Today was gorgeous, albeit not entirely according to plan. I woke up early enough to write for a couple of solid hours before my social activities - not enough writing, but better than nothing, so I'll take it.
Then I drove to the dirty east bay to have lunch with Heather (aka dear respected madam). She and I have been seeing the same eyebrow waxing/facial aesthetician for quite awhile, and that woman recently left the salon to start her own private studio. The unfortunate thing is that this studio is in Walnut Creek, which is far far out - it took me forty minutes to get there with no traffic, and it took Heather an hour from San Jose. But we wanted to be supportive for our aesthetician friend, and it was a good excuse to see each other...
...so we met for lunch at the Cheesecake Factory in Walnut Creek, where we caught up for a couple of hours over the gorgefest that is Cheesecake Factory. The thai chicken lettuce wraps that we split were actually really good, and probably could have been my whole meal; the burger I ordered was also good, but it was particularly good because they had a gluten free bun and had griddle toasted it, which was a rare treat since most gluten free buns are terrible.
But I was mostly there for the conversation, which was great, as per usual. Then we went to the aesthetician's, and the three of us all talked during the brow waxing (an unexpected side benefit of booking back to back). I really love the brow lady, and I want to be supportive...but the drive is kind of killer, especially on they way back (see below). But Walnut Creek is like the Palo Alto of the east bay in terms of shops/restaurants, so it's not a terrible place to spend a day (but also not very interesting).
But I digress. After Heather and I parted ways, I drove to Berkeley to see John and Jess and Ian. John's parents were also there, and so I spent a couple of hours catching up with all of them. I was going to leave around five, but by then traffic back over the bridge was bad...and it suddenly looked like it was going to take two hours and would be faster to go up through the north bay and over the Golden Gate Bridge, which is really really out of the way, obvi.
So I imposed on their hospitality and hung out and ate dinner with them - John made mapo tofu with some ground chicken, and Jess made some cabbage and sausages and also some bok choy, and Jess's dad had left some chicken curry that was amazingly tasty. I 'helped' to reheat some rice, which turned into a disaster that may result in them needing a new rice cooker, but it was entertaining to watch the aftermath (and it wasn't my rice cooker), so it was #worthit.
After that, I enjoyed one of John's cappuccinos while talking to his mom and dad about meditation, which was super interesting. Then, I went on a walk with John/Jess/Ian/Samosa, and we examined the neighborhood trees. Ian is six weeks old, and so he is way bigger than he was when I saw him ten days into his existence - and while they claim that he has the loudest screams ever, I didn't hear them while I was there. But they all seem to be doing quite well, and while I stayed far longer than any of us intended, it was a great chance to catch up.
But by 7:30ish I really needed to go home, and traffic looked slightly better, so I braved the bridge. And then I should have written, but I fell asleep on the couch instead - so I'm going to go to bed and get up fresh tomorrow so I can write all the words. Goodnight!
Then I drove to the dirty east bay to have lunch with Heather (aka dear respected madam). She and I have been seeing the same eyebrow waxing/facial aesthetician for quite awhile, and that woman recently left the salon to start her own private studio. The unfortunate thing is that this studio is in Walnut Creek, which is far far out - it took me forty minutes to get there with no traffic, and it took Heather an hour from San Jose. But we wanted to be supportive for our aesthetician friend, and it was a good excuse to see each other...
...so we met for lunch at the Cheesecake Factory in Walnut Creek, where we caught up for a couple of hours over the gorgefest that is Cheesecake Factory. The thai chicken lettuce wraps that we split were actually really good, and probably could have been my whole meal; the burger I ordered was also good, but it was particularly good because they had a gluten free bun and had griddle toasted it, which was a rare treat since most gluten free buns are terrible.
But I was mostly there for the conversation, which was great, as per usual. Then we went to the aesthetician's, and the three of us all talked during the brow waxing (an unexpected side benefit of booking back to back). I really love the brow lady, and I want to be supportive...but the drive is kind of killer, especially on they way back (see below). But Walnut Creek is like the Palo Alto of the east bay in terms of shops/restaurants, so it's not a terrible place to spend a day (but also not very interesting).
But I digress. After Heather and I parted ways, I drove to Berkeley to see John and Jess and Ian. John's parents were also there, and so I spent a couple of hours catching up with all of them. I was going to leave around five, but by then traffic back over the bridge was bad...and it suddenly looked like it was going to take two hours and would be faster to go up through the north bay and over the Golden Gate Bridge, which is really really out of the way, obvi.
So I imposed on their hospitality and hung out and ate dinner with them - John made mapo tofu with some ground chicken, and Jess made some cabbage and sausages and also some bok choy, and Jess's dad had left some chicken curry that was amazingly tasty. I 'helped' to reheat some rice, which turned into a disaster that may result in them needing a new rice cooker, but it was entertaining to watch the aftermath (and it wasn't my rice cooker), so it was #worthit.
After that, I enjoyed one of John's cappuccinos while talking to his mom and dad about meditation, which was super interesting. Then, I went on a walk with John/Jess/Ian/Samosa, and we examined the neighborhood trees. Ian is six weeks old, and so he is way bigger than he was when I saw him ten days into his existence - and while they claim that he has the loudest screams ever, I didn't hear them while I was there. But they all seem to be doing quite well, and while I stayed far longer than any of us intended, it was a great chance to catch up.
But by 7:30ish I really needed to go home, and traffic looked slightly better, so I braved the bridge. And then I should have written, but I fell asleep on the couch instead - so I'm going to go to bed and get up fresh tomorrow so I can write all the words. Goodnight!
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