how thoughtlessly we dissipate our energies...perhaps we don't fulfill each others' fantasies

I'm going to go to bed "early" tonight (12:30) because I almost slept through lunch, and that's just a little bit absurd. I managed to pull myself out of bed around eleven a.m. so that I could make it to my old office in time to have lunch (baked potato Tuesday!) with my friend Jason. It was good to see him, since I didn't really see him much in the month or two before I quit. His wife is having a baby in December and they just bought a new house and are renting out their old one, and so he's got quite a bit going on. It made me feel like a complete slacker by comparison, but I'm pretty happy with what I've got going on right now, even if I didn't write much today.

After lunch, I ran into Natasha, and so we took a walk and talked for forty-five minutes. Then, I drove to downtown Mountain View and got a delicious latte at Red Rock Cafe, sat down to write, and felt some of the same issues around the scene I'm working on that I felt when I was blocked on the scene with the twins a couple of weeks ago. What fixed the previous scene was realizing that it was in the wrong setting and carried the wrong emotional weight, but I don't know how to fix this scene because I can't really remember what's happening at this point since I've rewritten so many damn times.

So I decided that it would behoove me to reread what I have so far, particularly since I haven't really written in about ten days and so may have enough distance from it to make some useful observations. But, I was out of printer paper, and so that necessitated a trip to Office Max (dangerous, but I escaped with exactly what I went for -- a case of printer paper and a couple of plastic file bins that were on sale, since my files are overflowing and need to be stored in the garage). Then I dashed home, printed what I have so far, emptied all the work-related boxes out of my car into the garage while waiting for the printer to finish, and hole-punched everything so that I could put it into one of my slick binders and read it like a book.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), I couldn't tackle the reading then; I had to go back over to the area near my office to meet my friend Riki for a drink. He was the one who originally set up lunch with Jason, but then he canceled on us, and since he works in the evil city I thought it was worth it to have a drink instead. He invited his friend Alex, who used to work for the same company as us and now works for the enemy down the street from me, and Alex's brother, who is still part of our company. So that was fun, since I hadn't seen Alex (or Riki, for that matter) in a long time.

But, I had to part ways at 6:15 to make it over to my every-six-weeks Friendship Renewal Dinner (tm) with Joann and Tolu. We went to Shana Thai in Mountain View (on Moffett, of all places), which Heather (aka dear respected madam) had recommended -- and it was hands down the best Thai food I've had in Mountain View in quite some time. It didn't taste bland at all, which was a huge step up from Amarin or King of Krung Siam. We had a generally fun time catching up for a couple of hours, which was quite nice, so I'm glad I went even if I got nothing of note done today.

When I got home, I spent the rest of the night looking at shelving systems online; you may think that I have enough shelves, since I have one built-in set, three leaning shelves, and a big library cabinet (not counting the linen closet and the pantry closet), but I still have books in boxes and my general desk area is a wreck. I finally managed to find a set that I liked that were the right height, length, coloring, etc., and I went ahead and ordered them so that I could stop obsessing over them. Once I figure out the lamp situation in my bedroom, I should be done with acquiring new stuff for my house, but we'll see once I get my bed put together.

Now, it's time for bed. I have no social plans tomorrow, although I do have class at 6:15, so tomorrow is going to be a hermit writing day (which I'm quite excited about). Goodnight!