let your feelings slip boy but never your mask boy

I had a v. nice first day in California. Thanks to the time difference, I actually woke up just before sunrise, and I showered, got ready, etc. in time for an earlyish hotel breakfast. The decor was fabulous (as is the decor throughout the hotel), but the food was a little disappointing - mostly because the potatoes weren't hot and lukewarm potatoes are a tragedy, as some people would say. But my coffee was delish and it was nice to not have to think about where to get food when I'd just woken up.

Then I took a bit of a walk - not far, but I walked to the end of Oceanside Pier, which is 1954 feet long. 1954 feet was far enough to walk out into the Pacific, but luckily my fear of heights (and fear of drowning) was merely murmuring in a disgruntled fashion instead of forcing me to abandon the endeavor entirely. Then I came back to the hotel and took a wee bit of a nap at 10:30am - unusual, but I do sometimes nap after lunch, and the timezones were conspiring against me.

Then, I met up with my friend Tanya for lunch. We reconnected a year or so ago and have been having semiregular zoom chats, but I hadn't seen her in person in at least a decade. She drove up from wherever she lives in San Diego, and we had lunch at another restaurant on the hotel property. This one looks directly out over the ocean, and we had good seats outside, so it was a delight. And my ceviche + my ginger ale were exactly right for what I wanted, so that was exciting too. Tanya was in fine form, and we discussed all sorts of stuff about parental illnesses, the tech world, politics, etc. until it was time to part ways. We also grabbed pies from the Top Gun house, which now sells gluten free hand pies, which are a) not quite as good as the Amish hand pies and b) not an intuitive use of the Top Gun house, but it was still fun.

After that, I messed around for a bit with my writing, and then got a mani/pedi, which took forever because they started nearly half an hour after my appointment time and then did the manicure and pedicure consecutively rather than concurrently, which always feels like a waste. But my nails look nice, so that's great. And then I had dinner at a fabulous sushi place (surprisingly good - I didn't have high hopes, but it was the best sushi I've had in a v. long time).

And now, I need to go to bed so that I can embark on some serious writing activities tomorrow - goodnight!