everybody ends up here in bottles

Ritu Rani left today, and my life is emptier as a result. Luckily, I got to spend much of the day with her before that happened; we both woke up around 8:30, then hung out in the apartment while she packed and I attempted to clean up. I spent some quality time taking a few final things to my overcrowded storage unit, then came back and took Ritu over to Park Chow for brunch. We had a lovely brunch on the second-floor patio, before coming back home and loading her stuff into my car. We parted ways v. teary-eyed at SFO (actually, I was only teary-eyed because I had something in my eye, but I think it made her feel loved).

When I got home, I mourned her passing by talking to my parents and doing two loads of laundry. Then, I wrote for a bit, ate some pizza, and finished tidying up around the place. Adit came home around 9:30 with his friend Vivian in tow; it's nice that we have a new houseguest to replace Ritu, even if it's only for one night. So, we spent the last hour discussing the world. But while I would love to stay up and watch Entourage with Adit, I think I should probably go to bed -- I have to be at work at 8am, which means I need to leave around seven, which means I need to sleep. And after this incredibly boring blog post, I can't blame you if you want to sleep too. Goodnight!

it better be nothing but all that i want

I feel that perhaps I should explain exactly what went down last night for posterity, now that I am sober and fully recovered. Unless you are truly naive, you likely guessed that I had been drinking when I wrote the post; in fact, Vidya wrote half of it, which is the first time that someone else has guest blogged with me. Last night was truly fun, and I'm glad that I went out and escaped the heat of the apartment for a couple of hours. However, since Poc Chuc is BYOB, it's esay to drink too much -- the eight of us who went to the restaurant brought two bottles of wine and two packs of beer, which was enough to get me buzzing. That was on top of the cocktail that I had at Elixir before dinner -- the bartender dissuaded me from getting my usual cosmo, instead making me a lemon/cucumber martini that was deliciously refreshing in the sweltering heat. And then, after Poc Chuc, Adit, Vidya, Ritu and I continued the party at Rite Spot, where we hung out with the bartender while drinking pink ladies. As briefly mentioned in last night's post, there was a creepy dude near us at the bar, and it turns out that he was masturbating while watching us; the bartender kicked him out, and then we drank milky ouzo shots in his honor. I realized that I hated ouzo due to my dislike of licorice, so the bartender swapped it for goldschlager instead, and all was well.

When we got home (after a long search for a cab), we ate pizza and tormented each other before going to bed. I slept for less than six hours, but got up at 8ish because it was already too hot in my room and Vidya needed a ride to her apartment. I didn't drop her off straightaway; instead, we had a quick brunch at La Boulange. Food was likely very much needed by my poor abused body, and it was nice to hang out with Vidya sober, since when she showed up to the restaurant last night I was already too close to blitzed to really be able to catch up with her. Then, I dropped her off, came home, and spent some quality time twelve inches away from the fan that I rescued from Vidya's and brought over here.

I finally summoned the energy to take a (cold on purpose) shower, then walked over to Samovar on 18th and Sanchez. It was cooler outside than it was in my apartment, so it was a welcome walk; once at the tea place, I didn't actually start writing, but I think I figured out how to fix a plothole, which is critical to being able to move forward anyway. I came home with the intention of taking a quick nap, and inadvertently slept for two hours before picking Ritu up at the hospital at the end of her shift. Then, I miraculously cleaned my desk -- with the desk cleaned off, it almost doesn't look like I'm living in a space that is way too small for my acquisitive nature.

While it would be nice to stay up and continue to embrace productivity, I think it's really time for bed -- the writing must start tomorrow, or I will be v. disappointed in myself. Goodnight!

the humpty dance is your chance to do the hump

Today was fabulous. Actually, the day was not fabulous...but the evening more than made up for it. I worked like it ain't no thang, then drove back to the evil city so that I could see Ritu Rani. I hung out with her and Aditya at Coffee Bar, where it was like 100 degrees...this is way too hot for the cit-ay, but apparently that's the way it's going to be this weekend.

Aaaaaanyway, we came home and had a bit of a debacle making dinner plans because it was too hot to think, but we ended up meeting Ritu's friends + Vidya at Poc Chuc, this Mayan restaurant that sounds like a Vietnamese joint. It took awhile to get food, but because it was BYOB, I didn't seem to mind that much. Besides that, Ritu's friend Josh told some entertaining stories about a piece of feces coming out of a woman's vagina. He also spoke rather calmly about getting chased around a Tanzanian village by a bunch of al Qaeda terrorists wielding machetes...and more importantly his witnessing of a turkey killing a goat, which seemed even more implausible than his ability to punch out a Tanzanian mother fucker.

Vidya, Ritu, Adit, and I continued the evening after separating from Ritu's friends at a bar called 'The Rite Spot'. Adit knew the bartender pretty well and so we were able to get some personal attention on our drinks. Needless to say, we had a good time not only drinking her concoctions, but also performing free tastings of Goldschlager. After this, and watching a stranger masturbate to the image of Ritu being herself, we walked to another bar, but realized we were too tired to try staying out any longer. Now we're back at home (Vidya too) and about to eat some delicious pizzas. On an unrelated note, Adit is wearing his penguin pajamas with one leg rolled up..."badass".

Goodnight!

i push the trigger and i pull the thread

I think I've been in a bit of a funk since the sales conference ended. Of course, it didn't help that my car window got smashed, but all in all, I'm having trouble getting back into my normal routine and feeling like I'm accomplishing anything. Everything is sort of in a holding pattern -- I'm not yet reengaged with my regular job, I'm waiting endlessly to hear back from editors, and I'm too tired to get back into writing my second book. Add to that the fact that the parking situation tonight was difficult and the express line at Safeway was 10+ minutes, and I'm feeling just a little bit surly.

I need to pull myself out of it this weekend, though -- Madeleine and Ferguson await even if it kills me. I also want to finally put the remnants of my stuff in storage and get my desk cleaned off; Adit deserves better than to live with my stuff randomly tucked away throughout the apartment. But before I can get to the weekend, I have to survive tomorrow first...so I suppose I should go to bed.

stand your ground and ring the bells of freedom

This is a four-minute post. I was a couple of minutes late to my eight a.m. meeting, which was supposed to be a champagne toast in honor of a recent launch. The champagne happened, but then it devolved into twenty minutes of every single person on the multi-office videoconference introducing themselves. That's like 130+ people. Particularly at 8am, and particularly for my efficiency-loving soul, this was like being stabbed repeatedly in the face.

But, the day improved from there; I had some meetings, and got to mentor some people (my favorite!), but in general it was fairly laid-back. I left a little after six, had a completely unhealthy dinner at Baja Fresh, and then came home and read a section of the first draft of my latest romance novel. I'm trying to get back into it so that I can write this weekend. But if writing is going to happen, I need to be much more well-rested than I am; I clearly require 8-9 hours of sleep per night in order to function, and given that I have an 8am tomorrow as well, it will be difficult for me to catch up. But since Adit and Ritu are both out right now, I'm going to seize the opportunity to embrace my inner hermit and go to bed at 9:30. Four minutes are up -- goodnight!

it isn't black or white, and it's anything but grey

This is a four minute post. I felt fairly ineffective at work today, mostly because I got there at 7:30am and so was somewhat sleepy the rest of the day; I also have yet to get truly reimmersed in my normal job, and so I have less to do (even though I expect that to change in the coming days). I'm basically just adhering to my old maxim, which is that if you have a rare moment of down time, you should take advantage of it, since the busy times will return all too soon. But, I had a good conversation over videoconference with Heather (aka dear respected madam, of "Heather and Salim" fame, who was with me in India), and I managed to get out around five p.m. to make a quick but v. necessary trip to Target.

After Target, I met up with Tolu, Lizzie and Jane for sushi in Mountain View. It was our every-sixth-week friendship renewal dinner, but it has been three months since the last one since I was in DC for the most recent renewal dinner. It's hard to believe that it's been less than six weeks since the Golden Heart thing -- it simultaneously feels like it just happened or that it happened an eternity ago. It's been such a crazy and hectic summer that I'm looking forward to getting resettled so that I can start working on book two again.

But right now, I'm going to go to bed absurdly early -- I want to take advantage of the fact that my roommates are both gone to get to sleep before Ritu returns so that I don't get sucked into staying up late. Goodnight!

i know you've been waiting but i've been off making babies

This is a four-minute post. The title has nothing to do with my real life, but I was forced to listen to Gwen Stefani today because my ipod was stolen and I have few cds in my car. My day was marginal; luckily, I was able to find someone to fix my window this afternoon, so I ended up going into work. I did what I needed to get done, they fixed my window around four p.m., and then I got my oil changed. I went to the mall for a bit and browsed around Nordstrom and Crate and Barrel -- it's an indication of just how many possessions I already have that I browsed around at both places and didn't find anything that I needed or even wanted.

After the mall, I picked up Ritu Rani at Stanford and took her to Mountain View, where we had dinner at King of Krung Siam. Then, we picked up Adit and we all went home together, and now I'm going to go to bed; I have to be at work at 7:30 tomorrow morning, which is depressing. Here's hoping that things get better -- I'm in a bit of a funk due to the car, the lingering aftermath of the conference, and the nailbiting wait for news about my book, so I hope that tomorrow brings some good news!

smash and grab

My day started out quite nicely; I slept for 10+ hours, and then spent a couple of hours hanging out with Ritu, Roopa and some other dude who stayed over at our place. I decided to go out and enjoy the afternoon, and so I took the muni to Union Square and had a late lunch at Samovar. Amusingly, the waiter asked me if Tammy and Shedletsky, who went with me a few weeks ago, were my parents -- I really don't know how he could have mistaken them for my parents, but it made me laugh. Then, I went to Container Store and picked up a couple of tings, came home, and talked to my parents.

However, it went downhill after that -- I decided to take some stuff to storage, but when I went downstairs to my car, I discovered that someone had, in broad daylight, smashed my passenger side front window and stolen my ipod and phone charger. My iPod was out of sight in the center console, so I'm not sure why they picked my car -- maybe the person was a disaffected, unemployed Cal student who hated my Stanford license plate holder. Anyway, a neighbor loaned me a broom so that I could sweep out some of the glass, and then I filed the police report, called my insurance, and called my bank to cancel my bank account (since they also stole my spare checkbook). When Adit came home, he insisted on going with me to Vidya's so that I could leave my car there (luckily the doorman was my favorite one and let me park there with no questions asked), and so at least my car is safe underground until tomorrow.

That pretty much ruined my evening, although I'm not as upset as one might think -- there's really nothing I can do about it, so whatever. Now we're watching a recording of this morning's "Meet the Press", where they just asked a question referencing the eighth anniversary of 9/11 -- which reminds me that I'm going to be 28 in just a few weeks. Sigh. I think it's time for bed; let's hope that tomorrow brings better news!

is this in my head, i don't know what to think

I had a fabulously relaxing day, with barely a hangover to mar it. Of course, I did have to deal with the aftermath of last night's family time; Ritu, Adit and I cleaned the apartment for almost two hours while bickering with each other, but the end result is that the place is cleaner than it was before anyone arrived last night. Doing the dishes for a dinner party of seven without a dishwasher or a full-size sink is a challenge, but we persevered, and so by noon we could all go our merry ways without dreading the return to a dirty apartment.

Adit had a wedding this weekend, and so he's gone for the night; Ritu worked from 2-10pm, came home briefly at 11:30pm, cajoled me to go out, and ultimately left defeated by my hermitage. I decided to wholly give myself over to relaxation; the biggest event of the day was that I got a massage and a facial, which took two and a half hours and left me feeling utterly relaxed. It started off somewhat annoyingly; I thought the spa was a block away, but they closed that branch and call-forwarded the number to their other place in a different neighborhood and didn't clarify the location when I booked my appointment. So, I had to grab a taxi and quickly make it to the other place; happily, they gave me a bottle of lotion as an apology, and the facial was one of the best I've ever had, so I will likely go back despite everything. When that was done, I came home and read the rest of the day, pausing to eat some takeout sushi (verdict: when I want sushi, I should really go pick it up myself from a better restaurant; and if I feel like being lazy and doing delivery, I should pick someplace that is known as a good delivery place). Now, I'm going to go to bed; I intend to spend some quality time tomorrow getting my room in order, and so sleeping now is a smart idea. Goodnight!

let's make love and listen to death from above

Work was inconsequential today. What I really want to discuss is family time. I came home around five and began prepping for family time dinner -- I made a lemon cake, caprese salad, and truffle butter pasta. Ritu came home around 6:30, and we waited for our friends to arrive; technically dinner was supposed to start at 8pm, but we watched "Bring It On" and eventually our friends arrived between 8:30 and 9:30pm.

Eventually we reached quorum -- me, Ritu, Adit, John, Jessica, Oniel, and Stephanie. We had a perfectly lovely family time, replete with talking, laughing, music (include "All the Way up to Heaven" twice), eating, and watching "research" videos of copulation on MRI. We ended it all with a candle ceremony for Ritu and Steph - the candle ceremony started when Claude left for the east coast, and Oniel requested it for Ritu Rani tonight. So, we all sat in a circle, lit our candles, then went around and said nice things about Ritu and Steph one by one before blowing our candles out. It was all v. ridiculous and lovely at the same time, and a perfect conclusion to family time. The east bay-ers all went back to the pit of despair that they live in, and Adit, Ritu, Steph and I went to a bar nearby, where we proceeded to make the tragic mistake of drinking more. Now we're all drunk, and I should really go to bed -- I intend to spend the entire weekend doing as little as possible, hopefully only opening my laptop to write blog entries. Goodnight!

i got my swim trunks and my flippy-floppies

It's over! And, I'm pleased to report that it went awesomely well -- there were no disasters, no even minor fires, and many people told me that this was the best sales conference they had attended in several years. Perhaps they were just being nice -- but I go by the rule that people may lie to you and claim they liked something, but they usually don't go to the extreme of effusive praise if they didn't really enjoy it, so I want to believe them.

However, as a result of all of this, I'm totally utterly exhausted. I only slept six hours last night (and those were not the best six hours of sleep I could have had), then had to get up, pack, check out, schlep my stuff to my car, and make it to the conference ballroom by 7;45 to do last-minute checks, rehearsals, etc. before everything started at 8:15. The content continued until six p.m., with a couple of short breaks and 45 minutes for lunch, and so there really wasn't much downtime. But, I'm so happy that it went off well, and I felt appropriately recognized for my efforts even if that recognition was all verbal and not in the form of cold hard cash. The verbal was good, though, and came from a lot of people whom I really respect, so it was all excellent.

Now, though, I'm going to go to bed. I went to the bar with the management team after the event concluded, and spent a couple of hours unwinding there, but sleep is really more important than anything else right now. I'm going into the office tomorrow for my performance review, but I fully intend to leave early so that I can come home and make family time dinner for my friends. Please welcome me back to real life -- hopefully things will be a bit more balanced in the days and weeks ahead!

for this one night

Yeah, so as was clearly apparent from last night's post, I had a good time with my team yesterday. Too good, perhaps, and I paid for it this morning, but it was worth it nonetheless. I didn't drink at all tonight, though; since I'm running the show tomorrow, drinking tonight would have been a terrible idea.

Things are going well so far -- other than the email I just got throwing a major snag in tomorrow's timings, I think things seem to be on track. And, the content today was fun -- I do love these conferences, even if this one is slightly less magical for me because I saw the bits that go into the sausage, so to speak.

Okay, that's all you get tonight -- brevity is my friend right now. By this time tomorrow, it will all be over!

i'm sorry miss jackson, i am for real

Uh, I'm apparently too drunk to blog tonight. Best of all, I was the one who sent the "don't be 'that guy'" email to my team, so I'm a totally hypocrite. I chalk it up to being a good team player, and I will leave it at that. Things with the conference are going well, and I'm confident that they will continue to go well, so goodnight!

and i said "romeo save me, i've been feeling so alone"

I think it's time for bed -- I certainly didn't get enough sleep last night, and sleeping tonight would be a v. nice thing to do before I have to slog through tomorrow in anticipation of the conference. But, my bed is not my bed at home; instead, I checked into the conference hotel a couple of days earlier than the vast majority of my team, which is nice since I have early meetings in the hotel tomorrow morning to rehearse/prep. Even better, they gave me a suite on the 37th floor, replete with a gift basket of wine, cheese, and salami -- not the penthouse that my friend Natasha apparently got, but a totally excellent room with (two sitting areas and a desk) nonetheless. Apparently planning the conference is good for something, even if it has totally wrecked me.

Anyway, today was fine; my meetings down south in the morning went well, and then I had a last lunch with John before his internship finishes this week. I grabbed Natasha, Maeve and a bunch of stuff that needed to come up here and drove to the city around 1pm, where we spent an hour or so touring the venue and understanding the setup. I had another call w/the head boss later this afternoon, then did some work, and finally had dinner with Chris and Natasha. I quickly went home from there to pack up some clothes, since I hadn't intended to stay here tonight and so didn't bring stuff with me, and now I'm settled in for the night. Wish me luck tomorrow -- while the hardest part (in the form of the master slideshow for the four-hour Thursday morning event) is done, I still have much to do before I can fully relax. Goodnight!

can't you see what you've done to my heart and soul

This is a four-minute post. I had a fabulous first part of the day -- I slept for almost ten hours, woke up, messed around, and then took the lovely Ritu Rani to Samovar for brunch. She wanted to see the place that I adore so much, and I was more than happy to take her; we met up with Vidya and a couple of Ritu's friends, and were fortunate enough to get the couches on the patio overlooking Yerba Buena Gardens. We spent a couple of hours there enjoying the food, the tea, and the views, even if Adit told us that we were fools for going there rather than going someplace cheaper/cooler. Adit can suck it -- I adore Samovar, and if I ever find myself broke, I will likely forego medicine or other basic necessities in order to have a masala chai every few weeks.

However, things quickly went downhill after that. After parting ways with Ritu and Vidya at 2:30, I worked from then until now (12:15am), with an hour to talk to my parents and half an hour to walk over to Philz Coffee for an aromatic arabic coffee. Now, Ritu, Adit and I are arguing about the shower, which is quite entertaining, and would be even moreso if I didn't know that I had to get up in five point five hours. Goodnight!

we'll do anything when the time's right

I should have been more productive today than I was, but my brain is lightly fried and I just wasn't in the mood to get through as much as I should have. Instead, I slept in, then made the mistake of sitting down in front of the TV with Ritu...where we ended up watching 2+ hours of "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End". I didn't realize how much of the movie was left at the point where we started watching, and despite the fact that I saw it in the theatre and thought it was ridiculous, I still couldn't pull myself away. Then, I met up with Adit and Peder (aka Timmy Timer) at a cafe, where I ate a delicious portobello mushroom sandwich while we discussed startup ideas. I should have worked after that, and I did cross a couple of things off my to-do list, but it was by no means scorching productivity.

I did successfully run a couple of personal errands, putting some empty boxes in storage and picking up a prescription at the pharmacy in my old neighborhood before returning to my apartment. I did a bit more work here, and then threw in the towel for awhile to read part of a romance novel on my Kindle. Adit had dinner plans for the evening that I had no wish to crash, and so I ran over to Safeway, picked up some tomato soup and some bread and cheese, and made myself soup and grilled cheese for dinner. It was stellar -- with the tomato/basil bisque and the sharp cheddar instead of the Kraft singles, it was like a slightly more upscale twist on one of my favorite childhood meals. I also took time to clean out the fridge -- Adit's former roommate apparently had the same concept of food expiration dates as my crazy Gram Holder, since there were multiple things in the fridge that had expired in 2007. But, it's all clean now, which means I'm more likely to buy food since I'm no longer worrying about it spontaneously molding upon arrival in the fridge of doom.

Even though it's only eleven, I think I'm going to go to bed -- my hours have shifted dramatically since moving in with Adit and Ritu, and I could really use the sleep if I'm going to be as productive as possible tomorrow. Goodnight!

the mammal team

I'm rather tired tonight, and I intend to work all weekend, but today was salvaged by my roommate situation. I made it to work by 8:15, slogged throughout the day, and generally was not in a good place when I left the office. Things are actually going well for the conference, and the head of my department (who I'm planning the conference for) offered to buy me a pony after this is all over -- but there is so much left to do before it all happens, and unfortunately most of it needs to happen this weekend. The good news is that I likely won't have as much hardcore thinking to do next week -- instead, it will be errands and last-minute fires, rather than slides and talking points and scripts and agendas. It's just hard to remember that I really do want to do everything *now*, when really I would much rather just have fun and/or go to bed.

So after work, I decided to go to Philz Coffee and read for a bit from my Kindle before making the trek back to the evil city. This was a good call -- I beat traffic, and I was in a much better/calmer/more grounded place after immersing myself in a book for awhile. I grabbed a sandwich at Quiznos after I finished the book, and recopied my to-do list with the twenty or so things that I added today -- while confronting my to-do list wasn't fun, at least I now feel like I know what I need to accomplish.

When I got home, I spent half an hour unpacking my printer and cleaning off my desk. Then, I worked from 9pm - 11:15pm, plowing through a couple hundred emails and adding more things to my to-do list. Adit was working as well, which means Ritu felt compelled to work, so we had v. productive family time. They were going to a party tonight, which I had no interest in since I'm so desperate for sleep. But, I did accompany them to Home, which is a restaurant around the corner from our apartment. We had a very late (11:30pm) dinner there, which was quite lovely despite the weirdness -- I stupidly ordered the corn chowder AND the cornbread (verdict: cornbread was better), we all split a bottle of wine despite my father's concern that Adit is leading me down a bad path to alcoholism, and then we occasionally noticed the show selling sex toys quietly playing above the bar. All in all, it was v. fun, but I held true to my resolve to not go out any later than now.

Sleep is very much needed now, so I'm going to sign off abruptly. Goodnight!

swamp thing

This is a four minute post. I had one of the most annoying days at work in recent memory, full of meetings that kept getting rescheduled, people who flaked on me, and a variety of other hassles and annoyances, followed by a commute that was ravaged by an accident on the Bay Bridge that backed up the approach to the evil city for miles and miles. So, I called my parents to vent for a bit -- I usually am quite self-sufficient, but in this case I decided to talk to someone before a) I went off the deep end or b) I fell asleep while sitting in traffic. So, talking to them was quite nice, even if no one can solve my current dilemmas but myself.

After I got home, I laid on the couch and talked to Ritu Rani for awhile before she went out for dinner. I finally stopped procrastinating and got to work, playing with PowerPoint, email, and other fun tings for the past four hours. Adit is also working in the living room, so at least I have had company in my misery, but family time ends now. Alas, I really must go to bed -- I will be a happier camper tomorrow if I get some sleep now and get up in time to put myself together better than I did today, so sleep is vital. Goodnight!

para bailar la bamba

This is a four-minute post. I'm in serious crunch-mode for the sales conference -- my only break was the drive home, during which Adit and I rode home together because apparently our landlord broke into our apartment and changed the lock on us, so we had to rendezvous with Ritu to pick up the new keys that she made for us. Amazingly, she made us special keys -- mine has flowers on it, while Adit's has flames on it! Then, when we got home, we both worked from 8pm until now, taking a brief break at 11pm to eat frozen pizza. Ridiculous.

However, I think things are coming together, hopefully. It will be a lot of work the rest of the week and all next week, but things could be worse. Now, though, I really must go to bed -- I have to be back at work by 8am tomorrow morning, so going to bed is key. Goodnight!

poseidon look at me

This is a four minute post. I had a good day at work -- since I worked out of the city today, I actually woke up at seven-thirty and worked at home until almost nine-thirty before heading over to the office. Once there, I got shit done all day, and then took off a little before six p.m. to have dinner with Pete, Heather and Lisa. Lisa's leaving for the east coast soon, and so we made impromptu plans to get together and have dinner before her departure. We ended up going to Tadich's, which is apparently the oldest restaurant in SF, originally started in a tent by three Croatian immigrants during the gold rush. Amusingly, all four of us ordered the same thing -- their seafood cioppino, which was absolutely fantastic. I loved catching up with them, but I was ready to leave when we left, since I needed to stand up and try to walk off the feeling of incredible fullness. It didn't work, and so I've stayed uncomfortably full while doing some work at home. But even though I should probably keep working, I'm going to go to bed -- I think I'll be more productive if I get some sleep and try again in the mroning, so that's the plan. Goodnight!

were you born to resist or be abused

I had a reasonably excellent day at work. I think that things are really coming together with the conference that I'm planning, and the end is in sight even if there are a million little things that I need to take care of in the meantime. The next few days are going to be brutal, but I think I will be v. pleased with the results.

Of course, work was improved somewhat by the lunch I had with John -- his internship is already drawing to a close, which is hard to believe. We went to the Mexican cafe on campus, which was totally delicious, and it was good as always to take a break from my regularly scheduled series of meetings to have lunch with someone who knew me well before any of this ever cam about. I was slightly late getting back to my next meeting because I underestimated the increased travel time caused by my three-inch fuchsia heels, but all was forgiven -- and the shoes ensured that I looked like a polished young professional for the conference-related meeting that I had with our VP this afternoon, so that was good.

After work, I went to Palo Alto to pick up my dry cleaning and get a coffee at Philz -- I'm quickly becoming a regular at that place, even though it adds a good twenty minutes to my drive home, simply because I'm always down for caffeine and this caffeine in particular is delicious. I thought that I would have the apartment to myself, but Ritu stayed home sick from zee hospital; so, when she wasn't busy being sick, we sat around and discussed health care reform while eating a frozen pizza (CPK garlic chicken, my fave). Eventually, the conversation tapered off as we both realized how much work we had to do, so I worked from ~9pm until now. But, tomorrow I get to sleep in slightly because I'm working out of the SF office, so that's awesome. Goodnight!

can you take me higher?

All things considered, today was a great day. Given my activities last night (which involved an unfortunate mixing of various alcohol types, such as a mojito and shots of Jagermeister, followed by half a bottle of red wine), I really deserved to feel worse this morning than I did. I'm sure that my hangover was somewhat staved off by the donut and the pizza that Adit, Vidya and I sought out at three a.m., as well as the bottle of Vitamin Water and ibuprofen that I took when I woke up at six a.m. So, when I got out of bed at eleven, I felt almost normal -- and yet still felt the need to sit on the couch for a couple of hours and watch "Mamma Mia!" before dragging myself to the shower and then out to get some work done.

By the way, for those of you who were confused by my last post, what happened was that I went out with Adit to Tom, Julie, and Rat's housewarming party. We had sushi first at this great, tiny sushi place near our apartment -- apparently there's lots of great sushi in this neighborhood, which I'm totally excited about. Then, when we got to the party, things started of slow, partially because they were so far ahead of us that they were almost out of alcohol and would be impossible to catch up with anyway. But, we made a valiant effort, to the point that I eventually sat on the couch for awhile and blew the same conch shell that had irritated me when I was sober hours earlier. It turns out that a lip position (embouchure) similar to what is require to play the flute is effective for blowing a conch shell, so I was like a conch shell savant compared to some of the other attendees. Vidya met up with us there quite late, and we hung out for a bit longer before going in search of food and then bed. It was really fun, even though I can't have that kind of fun very often or I will turn into one of those alcoholic writers that everyone hears about.

Anyway, today I worked at a cafe for a couple of hours, then came home, dragged Ritu to Safeway, and got the couple of ingredients I was missing so that we could make dinner with Vidya. Vidya came over, and we made a salad (mostly for decorative purposes), cut up a watermelon, and made pasta with truffle butter. The pasta was excellent, and it's so easy to make that it's going to become my (decadent) standby for last-minute entertaining, as long as I keep the main ingredients on hand. Adit came home and finished everything off, I talked to my parents to assure them that I (and my liver) survived last night, and then Adit, Ritu and I had family time for the past few hours while we all worked and I did some laundry. Quite fortunately, we watched parts of "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" AND "The Day After Tomorrow", interrupted only by an unfortunate interlude in which Adit played my least favorite song. But now, family time is over -- I really need to go to bed so that I can go into work early and get some stuff done. I hope everyone had as lovely a weekend as I did!

i'm trippin' i'm caught up in the moment right

I can barely keep my eyes open, due to a variety of calamitous issues that are making my eyes heavy and my fingers unableto reconize and respond to typos. I would normally be quite careful about this, but i am going to type with my eyes closed in an effort to see how well I do when i'm both blind and impaired.

Today was the kind of day that people seem to have all the time in zee city, butthat I usually don't allow myself to have because I'm so caught up in all the drama of work, book, etc. I woek up at 10am and had a lovely morning with Adit and Ritu, sitting around the apartment adn doing virtually nothing. Ultimately I ended up at brunch wit Ritu and her friend Stephanie, at a dim sum restaurant in the Inner Sunset, and I have to admitt that it gives the Hong Kong Flower Alounge a run for its money. If nothing else, the server was dressed in a traditional outift, but hte outfit was slit to the thigh...

...actually I'm going to cut this off. Adit recommended that I end this by saying "I'm on a boat", and I think tha'ts baterre thant me continuing to try to type this. I'm going to bed -= goodnight firends!

bigger is better...

...said Ritu to the sommelier at the winebar that we went to tonight. This was a completely ridiculous statement to make, which is why I love her as much as I do. For the curious amongst you, the result was a shiraz from southern Australia which, while good, reminded me that I am not as fond of shiraz as one might think.

But, I begin my discourse too late in the day. The day really started with my arrival at the office at eight a.m. (technically it started an hour and a half before that, but given my sleep-deprived state, I do not remember the drive to work as sharply as one might wish). Through some judicious pruning of my schedule, I had almost four hours at my desk today -- a small miracle, given my normal calendar. I made good use of the time, even though nothing I could do today could get me fully caught up on everything that I must get done this weekend.

I successfully escaped the office at 5:30pm and met up with Terry and Natasha to see "Julie and Julia". I will blog about the movie more tomorrow, but the short take is that I adore Meryl Streep, I always wanted to be Julia Child, and now I just want to play in the kitchen and make my delicious boeuf bourguignon. I parted ways with them at eight p.m. so that I could make my way back to the evil city, where I had every intention of crawling into bed.

But, I just barely miscalculated my return, and found Adit and Ritu still in the apartment when I came home, which enabled them to successfully peer pressure me into going out. I changed abruptly (into a black corset-y dress from BCBG over grey tights and black flats -- I'm upgrading my personal style), and we caught the MUNI over to Cav wine bar. This is the wine bar where I went with Adit and Vidya on the first night of my leave of absence a year and a half ago, so I had fond memories. I mistakenly ordered the gnocchi for dinner -- the gnocchi itself was delicious, but they topped it with tomatoes, corn, and chive flowers. The tomatoes were good, but while the corn was tasty, I don't think it belongs on gnocchi -- and the chive flowers were just strange. The dish was good, but not as good as the dish I got last time I was there, so that was disappointing. However, Adit, Ritu, and Ritu's friend Stephanie ordered a cheese plate, and from what I tasted of their selections, it was all totally delicious.

I stayed firm to my convictions, however, and parted ways with them after the wine bar -- they were on their way to a party, but I'm in desperate need of sleep if I'm going to fully unpack, plan the sales conference, and work on my book this weekend. Wish me luck!

swimmers ear

My ears have that funny filled-with-water feeling. That's likely because they're filled with water -- we had a three-hour outdoor Olympics event this afternoon at work, culminating in a water balloon war for charity (water balloons and pitchers of water were available for purchase, with the proceeds going to charity), and I got completely and utterly soaked. I got doused with at least two pitchers of water, as well as taking a water balloon to the ear, which explains the strange watery sensation. I also got roped into playing tug of war (heh), and the team I was on lost dismally. But, everyone seemed to have a really good time, and it was nice to take a few hours away from the day and do something fun, even if I did feel like I was back in college (enhanced, no doubt, by the fact that I was wearing my old Loro tshirt).

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. I made it to work early but took a twenty minute nap in my car before going in, because I was so tired that I couldn't contemplate going into the building. I slogged all day, but after the Olympics I changed into dry clothes and went out for dinner with Terry (in town for the weekend), Natasha, and Chris. A good time was had by all, although I was disappointed that I failed to secure their promise to move to the Midwest in the future. Then, I drove home, did some random work, read for a bit, and am now going to bed. I took a few minutes to write down all the stuff that absolutely must get done this weekend, and it's rather crushing, so expect me to be in a ridiculous mood for the weekend as well -- but all in all, with the exception of one part of the conference, I'm feeling really good about everything else, so we'll see whether my high hopes are met. Goodnight!

whatever it takes, and how my heart breaks, i will be right here waiting for you

I had a totally ridiculous day. I made it through work, mostly fueled by awful-for-me drinks (both yesterday and today, I had both a bottle of Starbucks mocha frappuccino and a can of Mountain Dew, which is a sign of just how stressed I am). I think some of my team realized I was on the verge of snapping when they saw me strolling around in a Stanford sweatshirt, carrying a can of Mountain Dew in one hand and a hand exerciser in the other. But, I survived. I almost killed someone on the way home -- not a real someone, but more the general idea of killing held some appeal. There was a concert at the amphitheatre across the street from my office building tonight, and so it took me twenty minutes to go half a mile. Then, there were accidents on the freeway, and so it took over an hour to get home, where I had to search for parking for ten minutes. Bleh. At least I got some Philz Coffee and listened to my music full blast with the windows down, which made me feel better.

But, I picked up Ritu and went to Vidya's, where I had the grand intention of getting the rest of my stuff out of her apartment. I failed. Instead, we walked a mile to this restaurant at the top of Nob Hill, where we waited for 45 minutes for a table. It turned out to be worth it -- I had this seafood lasagna that was absolutely perfect, my wine was delicious, and we split a tiramisu and a chocolate ganache dish that were both amazing. Oh, and the company was good too, I guess.

But now I need to wake up in approximately six hours so that I can go to work, be productive, and then get pelted by water balloons in an afternoon activity with my team. Wish me luck -- and wish me more energy, since my social life is suddenly 28-going-on-18 and I'm not sure I can stay awake for it. Goodnight!

i woke up laughing

Today was excellent, despite my lack of sleep - while I had some meetings early in the morning, I spent most of the day sitting around doing filming for a video for the conference that I'm planning. That lasted from 11am to 6pm, resulting in me having a bag of Cheetos (that had been a prop) and a can of Mountain Dew for lunch. Then, I sat around for a couple of hours talking to my friend Joy, which was v. entertaining. I stopped at Chipotle on the way home because I don't have any food in my new place, and I made it back here around 9:30pm. I had wanted to do some unpacking tonight, but my work deadlines are too crushing -- so instead, I've done work stuff for the past two hours. But, Adit got home around ten p.m. and we watched "Pineapple Express" with Seth Rogen and James Franco -- it was totally awesome, although far more violent than I expected.

This is a lame post, but I'll try reposting the post that didn't go through last night so that you have more to read. Goodnight!

i made it back to cali...

...and for some reason Blogger isn't posting the nice long post I wrote you. Hopefully this will go through so you know I'm alive, and I'll post the other thing tomorrow. Goodnight!

a stranger with your doorkey

I must go to bed immediately; my flight from Denver to SFO was delayed by over forty minutes, thus making a long night even longer. Worse, the woman next to me was seriously crazy, and her antics (exhibiting swine flu symptoms, attempting to make calls on her cell midflight, using the pouch on the back of her seat as a footrest, etc.) kept me awake and annoyed. But, I read part of a romance novel and successfully mastered my desire to kill her.

Other than that flight, I had a great day. I spent the morning lazing about, packing, and having one last favorite meal (a bologna sandwich, chips, and french onion dip -- yes, I'm from the sticks). Then, the family took me up to Des Moines, where we went to a car dealership, and then had an early supper at an Italian steakhouse near the airport (verdict: delicious!!). We said our tearful goodbyes; I will either see them at Christmas or make another trip home in the meantime, but either way it's too far away. Then, I worked in the airport, on the flight to Denver, and in the Denver airport before throwing in the towel.

Now, though, it's time for sleep -- I must go to work early tomorrow to get ready for the remainder of the week. Happily, I also have social plans this week -- and I really want to get my stuff unpacked, since I now have both Adit and Ritu Rani as roommates. They stayed up for my arrival (although Adit flipped me off through the window and then promptly went to bed), and I'm predicting a month o' fun despite my crushing workload. Goodnight!

now it's turkish delight on a moonlit night

Today was an excellent, very lazy day in the heartland. I got another ten hours of sleep last night, came upstairs to check my email, and took a nap from 10-10:30am. I also took a nap from 3pm to 4:30pm, and I'm going to go to bed shortly after this, so hopefully I'll return to California somewhat refreshed and rejuvenated despite everything.

Aunt Becky and her scandalous husband (whom I delight in calling "Uncle Brian" because it seems to annoy him) came down from Des Moines, and Gram came out to join all of us for lunch. My mother made tenderloins and sweet corn, and we had angel food cake with strawberries and cool whip for dessert -- pretty much the perfect Iowa lunch, other than the fact that my brother hates pork and so was not thrilled about this development. We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging around and being lazy, although I did leave the house to get a tour of my mom's flower beds -- she's been planting and gardening like crazy, and so was disappointed when I failed to notice her flowerbeds upon arrival on Friday night (although, in my defense, I was sure that Michael had tetanus and needed to go to the hospital, so I was a bit distracted). They were very nice, though -- if I had more time here, I would take a couple of days to write on the back patio while looking out over her back garden and the fields and pond beyond. Then, we watched Big Brother and had supper (hamburgers, hot dogs, homemade macaroni and cheese, and wilted lettuce -- it's a salad, not just old lettuce).

Unfortunately, I leave for California tomorrow, and I'm in the home stretch of the conference that I'm planning. While I'm enjoying the conference planning itself, I'll be glad when it's over so that I can get back to my second book. But, there will be time to think of all that later -- right now, I'm going to bed!

i ain't missing you at all

So, surprise, I'm in Iowa! I came as a surprise for my sister's wedding today, and no one knew except my parents, brother, and friends/coworkers in California, which is why my post last night was so short and so vague.

Te recap yesterday, I had to be at the airport at six a.m. for my flight home, which is why I was so tired yesterday -- I only got five hours of sleep before going to the airport, and I ended up sleeping for almost eleven hours last night to make up for it. My trip was uneventful, broken up by a two-hour layover in Denver, in which I had a margarita and quesadilla, sent some work emails, and participated in part of a conference call before getting on the plane to Iowa. When I arrived in Des Moines, we played a round of minigolf -- the place we always go to is up for sale, so this may have been the last time that we will ever play minigolf there :( I lost tragically, then spent the ride home debating whether my brother was coming down with tetanus. We ended the day with a delicious Midwestern supper: bratwurst and fresh corn on the cob. Mmmm -- coming home for sweet corn is possibly the best decision I've made in a long time.

As mentioned before, I slept for eleven hours last night, and then went into town this morning to pick up a card for my sister. Embarrassingly enough, I ended up picking the exact same card that my mother picked -- I may be turning into her. The wedding was at four p.m., and it was quite simple and lovely; my nieces were the bridesmaids, and my nephew and some friend of the groom were the groomsmen. My sister and new brother-in-law looked happy, which is all that matters. Then, we spent a few hours hanging out at his family's house, where I got to spend some quality time with my nieces and nephew. We got home a little before ten p.m., and now I'm considering going to bed so that I can continue to recharge for the upcoming series of hellish events that I'm going to have to participate in over the next few weeks.

I'll post pictures sometime soon, but for now, I'm going to sleep!