the broken places

I had a fabulous day, but now I'm utterly wiped out and in desperate need of sleep. My grand plan last night to get drunk and fall asleep early was foiled by the fact that I don't sleep well when I've been drinking or when I'm sleeping somewhere other than my bed - oops. Also, I tried to go to sleep at the equivalent of eight p.m. in California, so it just wasn't happening. I slept v. fitfully all night, woke up at 7:30 (aka 4:30 in California), and knew that I was in for a v. messed up day...

But I showered, dressed, dolled myself up, and was good to go when Ritu returned from her overnight shift at the hospital. She had picked up breakfast for us, so we ate and caught up until it was time for me to leave for my train and for her to go to bed. I made it to my train with five minutes to spare (and with a latte in hand as fuel against my inevitable descent into decrepit exhaustion) and managed to score a seat on the river side of the train. And by river side I mean that for the entirety of the two-hour train ride that I took up north to see my agent, the train ran alongside the banks of the Hudson River. It was quite possibly the most gorgeous thing ever; so gorgeous that it made me want to abandon the west coast and move to a small town in upstate New York. Or a small town anywhere; I'm actually not really a fan of cities, a realization I have repeatedly and then choose to ignore when I remember that cities are home to mojitos and the country is home to Miller Lite.

sssanyway, I got to the town where my agent and I were meeting around 12:30, and we had a v. lovely afternoon. She bought me lunch at an awesome Italian restaurant, where we both had gluten-free pasta and white wine, and then we had ice cream down the street (where I had peppermint chip, which tasted so much like the peppermint ice cream we always got from the Schwan man at Christmas when I was a kid, at which point my agent and I discussed how we can't talk to anyone else about the Schwan man because no one knows what/who he is). Agent lady had been afraid that we would have to stop hanging out at that point since she had been expecting some calls, but her work load was lighter than she expected, so she drove me the thirty minutes out to her office so that I could see where she works and say hi to her assistant. And the office was *amazing* - on a gravel road, in a house that looks sort of like a converted barn, with acres and acres of rolling hills and woodlands with a view of the Catskills in the distance. I'm so freaking jealous. And the assistant was smart enough to put my books on display as though they're always front and center, even though I know better - but it was sweet anyway.

And then she drove me back to the train, I nursed a tea in the hopes that it would wake me up (failure), and then I spent two hours alternating between dozing and looking out at the countryside on the way back to New York. I had intended to write on the train today, but I got absolutely nothing done beyond drooling over the scenery. When I got back, I spent half an hour talking to Ritu, who then left for her overnight shift; then I ignored all her suggestions of cool places to eat and grabbed food at Chipotle, since it was three blocks away, reliably gluten free, and wouldn't require me to make any decisions or interact with anybody or try to look put together. And now, after having done a wee bit of work, I'm going to go to bed and hope that my attempts at sleep are rewarded tonight - goodnight!