bailamos

I'm suddenly on the verge of falling asleep on my laptop (some exciting Friday, right?) and so this will be v. brief. Today was the de facto celebration of Halloween at my office; it's hard to believe that this is my seventh Halloween experience with my illustrious employer, and it did not disappoint. It perhaps wasn't as over the top as in years past -- but I also had a meeting with the big boss at the height of the festivities downstairs, so perhaps I missed the juicy stuff. I did see our department's costume contest, however, and was v. impressed by many of the costumes (including Balloon Boy, Octomom, Lady GaGa, Anna Wintour, the dude from "I'm On a Boat" -- which was highly inappropriate given that the dude was wearing a suit jacket and very small black shorts, and a loofah). For my costume, I focused on three things: 1) snarkiness, 2) satisfaction, and 3) comfort.

The result? I went as a death panel. While sarcastic joke costumes usually require an explanation to everyone you run into, which is a little frustrating, it seemed to get good reviews -- I wore scrubs, but the most important element was that I custom-ordered a big red stamp that stamped "DEATH" on the fake forms that I made regarding patient diagnoses and cost to treat. The stamp was insanely gratifying, since you slam it onto a piece of paper and it then reinks itself; it's supposedly good for a couple thousand uses. If only we used more paper in my office so that I could stamp reports and things; the only things I regularly print out are my agendas for the big boss (not a good target for the death stamp) and my employees' performance reviews (also not a good target, although the HR people who saw my costume were among the least offended by it, which was nice).

Anyway, today was fine; I sort of got thrown for a loop at the end of the day regarding some thinking that I need to do (why do I always have to be doing some thinking?), but the various outcomes of the loop are mostly positive, so I'm waiting to get more clarity on things. When I got home, Adit and Priyanka were putting the finishing touches on their Halloween costumes, which took them almost three hours before they rushed out the door to have dinner. I parked myself on the couch (after washing my sheets and duvet cover) and thought about writing, but instead procrastinated by signing up for NaNoWriMo (national novel writing month). My first book actually got its vague start during NaNoWriMo in 2004; I"m hoping that signing up for 2009 will be the spur that I need to force myself through the rest of the first draft. And now, the bed beckons -- goodnight!

the dreammaker's gonna make you mad

I am absolutely stuffed, which is surprising given that I was lured into eating at a vegetarian restaurant (the horror!). I just got back from dinner with Vidya (aka Vidius Chandicus) and Julie; it was lovely to see them both, and the loveliness of it almost convinced me that I need to make more plans to have 8:30pm dinners after returning to the city of sin from the glorious south bay. I will of course forget that when fatigue is pressing on me the next time someone suggests a similar plan, but tonight was well worth it. We went to a Japanese restaurant not far from my apartment (although I drove straight there from work -- more on that in a minute), where we split the agedashi tofu and some veggie gyoza before eating our entrees. In my case, the entree was a bowl of udon with a side of vegetable tempura; I love tempura, although I did skip the asparagus spears because I still haven't overcome my childhood loathing of them. We managed to finish up around 9:30, and then we walked over to Bi-Rite, where we ate gourmet ice cream; again on the childhood theme, I picked cookies and cream (my absolute favorite, although mint chocolate chip and Christmas-special peppermint ice cream are right up there), even though the artisanal place has lot sof other custom flavors that it is more renowned for.

Overall, Julie and Vidya were both doing well, and we had a lovely time catching up with each other. But, it made for a long end to a long day; I got up and took a few meetings on the phone from home this morning due to the bay bridge situation, and then drove to Palo Alto for a doctor's appointment. For whatever reason, I've been on a check-up kick -- I hit up the eye doctor, the dentist, and the gynecologist within three weeks of each other. None of them have figured out my headaches though (not that I expected the obgyn to, of course), so if they don't go away in the next week or two, a fourth visit to someone else may be in order.

I made it into the office by 12:30, and I slogged until 6:30, when I had one last meeting with someone in Hong Kong before throwing in the towel. There was a nice little break in the afternoon, however, since today there was a Halloween party for parents to bring their kids to work and play games, show of their costumes, play in the reptile petting zoo (weird), etc. The big boss brought in her kids; the girl is almost four and was dressed like Ariel, while the boy is a year and a half and was wearing the most adorable lion costume I have ever seen. So, it was fun to have kids around, even if it reminded me of my own wasted and misspent youth.

Now, though, I must go to bed immediately if I'm going to get up and be productive tomorrow -- goodnight!

dressmaking:impossible

I just wrapped up some extreme family time; I came home around eight p.m. to discover Adit and Priyanka digging into some sewing for their Halloween costumes. Adit is making a hat, and Priyanka is making a dress, so I helped Priyanka cut and piece her dress. It was more challenging because the fabric was one of those shiny, slippery synthetics -- but it will be perfect for her needs in terms of the look and feel, so I suppose it was worth it. Worth it for her, anyway -- I'm not sure what I got out of playing with the pattern for a couple of hours, except it did make me want to take up sewing again (although "again" might be misleading, since that implies I did it frequently, and I really only did it a handful of times for 4-H projects). But provided that I can find the right ingredients on Saturday, I might join their theme for Saturday night; I already have a different costume for work on Friday, but Saturday is a different story.

sssanyway, today was fine. Actually, it started out really badly. They turned the water off in my neighborhood from two to six a.m.; while I was able to use the bathroom and brush my teeth when I woke up at six, I anticipated that there would be no hot water since the water heater would have been off for several hours, and I was correct. So, I didn't shower; instead, I left at 6:30 to avoid any fallout from the closure of the Bay Bridge. My commute actually wasn't bad; I made it in time to grab some oatmeal before my eight a.m. meeting, and so while I felt dirty, it all ended up okay. I was pretty productive, and stayed long enough that, by taking 280, the drive back to the city wasn't bad either.

So all in all, things are going really well right now; the biggest issue is that I'm not writing, and that's a problem. I intend to get back on track this weekend by writing all day both days, and since the big boss is out of town next week, hopefully I'll have more time to write in the mornings then as well. Now, though, it's time for bed!

what i wouldn't give for only one night

Tomorrow could be bad news. The water is supposed to be off in my neighborhood from two a.m. to six a.m., which means getting up before six is pointless (and I have to cross my fingers that the water will be back on then). Worse, it appears that the Bay Bridge will be closed tomorrow because one of the cables snapped, which could make my commute difficult. Since I have to make it to Mountain View for an eight a.m. meeting, I guess I need to hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

I'm not particularly pleased about today. On the surface, it was totally fine; I made it down to Mountain View for a 7:30am meeting, slogged through the day while wearing my kickass ruby-red heels, and had a nice lunch with Gyre (it was baked potato Tuesday, my favorite!). But, I didn't leave the office until 6:30, and for whatever reason I was feeling really sick to my stomach and nauseated, so I didn't follow through on my plan to write tonight; instead, I came home and wrote a rough draft of a recommendation letter for a friend of mine who is applying to school. I did try the folk remedy of drinking Sprite (or, in this case, Sierra Mist), which seems to have helped a bit, but I still have a smashing headache.

I'm cutting myself off now because I'm starting to sound like my Gram Holder; the next topic I will need to cover is the weather (it was extremely windy today, so much so that I wore my coat to walk across the courtyard for lunch so that it would keep my dress from blowing up over my head). I'm really still in a good mood; if I weren't feeling ill, I would be totally happy.

Or maybe not -- today was my official six-year anniversary with my current employer. Can you believe it? I certainly can't; I never intended to stay more than a year, and I've threatened to blow that popsicle stand more times than I can count (including the six-month hiatus where it seemed like I might actually escape) -- and now with my new job, I'm closer to the heart of the beast than ever. I'm actually quite happy about my position in relation to the heart of the beast, but the trick will be to make enough time for my writing so that I don't begin to resent it. Other than that, though, it's all good. Happy anniversary to me! And now I shall celebrate by going to bed early so that my stomach can hopefully recover. Goodnight!

my sign is vital, my hands are cold

I'm back in San Francisco and missing Katie already. Other than the last few hours of my visit, in which we didn't get nearly enough sleep and a thunderstorm kept her husband's flight from arriving until after two a.m., it was all totally idyllic, and reaffirms my belief that we need to pick a city and commit to moving there together so that we are once again able to see each other more than twice a year. Then again, twice a year is pretty good, all things considered -- but twice a week would be better.

So my flight landed on time, but we had to sit on the runway for a few minutes since our gate was still occupied, and since I was in the second-to-last row, the deplaning process took forever. But, I made it down to the south bay and was only fifteen minutes late for a meeting; the meeting was fine, and I slogged for a few hours before deciding that I was too sleepy to continue and would prefer to drive home before traffic got too bad. I talked to my parents on the way back, then watched a couple of YouTube videos that my dad recommended (funny that he watches more YouTube than I do), did a load of laundry, schmucked around on the internet, ate some delicious frozen enchiladas, and then did some real work for about an hour and a half.

Now, it's time for me to go to bed; I have a 7:30am meeting tomorrow, so I really must sleep. I should stay up to say hi to Adit and Priyanka, but they were here earlier (resulting in Adit insisting on stealing a couple of bites of my precious enchilada), and since Priyanka made a game-time decision to stay for another week, there's no need for me to see them immediately. Instead, I'm off to bed!

enjoy the little things

It will be interesting to see if I get out of Dallas tomorrow morning -- there are strong thunderstorms going on right now, and so while Katie's husband James quite fortuitously got on a flight back here tonight after many tribulations, he got rerouted to San Antonio for fuel. That does not bode well, particularly since it is supposed to storm all night.

But despite that, I had a fantastic time in Dallas. Today, Katie and I got up and had a light breakfast before she dropped me off at Laura's for lunch. It was great to see Laura; we started off by making a craft (a card for Katie, who thought it was ridiculous that I made her a card when we were only separated for a couple of hours), and then her husband made some great barbecued chicken and sweet potato fries. Katie came back around 2:30, and we ended up hanging out for another couple of hours while Laura made a pear tart and we all sat around her kitchen.

After parting ways with Laura, Katie and I went to the theatre to see "Zombieland". Overall, I really liked it, which is perhaps unsurprising given that I am into post-apocalyptic stories. Woody Harrelson was awesome, the other lead dude was entertaining, and it was generally funny. However, there were only eight people in the theatre, including us, and two of them walked out in the middle, so it kind of dampened my enjoyment, since I laugh louder when other people are laughing too. But, it was still good. Then we came home, and Katie made a delicious dinner of scallops and baked potatoes before we watched the premiere of "White Collar", a ridiculous crime show that I *adored*. Now it's after midnight and we're both exhausted, so it's time for bed.

when the lights go down in the city

Katie and I had an absoluely idyllic day. We slept in, sat around and ate muffins and drank coffee, and generally had a lazy morning. Around two pm, we went to the mall, where we spent the afternoon encouraging/enabling each other to buy a myriad of pretty things. I got a cute coat, a gorgeous grey dress, and a pair of sunglasses to feed my insane addiction; we also enjoyed Sephora, had coffee at the Nordstro
cafe, and generally had a gay old time.

We came home and quickly dolled ourselves up, then went to one of Katie's favorite restaurants, where we had a perfect dinner - two glasses of wine each, an escargot appetizer in this amazing garlic sauce, and then scallops for her and beef medallions with truffle and fois gras sauce for me. It was all lovely, and even though we came home to discuss serial killers and the death penalty, it was still the best day I've had in many moons.

Now it's well past my bedtime, and I need to get up tomorrow to have lunch at Laura's. Goodnight!

when the day goes down on the water town

I made it safely to Dallas without shanking any of the bitches standing between my 26th row seat and the glorious exit. Katie was waiting for me, and we had an absolutely fabulous laid back day. We came back to her place (which is super cute), then went out for a three hour lunch at this South American restaurant that served me two of the best mojitos I've ever had. I also had a great steak with ths excellent cheese and peppers combo, rice, and black beans. We spent the whole afternoon on the patio, catching up over food, alcohol and coffee in the best possible way.

We came home around five and spent the rest of the evening talking, with a brief break around seven for me to take a rejuvenating half hour nap. Katie intended to make a fab dinner, but we were still too full, so instead we had a great stinky cheese, salami and fruit while watching her cat Chewie live up to his name. I am also amazed and pleased to report that the allergy shots worked - I have been with Chewie all day and my eyes aren't even itching, let alone the fact that my nose is totally clear - and this without taking any drugs at all. Miracle!

Now it's time for bed - we have grand plans to shop, eat and see a movie, so I need my beauty sleep. Goodnight!

let's make love and listen to death from above

This is a four-minute post. I'm rather tired; the morning started off with a worse-than-usual commute to my eight a.m. meeting, and then I stayed at the office for almost twelve hours so that I could get a firm grip on things and therefore be able to leave for the weekend without needing to do any work at all. Happily, I was successful, even if that means I will get a bit less sleep tonight than I intended. Also double happily, Vidya came for a late lunch, and brought along one of her coworkers/friends from her grad program; we had sandwiches and ice cream, and it was all v. lovely.

I got home around nine p.m., and then spent over an hour packing. I tend to overpack for weekends like this, since I want to be prepared for a variety of eventualities, and also Katie is fabulously stylish and so I need to be prepared for that as well. I'm pretty sure that five tops, three sweaters, three pairs of pants, and two dresses will get me through the weekend, but we shall see. I did manage to pack everything in one rolling carry-on plus a laptop bag, so that should help speed up the process. And since my flight takes off at six a.m., speeding up the process is vital. That also means I really should go to bed; when I blog again, I will (fingers crossed) be in Dallas!

extreme family time

I can't believe I almost forgot to blog tonight! I was on the verge of going to bed (after watching Adit construct the nest that he constructs every night for him and Priyanka), when I suddenly realized that I hadn't written my obligatory post. Adit then asked how many people read this thing anyone, and laughed at me for only getting 12 daily repeat hits + 19 Google Reader subscriptions (although the number may be slightly higher of people who only check it once every few days and so don't look like repeats, since I get 40-50 overall hits/day). Apparently writing this for myself + so that my parents know I'm alive isn't enough in this go-go-go modern world of ours.

sssanyway, today was fine; I spent the better part of the morning packing eleven FedEx boxes with some random stuff to send to clients, which was a little weird but relaxing nonetheless. I had precisely three hours' worth of meetings today, one hour of which was a career perspective talk from the former head of the India office, and another hour of which was lunch with Shadie (one of the former expats). I was pretty productive with the rest of the day, but not productive enough to avoid working tonight when I got home. I also had dinner with Dave, my former manager, in downtown Mountain View; the service was as dreadful as always, but it was good to catch up.

Now, after extensive bantering with Adit and Priyanka about whether I should move to Iowa and work for John Deere as a welder (after he made the argument that people leave Iowa to accomplish great things, given that Kurt Warner bagged groceries until moving out of the state, at which point he became a Super Bowl champ -- I don't think this was causal, but whatever), it's time for bed!

and it breaks my heart, breaks my heart

Today started out pretty meh; I had a dentist appointment, and since the dentist is a holdover from when I lived in the glorious south bay, I had to drive all the way to south San Jose for the pleasure of getting my teeth blasted with an "ultrasonic scaler" and drooling all over myself like a child (the hygienist giggled at one point and said "at least we know there's nothing wrong with your salivary glands!" - tanks). I was really stupid about the drive, too; I followed the Google Maps directions without putting the least bit of thought into it, since I thought I had left early enough to beat the traffic and work in a cafe for awhile before the dentist; instead, the drive took an hour and a half, when I should have instead gone down 280 and 85 and been there in 50 minutes. Stupid, stupid.

After the dentist (look, ma, no cavities -- although the hygienist did try to upsell me on replacing my two old-school childhood metal fillings with some invisible ones, but I kind of like my Soviet-era look, so I'm keeping them), I drove to work, got my allergy shots (and the bad news that they got a new batch of dust mite injectables that are much stronger, which means I have to go back weekly for awhile to build up my tolerance to the superdust), and then did some work. The sole real bright spot of the day was lunch with Dontae, who used to be on my team (when I used to be on the team -- we both abandoned that ship at the same time). We partook of baked potato Tuesday at my favorite cafe, and it was all quite lovely. Then, I spent the rest of the afternoon working, reading dlisted, etc. before leaving around six to pick up my new glasses and go to Target for some necessities (particularly toilet paper -- I have a feeling that I get concerned about shortages sooner than Adit does, but this is one area where I won't passive aggressively wait for someone else to take care of it).

Even though it's only ten p.m., I think it's time for bed; I really do want to get up tomorrow and write, and that requires ample sleep. Goodnight!

she'll do anything for the limelight

I have v. few thoughts about today. It just sort of *was* -- nothing particularly great, nothing particularly bad. I did make a delicious peanut butter and jelly sandwich (crunchy peanut butter, strawberry jelly, and a secret layer of butter), which I'm glad I cut into fourths, since Adit took a bite of one of the triangles and then refused to give it back. Adit and I also carpooled, which was good; traffic was bad both ways, since it rained here today, and this time the inch or two of rain was enough to flood the subway system. WTF, man? No wonder San Franciscans are so freaked about sea levels -- if an inch of rain can overwhelm the city, it seems unlikely that anyone here could stop making laws about composting long enough to think about sea walls or dikes or anything else.

It's strange how few meetings I have at work these days, and how it changes the entire tenor and feel of my day; I had precisely one hour of meetings today, and I have 45mins of meetings plus a lunch tomorrow. I need to keep working on being productive with those luxurious swathes of time, but right now I wouldn't trade them for anything (except, perhaps, more luxurious swathes of time outside of work in which to write). When I got home, though, I didn't feel compelled to do anything for the day job; instead, I spent several hours reading "The Making of a Story" by Alice LaPlante. I've read parts of it before, and I will continue to reread those parts, and think about her lessons, and consider how I can use her wisdom to make my work better. LaPlante is the writer who taught the creative writing class I loved last winter, and her book is excellent if you're thinking about taking up creative writing. Then again, reading books about writing is really an embarrassing act of navel-gazing procrastination, but I do enjoy doing it on the days when the idea of confronting the blinking cursor makes me want to stab myself in the face.

No more, though -- I need to get ready for bed. I intend to go south early tomorrow morning and find someplace to write before my dentist appointment, so wish me luck!

i think i shall sleep very soundly tonight

Today was excellent. I woke up a little after nine, got ready, and met up with Vidius Chandicus (aka the mighty Chandlord) for brunch. We walked down to Union Square, where we discovered that the restaurant we were going to go to was packed. So, we walked over to SFMOMA, intending to have lunch at their cafe -- but we got lucky, since it turns out that Target was doing some sort of family-day sponsorship and entrance to the museum was free for the day. We had lunch, then bought tickets for the Richard Avedon photography exhibit. It was quite good; I think that portraiture and story-telling are cousins, so I enjoyed the photos. Then, we had coffee in the rooftop garden, where there were a lot of ridiculous modern art sculptures.

We parted ways after walking back to her apartment, and I went to Leland Tea, where I overdosed on caffeine by having six cups of Russian Country tea and two cups of lapsang souchong. I also had the most delicious miniature coconut cupcake and a delightful shortbread cookie while writing many pages in my journal. Feeling twitchy and needing to pee every fifteen minutes, I came home and talked to my parents for a couple of hours, then read a book on writing, did laundry, and am now watching "Mad Men" with Adit and Priyanka. As soon as it's over, I'm going to bed so that I can get up and write before work (and you had best hope that I don't continue to burn out my writing every day, or else my blog will continue to be boring). Goodnight!

throw your hands up and shout

This is going to be brief, even though my heart is filled with joy and I should blog in this moment rather than blogging on the days when I'm angry -- but my heart is also filled with exhaustion, and even though I slept for almost eleven hours last night and ten hours the night before, I'm going to give in to the siren song of my bed in the hopes that ample sleep will continue to stave off whatever plague still roams my apartment.

So I woke up a little after ten, putzed around the apartment, ate some frosted flakes, and swiffered (in the vain attempt to remove hair from the floor so that Adit would stop haranguing me and Priyanka about it). I finally started getting ready around 12:15, which in retrospect was fifteen minutes too late; I had showered when I woke up, but I spent an inordinate time blowdrying my hair (until I found a vivid white strand, at which point I furiously pulled the white strand out of my head, then hastily finished the drying before the air currents could uncover any more traitorous silver hairs). I also plucked my eyebrows (and there was a white hair in my eyebrows too...things are not boding well), then played with my makeup, then ate a peanut butter sandwich -- then realized that I need to leave *immediately*, so I threw my teal silk dress on and headed out the door.

The destination was Chris and Natasha's wedding; Chris and I were in India together, and I adore him, and Natasha and I have been working really closely together (mostly planning the sales conference) over the past year and I adore her too. The wedding was in South San Francisco, and the ceremony was beautiful; surprisingly, they started exactly on time, which clearly took a lot of people by surprise since a significant number of stragglers had to sneak in through the side doors during the ceremony. The priest was a riot; he delivered a pretty moving/hysterical speech with a lot more religious content than the Catholic wedding I was at a couple of weeks ago (he pretty much said that if you're living together and you're unmarried, or if you're Catholic but were married in a civil ceremony, he doesn't consider you to be Catholic and you're not allowed to take communion from him -- he's keeping it old school). And, as is my style, I cried throughout -- probably the most when Natasha's dad got up to do a reading, and he started crying, and he choked up so much that his son had to come up and finish for him. Natasha also had trouble getting through her vows because she was crying, which was v. cute.

Joy, Heather and I sat together at the wedding, and as there was a long break between the wedding and the reception for the wedding party to take pictures, we went to a bar next door to the reception center and had nachos and Diet Cokes (delish!). Then we went to the reception, which was totally fun; it started off with a supposed Pakistani tradition of a Grand March, in which everyone marched around in a long conga-type line all around the room, interweaving, etc. -- although I don't know if the Pakistani tradition really calls for marching to "When the Saints Come Marching In". So we all got sweaty and invigorated by marching and dancing first, before finally having dinner. Dinner was good, particularly for hotel-style catered food, so I approved. Surprisingly, I drank virtually nothing; I don't want to be wrecked for tomorrow, I drove there, and also my current boss (the big boss) was there, as was the director I reported to last fall, and so spilling champagne all over myself and tripping on my own feet would have been v. ill-advised. I still had tons of fun; Chris and Natasha are one of the most joyful couples I've ever seen, and their joy spilled out to everyone else.

Now, though, the joy is burning out and sleep is much in need -- goodnight!

harder better faster stronger

Adit just walked into the living room and asked me "when are you getting your contract?" I was v. confused, so I asked him to 'splain, and he said, "your book contract, dude, you told everyone you were going to get one." This is a) not true but b) a classic Adit statement. Luckily for him, I'm in a pretty calm mood, or else I may have leapt over the back of the couch and clawed his eyes out (although given my lack of coordination, it's more likely that I would have fallen over the back of the couch, and he would have stood over me asking me more about the contract while I moaned self-pityingly).

Today was, all in all, rather excellent. I slept for almost ten hours last night, which did wonders for my incipient illness; I feel fine today, although Adit and I compared notes and discovered that we both felt dizzy, lightheaded, and warm yesterday afternoon, so perhaps we shall both succumb at the same time. I made it into work in time for my only real meeting of the day, and then intended to do some random stuff but got pulled into a 'firedrill' instead. Yes, I am embracing even more corporate-speak; firedrills are, as you might know or guess, short-term emergency situations that aren't really emergencies but that you're still forced to deal with with some urgency. According to my friend Joy, Friday firedrills for my new boss are pretty common (Joy can't remember the last time she didn't have one). My hypothesis is that many of the people at more senior levels are requiring their direct reports to send them end-of-week progress updates, and on Friday everyone who has to write one of these things panics because they didn't do enough, and so they push all these crazy demands on others so that they can try to meet their target. Luckily, this firedrill was interesting and relatively short, so I still had a chance to grab lunch despite everything.

This afternoon, I went to my first company-wide Friday gathering in well over two years; I tried to go to one this summer, but they were doing a winetasting on the patio and I got drunk with John instead. But today, they were promising a surprise, and so I stuck around with everyone and their mother who also heard that there would be a surprise (while I haven't been to one in years, neither has anyone else I know, so clearly the room was unusually packed). I shan't divulge the surprise here, but suffice it to say that they made up for the anger I felt when they replaced our usual Christmas bonus with a phone last year (six days after I bought an iPhone, let me remind you).

So after work, I decided to do some celebratory/therapeutic shopping. I hit up Nordstrom Rack (Nordstrom's outlet-style store), where I bought several cute tops on extreme sale, as well as a pair of killer heels so that I can attempt to look like less of a gremlin when I hang out with Katie next week, since she is super tall. I then checked out Ann Taylor; I was on a mission for pants, but of course none of the pants fit at either place and multiple, multiple tops did. Then I had some pizza a CPK in the mall, drove back to the city of sin, talked to Adit briefly, and now am going to go to bed. Chris and Natasha's wedding is tomorrow, and I want to be well-rested for it! Goodnight!

you know my friends, they know your enemies

I'm v. tired, and I'm worried that I am about to finally, inevitably succumb to the plague that Priyanka has been breathing into the apartment for the past week; at work this afternoon, I suddenly started feeling a little warm and dizzy, and since I haven't had any champagne in days, it seems likely that I'm getting sick instead. So, I was a terrible friend and skipped Natasha's bachelorette party tonight; Terry was supposed to come up from LA tonight and go with me, but she was really sick down there, and so she's going to come up tomorrow instead so that we can go to the wedding on Saturday. Hopefully we all feel okay; the wedding should be fun, and I want to be in good shape for it.

Today was pretty uneventful; I had a few meetings, had lunch with Joy (not close-friend-Joy whom I see all the time; this is the Joy who took over my team when I went on leave), and hand-wrote a bunch of thank-you notes for my boss to sign (ah, the glamorous life of someone who is handling communications -- too bad I'm not good with calligraphy). I ended the standard work day in a mad dash to pack up my office, since the movers were coming to switch me to a different office today; amazingly, they showed up on time and had my stuff in my new office by six, so I stuck around at the office for quite some time and unpacked the five boxes that I had just packed, reconnected all my electronics, decorated, etc. It was kind of stupid to stick around, but traffic looked awful for quite some time, and since my desk is all set up I should be more productive tomorrow.

I think it's time for bed; my first meeting isn't until 10am, so I intend to sleep as late as possible and try to recover some of my stamina. Goodnight!

it's the little things that kill

This is a four-minute post. I have nothing much to say today. I made it down to the south bay for my eight a.m. meeting, then slogged the day away. I took a nice midday break to go to my optometrist, who did an extremely thorough check of my eyes, and reported that my prescription hasn't changed for the third year or so in a row, which is good news. I also spent some quality time trying to pick out a new pair of glasses, staying mindful of the time when I picked a pair when I couldn't actually see how they looked, and my mother told me they were great -- only to discover when I got home with them that they were the same as my mom's, just a different color. I laugh now (and now embrace some things, like the moccasins she used to have), but in my delicate teen state, I was mortified.

I got some pearl milk tea in downtown Mountain View before going back to the office, where I slogged the rest of the day. I had a meeting get rescheduled for 6-6:30, which was super annoying; afterward, I grabbed a quick dinner in the cafe, came home, and slogged the rest of the night. Now, though, I'm going to go to bed; I need to get some serious sleep if I'm going to make it through the weekend. Goodnight!

you fill my heart with gladness

I've stayed up too late, which is going to impinge on the length of this post (which will probably make you happy, fickle reader!) Today was one of those "I hate California" days, mostly because people here are incapable of driving in the rain, and the infrastructure can't handle 2-4" of rain in one day, which meant floods on the city streets, floods on the onramps, and endless accidents. Luckily I dragged myself out of bed and out the door by 6:45, so my trip south only took an hour; the people who left the city at 7:30 reported commutes of 2+ hours. I also left work early to beat the evening rush hour, which was a good move; if I had had to sit in traffic behind a bunch of people who think that a little rain is like an apocalypse, I probably would have stabbed myself in the face.

Work was fine today; I had lunch with Gyre and Lizzie, which was v. nice. I also got quite a bit of work done; this whole not-so-many-meetings thing is wonderful, even if my new boss tends to send me 5-10 emails between eight and ten p.m. I also took a brief nap tonight, and read part of one of my favorite comfort books ("Sunshine" by Robin McKinley), and ate the delicious takeout from Whole Foods that Adit brought home for me and Priyanka (he brought it mostly for Priyanka, who clearly has some terrible form of the flu, but he did buy me some chicken tortilla soup that he and Priyanka, being good vegetarians, had no intention of eating). So all in all, it was a good day -- but now I must go to bed, since I have an 8am meeting that I can't be late for. Goodnight!

i am the rain king

This is my 1500th post! Crazy!!

I had an excellent day; while I miss having a team, I must say that there has been something v. appealing about being able to sit at my desk and get my work done. It says a lot about my workload that I still came home and worked for almost three hours; but then again, I did spend some time doing some online shopping today at work, so it's not like my work time was the most productive ever. It will be interesting to see how I manage my workload in the coming months; the problem is that my new boss is only really able to send emails from 8-11pm, which means that I may have to wait on her for things that I need to be able to do my own work until it's nighttime.

All in all, though, I'm really happy with my new role so far. I could be miserable in a month, but for now I am relishing the fact that I'm in a job that will both make use of and stretch my talents in new and interesting ways. Notice, however, that it has taken me this many lines to get to the point where I lament not having enough time to write today; clearly I will need to vigorously enforce my priorities and make sure I devote enough time to myself, or else book two will be v. slow in coming.

So anyway, I slogged all day; inconveniently, the only meetings I had conflicted with lunch, but I managed to grab and go a weird combo (I ended up eating a couple of pieces of sushi plus a slice of 'tostada pizza' - like an upscale version of the taco pizzas of my youth). I also gave myself a sugar high; my friend Mahin had offered some baklava up as part of a charity auction, and since I was one of the two high bidders, she brought me a batch of baklava today. It was incredible -- quite possibly the best baklava I have had in my entire life, and I'm not even saying that because she occasionally reads this blog :) I managed to foist a pan of it onto members of my former team, since I had four pieces and was on the verge of giving myself a stomach ache, but I still had more than half a pan left to bring home to the Cat (and by Cat I mean Adit).

After work, I made a brief detour to REI, where I bought myself a new down-filled bomber jacket; yes, this is totally unnecessary for our usual sixty-degree weather, but my old down-filled bomber jacket was about five years old, to be precise, and starting to look and feel its age. This one is missing the faux fur trim, and is a dark purple instead of a bright pink, but I'm v. pleased with it. I'm also v. pleased that I had a 20% off coupon plus an unused REI dividend, bringing the $200 jacket down to $130, which felt like a great deal. Then, I talked to my parents, had a burrito at Chipotle, drove home, sat around and watched the last-second victory of Miami over the Jets with Adit and Priyanka, and then watched "Gossip Girl" while working and telling Priyanka that the show is stupid and the actors are terrible. Now, however, it's time for bed; we're on the verge of a huge storm here, so my commute will likely be miserable. Goodnight!

regional specialty

I had an incredibly lazy day. I woke up this morning around eight a.m. in John and Jess's guest room in Berkeley, where I had virtually no hangover (a hangover which I would have totally deserved and had been expecting/dreading since about three p.m. yesterday). John and Jess dropped me off at the garage where I had parked my car, and I came back to the city of sin, where I proceeded to waste the day away. I played around on the internet, ate an omelette made for me by Adit, then took a two hour nap. I attempted to go write in a cafe, but I failed; the first cafe I went to was closed, and the second and third cafes were absolutely packed. So, I came home, talked to my parents, ate my leftover steak and mashed potatoes from last night, and spent the rest of the evening half-working while watching TV with Adit and Priyanka. My favorite show by far was "The Next Iron Chef", which makes sense since I spent some of the afternoon reading cookbooks and dreaming about making delicious things that I then didn't even attempt to make. However, "Mad Men" is a close second (and perhaps is first from a quality standpoint); but, as soon as it's over, it will be time for me to go to bed.

I will say briefly, however, that yesterday was excellent. The weather in Napa was absolutely perfect, and it was a lovely day for some winetasting. Jenni (the birthday girl) was so surprised that she cried when she arrived at Lauren's apartment, which was sweet. We proceeded to four wineries in a tricked-out party bus -- Mumm, V. Sattui, Charles Krug, and Ballantine. We tasted three champagnes at Mumm (and I bought a bottle, sticking to my mantra of 'only buy at the first winery', since the drunker you get the better everything tastes). V. Sattui was a total scene, so Lauren's brother Scott, his fiancee and I bought sandwiches from the onsite deli (v. excellent sandwich - chicken pesto on focaccia) and whole bottles of wine to split at a picnic table in the yard. We shared a white riesling and a rose called gamay rouge -- both were excellent, particularly since they were nicely chilled and the sun was out. Jenni's boyfriend James and I shared a tasting at Charles Krug; the port was good and I liked the pinot noir, but I don't recall particularly liking the rest of it. I sat out the tasting at Ballantine, realizing that I was in a happy place that didn't require more wine to sustain or improve. You might wonder how two small tastings and some wine with lunch got me to that point; it will help if you know that we had mimosas before getting on the bus, several bottles of chardonnay to get us up to Napa, and then people bought bottles at every winery so that we wouldn't go dry on the short drives between wineries or the longer drive back to Berkeley.

So, I was well and truly sauced when we arrived for dinner at Wood Tavern. I've never explored the restaurants of the East Bay (although Berkeley apparently has some lovely ones) -- but, I would go back to this place. We had a set menu, and I chose this incredible linguica and lentil soup, followed by a flank steak and mashed potatoes (the steak was perfect; the potatoes were just a bit too lemony). All in all, it was a great cap to a perfect day. After dinner, I parted ways with the party and called John and Jess so that we could have ice cream together; we drove several blocks away to try for ice cream at Ici, but the line was ridiculously long and so we ended up driving back and going someplace across the street from Wood Tavern, where I had their spiced pumpkin ice cream. After that, I'm definitely in the mood for Thanksgiving -- fall is in the air, even in California, and pumpkin just confirms it.

John, Jess and I hung out in their dining room for quite some time, but I failed to sober up to the point that I was perfectly safe driving (I reached that point where I felt like I was okay, but knew that I probably wasn't the best person to make that call). So, I imposed myself on their hospitality and slept in their guest room. So, it was a wonderful day for me (even if John and Jess's day took a weird turn since I showed up drunk on their doorstep), and while I shouldn't go winetasting again anytime soon, I'm looking forward to the next time. Now, though, I need to go to bed; this week may or may not be rough, but sleep would be good regardless. Goodnight!

days of wine and roses

I am only blogging for ten seconds to say that I survived wine tasting (barely), but was rendered incapable of driving home, and so imposed myself on John and Jess. Now I'm going to bed - will detail everything tomorrow!

can you read my mind?

Today was a totally excellent day in the city of sin. I worked out of the SF office this morning; I had meetings from 9 to 1, and then I quietly peaced out around 1:30 to spend the rest of the day working from home. I was actually quite productive at home; I made a dent in my self-assessment (due a month ago, but I tend to put that kind of stuff off in favor of getting things done that actually impact the business), sent and answered some emails, and did a totally critical load of laundry.

I wrapped up a little after six when Adit and Priyanka arrived, bearing snacky snacks for Adit's birthday party tonight. We sat around and discussed very little, and then Priyanka and I took a trip over to Little Star to pick up my all-time favorite pizza (well, it's no Casey's sausage pizza, which is amazingly good considering it's made in a greasy kitchen in the back of a convenience store, but it's my favorite high-class pizza) while Adit went for a run. Jon Dunn showed up shortly after that; he's staying with us tonight, and when he took a shower he was v. excited by my Herbal Essences "Tousle Me Softly" shampoo and conditioner (it doesn't really lead to a more tousled look, but I fell for the marketing anyway). We all got ready, then headed over to the bar around the corner from us; Adit has like a million friends, and so we packed the place to the point that the doorkeeper was getting annoyed at the number of people there for the birthday party.

Happily, many of my friends showed up; I spent most of the evening with Oniel (who was, amazingly, fairly early), Roopa, Folkman, Javier, John, and Jess. So, it was all v. pleasant, even if the bar was so crowded that I couldn't see anything; it's a good thing that my constant difficulty in crowds has bred the claustrophobia out of me rather than enhanced it, since there were multiple times in the night when Jav and Oniel were both hugging me at the same time just to conserve space. We also played a game of pool, took turns signing Oniel's bandage around his messed-up finger, and generally had a good time.

Surprisingly, I did not get drunk; in fact, I barely drank at all. Jon Dunn bought me something early, the name of which I do not know (it tasted like a glass of vodka with just a hint of juice), and then I stuck to Diet Coke. I expect that tomorrow's all-day wine tasting extravaganza will get me into enough trouble without me starting with a hangover.

Now, though, I really must go to bed; if I'm going to take BART over to Berkeley, I need to get up around seven (although the notion of driving, thus saving 30-45 mins of public transportation and thus being able to wake up closer to eight a.m. is becoming increasingly appealing, even if it means that I will have to sober up in the afternoon/early evening tomorrow). Happy day-after-your-birthday, Adit!

old age is just around the bend

I had a lovely day; it was equal parts productive and social, which made for a good mix. I got up around 7:15, showered, made tea for Adit (who proceeded to harangue me about the amount of hair in the apartment before we parted ways for the day), and then went to work. I took 280 since traffic looked horrendous on the 101; taking 280 to work makes me want to run away to the sea, since 280 runs near the foothills and the ocean is tantalizing out of sight behind the hills. I slogged for a couple of hours, and then hosted Adit so that he could have free lunch with me, Katrina, and this girl named Jen. Following our friendship lunch, I slogged for the rest of the day, accomplishing enough that I didn't feel like a complete slacker failure.

I left work a little before six, and spent half an hour on the phone with my parents; I told them the latest developments in my life, my father shared his latest dentistry issues (reminding me of my own - I'm seeing the dentist for a cleaning in a couple of weeks, and I want them to see if I'm grinding my teeth, since I'm having constant headaches and my jaw joints are aching), and my mother shared some research she's been doing about a woman associated with the country schoolhouse at the Round Barn site who apparently wrote a book way back in the day about her experiences following the Colorado 2nd Cavalry in their western battles during the Civil War (the woman's husband was in the army, and she took their two kids and followed the camp doing nursing and other tasks). All in all, v. interesting. Then, I sat at Philz Coffee for a little less than an hour and wrote a couple of pages; not a great output, but I can say I wrote today, and that's the main thing.

When I got home, Adit, Priyanka, and Omar were waiting for me; the four of us, plus Katrina, went out to celebrate Adit's birthday in a v. lowkey way by having dinner at this Korean hotpot place. When I was growing up in the backwoods of Iowa, I never would have imagined eating anything resembling a scalding hot metal bowl of soft tofu, spicy broth, and whole head-intact shrimp, into which you crack a raw egg and stir it in to cook it. But, it was quite tasty, and the company was of course entertaining; it was family time at its finest. However, I demonstrated my true lame hermit roots and bailed on post-dinner drinks; there weren't supposed to be any post-dinner drinks, but when plans changed, Adit recommended dropping me off at home before I even had to ask. He knows me so well.

Now, it's time for bed; I got five emails from the big boss while I was at dinner, so I'll have some work to do tomorrow morning. I also hope to write in the late afternoon before having drinks for Adit's real birthday celebration, so hopefully I'll get enough sleep tonight to carry me through. Goodnight!

raining from a hapless cloud

I can't decide what kind of day I had. Actually, I think I would categorize it as a very good day with one 45-minute bleak spell towards the end that was redeemed by some brief family time with Adit and Priyanka. I successfully woke up at six a.m., showered, and went down to the glorious south bay, where I spent an hour and a half at Starbucks. I didn't write write, but I did finish the blog post for the Golden Heart blog that I'm a part of (it's up now! check it out - http://www.rubyslipperedsisterhood.com/rss/index.php/stepping-stone-or-stumbling-block/). I also wrote the first post on my writing blog in two months, since I will hopefully get a couple of visitors from the Golden Heart blog and want something a bit fresher on the site.

I had an uneventful day at work; happily, I had lunch with Mahin, which was v. lovely. I also took a walk with Joy in the afternoon, which helped to get me through the long afternoon slog. Then, I just barely made it to dinner at six p.m. with Tolu, Lizzie, and Jane; it was our every-six-week Friendship Renewal Dinner, and I felt that our friendship was quite renewed as a result. However, I made the mistake of having two glasses of wine (I attempted to have diet coke, but the restaurant is too local and organic for diet coke -- all they have is their stupid agave-flavored cola, which I was not into at all), and so I didn't drive straight back to the city -- instead, I walked around Stanford campus for half an hour, taking a trip down memory lane on what is perhaps one of the most gorgeous campuses around. That was when the bleak moment hit, since I began contemplating how old I am, how much different my life is than what I expected it to be when I showed up at Stanford ten years ago, etc., etc. Luckily I pulled out of it quickly, but it was still just a bit surreal. Then I came home, sat on the floor with Adit and Priyanka, and attempted to reset our internet routers. So all in all, it was a good day -- hopefully tomorrow is even better. Now, though, it's time for bed!

all my loving goes under the fog fog fog and i will leave them all

This is a four-minute post. I meant to get up early this morning and write, but I failed. Instead, I prioritized getting eight hours of sleep before going to work. Work was fine; I got some stuff done, had lunch with Gyre, and spent the afternoon in meetings. I managed to get out of the office at 5:30, and I went straight to Cafe Borrone in Menlo Park. I spent an hour or so drafting a blog post for the group blog that I'm participating in with some of my fellow romance writers, and I also ate my favorite sandwich (turkey and gouda on focaccia). I should have done some writing for the book, but instead I came home, did some work for the day job, watched an episode of Craig, and inadvertently got sucked into an episode of "So You Think You Can Dance".

Now, I suppose I should go to bed. I wish that I could spend all day tomorrow on the book, but I'm going to spend all day in meetings instead. However, it's a good thing that my dinner plans for tonight got moved to tomorrow night; that meant that I was able to draft a semi-coherent blog post tonight, and so can get up tomorrow and write for the book instead of worrying about the post. But if I'm going to get up early, sleep is essential, and my four minutes are up anyway. Goodnight!

a life spent with no cellmate

Today was, all in all, a great day. I managed to drag myself out of my warm and cozy bed by six a.m., making it down to the south bay around 7:30, and so carved out 90mins at the beginning of the day in which to write. I didn't hit my 1000 word target (which should be doable in ninety minutes), but since I was rewriting an existing scene rather than writing a new one from scratch, that's to be expected. I also discovered another cool feature of Scrivener -- it lets you set goals and track how much you write in each session, so that I knew the net result of my efforts easily even though I had deleted and added and moved around a lot of things. Score!

After writing, I went to work, where I slogged until six. It wasn't a particularly hard slog; since I've transitioned off of my old team but my new big boss is at a conference all week, I have a rare slice of underprogrammed freedom before things get all crazy again. I'm trying to use it to catch up on things that have continually fallen through the cracks (for example, I spent some time today answering emails that I received in July). I'm also just taking advantage of the fact that I have some free time; I was going to work out this afternoon, but unfortunately discovered that the tennis shoes that I keep in my car were full of sand, since I had forgotten about wearing them to the beach in Santa Cruz a month ago. I kept my workout clothes on anyway; I had been wearing this pair of kickass ruby-red stilettos that I adored and that received a high number of compliments, but they were killing my feet by the end of the day (as well as my nerves, since I lived in fear of breaking my ankle). So, swapping the dress and heels for workout clothes and flipflops was v. gratifying.

At the end of the day, I got a massage; I had booked it several weeks ago, after realizing that I had let three birthdays' worth of massage coupons from work pile up. It was a perfect end to the day, even if a) disrobing at work in what amounts to a converted office is strange, even if the room feels like it's part of a spay, and b) a great massage makes me sleepy, and I still had to drive home after. But a free massage (well, a $15 massage, since I gave her a cash tip on top of the payment coupon) is always good, and so I'll have to book another.

Basically, I'm trying to reenergize my 'balance campaign' that was working so well for me last fall. Not that there's any fear of me getting all new age-y, but at the same time, attempting to find balance in all things was good for me, and while there has been some short-term gratification in terms of my gluttony, sloth, and general debauchery over the past couple of months, I need to get refocused on the long-term. That means eating better, sleeping more, writing daily, being productive at work so that I can get out of the office, and buying fewer pairs of shoes. All of these are admirable goals -- and I can get started on the sleep goal right now. Goodnight!

stupid

I had a highly productive day, which made for a highly happy day. I woke up a little after eight a.m., and procrastinated by cleaning the apartment; I finally brought the Swiffer over from Vidya's, and I successfully Swiffered up about six cloths' worth of hair from the hardwood floors in the apartment. I thought that this would appease Adit, since Adit really only cares about the quantity of hair in the apartment (dust and other factors seem to matter much less); but, when he got home tonight, he still insisted on testing the dirt devil that I bought by vacuuming exactly where I was sitting, since theoretically my traditional seat is the most hair-covered place in the entire apartment.

ssssanyway, after sharing far too much, let's move on. I spent the day working on the full outline for Madeleine and Ferguson's book. Part of that work was done in the apartment; after I talked to my mother in the early afternoon, Adit, Priyanka and I repaired to Leland Tea, which was my favorite haunt in my old neighborhood. It's a v. friendly place, if a bit bizarre, and the owner was as entertaining as usual. I finished up the outline there -- basically, I've outlined fifty or sixty scenes that I still need to write, in addition to key details to add to previous scenes and some general restructuring that I shall do later. I'm feeling v., v. good about the progress I've made this weekend. The scary part comes tomorrow, when I intend to get up early and write before work; this will be the first bona fide writing I've done on this manuscript in many weeks, but there's no time like the present to get back into it.

Beyond that, there's nothing to report; my hermitage was well worth it, but I need to get back into the habit of writing every day regardless of whether I'm able to be a hermit every day or not. Now, though, if I'm going to get up early, I should really go to bed. Goodnight!

i wanna kiss you on the mouth and tell you i'm your biggest fan

I'm finally getting back on track with my writing and possibly with my life in general, although merely saying that is enough to jinx it all and ensure that things get even rockier. I had a pretty productive day on both the writing front and the friend front. I woke up of my own accord around 8:30 (after sleeping for almost ten hours), took a shower, and did a bit of work for the day job. I saw that I had a missed call from Vidius Chandicus, and so I called her back just in time to secure plans for a quick, immediate breakfast near her (formerly my) apartment. We had delicious bagels and caught up over some fairly bad coffee before she went down to the south bay, so that was quite nice.

After parting ways, I left my car in her garage and walked down to Union Square, where I spent a couple of delightful hours working on the romance novel in the cafe at Borders. I've decided to take a different approach with book two by meticulously outlining where I see the story going; luckily, Scrivener (the Mac writing software that I bought a couple of weeks ago) is a marvel for this, since it makes it easy to see the outline and tie it to real underlying text in the same easy-to-modify order. While I didn't do any actual writing that will make it into the book today, getting the existing draft into this meticulous, detailed outline form helped me to identify five or six scenes that were unnecessary and could slow down the pacing, so that alone is worth the time I've spent getting everything set up. Then again, it's never fun to lose 5000 or so words from your story, but since I would rather write a great romance novel than an easy one, I shall stick with it.

Following Borders, I met up with Irish Matt and we had a late lunch near Union Square. For once, I did not get hideously drunk with him; with the goal of writing later in mind, I limited myself to one glass of pinot grigio. It helped that we sat outdoors under a barrage of wind and pigeons, making for a less-than-ideal lounging experience. We followed it up with dessert at Max's Opera Cafe, which was totally delish even if I'm still nauseatingly full from the afternoon. It was lovely to see Matt; I don't see him nearly as much now that our travel budgets have been cut and we're not working on the same teams, but he's coming back in November and so hopefully I will see him then.

When I got home, I procrastinated some, outlined, procrastinated some more, and repeated that cycle until now. Tomorrow is another day, and I intend to continue slogging on the outline; the easy part of the outline is done, since I've mostly outlined what I already had (although I have quite a few notes about what I would change in the first draft based on the outline), but now I really need to get a fully-functioning outline for the unwritten part of the book as well. Wish me luck -- it's time for bed!

i love this record baby but i can't see straight anymore

The title line of this post has nothing to do with my current blood alcohol level (0.0). While I should theoretically be taking plaid-pants-dude's advice from the wedding last weekend and be out pursuing the admirable goal of getting laid, instead I stayed home, worked, and am now going to go to bed early.

Why, you ask? Well, I was in an inexplicably, absurdly bad mood at work today, starting as soon as I woke up (for the second time -- the first time I woke up was a little before two a.m., when I thought my back was on fire, since I had decided to use my octogenarian-approved heating pad on my sore back and fell asleep on it despite all the product's warnings to never ever sleep on it). The bad mood continued for the drive down to the south bay and for the string of meetings I had until two p.m. Seriously, I don't know what was wrong with me, but every meeting and nearly every conversation made me want to rip someone's throat out. In the interest of preserving my job and my coworkers' larynges (note: why is "larynges" the plural of "larynx"?), I left as soon as I was able and met up with John, who was visiting campus for the day and had an hour or so free to hang out. We had smoothies at one of the cafes on main campus, looked at some ridiculous sculptures of famous men and women of the sea (none of whom we recognized except the Cousteaus), and sat in the park for awhile. It was a lovely interlude in an otherwise dark day, so hopefully I'll see him and Jess again in a few weeks.

After parting ways with John, I bailed on two plans: Starbucks with some of my former team, and a movie with Vidius Chandicus. I'd gotten an email while I was with John from the big boss asking me for some stuff, so I came home and worked on that for awhile. Then, I indulged my bad mood by playing on the computer, cleaning my room, eating some leftover soup, and generally sulking. I think I'll pull myself out of it tomorrow, though; I have big plans to write this weekend, and so I'm going to go to bed early so that I'm refreshed for the tasks ahead. Goodnight!

you can never wrong this right

I'm rapidly approaching 1500 posts on this blog...provided I blog every night, I will hit that milestone in less than two weeks. Think of how many hours and hours I've spent writing in this thing -- better than spending my time doing crack, I suppose, but still somewhat harmful to my overall productivity. However, writing in the blog is now something that I feel compelled to do; I haven't missed a day in months, even if I'm just writing something completely inane, and it now feels like the appropriate close to my day.

I had a decent day today, made a bit strange by the fact that I found out that the big boss whom I shall start working for is now becoming an even bigger boss, which is quite satisfying and also somewhat terrifying. If the role she outlined for me becomes global in scope, rather than Americas-focused, I may be in trouble. I will cross that bridge when I get to it, however; it's what I asked for, and I would rather follow the "may you live in interesting times" curse than play it safe and sit out the next six months on the sidelines. Of course, I also plan to write my book in the next six months, making those interesting times even more "interesting" -- but provided that I can recover some of the willpower that I exerted last fall, I should be good.

After work, I met up for a long-overdue dinner with Vidya (aka Vidius Chandicus, the great and mighty Chandlord). I hadn't seen her since my birthday, which is nearly criminal given that we are now in the same general vicinity. We ate at Fiesta del Mar, which has seen far less of my business since Terry moved away, although it's still my go-to for some of my post-work outings. It was lovely to catch up with her; the key now will be to get her to fully move in up here so that I can see her even more often!

I got home a little after eight, talked to Adit and Priyanka (or, more accurately, was harangued by Adit for my various lifestyle choices), and then worked until now. At this point, I should really go to bed; I have a full day tomorrow, and I want to be awake for it. Goodnight!

i've got my sights set on you

I have nothing to say. I went to work today looking like a fool; it was 80s day for this project I was running, and I went all-out -- ultra-teased hair, teal and magenta eyeshadow, sweatshirt hanging off the shoulder, denim miniskirt, hot pink tights, sparkly blue socks, bangles, etc. Luckily, I live in San Francisco, and so people barely glanced at me on the streets even if I looked like a complete idiot; in fact, I felt so secure in my 'look' that I went to Safeway and bought groceries on the way home while still wearing my rocking outfit.

I was able to go to Safeway, and make my delicious potato and leek soup, because I worked out of SF today to run the project going on in that office. So, I was home around six, made soup, and did more work while having family time with Adit and Priyanka. Now, I need to go to bed, where my teased-out hair will serve as my pillow -- goodnight!