black and yellow black and yellow black and yellow black and yellow

Today was a v. pleasant day that ended in a wonderful surprise, which is why I'm still up at 1:30am even though I slept incredibly poorly last night and intended to go to bed like a normal person tonight. The poor sleep was unfortunate; I didn't fall asleep until sometime after 2:30, and then I inexplicably woke up around eight and couldn't go back to sleep. So, I finally gave up and got out of bed, which enabled me to make some delicious oatmeal for breakfast and take my time eating it, rather than rushing around like a crazy person before going to meet up with Alyssa at the gym.

The training session was good; apparently getting up earlier and eating better before it is helpful, since I felt like I had more energy despite the ridiculous tings she had me do. I did a bit of cardio after working out with her, and then took longer than usual to get ready because I properly blowdried my hair (rather than drying the bangs and pulling the rest into a ponytail) and then got all dolled up in a dress and a pair of 3.5" heels (quite a shock to my poor feet, since I alternate between uggs, converse, and fuzzy socks in my unemployed state). As I mentioned last night, the big boss and her temporary replacement minion invited me to the lunch taking place during the big boss's leadership conference, and I showed up right on time (I'm turning over a new leaf).

It went down pretty much how I expected, in that I saw a bunch of people I hadn't seen in ages (including the folks from Dublin, Singapore, India, etc. whom I didn't get to say goodbye to in person when I left), probably didn't see everyone I would have liked to have seen, and somehow felt like I belonged there even though on the surface it was incredibly unusual and odd to invite a former employee to hang out during an internal lunch. But, no one else seemed to find it that unusual or odd, and it was nice to feel welcomed. Alan (the boss I had before I took my leave of absence) did suggest that I should come back and see if the third time's the charm in terms of me quitting and returning, but I took that as a compliment more than anything else.

Unfortunately I didn't actually get to talk to the big boss beyond a few sentences, since she was as busy as she always is, but we're having coffee in a couple of weeks. Several people suggested that I stay for the afternoon session, which would have been even more ridiculous than being there for lunch, so I took my leave. I do have a book to write, after all, even if lunch was fun. So I went to Starbucks, wrote for a while, came home, procrastinated, took a nap, made dinner (salmon and potatoes -- meeting Alyssa's suggestion to eat more fish and ignoring the goal to eat fewer carbs for dinner), and then proceeded to do some more editing. The overall editing today was great, even if my pace remains slow.

I was supposed to have dinner with John and Jess tonight, but they canceled because John is ill. So I intended to edit all night until now -- but at around 9:40, I saw that I had a missed call from Felicia. I called her back, and it turns out that Nita was in town for one night only, and so they came over to my house to visit. They didn't leave until almost 12:30, and since I volunteered to take Nita back to her hotel so that Felicia didn't have to go out of her way before going back to the east bay, I didn't get home until 1. But it was amazing to see both of them; I felt a little bad for Felicia, because the conversation was mostly dominated by me and Nita discussing romance novels (since we have basically identical taste, right down to these vampire erotica books that I have never had the courage to recommend to anyone else even though they are among the most heartrending/emotional books I've ever read -- how the author makes me sob hysterically after a vampire threesome is beyond me, but she's a seriously talented writer). I hadn't seen Nita in like four years, so it was wonderful to catch up, and Felicia and I hatched tentative plans to try to go down to San Diego and see Walter (if he'll have us).

But now, I should really sleep; I have a bonus third training session with Alyssa tomorrow to round out the week, and then I need to edit all afternoon before going out for drinks with Katrina. Goodnight!