she was built with a brain and some swagger

The last half of today was fucking awesome, if I'm allowed to use such vulgarity on this blog. The first half was less awesome, mostly because I was hungover and v. tired (see: five cocktails last night) and had hit a wall with socializing. So I laid around in bed far later than I should have, showered, just barely made it to the restaurant in time for breakfast, and hid in a booth and made some notes to myself while trying to get enough eggs and coffee into my belly to being my recovery.

But then I had to leave breakfast to go immediately to lunch - the now-traditional dim sum with Courtney and Jenn (Courtney is a historical author; Jenn is the photographer who shoots my covers). A couple of other people came too, although Sherry (another historical author) was unfortunately not able to make it, which is sad because she's hilarious. Luckily, I was already mostly full when I got there, so I was able to avoid all the most gluten-y things (although I did eat soy sauce, but not eating pork buns or egg custard tarts or other gluten things was a big win). But I think we had all hit our social wall at that point, and so while it was fun, it was also a rather muted affair.

Then I came back to the hotel, spent an hour and a half at the rehearsal for the awards ceremony, which I got roped into helping with, and then came to my room and took a twelve-minute nap before venturing forth again. That twelve-minute nap was critical, though - it enabled me to have a fantastic coffee meeting with my friend Steph (who used to have my agent), and Kathia joined us for the second half so that we could discuss a top-secret idea. Then I went straight to dinner with the people from the Montauk writing retreat who were at the conference, which was lovely.

But I had to speed out of dinner, and I managed to change, put on lipstick, and get to the ceremony within fifteen minutes, which is a new record. I had to help with the ceremony (it went well, thanks for asking), so I was busy, and then I spent two hours after the ceremony hanging out and then having a drink and some guacamole with Vivi. At midnight we parted ways, and I walked through the lobby with the competing desires to rendezvous with the people I was supposed to rendezvous with or go to bed instead - and when I ran into the person I was supposed to rendezvous with, that decision was made for me.

And I'm v. glad it was - I stayed up for another two hours and had some of the most hilarious conversations that I had the entire week. My new bestie Katharine had been up for an award and didn't get it, and so she was drinking wine straight from the bottle, which obviously made me love her. And the whole group in that area of the bar was v. fun and v. clever, so I v. much enjoyed myself.

But now it's almost 2:30 and I have to get up in time to shower, pack, and have brunch with Laura and Dave before going to the airport - so sleep is crucial. Goodnight!