You know, I might actually have the self-driven work ethic to make it through a humanities Ph.D. Unfortunately, I think I'm several years past the stage where I think that's a good idea, considering that I like to do crazy and expensive things like eat, wear newish clothes, and turn the heater on.
But fortunately, this adult-like work ethic is helping me make progress with zee romance career. I spent the day working on general Regency-era research; I have a bunch of notes in notebooks, in Microsoft OneNote, and tagged in a variety of books, but this system will not work if I intend to write multiple books over the course of a few decades. So, I downloaded a trial of Access and started playing around with creating a research database. I'm still not sure if this is quite the route that I want to go -- but with the database and with the neatly-organized paper files of the stuff that I picked up in Britain, I feel like I'm on the right track.
I basically worked from around 10am until 6pm, with a quick break to run down the street to Staples to pick up some more file folders (that was easy!). I also got a coffee at Peet's and was pleasantly surprised when the guy at the counter remembered my name, since yesterday was the only time I had been there before. The only other break was to make some mini pizzas using an English muffin for the crust -- delicious!
However, it was nowhere near as delicious as dinner. Claudia, John, Jess and I met for tapas in Menlo Park. We were supposed to go to Evvia in Palo Alto, but weren't able to get a table, and Claude and I suggested tapas instead. In general, I don't know that I'm actually a fan of tapas -- but these are quite possibly the best tapas ever, and the restaurant is lovely even if the service is slower than anywhere else. We of course had the to-die-for deviled dates, as well as the spinach and garbanzo beans, the chorizo and cheese toasts, the patatas bravas, and the little meatballs. We also got two new things -- anchovies (v. salty), and some scallops in squid ink (the squid ink was also salty, but I thought it was an interesting a delicious complement to the scallops). Mmmmm.
Beyond the food, the company was good too :) We spent some significant time catching up before progressing into some light reminiscing, which we commenced while having coffee and dessert across the train tracks at Cafe Borrone. If my normal cycle happens, tonight was v. close to the end of my social butterfly phase, and it's time for me to crash straight into hermit mode. But tonight was excellent, so if I am going to revert to my isolated, tortured-artist ways, I might as well go out on a high note, right?
I suppose I should go to bed; I want to keep slogging away with either the research, the query letters, or book #2 tomorrow, and I believe Sri might spend the night tomorrow as well, so I can't sleep in like I used to. Goodnight!
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