhat neglected - I needed to do some florida weaving on my tomatoes and tomatillos to better support them, and then I fertilized the raised beds too. This all took a lot longer than it might sound, but the effort was hopefully worth it.

Then, I took another shower since gardening worked up quite a sweat. I drank a glass of rosé while reading on my balcony, and then [censored] and I ate leftovers and watched the first three episodes of 'Stuart Fails to Save the Universe', which is pretty good so far. And now I need to unwind and go to bed - goodnight!

i'm the trouble ahead

I did nothing noteworthy today - I had too many meetings to enable me to get anything done, so I mostly just slogged. And then I spent the evening making dinner (which is perhaps overstating the effort, since it was quite easy) - I marinated some skirt steak, made some spanish rice, and then grilled the skirt steak in a race against both floods and wasps (floods because it rained twenty minutes after I was done grilling; wasps because the grill started to smoke out a nest of wasps hanging from my eaves, which was not a helpful development).

But the skirt steak turned out quite well, and I sliced it thinly so that [censored] and I could eat it with rice and beans and sour cream and salsa. I sat around for quite awhile after, but then I cleaned up the kitchen, came upstairs, attempted to journal, and started to fall asleep. So I think it's time for bed - goodnight!

nothing's as it seems

I had an excellent final day in the city of sin, but I need to go to bed immediately since I have an earlyish flight tomorrow. I spent the morning doing various tings around the hotel before going to senspa for a long massage, steam room, general hangout. Then I had a very late lunch at Pizzeria Delfina, where I journaled in the sun v enjoyably. I did a small bit of shopping while walking back to my hotel, and then I rewarded my efforts with a nap.

This evening, I did some packing, and then I hung out with Chandlord. She v kindly came to the Kabuki, so we hung out at the lobby bar and ate snacks and talked about life and work (work is life) for a few hours. And then I came upstairs to finish packing, and now it's time for bed - goodnight!

brightest light

I had a lovely day in the city of sin. I perhaps should have gone to the office, but I assumed no one else would, so I worked from my hotel instead. This made for a pretty chill day, especially since I was able to doordash a gluten free bagel with salmon, and also avail myself of several cups of the hotel's free coffee.

So I worked all day (with a secret nap break). And then I went out to Ocean Beach to hang out with Veronica. Since I went to her house, we were not at all rushed, and I had a wonderful time hanging out + eating Indian food + drinking plenty of perfectly chilled white wine. We were v overdue to catch up - I missed her on my last trip in April, and so I hadn't seen her since Carlsbad, which is nearly unforgivable. But we caught up properly tonight, and I'm v glad we did.

And now I need to go to bed - goodnight!

love was a cold bed full of scorpions

No blog tonight - I got up, went to the office, and slogged all day (with several walking 1:1s to break things up, and also some v entertaining conversations with some of my favorite people). Then I took bart to Oakland, where I met up with John and Jess for some tasty Korean food. They were in fine form and so was the tofu we consumed, so that was fun. And then I took an Uber back to the city, where I have been lazy until suddenly realizing it's bedtime. Goodnight!

put your ear up to me and you might hear the ocean

I had a reasonably good day that ended well, so I'll take it. I unfortunately woke up in the middle of the night and had trouble going back to sleep, so I was dragging a bit this morning. But since v few people go into the office on Wednesdays, and since I had some stuff that required focus, I worked from my hotel until lunch. This also involved some early morning journaling, which was nice. And I got a gluten free bagel delivered, which was excellent, so I headed to the office in good shape.

I spent the afternoon mostly talking to people - since I'm here to see my team, I went for walks for the two people on my team who came into the office today, which was v nice. And eventually I left to catch the train (yay for trains) to Burlingame to see Lauren (aka Subz) at Mykonos. We have been friends for twenty-one years, which feels surreal, and she is just as great as ever. I had mdised her on my last trip because I got sick when I was supposed to see her, so I'm glad I caught her this time.

After we were done, I took an Uber back to the city of sin, and now I'm going to go to bed early in an attempt to recover from last night's lack of sleep before tomorrow's insane run of meetings. Goodnight!