the district sleeps alone tonight

I had a fairly productive day, all in all - I hit my goal amount of time writing, and I also took a couple of quick walks outside (although one was to get ice cream, which wasn't all that healthy). I also spent some quality time on the roof, enjoying the sun and staring out at the Pacific, which is probably not something I should mention since I was on the phone with my parents and then my brother to see if they were surviving the crazy cold back home. But you all know that I am somewhat insufferable and yet you stick around, so thanks for that.

I finally gave it up around six, when I got pulled into ordering food for the group - we went with mediterranean, and it was all really yummy. We were all talking for quite awhile, and then some of us watched 'Book Club', which Veronica had rented - Andy Garcia was the best part of that movie, and you'll have a lot of work to do to convince me otherwise (not that anyone will want to expend any effort on this).

And now I need to sleep - goodnight!

cherish the love

I had an awesome first full day at my writing retreat. I had a perfect blend of writing a few hours and hanging out with my friends - but I shouldn't talk about it to most of you, since you're living in frozen hellscapes. It's not fair for me to mention that I spent the afternoon writing in the sun while watching the ocean; it's even worse to say that I spent the evening in the hot tub. I also took a long walk with Veronica, and then we all walked to dinner - we went to a place called Masters, which was super delicious.

And now I need to go to bed - hope that everyone who is in the midwest stays warm. Goodnight!

it's a lie, a kiss with open eyes

I can hear the ocean from my bedroom, competing with the horn of a late-night train. My writing retreats tend to be in delightful locations that are purpose-built for inducing Instagram envy, but this one may take the cake - we are as close to the Pacific as we can be, in a house with eight bedrooms and bathrooms (only Tina and Grace have to share, but they have full-sized bunk beds, so they'll survive). We didn't take full advantage of it since we got here only an hour or so before sunset, but there is a large roof deck with a hot tub, and I fully intend to make use of it tomorrow.

Today, though, was all about getting settled. I awoke in Irish Matt's house, spent some leisurely time having coffee with him, and then said my goodbyes so that he could work and I could head toward Oceanside. I had breakfast at a cafe he recommended (All Time) before leaving his neighborhood, and then I drove for approximately two hours to get out of LA and farther down the coast. When I got to my destination, I sat in my car for forty-five minutes and talked to my parents since we missed yesterday's call. They are about to go through a crazy cold polar vortex, which makes my current view almost insulting, but c'est la vie.

I stopped talking to them just in time to meet my friends for a late lunch before checking into our house. Everyone else flew in today, and miraculously everyone was on time, so we had lunch to kill time and catch up before we could check into the rental. I had some v. excellent short rib tacos, which I split with Grace in exchange for her fish tacos, and a glass of rosé was a nice way to top it off. And we dove immediately into catching up - there are nine of us on this retreat (Barbara, Anne, Veronica, Grace, Tina, Steph, Deb, and Christie), which is basically the last retreat minus Monica, and it's a really excellent group to hang out with.

Eventually we drove back to Oceanside, checked into the house, and did the Hunger Games - which is what I call us picking rooms. It's really more civilized than that, but in any rental house there are some rooms that are obviously better than others, so it requires some strategy and a good memory. I'm happy with where I ended up, although I'd be happy anywhere that I can hear the ocean. Then we went on a grocery run (I drove, as usual - but since I got upgraded to an Infiniti SUV that can fit seven or eight people, I'm probably the right person to do it), came home, ate supper, and gossiped the night away. V and I also had some more tasty rosé, and I can already feel my work tension melt away....

But that's an emotion to explore another day - for now, it's time for bed!

why do you build me up buttercup

I've been up for twenty hours, so it's no wonder I'm a bit sleepy - I had to get up at 4:20 to get ready for my trip, which i did not enjoy. But the trip itself was super smooth - the drive was peaceful, the airport security was fast, I had time to grab food and coffee, and my flight was actually early.

Unfortunately I worked the entire way rather than sleeping - I had so much work stuff to do, and doing stuff today made it more likely that I can ignore it all this week. When I landed, I picked up my rental car and drove to Irish Matt's house. You may remember him from my India days, or highlights like the time I drank with him for like six hours (and two waiter shifts) at the ferry building in SF. I, of course, remember way more than that, but if you don't remember him, just pretend you do.

We spent a glorious day together in the SoCal sunshine. We had brunch at a place that felt like Bali (lots of courtyards and indoor trees), and then we went to the Huntington, which I've always wanted to see. They had some amazing gardens, and also a lot of old books, which is pretty much my jam.

When we left, we had a three hour dinner (mostly margaritas) at a restaurant nearby, and then spent a couple of hours hate-watching the Hulu documentary about the Fyre Festival (which, let me tell you, makes me feel a lot better about how I set and accomplish goals at work) .

And it's time to sleep - goodnight!

arrow and bow

I spent today getting ready to leave again - some desultory messing around the house, some laundry, some errands, some shopping, and some work. None of that is interesting, and I need to go to bed so that I can get up early tomorrow - so that's all you get. Goodnight!

you turned the tap dance into your crusade

I had a long day at work, but I was wearing new shoes and I had a couple of bona fide hours at my desk to get some work done, so it almost felt luxurious compared to the usual. And then I drove to Denver and had an extended girls night out with Katie - we went to Lola, where we had margaritas and guacamole and enchiladas and shrimp, as well as a v entertaining waiter and a long, delightful conversation about a variety of different topics.

Usually I stay at her place after a night like this, but I wanted to sleep in my own bed, so I stayed sober. But when I dropped her off, we discovered that James was having a problem with the carbon monoxide detector, so we took a bizarre, late trip to Target, where Katie got some new detectors and I was honored to win joke of the night.

But now I need to sleep, since I have a million things to do tomorrow - goodnight!

run for the hills

It snowed here this morning and I would have worked from home, but I didn't have enough food, so I went in anyway. You can guess what I did - I slogged. It was not fun. Also, the prednisone wore off and it felt like my whole body was suddenly swollen, and I have been feeling icky, but I can't tell if it's my sinuses or stress. However, I did leave to get a mani/pedi, then drank some wine and watched Top Chef before having to do a bit more work, so at least there were a couple of hours where I had a break.

And now I need to sleep - goodnight!

baby now we got mad love

I'm feeling slightly better, but that's likely because I got nine hours of sleep last night, so I'm going to go to bed right after this and attempt to repeat most of that feat. Today went pretty well as a result - I did a bit of work at home in the morning, then slogged through meetings and work all day. The presentation that I was stressing over went well, although of course it's going to result in even more work. And then I left at 5:30 and had dinner with a coworker - we ended up going into Denver to Linger, since she has kids and lives in the suburbs and never goes into the city. It was a delightful way to end the day, so it was well worth the traffic and the drive to accomplish it.

And now it's time for bed - goodnight!

sunrise chillout

I stayed home sick today, but since I worked nine hours straight, it didn't really feel that luxurious. However, I worked for nine hours while wearing yoga pants and a sparkling pink sweatshirt, and I didn't wash my hair, and I could make fancy tea or emergen-c whenever I felt like it, so it was still a bit of an upgrade from going into the office.

Unfortunately, my sinuses still hurt - but that's also likely due to how dry it is in my house, and also how little sleep I got in the past two nights despite needing more than usual. So I ordered fresh filters for my bedroom humidifier and another humidifier for downstairs that should arrive tomorrow. I also closed my laptop at six, ate some soup that I'd been saving in the freezer for a rainy (snowy, sneezy) day, and watched some Top Chef to unwind...and I'm going to bed right now, at nine p.m., in an effort to save myself. Let's hope I'm successful - goodnight!

smashed my heart into smithereens

I'm still sick, and it didn't help that I only got five hours of sleep last night - and it definitely didn't help that I suddenly realized I had been working on day job stuff until 12:30am. I have a presentation on Wednesday, so that's important, but also I hadn't changed the timezone on my laptop and thought it was only 11:30. Dumb.

I didn't work all day, though; I lazed about, did virtually nothing in the morning, then spent some quality time with my journal / planner. At some point I showered, which was a super endeavor. I also talked to my parents since we didn't talk yesterday, and went out to get some supper (Motomaki) and some groceries just in case I decide to work from home tomorrow due to my sinus infection + the possibility that we're getting some snow.

But the work had to happen, and I spent way more time tweaking than I had intended, so now I'm probably going to die. You can engrave these beautiful slides on my tombstone. Goodnight!

i know what to do when our love is on fire

I'm back in Colorado and my ears survived the plane ride, although it was touch and go for a minute. Also, I didn't walk into my house until two a.m., which was an annoying end to my trip. But the bulk of today was great. I slept in, showered, got some coffee, packed, and then checked out of my hotel, where I negotiated $50 off the bill because they'd painted my door without telling me yesterday and I noticed this morning that I'd gotten some paint on my coat. I don't know if it will come out, but luckily it's in a place that my hair usually covers (I was holding the coat over my arm when I got paint on it, not rubbing my neck against the door like a weirdo).

After that, I grabbed my car and picked up Vidya (the Chandlord) and took her over to Geary to have lunch at My Tofu House. I've never had lunch there, but I was really feeling the desire for spicy soft tofu soup due to my sinus situation, and Chandlord was also getting sick and in need of soup. So, this was the perfect place to catch up - it wasn't as much of a zoo as it sometimes is at night, and the soup really hit the spot (and was like $18 and didn't have any microcilantro, but did have beef and clams and shrimp and an egg, so it may have been an upgrade over last night, but don't tell anyone or my foodie card will be revoked).

Chandlord was in good spirits and we had much to discuss, so we lingered over the soup until there was nothing left to linger over. Then we went over to Adit and Priyanka's (and took Priyanka some soup, since no one in our friend group can resist it) and hung out with them for a bit. I hadn't gotten the full tour of their house last weekend since the kids were asleep upstairs when I arrived, so today Priyanka made us some chai, and then they gave us the tour. They did a really nice job with the renovation, so now I have all sorts of ideas for what I want to do when I buy a house...

...but that's a topic for a different time. After the tour, Adit and Chandlord and I went for a quick coffee down the street, and then we said our farewells and I dropped Chandlord off at the Caltrain station. Just as I was pulling away, I got a text saying my flight was delayed - and I almost just rescheduled for tomorrow and went to a hotel to sleep instead, but it's supposed to snow here tomorrow and I didn't want to get stranded. So I dropped off the rental car and mucked around the airport for a few hours - mostly eating, watching the end of the Chiefs/Patriots game (boo), journaling, and staring off into space since I was tired.

My flight finally boarded, my ears survived takeoff, and I slept most of the way. Unfortunately, as we were about to land, the pilot pulled up for some reason and went back around, and that repeated pressure change wasn't totally fun, but I seemed to emerge unscathed. Then I had to get out of the airport, retrieve my car, and drive home - the 45min drive from the airport isn't fun, but at least my ride (did I tell you I bought an Audi?) was smooth.

And now I'm home and my house is slowly heating up, and it's time for bed - goodnight!

I'm high as a kite, I just might stop to check you out

I took it much easier than planned in deference to my sinus situation....I slept a lot, had breakfast at the hotel instead of anywhere I wanted to go, journaled a bit, showered, and then spent some time at the mall trying to use new purchases to fill the void where my health should live. I wasn't entirely successful, since the one thing I wanted (a new smartwatch) was actively discouraged by the woman selling it, since she quietly told me a new one is coming next week. But it was a nice indulgent way to spend the afternoon....

I also took a brief nap, then got ready and had an early dinner with Lauren (aka Subz) at Al's Place. I hit peak San Francisco during that meal, since I paid over a hundred dollars mostly to eat lettuce (and a dish topped with "microcilantro") - also, they were trying to accommodate both my gluten issues and Lauren's desire not to eat beef/chicken, and so we ate a lot of trout, which I am only mildly interested in. Sadly, they had missed the fish-only directive and brought out a steak tartare that looked amazeballs before Lauren sent it back. But the food was still good, and of course the company was excellent.

And now I need to sleep and hopefully recover enough that I can get on a plane tomorrow - goodnight!

i want a new drug

I fell asleep four hours ago, but I thought I should probably blog now that I've woken up to turn off the lights. Today went sideways - I either have a sinus problem or a jaw problem, because I have some crazy swelling around my right ear/jaw hinge.

Needless to say, this ruined my day - but I got through some meetings, then went to urgent care, where they hyped me up Sudafed, a nasal spray, prednisone for the swelling, and a muscle relaxant just in case it's my jaw. So I cancelled my plans for the night, and I just lingered around the hotel, which was the right call.

And now it's time for real bed - goodnight!

south city midnight lady

I'm in Shedletsky's guest room, slowly dying from lack of sleep, but #noregrets. I woke up stupidly early this morning and was at the office around 7:30, where I had meetings straight from 8 to 5:30 (I guess I had an hour break in there, but that barely counts). But I escaped with my life and my sanity, and I drove over to where my friends live...

... And we had much wine and much delicious boeuf bourguignon, and even more conversation, so it was great. Their kid is one of the cutest kids ever, and they're also one of the best couples, so it was a great way to spend the night. But now I must sleep - goodnight!

the automator

Today was an exercise in pain - I was rudely awakened by an earthquake at 4:40am (minor one, but perhaps another reminder that I don't need to live here), and when I finally dragged myself out of bed at six, I knew it was going to be painful to get through the day. I had to shower, pack, and get out of my hotel, which means I didn't leave until 7:30, which meant traffic was fairly bad.

But I made it to the office and somehow survived the day. I left around 5:30, picked up takeout sushi, and met my friends Jen and Joann - we were v. overdue for a friendship renewal, so I had fun hanging out with them tonight. Unfortunately, it's not all fun and games since Joann had to leave to avoid getting caught in the rain, and Jen and I are both workaholics who had a million things to do tonight. But at least there was a bit of fun and non-work delight to add some nice balance to my day.

And now I'm going to go to bed and hope that I survive tomorrow as well - goodnight!

twenty-inch blades on the impala

I had to drive down to Mountain View today, in the rain, which is an excellent reminder of why I don't live here. The drive back in the rain was even more of a reminder. However, my day itself was totally fine (albeit stressful - I had to get a Mountain Dew, which is always a tell). And I got back to the city of sin in time to have drinks with my team - we tried a new tiki bar (Zombie Village), which was v. v. delightful (and v. v. rum-filled), After, we went to dinner at a restaurant that is the sister of Lers Ros - I love Lers Ros, but this restaurant may have been even better. And we ended with a drink at some bar next to Whiskey Thieves. It's funny how all of these references are missing actual names, and are just references to things next door to  / across the street from things that were around when I used to live here. Things change, I guess....but lucky for you, this blog is still going strong despite the fact that we're living in a totally different universe than we were in 2004.

But that's a bit too much introspection for my current mood, and I need to go to bed right now if I have any hope of surviving tomorrow. Goodnight!

but first let me take a selfie

I had a delightful day in the city of sin, even if it was entirely work related. I walked to the office, which reminded me how much I like walking to the office; I had a bunch of meetings, but I could see the Ferry Building from some of them, so it wasn't a hardship.

The only bad thing was that I got stuck in an elevator, which made me twenty minutes late for a meeting and makes me never want to trust an elevator again. That was a really bad way to start the day, to be honest. But I survived, so I guess I shouldn't complain, even though I totally will complain to anyone who will listen.

After work, I had dinner with some co-workers and an external partner at Trestle (the doughnuts made the entire night, so I'm glad I didn't tell them about my gluten issues). We then had a drink at Comstock Saloon and another at 15 Romolo, which was a nice way to revisit some of my favorite haunts. My body wanted to go out some more after that, but I have to get up super early to go to mountain view, so I was good and made it home before ten.

And now it's time to sleep - goodnight!

no one’s gonna save you from the beast about to strike

I had a glorious day in the city of sin - but it's always glorious when I can just walk everywhere and not drive, as opposed to my horrendous commutes from days of yore. I woke up in time to keep my facetime date with Barbara, which I think shocked her - she assumed when I made the plan to call her at 9am my time on a Sunday that it wouldn't happen, and in many cases she would be correct, but I hadn't talked to her in forever and she's taking a trip to India in the next few days, so I wanted to catch up with her before she left. This was a delightful way to start the morning, and set my mood up perfectly for the rest of the day.

After that, I showered, then went to Olea for brunch with Tom, Julie, and Deano (aka the drunk freshmen, although Deano's real name is Brian and he wasn't one of my freshmen, and also they all have quite successful / high profile jobs now, but I can't stop myself). It was super fun to see them, so I'm glad we were able to get together. Then I came back to my hotel and talked to my parents, and then I did a bit of journaling until it was time to pursue my next slew of engagements.

I got a manicure this afternoon at my old nail salon - they were super surprised to see me, since I used to go in religiously and then suddenly disappeared for a year and a half. But it was nice to see that most of the usual suspects were there, and they do such a better job on my nails than any other place I've ever gone. I was feeling nostalgic, so I got the same color that I had when I went to Bora Bora (pacific sunset) - and yes, it's ridiculous that I remember that, but I remember the names of colors that I like.

sssanyway. After that, I wrote for a bit at Peet's, and then had dinner and a drink with Claudia and Sam. We went to Wayo Sushi, which usually is quite slow, but we were the first people in and so were the first people to get sushi, well before the sole proprietor started backing up on speed. Then we had a drink at Lush, where I was hit on by a fifty-year-old former heavyweight boxing champ who told me to look him up online, which immediately led me to the discovery that his boxing career was cut short when he served thirteen years for illegal drug possession....so in other words, I still got it.

sssanyway again. I'm now safely ensconced in my hotel, and it's time for bed so that I can go back to the grind tomorrow - goodnight!

hot like mexico rejoice

[note: this was supposed to post last night, but apparently didn't. I'm alive!]

The nap I took this afternoon apparently wasn't enough to restore me - but I had a fabulous day in California, thanks for asking. I awoke in Heather and Salim's guest room and vacated almost immediately - Heather had lunch plans and I wanted to grab some coffee before starting the long drive up to the city.

But with Philz in hand, I made it to my first plan - lunch with Katrina at a place called the Cove, which I've somehow never been to but the menu is great. We had many things to catch up on (and we even caught up on some tings, which are totally different), and so when we were finally done lingering over coffee as much as possible, we made a stop at Falletti grocery store so that I could buy the spiced fried garbanzo beans that they make at Nopalito (Nopalito is closed for renovations, but Katrina can still get in).

Eventually, though, we said goodbye, and I ran a couple of errands and then checked into my hotel. The hotel is awesome, although I was too tired to trust my grip when it came to trying to take a picture down the middle of the stairwell that goes down seven flights of stairs. I lazed about for a few hours here, mostly reading social media, taking a nap, unpacking, and journaling.

But I had to vacate one last time - I went over to Adit and Priyanka's place for takeout, which was pretty great. I hadn't seen them together in forever, so we had quite a lovely time reconnecting and discussing career issues. And this has given me much to mull over, but I really need to sleep before I continue - goodnight!

what i've got's full stock of thoughts and dreams that scatter

Two years ago right about now, I was in this bed, about to head to Bali. Tonight, I'm in Heather and Salim's guestroom again, after a long day at the office...and a fantastic steak dinner at the Fairmont in San Jose with Heather (aka dear respected madam). We spent much time catching up, then came to her house, caught up some more, and watched "Ready Player One" with Salim. And now I'm going to cut this off and sleep - goodnight!

we got the beat

Way too much work today, tbh - I woke up a little after six, was in the office around 7:15, and then slogged straight until a morning meeting with my VP, followed by meetings until five p.m. without any breaks. I did get to take one of my meetings while walking around outside, which was kind of nice, but didn't actually make up for the fact that I was otherwise in meetings all day.

At five, though, I left the office - but I had a work dinner, so it wasn't total downtime. The managers who report to me and I went to Shana Thai, which is one of my go-tos when I'm in California - I have not found Thai food that is up to my standards in Colorado, so this really made me happy. The conversation was also quite entertaining, so that's great, but it wasn't totally downtime. And then when I got back to my hotel, I had to slog through a fairly annoying task that I'd been putting off because I knew it would take two hours to do, but I couldn't put it off any longer.

Now it's time to go to bed and dream of a time when I won't have to work this many hours (i.e. this weekend) - goodnight!

watch the stars fall from the sky

It's only 9:30 in Mountain View, but I think I'm going to go to bed - I didn't have a terribly stressful day, but getting up and packing and getting out of the house was a bit of a scramble, and then I had 2.5 hours of meetings and just enough time to eat a bad sandwich before heading to the airport. I was expecting a clusterfuck since SF has been having rain delays for days, but my flight was actually on time (and I was upgraded), so it was about as smooth as it could have been.

I worked at the airport before leaving and then answered email the whole way to SF. I bummed around the airport longer than I wanted to hoping that traffic would die down, but it didn't really, so I finally grabbed a rental car and came down to MTV. And now I think I'm going to sleep - tomorrow is mass chaos and I would be well served by getting up in time to get ready for it. Goodnight!

why does my heart feel so bad

Today got off to a rough start because I slept poorly and awoke with v. stiff shoulders, but I somehow survived it. I slogged all day and also managed to get a new laptop (not actually new, but its left shift key isn't broken, which is great because I was going insane at work trying to type on a broken keyboard). I also went to the dentist for a cleaning, which was necessary even if it didn't feel like how I wanted to spend my time today.

I took a break this evening to have an extended happy hour with another woman named Sara...and then, as soon as I dropped her off, I had a call with someone in Tokyo. Then I came home and spent the last two hours trying to get my house in some semblance of order - I leave for California tomorrow, and while I haven't packed yet, I have at least done the hardest things (like printing out my manuscript and choosing which pens to take).

But now I should sleep since I need to wake up early to pack and do some meetings before going to the airport - goodnight!

i got all pig iron

Today was a v. long day in the pixel mines, as my friend Shedletsky would say. I woke up at 6:15, but I didn't write - instead, I started working on day job stuff as soon as I poured my coffee. I don't regret that, because spending three hours at my desk at home getting things done was incredibly helpful in terms of making me feel like a decent human later when my meetings started.

Still, it made for a long day. Eventually I took a quick shower, took a meeting from home, and then went into the office for another string of meetings. I managed to leave at 4:30, though, and met up with Katie at Blackbelly. The only advantage of the government shutdown is that she drove up to see me rather than me having to go to Denver - and I remembered the fact that she eats as much meat as I do, so I took her to a butcher-focused restaurant that I've been wanting to go to since few of my other visitors have been into that kind of scene.

It turned out to be a v. nice place for happy hour - she had a burger (which is probably what I really wanted, in retrospect), but I decided to try something new. So I went with their crispy pig ears, which the server described as 'bacon french fries', which is pretty much what they were. They came with a fried egg on top and some perfect red pepper jelly underneath, and it was surprisingly delicious (although rich and perhaps not actually filling enough). I also got the broccoli, which was tasty as well. And I caught Katie up on everything she needed to know about southern Iowa, so that was a fun way to spend a couple of hours.

Then I came home, messed around the house, tried on some stuff that I'd ordered online, and then did another hour or so of work for the day job. I'm trying to get caught up on a million things that have been lingering, and I don't know how successful I'll be since I'm about to go out of town, but we'll see what I can make happen.

But now I'm going to read for just a bit and then go to bed - goodnight!

building steam with a grain of salt

Today was the real last day of vacation - last Tuesday was just a test run, since Wednesday and Thursday were minimally productive and I was hanging out with John and Jess Friday and Saturday. However, they left early this morning, so I had one final day to get some stuff done and settle back into some semblance of order before the chaos starts again.

I was far more productive than I usually am on Sundays - I got out of bed before 8:30 of my own volition, and spent the morning making lists of things I require in possible houses + researching printers + doing some bullet journaling. I had a noon meeting with my landlord, who is also a real estate agent - I'm considering buying a house, so I wanted to see if he would be a good fit for what I'm looking for. This is a tiny baby step toward the ultimate goal, but we had a good conversation. I still need to do some more thinking about what I want - the biggest question is whether I want a single family home in line with my subconscious Iowa desires, or if I want a duplex/townhouse with more modern features and minimal maintenance in line with my conscious time availability / maintenance abilities. I really don't want to share walls with anyone, but I also can't get a house on 80 acres in the area that I want to be in, so it's not like my inner Iowan will be satisfied anywhere here. And the places where I could get 80 acres would result in a long commute, and my inner Californian would be sad.

sssanyway, I probably won't solve that problem until I start looking at some properties and really understanding what the market looks like for each type of dwelling in my price range. After our meeting, I came home, did a bit of nothing, and then ran some errands, including grabbing a late lunch and buying a new printer. The printer became necessary a few months ago when I discovered that they no longer make drivers for my old printer that match any of my current operating systems, but I'd put it off until now. But I got a great black-and-white laser printer with wifi printing capability for $89.99 on sale at Staples, which happens to be one of the top-recommended printers on a bunch of consumer websites, so I'm pretty thrilled. Yes, I'm super dorky for being super thrilled about a printer, but you should know this by now.

Then I came home, called my parents, and then spent the evening setting up my printer and using it to print some inserts for my journal. And now I'm going to read a bit and go to bed, thus hopefully getting my week off on the right foot. Goodnight!

finished symphony

I had another great day in Boulder - the new year is off to a great start if you ignore the day job, which I've successfully done so far. I woke up in time to trim my bangs, shower, and throw together a frittata before John, Jess, and Ian came over for breakfast. The frittata turned out v. tasty, as usual, and I also had a bunch of berries (which was key since that's mostly what Ian wanted, although that turned into him force feeding them to John). Ian ran around my house a bit after, disappearing upstairs for a minute and then yelling down the stairs, "Auntie Wamp, can I play with this?" Since it turned out that 'this' was my rotary cutter, which was possibly the most dangerous thing he could have found in my house with only thirty seconds of searching, we decided that he could not play with it.

But despite my cold-hearted denial of his desire to play with my rotary cutter, we had a good morning. John and Ian went to a park, and Jess and I went to do the free tour at the Celestial Seasonings plant, which is based in Boulder. I don't drink much Celestial Seasonings because almost  all of their 'teas' are herbal infusions (no tea), or tea that has been overly flavored for my tastes - I mostly likely my tea without any flavors, unless it's a nice Earl Grey. But the tour was pretty interesting - they produce something like 1.6 billion bags of 'tea' a year, so the factory was cool.

After that, Jess and I grabbed a quick lunch at Boxcar, and then she went back to their hotel and I came home, napped, and journaled/wrote in the afternoon. We were supposed to rendezvous at Pizzeria Locale at 5:30...but at five, I idly wondered why I hadn't gotten a confirmation today, and then discovered it's because I'd made the reservation for next Saturday. Extreme rookie move. So I dashed over there without much hope, since it's v. hard to get a table there on weekends. I put my name in and they said they'd probably be able to seat us at the pizza bar around the same time as my original reservation, but that a table would be a two hour wait. Resigned to fate, I got a glass of wine - but also chatted up the staff whom I've befriended there, and suddenly a table appeared. We had to vacate it by seven, but that was more than doable - and I was pretty happy that I would be able to show my friends the full Pizzeria Locale experience (although my actual Pizzeria Locale experience is usually drinking three glasses of wine and reading a book at the bar, but this was acceptable too).

John/Jess/Ian arrived just after I scored the table, and we ordered some v. tasty stuff - the pizza that I usually get (a spicy pepperoni-type pizza), along with a pear pizza that Jess chose (delicious!), and some broccolini that was insanely good. We also got the little arancini balls to start, which I loved, and the whole meal was just about perfect. After, we took Ian out to 'hit the town' (it's super cute when he says it), but he wasn't as in the mood for another bar as we were, so we went back to the hotel and hung out in their room until it was time to say our goodbyes.

And now I should sleep - it's back to the usual grind tomorrow, since they're leaving super early and I have a bunch of stuff to do in preparation for the week/month ahead. Goodnight!

deck the halls with cherry yo-yos

I'm a bit too tired to blog, so this will be brief - but I took the day off (after only two days in the office) to hang out with John and Jess and Ian. We started with breakfast at Lucile's, which I've wanted to try - I've heard that the line on weekends is absurd, so I've never gone, but now I know why it's absurd. I ate all sorts of stuff I shouldn't have eaten - it was Cajun-style food, so I had a beignet, and I had eggs on top of fried eggplant with some v. amazing breakfast potatoes.

This made me super full (we were all full), but we rallied and drove up to Nederland. We rode the carousel up there, which was pretty entertaining/impressive (it costs a dollar and has an old Wurlitzer organ from the early 1900s). Ian ran around in a park even though it was unpleasantly cold - so unpleasantly cold that I went to an alpaca store after and bought a hat. Then we drove back to Boulder, and I came home, took a nap, ate some peanut butter, and wrote for an hour (yay).

We rendezvoused again around 5:30 and walked over to Dushanbe Teahouse, which I'd been to once before - it's a teahouse constructed from imported materials from Tajikistan, and it was perfect for an early dinner since half the other customers were screaming children (Ian was not screaming). My spicy rice noodles were excellent, and I had a decent mule-type drink with peppermint tea in it.

Then we wandered around Pearl Street for a couple of hours in an attempt to wear Ian out, and then went back to the hotel and had a drink while catching the tail end of a live jazz set in the lobby - they were really excellent, and Ian befriended them to the point that the drummer gave him an old pair of sticks after. But now, after spend the last hour engaged in mindlessness on my phone, I should really sleep - goodnight!

tell the waitress i'll come back to zanzibar

I had a somewhat lazy day at work - meetings mostly straight from 9:30 to 4, but there was still time to mess around and joke about dead plants, have lunch (which turned out to be a meeting), and also participate in a very abbreviated happy hour. But I left at four and got my nails done, which was necessary since I'd been peeling the gel off my fingernails while avoiding getting anything done. Then I came home, ate, prepped my house, texted with [censored], and went out and bought groceries.

This is all necessary because John and Jess and Ian are visiting this weekend (yay!). They got in tonight and are staying at the Boulderado, so I went over there after they got checked in to say hello to them. The hotel is really cool (old Victorian with a working person-operated Otis elevator), and their room is v. nice, so we hung out in it for awhile and ate leftover chips and salsa from the Mexican food they'd picked up on the way. John put Ian down while I talked to Jess, and then eventually Jess went to bed and John and I went down into the basement to have a drink at License No. 1. This is probably my favorite bar in Boulder, since it's rather speakeasy style and has a bunch of intimate interconnected rooms. Tonight was hopping, since they had a live band that was quite good, so John and I had a drink and discussed life, and it was all quite lovely.

But now I should sleep since their child will wake them up v. early and that means we will be having breakfast earlier than one might desire (but at the same time that I usually have breakfast). Goodnight!

cherry blossom girl

As it turns out, I really didn't want to go back to work today. I spent a couple of hours this morning sitting at my desk at home, contemplating my goals for the quarter and attempting to make some sense of my to-do list before the inevitable need to talk to people actually happened. Then I went into the office, had some meetings, ate a sandwich, had some more meetings, and peaced out at 5:15 because everyone else was already gone and I felt no need to be there any longer.

So I came home, did a bit of nothing, and then did some laundry, unpacked, cleaned up my kitchen, wrote for an hour (I'm burying the lede), and took care of some requests that people had made of me. I also bought tickets for my trip to CA at the end of January (for a writing retreat, not work, although a work trip is also happening in January), sent a couple of emails to schedule stuff during those trips, etc.

And now that I've accomplished enough to feel moderately satisfied with my progress, I'm going to bed - goodnight!

when the evening shadows and the stars appear

I'm back in Colorado and I'm not particularly enthused to go back to work tomorrow, but I'm sure I'm not the only one feeling that way. Today was mostly uneventful - I had breakfast with the family, then packed, dealt with some stuff that needs to be donated out of the house, and generally got ready to go. I said my farewells to my parents at home - [censored] was on the way back to [censored] today, so I hitched a ride rather than having my parents take me. We had a good conversation on the way up, and I wasn't quite ready for it all to end...

...but that's just the way it is. So I checked in, had a salad and a drink, and boarded my flight. Everything was super smooth and on time, but it inexplicably took 80 minutes for my bag to get off my plane - they were doing 30+ United Express flights on a single luggage carousel, so it appeared that every flight was taking an hour+ for the bags to get there. Had I known this, I would have eaten something in the airport, but c'est la vie.

I had vaguely thought I would take the much more economical bus home, but the luggage debacle made me miss the one I wanted to take, and I didn't want to wait another 45mins for the next one. So I took a lyft home, came in just long enough to throw some clothes in the wash and turn up my heat, and then went to the grocery store. This required brushing a few inches of snow off my car and almost freezing to death, since it's less than ten degrees here. But I got food, ate food, unpacked just a bit, and relaxed in an effort to wind down before the day job restarts.

Now it's time for bed - goodnight!