down to business

Today was my last day of freedom. I spent it in a v. laid-back way -- I woke up around nine, and spent most of the day attempting to organize the unorganized stuff in the apartment. I also talked to my parents, who were lovely, as usual, and set up my television in anticipation of needing the mind-numbing, pacifying stream of visual content when I start working in earnest.

Around 6:30, I met up with Adit and Katrina for some much-beloved family time. The dinner was originally planned in honor of three departures (Claude, Sri, and Chandlord) and one birthday (Fauxneil), but amusingly enough, none of the guests of honor could ever make it to a dinner. So Adit, Katrina and I went without them, although we did have an empty chair to which we could toast. We went to some restaurant called Beretta SF -- it's Italian, reasonably tasty, but in my opinion rather overpriced. When we got there, they told us that the wait for a table would be an hour, but about ten minutes later they offered to seat us in the basement. Adit asked if we could see the table before committing, and I have to admit that it was initially a little absurd -- there were absolutely no other guests in the basement, which had a rather dungeon-y feel. But I love absurdity and Adit was hungry, so we ended up taking the table, and the basement slowly filled up as the night progressed. The food was actually pretty good; we had some bruschetta-type thing with fava beans and cheese, and my entree was a mushroom and wine risotto, v. similar to the risotto that my parents despised when I made it for them. We also split a nice bottle of red wine. But the bill came out to ~$35/person, which seemed a little high; luckily, Adit owed me money from Chris's wedding weekend, so it felt like it was free for me, but I don't think I'll go back anytime soon.

Despite that, family time was quite nice, and I'm looking forward to exploring more city of sin restaurants in the future. But now, I really should go to bed, since I have to get up early tomorrow, make myself presentable, and venture down to the south bay and my reentry into the working world.

I don't know how exactly I feel about this. On the one hand, I got the job that I asked for, and my 'career' looks like it's moving in the right direction; I get to manage two team leads, which will be an interesting challenge. But on the other hand, I haven't had to think about 'challenges' and 'opportunities' and all that corporate-speak stuff in six months. And after the romance conference, all I really want to do is write. And really, I'm great at being unemployed -- I didn't get bored or tired of not working, even though I spent most of the time watching CSI reruns in Iowa.

I must say, though, that I feel satisfied with my break; while I didn't finish the final final draft or go to Siberia, I did accomplish much of what I set out to do. In particular, I finished the first draft and I got to go to England and Scotland, which was incredible. So at least I'm going back to work knowing that I accomplished what I set out to do and enjoyed myself while I was doing it. Now I just need to make sure that the passion that I feel for writing and revising doesn't get lost in the grind of corporate America, while also making sure that I'm contributing enough at work that I feel like I'm still a valuable member of society. And I also need to make sure that I get my beauty sleep so that I don't show up tomorrow morning looking like a hag; I want to preserve my relaxed glow for as long as possible, even if I probably don't look that relaxed since I spent the last few weeks living out of other peoples' houses, moving, and attending conferences. The next time I blog, I'll be getting paid! Yay!