maybe wave if i pass you

Happy almost new year! It will be midnight here in ten minutes, but I hope to be done with this post and have the lights out by then. I spent the last couple of days being a city person - as I mentioned Monday, I drove up to Des Moines Monday night so that I could accomplish a variety of errands yesterday and today. Yesterday's primary errand was getting my car serviced, which went fine; they are v. eager to sell me on an upgrade since my car is seven years old, and I will perhaps get eager to upgrade because my car is worth increasingly little and any future repairs will be increasingly expensive thanks to zee germans and their car designs.

However, yesterday was not the day to shop for a car (unless it was, due to end of year sales, but I didn't have time). Instead, I slogged most of the day - almost everyone else was off, but I had several hours of planning meetings, which went well. And I took advantage of being in a city by doordashing some thai food to my hotel room door while talking. The thai food was actually somewhat mediocre, but I was so excited about being able to order it that I didn't care that much about the quality.

After I wrapped up for the day, I met up with Drewbaby and Sammie for a drink and dinner. Yes, I had just seen them this weekend, but it was fun to see them again. We had a drink at my hotel, and then walked to Roca to have dinner, which was quite tasty. And then I was going to get a bunch of stuff done last night, but instead dozed / slept, which I suppose was better.

This morning I got up reasonably early, grabbed coffee, showered, packed, and drove to West Des Moines, where I hung out at a Starbucks for a bit. Then I got my hair cut - I'm a little iffy on the woman I've been using, even though I like her, because I feel like she gives me too much of a 90s midwestern mom/Jennifer Aniston blowout + I think she messed up my bangs this time, but luckily blowouts wash out immediately and my bangs grow fast. After my hair cut, I ran several mall errands at poisoned myself with mall chinese food, which was mostly worth it. Then I grabbed a few groceries and came home.

I spent the rest of the night doing very little beyond eating cheese and playing some Animal Crossing, and now I need to go to bed so that I can accomplish much more than that going into the new year. Hopefully 2026 brings many lovely things for all of us - goodnight!