double vision

The first day of the conference was a success, even though this isn't the first day - in fact, tomorrow isn't the official first day either, although I've got a full agenda on calendar already. But today was a great way to ease into it...I slept for ten and a half hours (so much for getting up early and writing), just barely made it to the restaurant in time to get breakfast, and then spent the afternoon alternating between some desultory writing and some hardcore work (on my own writing/business stuff, not day job stuff - I'm gloriously out of touch with them and have no idea what's happening there).

But by 5:30 or 6 I was beyond done, so I put on a dress and met up early with the people I was having dinner with (some friends from Twitter who are now becoming real friends; I had dinner with them in New Orleans, and one of them just moved to the bay area). It turns out the margaritas in the hotel bar are ridiculously large but also not that strong, which is the worst combination. But I had half of one, then left to go to dinner. It was a fifteen minute walk along the Riverwalk, which is really pretty cool (albeit too crowded/touristy for my tastes, at least in the area where we're at). We had dinner at a texmex place, which I quite enjoyed, and the margarita there was way better. Also, I will admit that I love the queso that comes with everything - queso is not a feature of California Mexican, but I'm happy to eat it here even if I miss California's emphasis on avocado, limes, etc.

After dinner, we walked back to the hotel, where I came up to my room to cool off and charge my phone for ten minutes. Then I met Vivi for a drink and some quiet catch-up - we got our drinks and promptly absconded to the empty second floor balcony, where we could talk about life in total solitude. Eventually, Kathia joined us (although I should call her Kate this week, since she's in Kate-mode), and we talked for a bit before Vivi went off to find her bed. Then Kathia lured me into another drink and some more talk, and so I got back to my room sometime well after midnight. It's probably good that I got a lot of sleep last night, since it may not happen again...

But now I really should sleep - I'm already debating whether to blow off this thing at eight a.m. tomorrow in favor of breakfast and writing (you can guess what the answer will be). Goodnight!