the first cut is the deepest

I must go to bed immediately; thanks to my ridiculously late evening last night, I didn't get up until after ten a.m. today, and I was fairly unproductive and somewhat distracted most of the afternoon. I finally made myself leave the house and go to the post office to mail some stuff to a couple of writers who needed swag for giveaways, which took way too long since the line was ridiculous - but it was good to get outside for awhile, and I came back rejuvenated and ready to go. So I wrote for a bit, and then ate some leftover pizza while spending over an hour reading my 'Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names' (as one does on a Friday night). I'd named Nick's brother Marcus as a placeholder, but it's too close to Malcolm (the hero of my last book)...and I'd named Ellie's maid Dorcas as a placeholder, but Dorcas doesn't sound particularly sexy (and I have a great idea for a novella about her). So, I need to rename them both. And I also need to figure out whether Dorcas (whatever her name is) is a lady's maid or a paid companion, and what her background therefore must be depending on the distinction in her role.

But I allowed myself to be distracted tonight; Katrina texted me to see if I wanted to grab a drink, and while I usually would have said no and tried to be good, I haven't seen anyone since getting home a couple of nights ago, so I thought it would be fun to hang out. And it was quite lovely - we met up in North Beach, a neighborhood I v. rarely go to even though it took me less than 15mins by bus. North Beach is also known as Little Italy, and it's full of Italian restaurants, tourists, and seedy stripclubs. But Katrina wanted to try this bar tucked into an alley off Columbus and Broadway, and it was *awesome* - mostly because we immediately scored a small table right by an open window, and so we were able to catch up for a couple of hours in comfort. I had a cocktail with absinthe, egg white, cream, strawberry/thyme, and seltzer, which was odd but pretty tasty, and we split some fries, and we got sufficiently caught up so that we won't have to try to force catching-up time into tomorrow's bachelorette party. And I successfully limited myself to one cocktail, even though I really wanted another one.

And then Katrina and I walked back toward my place via the Broadway tunnel (crazy) before parting ways so that I could walk the remaining four blocks by myself. Once here, I spent a bit of time writing down notes about Dorcas's character, since I think my subconscious made some decisions for me (thanks, absinthe!). And now I really must sleep; I have to go to Berkeley in the morning for my romance meeting, and then Lauren's bachelorette is tomorrow night, so expect a v. drunken post (or no post at all) as a result. Goodnight!