trying to throw your arms around the world

I just very stupidly stayed up working until after midnight, which does not bode well for tomorrow. However, I hadn't answered any emails since last Wednesday, so I was overdue. Today was a pretty good first day in Dublin - I got to the office around 10, ate some breakfast and started catching up, and then had meetings all afternoon. I took a few hours off this evening, and had dinner at a restaurant that I used to go to when I lived here - it's a totally different restaurant now, but the space is super distinctive (under the rapid transit station, so it's in a low tunnel, which is pretty cool) and the food is better than it was, so all in all I was happy to have a couple of hours there and relive old times.

Then I came back to my hotel, took a nap, read twitter, and worked for a couple of hours. And now I need to go to bed and hope the jetlag is kind to me - goodnight!

I still haven't found what I'm looking for

I arrived in Dublin tonight and the taxi driver was playing U2. Stereotypical, but i loved it.

Today was both leisurely and way too intense - leisurely because I got plenty of sleep, had breakfast, then slept for another hour before checking out, and intense because my Fitbit says I walked eight miles and climbed 26 flights of stairs. I spent the afternoon at the Louvre...or I spent the afternoon around the Louvre, at least. The line was long and rainsoaked when I got there, so I bought a ticket on my phone for a timed entrance an hour later and waited for my turn while drinking tea on a terrace overlooking the pyramid in the plaza. This was entirely the right choice, since I stayed dry and then was in the museum in less than five minutes when my time came. #winning

Of course, I only had a couple of hours, so I ran around and saw what I could - mostly focused on ancient statues, which tells you the young adult novel is on my mind again. I left around 4:30, made a stop at Mariage Freres to buy tea, then went back to my hotel and ate a v quick snack before heading to the airport.

The rest of my night was super smooth - no issues with checking in, and I had time to have more food and a glass of wine before boarding. And now that I'm settled into my hotel and have talked to my parents and unpacked, I should really sleep - the office beckons tomorrow, alas. Goodnight!

careless whispers

I'm feeling asleep and typing this on my phone, so don't expect greatness. Today was very happy, all in all - I was jolted rudely awake by my alarm at 5:45 after sleeping through the night for the first time in a week (bizarre since I was having a lot of trouble in SF, yet slept here on the first try despite jetlag). So I dragged myself out of bed, got dressed, and had a v abbreviated breakfast downstairs before going to my mission for the day.

The mission was an all day tour of the champagne region - namely, the cathedral at Rheims (Reims), where almost all the French kings after Clovis were crowned. We then went to a small ish winery, which was awesome - lots of time discussing champagne processes. We then had lunch (I ate with an entertaining couple from LA who I ended up befriending), then I had a quick glass of rose in town, and then we went to Moët et Chandon. The tunnels were worth seeing - they have many kilometers of cellars for storing millions of bottles of wine, so that was awesome. The tasting was too corporate, but c'est la vie.

We got back to Paris around 6:30, I crashed for awhile, and then had an indifferent dinner (too bad in a city with such great food, but I was starving and desperate) and wrote in my journal and had some v interesting ideas about gargoyles. And now I'm going to sleep - it's supposed to rain tomorrow, but I still want to chase inspiration down with a club if I have to, so that requires getting up. Goodnight!

ooh la la

I'm going to bed right now, so you'll just have to trust me that yesterday went well (all presos delivered satisfactorily), and my flight was also smooth (although I didn't sleep enough, and the arrivals process at Paris was annoying).

My hotel is nice, and I spent too much time indulging my need to nap this afternoon - but no regrets, since I'm exhausted from the last week (month) and needed sleep more than I need to see the Louvre again.

But I finally rallied, had food and wine at a side sidewalk cafe, walked to Notre Dame, realized the wind there was super strong and blowing stuff into my eyes, then had dinner at another spot before come back to my hotel.

And now I've taken some melatonin - hoping to get seven solid hours before waking up for a tour I booked, but wish me luck. Goodnight!

this is the remix

I somehow only got six hours of sleep again last night...I am slowly dying here. And tonight isn't going to be any better - I have to pack, sleep, shower, and leave super early to drive to Mountain View in time to give a nine a.m. presentation (which I probably still need to put another 30min of work into).

But tomorrow I have two meetings, and then I drive to the airport and fly business class to Paris, so things could be worse, amirite? Granted, one meeting is a presentation to my boss that I'm not ready for, and one is my team meeting (which I'm also not ready for). But then it's all smooth sailing.

So yeah, today was painful in some ways (lots of fires), but good in others (lots of 1:1 conversations with people whom I adore). Then I picked up a rental car and made the mistake of driving to Burlingame at rush hour - it wasn't a mistake to see Barbara and Anne, since I've been feeling seriously in need of some writer friend time to remind me that there is more to my life than presentations, but it was a mistake to try to go anywhere at rush hour. We had a relatively quick dinner at Limon, where I had some totally awesome empanadas and a glass of wine that wasn't enough to fix my woes (although the amount of wine necessary to fix my woes would have rendered me unable to drive, let alone able to finish the work I had to do tonight).

When we were done, I drove back to the city of sin, and I sat in the lobby for the last hour working on the presentation because I knew I would just go to sleep if I tried to work on my bed. But I'm done for now, so it's time to throw stuff in a suitcase and go to bed - goodnight!

like a fish needs a bicycle

I'm blogging on my phone because I'm semi relaxed and know that I'll promptly get unrelaxed if I open my laptop. Today was all a little too much and I hit a wall - I may have finally come to the realization that I need to stop traveling for awhile. This is an unfortunate realization to have when I'm leaving for Paris on Thursday, but c'est la vie, as i like to say.

Ssssanyway. I was in town for a training that happened today, but I wasn't feeling it within the first five minutes, when I realized it was a training for senior managers and only four of the 35+ attendees were women. This is why I despise tech sometimes. So I participated all morning, but skipped a bit in the afternoon so that I could get some work done. I also worked after the training, had a call from 6:30-7:30, can't back to my hotel and had another call at 8....

... And by then I still had a million things to do, but I couldn't take it anymore. So I put my work phone away and went to An Japanese, which is right next to my hotel. I'd been there with the original Jen Lui once, so I had fond memories - but tonight was magical. I sat at the bar and talked to the sushi chef about life and his daughter and Field of Dreams, and he told me that his kids both have great jobs and so he cancelled his life insurance (parents - don't get any ideas). And the fish was perfect - the toro was like eating a perfect slice of the sea, the salmon tasted like it had been swimming only minutes before, and I had my beloved tamago (egg) to round it out. And I only pulled out my phone once to take a photo - the rest of the time I just enjoyed the moment and watched the sushi chefs practicing their craft.

And now I'm going to sleep and hope that my head is clearer tomorrow because I took a break tonight. Goodnight!

favoritos, favoritos baby

I slept horribly last night - I woke up at 4am thinking of everything I needed to do immediately, and I barely slept after that. So today was an exercise in pain - I felt foggy all day, which didn't help my mood.

However, it wasn't all terrible - I had some meetings, got some serious work done, picked up lunch and then carried it around for 90min because I was too busy to eat it, and had a meeting with my boss. I spent the afternoon in more meetings, as you may have guessed, but one was an hour of straight gossip, so that was super fun.

Then I worked for another ninety minutes before grabbing a drink with Alice and Chris at Smugglers Cove - apparently we only go to tiki bars now (one of my other direct reports, who couldn't make it, has started calling me tiki boss - very on brand). We then had a quick dinner at Mazzat, and then I parted ways with them, came to my hotel, and worked until I started falling asleep. I was writing an email to my landlord at the end and wanted to say something about fire risk, but instead typed santa ana winds - which is, after all, a fire risk, but not the one I had in mind, which is an amusing trick played by my tired brain.

So now it's time for bed - goodnight!

what about all the times you said you had the answers

So, #protip, in case you haven't figured it out - my v. short posts are typically from my phone, when I'm tired and already in bed and don't want to prolong my wakefulness by pulling out one of my myriad laptops. You can also tell this because I very rarely manage to tag those posts - hitting the right tag on the phone screen is tough, and not worth the effort.

Tonight's post was almost one of those, but I decided to pull out the laptop and make an effort. There was only one laptop to choose from, since I'm in San Francisco and didn't bring allll my tech - I only brought my work laptop, my (old, almost replaced last night before I remembered that I didn't really need to spend the money) iPad, an external keyboard for the iPad (the reason I almost bought a new iPad was because I had grand dreams of writing on it in Paris, but I'm going to see if I write on the three-year-old one I have before I indulge), and two phones. This is *not nearly enough* tech, but I think I'll survive.

sssanyway. This morning was a mad dash - I woke up of my own volition around 6:30, anticipating the millions of things that I needed to do before leaving, and fueled only with five and a half hours of sleep and some mild thyroid stimulant (don't ask). So I scrambled until 11:30ish, at which point I was totally packed, had cleaned the fridge and emptied the trash, made my bed, and handled a bunch of random stuff. My packing job was first-rate, which is why it took awhile - I had to check a bag because I refuse to wander around Paris wearing grubby clothes and minimal makeup just in the interest of pretending to be a minimalist. But my bag only weighs 36lbs and it has room to spare, so if I buy something in Paris or Dublin, it might actually fit in my suitcase. I'm shocked too.

My afternoon was uneventful - I got to the airport in time to eat lunch, drink a glass of wine to preempt the turbulence, and talk to my parents. I spent the flight working, then got a lyft into SF, where I discovered that I'd accidentally booked the Kabuki during the Cherry Blossom Festival, which means Japantown was a zoo and the street in front of my hotel was shut down. Oops.

But I made it to my room, unpacked, and did a bit of work. Then I took a lyft out to the Pacific, where I had a leisurely evening with Veronica. She's in the midst of some bad luck (daughter got a crazy black eye from a softball, son broke his wrist, and she threw out her back), so we stayed local to avoid further injuries. We drank some sauvignon blanc, ate some chips and hummus, proceeded to eat even more takeout Indian food, and generally enjoyed each other's company for several hours. I have to say, I'm pretty happy in Colorado, but Veronica is one of the things I miss about my life here.

But by ten p.m. I was fading, so I took a lyft back to the hotel. And now it's imperative that I get some sleep, since tomorrow will be back to the usual craziness - goodnight!

wake me up when it's all over

I'm typing from my phone, so expect typos. I had a very busy day despite spending it alone - I woke up before eight (unprecedented) and spent the morning taking care of things around the house while also doing some day job stuff.

But I needed some indulgent #treatyoself time - so eventually I left the house, had a late lunch at a Mediterranean place that I recently discovered, and then drove into Denver to visit a mall that is substantially nicer than the stuff around here.

My shopping excursion was better than usual (great for my closet, bad for my budget). I came v close to buying a new ipad as well, but I exercised extreme seff control by walking away.

When I got home, I walked to Pizzeria Locale for a quick dinner - it was exactly what I wanted, especially since I got some writing done. But now it's time for bed - goodnight!

suave suavecito

I leave my house for the airport in approximately thirty-six hours, and I have much to do before that happens - especially since I'm going to SF for a hot minute (so hot that I probably won't see anyone), followed by a weekend in Paris and a week in Dublin. Yes, my life is strange.

So, because I have millions of things to do tomorrow, I'm going to bed early - I went to work and did a somewhat half-assed job (what I did was good, I just didn't do enough of it), then had happy hour by myself, which turned into several glasses of wine, some poutine, and the best churros I've ever had (full of gluten but #noregrets) while writing several pages in my journal and continuing to befriend the bartenders (the last glass of wine was entirely unexpected and entirely free, so my ability to befriend bartenders remains well-honed).

And now it's time for bed - goodnight!

all my cash is gone

I am back in my own bed after having a way too early start to the day + flying back to Denver this evening. My conference was great...but I need to recover over the next couple of days, since I leave again Sunday night. So, I'm going to bed right away - goodnight!

i tried my imagination but i was disturbed

I had a v. lovely day, all in all, but I should have either slept better last night or gone to bed earlier tonight. I didn't sleep well last night, and I awoke earlier than I wanted to to an email that I had no interest in dealing with (which ended up being moot by the end of the day, but I didn't expect that outcome at 7:30am).

So, I put on some power red lipstick, had breakfast at my hotel, and headed to the conference. It was great - especially a segment involving the animation of Ariel (from The Little Mermaid) and Beast (from Beauty and the Beast), which made me long for the days when I could create stories rather than spreadsheets....

But I actually like my job, so c'est la vie. I was pretty diligent most of the afternoon, but I did skip out at some point to network with people from my olden days. I eventually ended up having drinks with my old team at the tiki bar that I went to last night - Tomas was there, of course, as were a bunch of other people. When Eugene showed up, he and I split off from the rest of the group and went for dinner - I had a mojito and some wine and some okayish paella, and my conversation with Eugene was as amusing as it always is.

We parted ways after that, and I wandered around and eventually met up with a bunch of people from work (including Tomas, whom I found eventually, and some other people from Boulder). I also paired wine with cotton candy, which was as disgusting as you can imagine.

But all fun must end, and I need to sleep right now because I have some stupid breakfast in the morning that I can't be late for. Wish me luck with that - goodnight!

my name is blurry face

I'm at an undisclosed location for work (not very interesting, I assure you), after spending a very white-knuckle ascent out of Denver this morning - the wind was so strong that they later closed the airport for awhile, which tells you how bad my flight started off.

But I made it to my conference in one piece, and my evening was nice - I had dinner with Aga and Andrea, then went to a party (not exciting, I'm should), and then met Alice and her friend for a drink at a tiki bar. I'm still remarkably sober - either I'm growing up or the open bar at the party was lackluster (I'll give you one guess).

But now it's time to sleep - goodnight!

hold tight

I had a pretty good day, all in all. I woke up earlyish to make it to the office by 8:15 so that I could have breakfast with Kristen and Barbara - we went to the 'nice' building, which is way more impressive, and they were suitably wowed. Then, I had meetings most of the day, with just enough time to procrastinate and laugh about utterly ridiculous things with the people around me.

I bounced a little before five, ran a couple of errands, and ate dinner at Chipotle (which always reminds me of how disappointed Ritu was in me for eating at Chipotle when I was in NYC and could have eaten literally anything else). Then I came home and worked for a couple of hours. And then I packed my suitcase, which is a fairly regular occurrence in my life - I'm going to SoCal for a conference tomorrow, which would be exciting if I didn't travel alllll the time.

But now I should sleep, since I should get up in approximately seven hours - goodnight!

wake up we need to make money

I really want to go to bed right now and not let myself stay up until 1:30 like I did last night. I didn't get up as early as I would have liked this morning because of that mistake, but I took care of a bunch of stuff around the house before driving down to Castle Rock to have lunch with Aunt B, her scandalous pirate husband, and the SPH's daughter and her two toddlers. I got there after they'd eaten, but I had some quality time with Aunt B while the rest of them took a walk, so that was great.

Then I drove back to Boulder, and I talked to my parents on the way. When I got here, I did about thirty minutes of stuff around the house, and then I walked to the Hotel Boulderado to meet up with Barbara and her daughter Kristen, who are in town for the next couple of days. In a fun twist of fate, I hired Kristen to join my team, so she was out here looking at apartments...which I'm super thrilled about, because a) I like Kristen and b) it means I'll probably see Barbara more often.

So we had drinks at the Boulderado and talked about writing and life, and then we walked to The Kitchen, where we had a v. tasty dinner and more conversation. It was a fun end to the weekend - I didn't get nearly enough done, but #noregrets.

And now I must sleep - goodnight!

i want a new drug

I had a lovely day, but I shouldn't have stayed up this late. Yesterday was pretty good too - I spent some quality time at the office, but skipped out at 3:30 to have happy hour with Nicole, who I am determined to befriend. She seems equally determined to befriend me, since she was all in on ordering a whole bottle of wine to split - this is the makings of something delightful. We also had some nachos and some brussels sprouts, and a whole lot of gossip, which was great. Her husband showed up later, so we finished our drinks with him, and then they dropped me off at my place. I then spent the rest of the night doing nothing and watching Top Chef, which was the perfect night.

Today, I had brunch with Katie - she drove up to Boulder, and we walked over to River and Woods, which is becoming one of my favorite spots. We had much to discuss, which we accomplished over a tasty breakfast...and then we went to Sephora, where I had a 15% off deal that we made v. heavy use of. Yes, almost all of my money goes toward food and vanity.

After we parted ways, I retrieved my car, came home, took a nap, and dealt with tax stuff. Then I walked to Boxcar, where I had some tea and wrote for awhile. After that, I got a pedicure - I'm headed for California this week (SoCal, not NorCal), and I was eager to get my feet looking a bit more well-kept before I go. Then, I tried a Greek restaurant I hadn't been to before (verdict: totally fucking delicious), came home, tried to write and instead wasted a lot of time online, and then watched the last two episodes of Top Chef Colorado. And then, of course, I went deep into a rabbit hole of finding out what happened to all of those people after the season ended.

And now I really must sleep - goodnight!

this river is wild

Can't blog...I had meetings all day and should have worked all night, but instead I met Marina for a drink. She's an old Stanford friendb and we were supposed to go to a Stanford mixer, but instead we sat in the bar and talked since we hadn't seen each other in forever.

But I need to go to bed more than I need to write all of this down - goodnight!

love lies bleeding

I'm back in Boulder, and I'm still too tired to tell you about all the fun I had last night...after getting back from the concert, I "slept" in an incredibly uncomfortable bed, which meant I awoke this morning feeling like death. I didn't have it as bad as [censored], who had to drive home and go to work this morning, but I still feel like complaining.

However, we had breakfast with the parents before parting ways, and then my parents drove me to Des Moines (French for 'the moines') and kicked me out at the airport on their way home. We were originally going to have lunch and I was going to kill several hours at the airport, but I managed to get on an earlier flight, which was perfect. So, I got home around three, laid on the couch for awhile to deal with the effects of overheating (It was 81 degrees when I got to Denver, which was v. different from Iowa), and then took a nap rather than being productive.

But I rallied and went down the street to eat a delish cobb salad at River and Woods, where I wrote a few pages about a possible book and also chatted up the bartender. And now it's only 9:25, but I think I'll go to bed - goodnight!

wild world

I can't blog because I need to go to bed immediately, but my family and I saw the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain and it was awesome. Super awesome. And now I need to sleep - goodnight!

our old friend fear and you and me

I'm not ready to go to bed yet, but I'm blogging now so that I'm not tempted to slack off later. Today was an okay day, all in all - I procrastinated more than I should have, and I probably should have gone outside for some fresh air, but so far so good. I slept late, then spent much of the late morning/afternoon journaling - both the bullet journal artistic stuff that I like to do + the deep ruminations that I've been avoiding. I'm making a serious attempt to get back into my writing career, and journaling helps me with that.

But my writing career also involves money and taxes, which I've definitely been putting off...so I spent several hours tonight going through receipts and reconciling Quickbooks. I'm not done, so I'm going to do some more until I fall asleep, but I'm getting closer. However, I had to take a break for the last hour and file an expense report for the day job, since it was also getting close to overdue (and at some point the system starts emailing your manager to rat you out for not submitting your report, so I was trying to avoid that). Yes, my life is glamorous. Can you tell I really don't like doing all this admin stuff?

Beyond that, I have nothing to report - and I have to wake up in the morning and pack my stuff to continue onward toward the next part of my Iowa adventure (hint: it involves ukuleles). Goodnight!

history in the making

I've had a v. relaxed couple of days in ye olde Iowa - mostly filled with eating beef, watching golf, and talking to my parents. I also saw Aunt B, who came down today to visit Gram and check on her bees; unlike her, I didn't bother to leave the house since it snowed most of the afternoon, which feels like a cruel joke.

But now, after writing the bare minimum to satisfy my legions of fans (hello, all two of you!), I am going to sleep - goodnight!

flies in the vasoline we are

I'm in ye olde Iowa for the weekend - I wasn't ready to take off today from a work standpoint, but I was definitely ready from a life standpoint. Or maybe I wasn't totally ready...I barely made it to work in time for breakfast because I had to finish packing, take out the trash, etc., etc.

Once I got to the office, I should have slogged really hard to get through as much stuff as possible, but instead I spent some quality time joking around with people. I learned that this guy Mike grew up in Germany as a small child, where they apparently have something called Krampus (the opposite of Kris Kringle) who eats bad children's families at Christmastime. This convinced me that instead of doing a Secret Santa at work this year, we should do Secret Krampus and just play pranks and steal people's stuff. Sounds like a great idea, amirite?

So, after learning a lot of facts that explained a lot about Mike, I did manage to do a bit of work. I also had a meeting w/my VP, but it all went smoothly, so that was good. Then I ate a quick lunch, left for the airport, and drove all the way through snow (I maintain it was snow; one of the Californians I sit by thought it might be hail, but I was pretty convinced that none of them knew any of the words for the myriad forms of frozen precipitation). I worked for an hour when I got to the airport, then boarded my tiny plane. I read the whole way to Iowa, which was lovely...

...and then my parents picked me up and we went to Johnny's for our usual post-airport supper. I had a pretty tasty ribeye and a baked potato, which was great. Then we successfully made it home, and I stayed up later than I should have talking to my parents (and even later than that unpacking and messing around online). But now I need to stop messing around and get some sleep - goodnight!

it's easier not to be wise

Today was v. long - I had meetings from 8:30 to 5:30 with v. little break. But I picked up a delish chicken kebab on the way home and ate it while watching an episode of 'Top Chef', which was a good way to relax. Then I did some laundry, cleaned up the house, and packed for my trip tomorrow. I ended the evening by messing around online a bit (no real work, just booking some stuff for my next trip to California).

But now I need to sleep - I have to get a ton of stuff done tomorrow so that I don't have to work while I'm home. Goodnight!

lightning crashes

I want to blog all the words, but I'm too tired - I got up earlier than I wanted this morning so I could run an errand before work, and then I slogged pretty hard all day (well, sort of hard). But I skipped out at 4:15 and drove to Denver, where I met Katie for drinks and dinner at Root Down. Root Down wasn't quite as charming as it usually is, since the bartender was fairly terrible (both of Katie's drinks were truly awful; I stuck to wine, which was safer, but still).

However, Katie and I made the most of it, and had a generally wonderful/hilarious time. We went back to her place after and I said hi to the girls, who only terrorized me a little bit, and then James put them to bed while Katie and I continued to gossip (and listen to 1990's classics) for a bit. Then I came home and spent the last 1.5hrs putting together a page for my Stanford class reunion book - the deadline was tonight, so of course I waited until tonight to do it. Stupid.

But now it's time for bed - goodnight!

wake me up before you leave

Today was pretty full of big ups and major downs. I wasn't feeling so hot yesterday, so I left work early and spent most of the afternoon napping, then some of the evening working (which is why I didn't blog). But today I was feeling better, so I went into the office, worked most of the morning, and took some time out to buy tickets for me and [censored] to see Counting Crows in September (yay!). I also took a break for lunch, then had a long 1:1 with my boss, which was entertaining and enlightening (and I got to say, yet again, that I have no intention of leaving to write full-time - they must think I'm a flight risk).

But then I had several hours free this afternoon, settled into to get some work done...and discovered that there was an active shooter at YouTube. This, of course, wrecked the rest of the afternoon. I pinged the people I knew there and it appears that everyone I know is safe, but it's still not totally clear. People at work were understandably upset; some people went home, while others of us dealt with it by eating our feelings, compulsively scrolling through twitter, etc. My team also went on a brief walk around the block, which kind of helped - but nothing can really help.

So I came home around six and was catatonic on the couch until eight, when I finally did some laundry, trimmed my bangs, ate some soup that I'd thawed out overnight, and spent the last hour doing some work that I'd meant to do this afternoon. And now I'm going to go to bed and dream of a better tomorrow - goodnight!

under the bridge

I had a gorgeous day to myself in the city of sin - I only got six hours of fitful slumber, but I awoke feeling surprisingly alive. So I threw on some pants and went out to get some Philz coffee, which delighted me. Then I packed, showered, left my hotel, bought some of my favorite gel pens at my favorite Japanese stationery store, and had lunch at Dosa because I've been craving Indian food and have yet to satisfy my addictions in Boulder.

Then I went to Hayes Valley to browse, and then I drove out to Ocean Beach, sat on a bench overlooking the water, and talked to my parents. It was an idyllic day, and I was feeling nostalgic for my old life...

...but my new life is pretty great too, and I'm glad to be home. I went to the airport super early and ate and drank some wine and worked for a couple of hours before boarding. I sat next to a pilot, who was interesting; I also read a little and slept a little.

But no amount ofosleep could make tonight better - my flight landed at midnight, so I got home at 1:15, and now it's two a.m. and I have to be at the office in less than eight hours. Gross. So it's time for bed - goodnight!

i had a dream we were back to seventeen

I had a perfect day in the dirty east bay and a perfect night in the city of sin...so it's probably best for me to leave tomorrow before I get seduced into the idea of moving back here. Not that I want to move back here after watching a child play with rocks in a tree enclosure after realizing that all of those rocks were probably covered in dog urine...but I digress.

I got up relatively early and still a little too late, and I scrambled to pull myself together so that I could drive to Berkeley for brunch (but to Jess, it's breakfast) with John and Jess and Ian at Saul's. You probably wonder how they're doing, but my main concern was getting the corned beef hash, so I had #priorities. However, from what I could gather while hanging out, they're in fine form.

I spent the rest of the day hanging around Berkeley - shopping, more shopping, and some quality time at Philz. I also got my eyebrows waxed from my favorite person ever, which was delightful.

The I met Claudia (aka Santy Cluade if you're lucky) for a drink - this ended up including oysters and olives, which were delish. Then we walked down the street to meet up with Chandlord .... and this eventually turned into drinks with Adit and a late night at Grubstake, but I'm falling asleep while writing this, so you'll just have to trust me on that. Goodnight!