she'll bring out the best and the worst you can be

I got quite a bit done today - no writing, alas, but enough other stuff to feel productive. I dragged myself out of bed and over to the gym, where Alyssa attempted to destroy me. Luckily, I've recovered from last week's attempted murder, and I don't think I'll be as sore tomorrow as I was last Wednesday, so that's a good thing. After I escaped our hour together, happy to be alive, I took a shower, changed into a shirt I'd pulled from the back of my closet, and went to Joanie's Cafe for lunch. I surprised the waiter by asking to see a menu; I always order the Mexican scramble, which is clearly what he expected me to do, but instead I ended up getting a Cobb salad. I'm trying out this eating regimen that Alyssa's fellow trainer recommended (see last night's post if you didn't read it), and it feels quite odd and vaguely illicit -- for starters, bacon is encouraged, not forbidden, which is pretty freaking awesome. So, a salad with chicken, boiled egg, bacon, bleu cheese, avocado and dressing was perfectly fine, rather than a disaster in a bowl. And, it was really yummy, so lunch was definitely a +1 for this new regime.

After lunch, I came home, did two loads of laundry (so that I no longer have to wear things from the back of my closet with jeans that I'm pretty sure are dirty), sorted out my desk, and planned my meals for the next few days. Then, I went to Whole Foods and stocked up on steak, bacon, cheese, butter -- basically, all the things that haven't been in my fridge in awhile. For supper, I steamed an artichoke (delish -- why do I never do this?) and cooked a steak, and ate while reading two stories for the writing group that met tonight.

The writing group was really fun; five of us showed up, and we spent a couple of hours discussing writing in general and the stories that a couple of people shared. Oddly, one of the women who shared a story didn't show up tonight, so we discussed it without her. Unfortunately, since we had more questions than answers about what was going on in the story, her absence didn't really help. But, the woman who hosted had written a great couple of chapters for the book she's writing about colonial India, so that was fun.

As usual, I left the group totally inspired to write, so I'm going to prioritize writing tomorrow afternoon. I was distracted enough today that I didn't obsess too much about the book thing, and I'm going to try to maintain that distracted stance tomorrow, but hopefully I'll be able to focus on Ellie and Nick's story for a few hours. And now, I think I shall go to bed so that I can get up and fry myself some bacon in the morning. Goodnight!