try, try, try to understand, he's a magic man

I have officially stayed up past my bedtime, which I will perhaps regret in the morning. Today was a slog - I had more meetings than I prefer to have on Fridays. But I stopped working at four and hung out with Katie - she came over for a backyard hangout, but we turned it into a front yard hangout because my backyard couches were too damp and the front yard gets more sun in the late afternoon.

So I dragged some folding chairs out front like we were sitting awkwardly at a wedding, and we ordered a quarter of margaritas + guac + tacos from El Camino. There are few things that I will miss about this wasted, wretched year, but getting a quart of margaritas delivered to my doorstep has definitely been a highlight. It was slightly too cold to be hanging out outside, but Katie and I have become accustomed to these hardships, so we shivered and talked and caught up for a couple of hours. We had much to discuss - I was in Iowa for the first three weeks of February and she was in Iowa for the last one, so we hadn't seen each other in over a month. And at least sitting in the front yard gave us a change of scene, even if we looked moderately trashy drinking margs and sitting on my front lawn.

After Katie left, I talked to my parents and also talked to [censored]. Then I thought about playing Civilization, or perhaps doing some other mind-numbing activity. Instead, I picked up a book called MAGIC FOR LIARS and then read it straight through in one sitting. It was basically a magical murder mystery set in a high school for wizards (but they are called mages in this book). It was certainly not the best book I've read this year, but it was entertaining enough to suck me in for a few hours, so I'll take it.

And now, I'm going to take myself off to bed and hope I sleep in long enough to make up for the lateness (but not long enough to keep me from being insanely productive tomorrow, which I need to be). Goodnight!