Monday, May 30, 2016

overcome by bourbon and ordinary talk

I'm in Provincetown, which somehow feels like a lifetime away from this weekend's extraordinarily lovely activities...and yet this is shaping up to be lovely in its own unique way. I woke up this morning in Boston, where I was feeling #inittowinit, so I got out of bed, made myself some coffee, and hung out with my journal and my caffeine while I waited for Ritu and Bill to wake up. We had a lovely, lazy, leisurely morning/afternoon - we hung out and did v. little in the morning, and then we had a late lunch at a restaurant near them. My lunch was extremely tasty - red flannel hash, which is a regular hash but with the addition of beets (delicious even with turkey instead of corned beef). The hash + the poached eggs + the coffee went a long way toward restoring me to the land of the living, even if the service was a bit weird.

But all good things must end, which was true of my weekend with Bill and Ritu - I had such a great time with them, and I was v. v. sad to part ways and go on to my next adventure. But I will see them more this summer since I'm participating in their wedding shenanigans, so our farewells were easier since I have more dates with them already lined up. We spent my last hour together watching the end of Zoolander 2, which was totally ridiculous, and then they dropped me off at the ferry and my next adventure commenced.

I took the ferry from Boston to Provincetown, which is an hour and a half of pure gorgeousness (with some moisture - I chose to sit on top so the breeze would keep me from vomiting, but I was a little cold and a little wet by the time I arrived). Then I took a cab to my airbnb and checked in - it's a super cute little studio with some comfy chairs, a great bed, and a kitchen table that will serve as a perfect desk, so I'm pretty pleased with it. The owner was quite friendly and gave good introductions/recommendations, so I think my time will be productive.

After I settled in, I talked to my parents, since I hadn't talked to them yesterday. Then, I followed my plan of not working tonight and instead went out for dinner - but I didn't journal as much as I intended because I went deep into 'talk to strangers' mode, which was delightful. The restaurant I picked seemed ideal for this, since it was called 'Strangers and Saints', and the bartender made me an utterly delightful bourbon cocktail to go with my perfect steak (the steak had a chimichurri with a lot of garlic, and some roasted potatoes on the side, which was everything I needed). I did a bit of journalling initially, but then ended up having a v. long conversation with the guy sitting next to me, who it turns out is the partner of an exec I knew of at ye olde day job (never interacted with directly, but had some indirect dealings with while I was working for the big boss).

This conversation was delightful, and I got a lot of recommendations for what to see while in Provincetown, plus an invitation to check out his koi pond, so we'll see about that. After he left, I was packing up my stuff and ended up in conversation with the woman sitting next to me - she was lovely and really fun, but her partner seemed to think that I wouldn't write romance novels if I were in a fulfilling relationship, so I tried to disabuse her of that notion (probably without success). But at least she also said I was too pretty to be alone, so I guess she wasn't trying to force a pity party on me. Then they left, and the bartender commended me on my ability to make friends and introduced himself as well - so I would say that I will have no trouble striking up conversation in Provincetown if I should get tired of sitting in my own head and writing nonstop.

Anyway, Provincetown seems to be exactly what I'm looking for at the moment - and if it's not, I'm only here six days and I need to write for almost all of it, so c'est la vie. But I'm pretty pleased with the setup so far. And now I'm going to go to bed so that I can get back to work tomorrow - goodnight!

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