there's a fire within my soul

I'm exhausted but happy, which is always a nice combination because it makes going to bed feel like a well-deserved reward rather than a slothful necessity. I spent last night in Berkeley, and got up fairly early this morning to finish packing up and tiding up around the house. I had a quick lunch in Berkeley, then came to the evil city (now my residence) to continue unpacking.

The unpacking is going pretty well, as evidenced by the fact that I've made my bed and can sit on my loveseat. There's still a ton to do, but I'm feeling confident that I'll get it all into some semblance of order by next week, even if I am spending three days at the Romance Writers of America conference later this week. However, I keep being reminded that I have too much stuff -- for instance, does any single girl really need thirty coffee mugs? I didn't *plan* to get thirty coffee mugs -- much of the blame lies with the fact that my Corelle dishes were sold in a set w/four plates, saucers, bowls, and mugs, and between my own purchases and Christmas presents from my family, I have service for sixteen. Granted, service for sixteen is probably also excessive, but the pattern was discontinued and so I was encouraged to stock up. Between the coffee mugs, the many Crate and Barrel red swirl glasses (some of which I got for Christmas sometime), and the plastic outdoors-appropriate glasses that I got at an end-of-summer clearance sale, I have enough drinkware alone to last over a month without doing dishes (not that I ever do that, since they would get pretty gross if I did). And that doesn't even get into the issue of cooking utensils, or baking dishes, or small electrics (blender + immersion blender + food chopper + waffle iron + crock pot + toaster + some other things that I've likely forgotten because I haven't unpacked them yet). Oh well, I like my stuff and I'm not going to complain that I have it -- I just need to refrain from adding to it.

I took a shower around 5:30 and then drove down to the glorious peninsula to run a couple of errands before meeting up with Claudia and Adit for dinner/coffee at Cafe Borrone. It was excellent to see both of them, and also entertaining to note how quickly the Adit-flavored dialect changes, just like any other organic language -- Claude had no idea what was going on when he and I both started staying 'ssssssss....anyway', which surprised both of us since neither of us realized that 'ssssssss....anyway' started sometime after Claude left for Yale last August. Ssssssss....anyway. We chatted for some time about our respective lives while watching the counter to see if Adit could score a free frosty mocha (he couldn't, which was devastating). Hopefully we'll get a chance to hang out again before Claude goes back to the beast coast next week, although my romance writers' thing is going to take up most of the weekend.

Okay, no more blogging...I need to get up tomorrow and continue the unpacking push if I'm going to have a place to watch the Olympics. They're only 10 days away!!!!!