way down yonder on the chattahoochee

Today was excellent, although I hit my traditional Friday afternoon slump and had difficulty rousing myself from it to the point that I could enjoy the evening like a normal twenty-seven-year-old. Work itself was pleasant enough, capped off by having cake in a conference room for Natasha's birthday. Because of the people she works with, the ten people in the room were a weird mix of the top directors of the department, me, Terry, Joy, a couple of others, and her boyfriend Chris (who is also my friend from my time in Hyderabad). It was entertaining, of course, but nowhere near as entertaining as the evening festivities.

Terry and I left around six to have dinner at Fiesta del Mar; it became clear that my energy was dropping precipitously, so we also stopped at a Starbucks and got me some caffeine. Then, we progressed to Natasha's chosen venue for her birthday party -- the Saddle Rack in Fremont. It's a country-western bar that offers line dancing lessons if you get there early enough (which we did, although I did not participate in the lesson), and the band they had tonight was pretty good. I mostly hung out and watched the dancing while drinking a Smirnoff Ice (I haven't had one of those in ages), but I did dance for a bit towards the end. The people watching was *excellent*, though; the number of fully bedazzled belts alone was enough to keep me entertained for much of the evening.

Now, though, I really must go to bed -- I intend to make substantial progress on the book this weekend, so sleep is a necessity. Goodnight!