it's surprising wise men looked at the horizon

Goodbye, house that is dirty/unkempt from a month of hardcore concentration on zee romance novel -- hello, southern California. My reward for finishing the book was a v. impromptu trip to LA to see Terry -- I'm only going to stay for a couple of days, since I need to start plotting the next book (I owe a full synopsis of it to my agent in two weeks, which may be problematic since I currently only know what happens in the first chapter, and even that is vague). But, it's great to get away for a couple of days and take an enforced break, since otherwise I would have just spent today moping around in the aftermath of finishing the book (which is more like a kind of death than anything euphoric, oddly enough).

I didn't leave as early as I would have liked; since I didn't go to bed until 2:30, I let myself stay in bed until 10:30. Then, I showered, ate some cereal, took care of some emails, and threw a bunch of stuff in my car (four bags' worth, which is overkill for two days, but it was faster to just keep tossing stuff in the pile than making decisions and editing down my packing list). I made it out of Palo Alto by 12:45, and with the three stops I made along the way (for a v. belated sit-down lunch at Casa de Fruta, gas at Kettleman City, and caffeine at the last stop before the Grapevine), I rolled up to Terry's apartment at 7:15. I unloaded my car, changed into something cuter than the 'fur'-lined pink hoodie that I wore on the drive down, and then Terry and I went out for dinner at some fish place in Santa Monica. They had an outdoor patio that was quite lovely (particularly since there were plenty of heat lamps), and we spent a couple of hours lingering over dinner and drinks. I originally stuck to one mai tai, but Terry ordered a second mai tai and then gave it to me after three sips, thus doubling my consumption. Amusingly, at some point in the evening a dude came over and hit on me by telling Charlie Sheen jokes -- this might have worked, since I haven't had anyone tell me any jokes in awhile, but considering I also haven't seen anyone I know (other than Alyssa and my CPA) in a week, I'm probably too socially awkward these days to capitalize.

So after dinner, Terry and I came back to her place, continued to catch up, and then watched an episode of "Bones" (since that's what we do). And now, I should really get some sleep; Terry wakes up at some ungodly hour (and for me, ungodly is now anytime before nine a.m. -- I had to get up at 7:30 earlier this week and it almost killed me), so I should take advantage of my sleepy time while I have it. We're going to go to the gym, possibly see a terrible movie, and then have dinner with her family, so it should be a good time all around. Goodnight!