this place about to blow

Apologies for not blogging last night - I had a long day (woke up at six, did a bunch of stuff around the house including two loads of laundry before I went to work, and slogged hard and fast until 4:30), and then I got a mani/pedi and took some stuff back to Anthro and bought some stuff at Sephora, and then had a leisurely dinner/margarita at Verde to unwind. This meant I had to wind back up when I got home, since I had to pack for DC/SF and attempt to get some sleep before today's voyage...

But today went super smoothly, and now I'm in Washington, D.C. with [censored], who is here for [censored]. I'm here for a couple of days of vacation, which I think will be super fun - I have to go to California for a quick work trip on Tuesday, but until then I'm going to enjoy the sights, savor the food, and probably antagonize [censored], since that's my primary role in [censored]'s life. I made it to the airport today in time to have breakfast, and then I was planning to work all the way to DC - but the wifi on the plane wasn't working, which really bummed me out. I was able to answer a bunch of email in offline mode, but I wasn't able to do anything of real importance without internet, so I'll probably need to do a bit of stuff tomorrow or Monday in preparation for the week.

But that can all wait. When I got to the hotel, [censored] was already here, and so we wallowed in the luxury that my hotel status got us (namely, access to the club lounge, where we enjoyed complimentary soda and a nice view while catching up). Then we ventured out for dinner at Farmers and Distillers - it's got some weird ties to the North Dakota ag industry, and also had a distillery that makes most of their own liquors. My cocktails were both great; the dumpling appetizer (which came at the same time as our mains due to slightly incompetent service) was super tasty; my steak was satisfactory (but [censored]'s chicken fried steak with a donut looked amazing); and we ended with an out of this world cheesecake, so all in all it was a success.

But we're both totally exhausted because we were both working nonstop for the last week (or last three months), so we came back early and are going to bed relatively early (it's only 8:40pm in Colorado and 9:40pm in Iowa) so that we can hopefully recover enough to do some sightseeing tomorrow. Goodnight!

every kid on the whole damn street was gonna make it big and not be beat

Hello, Austin! I woke up this morning in Miami, after too little sleep, and I scrambled to pull myself together in time to get to the airport. That was all accomplished without incident, and I checked in and grabbed an iced coffee and a granola bar before boarding my flight. I spent most of the first flight (Miami to Atlanta) plus my layover in Atlanta finishing HILLBILLY ELEGY - I really very highly recommend it to everyone, regardless of political spectrum. It's the kind of memoir that I long to write, although I can't write that memoir because my childhood wasn't as bleak as his (luckily, neither of my parents are disasters, so my home life was totally stable, but my community was disintegrating even then). I had avoided reading it for a long time because I thought it would be too preachy or annoying, but the author (an Ohioan of Kentucky hillbilly descent who went into the Marines before going to Yale Law School) did a really excellent job of capturing his version of the Rust Belt without either romanticizing it or overly pitying/condescending to it.

Anyway. After that I was all fired up about life and community, and I spent my plane ride from Atlanta to Austin scribbling ideas in my journal. Then I landed, grabbed my bags, collected my rental car, and checked into my hotel, where I had just enough time to rinse off and change before meeting up with Alaska Matt for dinner.

Longtime blog readers may remember Alaska Matt, although it's been awhile - he moved back to Alaska in the summer of 2015, which is the last time I saw him. But he moved to Austin a month ago, and so we had a delightful evening of discussing current lives and reminiscing about past ones. He picked me up at my hotel and we went to a Mexican restaurant that one of his new coworkers recommended, where we had delicious margaritas at the bar before proceeding to eat some v. tasty cuisine. Then, we went down to 6th Street, which is a supposedly famous strip of bars, but it seems to be full of douchebags. But we found a quiet corner, and I had three cocktails (some sort of alcoholic lemonade that went down way too easily), and it was all perfect. Perfect, of course, except for the fact that we were inundated with people way too young for us, listening to music that was uncomfortably close to our high school playlists (not that we knew what playlists were then)...but it was fun nonetheless.

But there's nothing more to regale you with - I need to sleep so that I can have breakfast tomorrow before going to San Antonio. Goodnight!

american dream

It was my last day in Miami, and I am most definitely not ready to leave - it's a pretty cool city despite the endless heat, and I feel like I've only scratched the surface of what I could find here. Beyond that, I'm feeling super antsy to dig in and make serious progress on my next book - I might have been able to do that this week, but instead I spent fifteen hours dealing with last year's taxes, which certainly put a crimp in my plans. I'm liking the nomadic experiment so far and am happy with what I've done -- but for the future, I need to aim for 4-6 week stays in places if I want to be productive.

But that's an issue for another time. Today was mostly consumed with wrapping things up here - I did spend a couple of hours writing in my notebook while enjoying the tiny desk in my extra room (my Miami room is definitely the nicest of the three Roams I've stayed in), but I mostly spent the afternoon packing and organizing and dealing with last-minute tasks. I leave for Austin bright and early tomorrow morning and I knew I couldn't put off packing until then (even though packing should theoretically be easy since I'm taking everything I arrived with).

I also needed to finish early because I had evening plans - my cousin Moriah lives in Miami, and we went out for dinner and drinks. I believe this is the first time we've hung out alone as adults and it was pretty great - she's the same age as [censored], so we'd hung out quite a bit when we were little, but she grew up in St. Louis and we never spent that much time together once her family was busy with sporting activities and stopped coming to Iowa so frequently (especially after my grandma on that side passed away).

So anyway, Mo picked me up and we went to Wynwood, which is a very cool, artsty neighborhood that I'd wanted to check out but hadn't made it to yet. We had burgers at a hole-in-the-wall place called Kush, which looked like a dive but is all in on the farm-to-table movement, where I had rosé from a can because their menu trends heavily toward beer instead of wine. Then we went to Wynwood Walls, which is a famous outdoor art installation area, and I saw some amazing murals (my fave was one of Moriah's faves as well - from a distance it looked like a very well-drawn face, but up close it was actually made by gouging concrete out of the wall to create shadowing that turned into the face from a distance). We continued to catch up over mojitos at one of Mo's favorite bars on that street, and it was all quite delightful.

But I sadly had to part ways earlyish, since I want to get six hours of sleep before my flight tomorrow - fingers crossed that I make it out of here okay, since it was stormy most of the day and I don't have high hopes for improvement tomorrow. Goodnight!

late night when you need my love

I can't believe that it's almost time to leave Miami - I could easily stay here for another two weeks, since I'm starting to get into the groove with work and am loath to pick up and disrupt myself again. This is a good lesson, though - the last six weeks have been too chaotic, and while it was well-timed in the sense that it happened right after I released my last book (and I always seem to need a break before getting started on the next project), I'm starting to get really antsy about getting stuff done. So, the trick will be finding ways to be productive in Texas for at least a few days next week, and then hoping that the weather in Iowa will be ideal for me to make use of my favorite outdoor 'office' on my parents' back deck.

But Texas should be plausible - I believe that I'll have Monday to myself, and I'm spending Tuesday-Thursday with a writing friend, so at least there's hope. And the reunion is always worth taking a break for, since Wamplers of all generations tell great stories that I intend to shamelessly steal someday.

Today, though, was an exercise in trying to get things done. I was unsuccessful in the morning since I slept late (so much for trying to get on this timezone...Saturday I'll move an hour closer to the west coast, so maybe that will help), but I worked from one to nine p.m. with only a couple of breaks, so that counts. And I ended the evening by reading (HILLBILLY ELEGY, which I am *loving* - more on that another time) on the patio for an hour before splitting a bottle of rosé with Luisa, so that was delightful.

And now I must sleep - goodnight!

so get ready

My eyes are glazing over - I spent another five hours today working on tax stuff. Remind me to stop putting this stuff off, since it always results in two or three days of pain when it's time to file returns.

But for all that, my day was pretty good. I took an hour this morning to talk to Lisa, who used to work for me way back in the day - as always, it was good to catch up, and it made me a wee bit nostalgic for corporate life (but not enough to actually go back). I also took a break to talk to Katie, who for some reason is still talking to me even though she should be planning to ghost me immediately so that she doesn't have to host me when I'm in Denver in June/July.

Then I worked until 8:30, which was miserable. But I stopped and enjoyed my first Miami community dinner - people barbecued, and I mostly just helped with cleanup since I didn't bother to make anything. But we had some highly entertaining conversations, and I watched some dueling content marketing/coaching types discuss their strategies, which is both amusing and informative. And I've kicked it into high gear with being snarky - if there's one 'advantage' to the moving around that I've been doing, it's that my sarcastic side comes out more quickly (that's almost certainly not an advantage, but #sarasnotsorry).

And then I came to my room fifteen minutes before midnight and tentatively booked two weeks here in September - highly tentative and mostly influenced by the fact that I have a credit that was going to expire, and I knew that if I booked something now they'd let me move it later anyway. But I'm kinda tempted to spend September doing a two-week roadtrip around the south and then spending two weeks in Miami (with my car, which would make it way easier to get around here). We shall see, we shall see. The other options on the table are 1) a month in Bali, or 2) a month in Eastern Europe (Budapest, Prague, maybe Warsaw, Vienna, and Salzburg), with the kicker being that I have to be back in SFO by September 28. But September is currently free, and I need to plan something that is both interesting and helpful for my writing endeavors...and I probably have too many ideas of what that could be.

But that's a decision for another time - goodnight!

god is a dj

I'm sleepier than I should be, since I slept last night and also took a nap this evening, but I also walked a lot in 95-degree heat, so I'm going to chalk this up to general exhaustion and leave it at that.

But today was good despite my exertions - I woke up and spent the morning working on a variety of tings. Then I took a lyft to Brickell, a neighborhood v. close to me and to downtown, where I ran some errands - I had to mail a letter, and I had a v. necessary stop at Sephora for some dry shampoo, and a less necessary stop at Cole Haan to look at sandals (no luck). Then I walked over a bridge to downtown, where I sat at Starbucks and forced myself to write (successfully) for an hour. Then I picked up some stuff at CVS and some stuff at Whole Foods, and then I walked back to Roam, which was way more walking than I had intended.

However, I didn't spend the evening working as I should have - instead, I went out for a late dinner with some of the other Roam people. There were nine of us, three of whom I'd met in London before, and it was really fun. Of course, it was a going-away party of sorts for a couple of people whom I had only just met, which is how my life has rolled for most of this year, but it was still really entertaining. We went to Crust, which has a surprisingly tasty gluten free pizza - I ate four slices even though I didn't need the last one because it was so damn good.

Several people were going out after, but I am old and also must write tomorrow, so I came back with the group who was feeling similarly old and in need of sleep. Goodnight!

miami the bass and the sunset low

I apparently forgot to blog last night - #sorrynotsorry. I had a great two days in Miami, replete with lots of sun, food, alcohol, books, and friendship time with Terry. Yesterday we spent the whole day by the pool, and I mostly laid around and drank deliciously icy alcoholic beverages while reading THE ROSIE PROJECT (adorable! Sort of like the book version of Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory, but this guy wants to have friends and not be quite so insufferable, and his path toward falling in love is really cute. I recommend). Terry and I also talked a lot, and we eventually abandoned the pool to have dinner at the hotel (it was *crazy* in South Beach this weekend, so we didn't want to venture anywhere that would require driving). It turns out that the dinner at the hotel was fabulous, so this was not a sacrifice.

Today, I got up earlyish again, and I got to her hotel before traffic got ridiculous, which was great. We met at the pool, where I finished reading my book, and we had two margaritas each just because we weren't ready for vacation to end. Then we had a late lunch at the hotel (on the veranda overlooking the crowds), which included a bottle of rosé, so I was well and truly tipsy by the time Terry needed to leave.

So, she grabbed her bag, and we shared a lyft away from the madness of South Beach. She dropped me off at Roam, and I took a nap and a shower before I called my parents. They were making plans for Texas, but with my current lifestyle, planning anything more than a week away seems like more effort than it's worth. Yes, I've gotten weirdly blasé about some types of planning, although I can still be totally OCD when the mood strikes.

Then I ordered sushi for delivery, and I read another book tonight (which I started at the pool this morning) - CRAZY RICH ASIANS, which I'd heard Joann and Jen talk about before. This is why I ordered sushi, because I really just wanted fried rice or noodles after reading about Singaporean food,and sushi seemed like the next best thing. The book was okay - I didn't love it, but I think that's because the narration dipped in and out of too many characters' heads in a way that didn't make me feel all that connected to any of the characters. The main hero and heroine ended up feeling a little blank, although the characters as a whole were entertaining and I enjoyed the excessive displays of wealth. And I want to keep reading the series, so I guess that's an endorsement.

But now it's almost one a.m., and I need to sleep - I'm treating tomorrow as a work day, which means I need to get up and write. Goodnight!

a little flesh, a little history

Sleepy, stuffed, and definitely ready for bed - today was tons of fun, but I overindulged and need to sleep it off before starting again tomorrow. I woke up this morning after not quite enough sleep and rendezvoused with Terry (remember her?), and we promptly engaged in some debauched day drinking. And by that I mean that I had some sort of vodka-filled berry lemonade with my cajun scramble, which is way stronger than I usually start with in the morning...

Then we change into swimsuits and spent the afternoon on the beach. We'd been told that there was beachside bar service, but this was not true because of some special events happening this weekend, so I held down the fort while Terry went across the street to get a couple of drinks to go for our first round - which felt more like rounds 1-3 (or 2-4, if you count brunch), because they gave her plastic quart containers like you get takeout soup in, each filled to the brim with a mojito (for me) and a margarita (for her). A quart of mojito is approximately 1.3 pints more than I was expecting, so I got somewhat tipsy while we laid in the sun and talked about life...

And then we continued the fun by going to Tequila Chicas and having a frozen margarita and some chips. Then we changed and went to Drybar, where we got blowouts - Terry was shocked that I'd never done one, as was my blowout guy and every other person who worked there. But my blowout guy complimented the texture of my hair, so at least someone in South Beach besides myself got to feel how awesome my hair is....

Yeah, I'm bragging, not sorry. ssssanyway, we took our fancy hair to our dinner reservation at 27 Restaurant, which turned out to be an incredible place. Of course I had to have a cocktail in the twenty minutes we were waiting (a Bayside Britney, which was tasty, and I had to text Irish Matt to show him the menu since, as he responded, the drinks all sounded like the chapters of his autobiography). Then we were seated, and the food was outstanding - we had the best falafel I've ever had, some fish in a curry sauce with 'ancient grains' (some of them need to stay ancient, but they were really delish in this context), and arepas with beef brisket that was to-die-for good. And we (or I) ill-advisedly ordered a brownie and had a few bites, which is probably not helping my sudden headache/stomachache.

Or maybe that's the fact that I drank basically no water and approximately 80oz of cocktails today. I only had one with dinner, which I ordered solely for the name - "One Night in Bangkok", which was essentially bourbon in a thai iced tea, and it was better than it had any right to taste, and I'm sure my face lit up with the expression that I get when I suddenly want to have ten cocktails. It's a good thing Adit wasn't there, is all I'm sayin'.

After dinner, we were stuffed beyond belief, and both of us were tired, so we took a cab most of the way back to her hotel and walked the rest. I went up to her room to get my stuff, and then we walked out to a different street where I could get a lyft without getting stuck in crazy traffic. Then I came back to Roam and promptly talked to Katie for awhile - this is not our usual time to talk, but maybe it should be since the kids had just gone to bed and we were able to talk for quite some time (and I think I held it together despite my alcohol consumption). And then I finished the book I started reading yesterday, and now I must sleep so I can go back to South Beach in the morning before the traffic gets totally insane - goodnight!

welcome to miami where they hustle hey

Nothing interesting to report today - I slept until eleven because I was up until three, and then I laid in bed and read twitter because I apparently hate myself. Then I showered, ate some yogurt and granola and had an iced coffee for 'lunch' (it was two p.m.), and talked to a couple of people I met in the kitchen while they used the sous vide machine to cook some catfish (yeah, I don't know either).

Then, eventually, at like four p.m., I settled down to work...but since this was one p.m. in California, it's almost like I was on schedule. I wrote until six (actual writing! it was good!), then took a break to eat the salad I had the foresight to buy at Whole Foods yesterday while talking to more people in the kitchen. And then I did two loads of laundry and worked in the coworking space from seven until almost eleven, where I finally answered a bunch of emails and tried to get my life a little bit in order.

And then I came upstairs and read in bed for three hours - tonight's endeavor was 'Something Borrowed' by Emily Giffin, who is v. popular with women for some reason. This book really isn't my jam - the heroine is a maid of honor having an affair with the groom in the summer before the wedding. And I guess I don't have an issue with that (friends: don't ask me to be your maid of honor!). j/k. I have moral issues, but it's more that I have a problem with the tone, and also the banality of the main character. Apparently I'd be more okay with them cheating if either of them were particularly compelling creatures.

But now I shall go to bed, and hope that the book ends better than I think it's going to when I finish it, and perhaps dream about why so many people lie to so many people whom they love (yes, we all do, but if it's human nature, why is there also a moral judgment about it?). Clearly SPINSTER HONEYMOON is taking a dark turn - get excited. Goodnight!

dear theodosia

I should have gone to bed a couple of hours ago, but jetlag has struck and also I was too consumed by other things to sleep. I woke up late today (the inevitable consequence of staying up until three a.m., which I'm about to do again), and then I messed around my room for a couple of hours - I always need to unpack whenever I'm someplace for more than a night, so I unpacked and organized everything and generally settled in. Then I showered, and then I realized that I was desperately in need of caffeine and food (in any order)...

So I went downstairs and found the kitchen, where I ran into Dane and Luisa, whom I'd met in London. We reunited and talked for a bit, and I had some iced coffee (without ice - barbaric), and then Dane showed me around the property, which is pretty great. After that, I walked downtown - it was only fifteen minutes, but it was incredibly hot (94 but heat index made it 101), and also involved walking over a drawbridge and under some overpasses, all of which felt super sketch (no dangerous people in sight, but still). I grabbed a late (3pm!) lunch at a Mediterranean version of Chipotle (delish!), and then spent an hour writing at Starbucks, which was great.

Then I went to the Whole Foods next door and bought a few breakfast-type things, and then I took a lyft home to avoid the whole walking situation. When I got here, I put the groceries away and promptly decided to avoid tonight's community dinner - I don't feel a strong need to get involved here, particularly since Terry comes tomorrow and I'm here to get some work done when she's not here.

So, I spent the evening reading 'Where'd You Go, Bernadette?', which I LOVED - it's exactly the right kind of voice/structure for 'Spinster Honeymoon'. I read from 6:30 to ten, and then I took a break to watch a livestream of a Junot Díaz talk that was happening at Stanford tonight - I almost didn't, but I'm so glad I did. He's a fantastic author (don't take my word for it, he won the Pulitzer), and his speech was excellent. This resulted in me having a lot of feelings, so I tweeted a lot about it, which took a lot of time...

But sometime after midnight I was done, and then I succumbed to temptation and decided to finish reading my book rather than going to bed. And now I'm done, and I need to sleep so I can assimilate all the culture/thoughts/lessons/voices I heard today - goodnight!

we'll bleed and fight for you, we'll make it right for you

I've said my farewells to San Francisco and have reached the opposite coast. I woke up this morning, showered, packed, and was almost done packing when the hotel fire alarm went off - so I vacated and went to Another Cafe to get one last coffee and do a bit of journaling before leaving SF. The downside of this was that I totally forgot about the delicious half of a quesadilla that was in my hotel fridge from last night, but I suppose I'll survive despite the sadness of leaving such an important piece of my life behind (friends: I'll miss you too, but you're no chicharrones).

Eventually, I took a lyft to the airport, where I checked in without much incident and had time to grab a salad and an iced coffee before boarding my flight. I've been feeling like I've overindulged the last six weeks or so (basically since I went to York and had to fuel the massive amount of brain work/trauma necessary to finish my book, which I fueled with equally massive amounts of steak, fries, wine, and coffee)...and you know I'm feeling like I need to eat something cleaner when I willingly choose a salad with kale and chickpeas, and then eat the whole thing with some semblance of enjoyment. Weird.

My flight from SFO to Atlanta was uneventful, and I did a bit of work and also watched 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall' (also work - it's research for my next book, although I'd seen it before years ago). I had over two hours in Atlanta, so I ate a cheeseburger and garlic fries and had two glasses of wine at Gordon Biersch (the kale salad apparently made me feel like I deserved a 'treat yoself' moment, lol) and did a bit more journaling. Then I took a v. empty flight from Atlanta to Miami and had a whole row to myself, which was delightful and also weirdly annoying since it allowed me to see more of the weirdos spread out in the other rows. People are strange.

When I got to Miami, I collected my bags and took a lyft to Roam. I've seen no one and did not attempt to tour the property, but my room is gorgeous - the bed is comfy, there's a real closet and a chest of drawers (unlike Bali and London), and I have a cute little enclosed patio with a rocking chair, so that's all winning. And now I want to sleep and try to get on this timezone so I can get some work done - goodnight!

traveling prayer

It's only 9:12pm in ye olde Iowa, but I'm going to go to bed as soon as I write this. I barely slept last night, no doubt fueled by too many margaritas and mai tais (two of my favorite cocktails, but they really shouldn't be consumed in the same day). Yesterday was an exercise in overindulgence, which was precisely the opposite of the exercise undertaken by all the marathon runners - while they were running, and while Ritu was volunteering in the post-race emergency tent, Bill and I sat at a restaurant and had many drinks and ate lots of tasty Mexican food. I'd worked diligently all morning, but diligence definitely went by the wayside (along with my sobriety)....

When Ritu got back from volunteering, we had a lateish dinner at Tiger Mama, which was super delish - kind of Indonesian food, or at least southeast Asian with some Chinese mixed in. We had a whole duck, as I referenced last night, and I had two mai tais, and it was all delightful.

But my hangover was not delightful, nor was the fact that I had to get on a plane. Bill and Ritu graciously took me to the airport, which I really appreciated, and my travels were all v. smooth (other than the turbulent approach to Atlanta, where I had a layover, which made me want to vomit). I did a tiny bit of work and a tiny bit of reading on the plane, but mostly I napped and reconsidered my life decisions.

Then I got to Iowa, where my parents and [censored] picked me up. We had our traditional dinner at Johnny's, where I ordered a v. nontraditional chicken (my body is rebelling after all the stuff I've forced into it the last two weeks, and for once I didn't think steak would help). Then we came home, I hung out valiantly for an hour, and now I'm giving up and going to bed anyway. There's tons of stuff I want to get done in the next ten days, and tons of quality time I need to spend with my family, so getting some sleep now is imperative. Goodnight!

the most she will do is throw shadows at you

Seven drinks and a whole duck later, I *definitely* blame Ritu. Goodnight!

it always comes as a surprise when i feel my withered roots begin to grow

I have come to associate Boston with somehow being both incredibly delighted and nauseatingly full. This is, of course, all Ritu's fault.

I could probably end the blog post there, but in the interest of posterity, I'll continue. I woke up at four a.m. thinking it was nine, but that was a trick played by my jetlag, so I slept fitfully until eight. Then I stumbled out of bed and talked to Ritu - we caught up on many tings while she force-fed me berries and yogurt and cheese and chocolate and tea and coffee. Then Bill woke up, at which point the champagne started, and didn't really stop until it was time to shower.

Our main plan for the day was a decadent 2:30pm 'brunch' at Bistro du Midi. I had two cocktails, tuna tartare, a delicious burger with goat cheese, and some sorbet, and was thus completely stuffed. At that point my body thought it was eleven p.m., and so when Ritu suggested that we walk in the park across the street from the restaurant, we walked for approximately five minutes before I sat down and then promptly took a nap in the grass. #noregrets

Eventually, I forced myself awake (Bill also fell asleep, and Ritu amused herself by taking pictures of us, apparently). Ritu's friends Anne and Dan showed up, and we started talking, and kept talking until I suddenly demanded water so that I wouldn't die. So we walked down the street, I drank water from a public fountain and probably got cholera, got some more water at a Nespresso store, and then took the train toward Ritu's house, where we all went to a bar and sat outside and enjoyed conversation and tater tots. It was a perfectly gorgeous, summery day in Boston (mid-80s, which made for a great night), so we sat outside until it eventually started sprinkling, and then Anne and Dan went home.

Of course, Ritu couldn't let us stop eating after that, so Bill, Ritu, and I went down the street to a cook-your-own Japanese barbecue place. I was still so full that I had a sprite and some miso soup and a bit of rice just to get Ritu from trying to force me to eat anything else (this strategy was only marginally successful). Then we came home, Bill expressed shock at the amount of washi tape I've been traveling with, and we listened to a bunch of Billy Joel.

And now I must sleep - goodnight!

listen to your heart bleed

I'm flying home tomorrow, and I'm ready for some time in my own bed. However, today was a good end to the conference - I made it downstairs in time for the morning workshop, where I had a few great realizations about my current story (which I need to work on like a fucking madwoman for the next couple of weeks). Then I went across the street for lunch - it was so amazingly windy, sweeping leaves through the cobbled streets, and I didn't feel like venturing any farther than I had to for a salad and some alone time.

Then I came back for the afternoon session, although I was fairly distracted - I'm really not into Lucy's book as much as I'd like to be because my head and my heart are dreaming of other projects and other, bigger plans. So I need to get refocused on the task at hand this week. But all in all, the conference was great - I met some cool new people, and I really really enjoyed all the time I got to spend with Barbara, and I had some good story realizations even if I didn't come up with a whole plot for my 'spinster honeymoon' idea out of the ether.

I grabbed a drink with Heather before the last session, and then I sat through the last session, and then I had a drink and some nachos with Barbara and Heather before they went out for a dinner for the session leaders. While they were at dinner, I came upstairs, took a nap, and then burrowed under the covers and started to read a book - so it was almost a miracle that Barbara convinced me to go downstairs and have a drink at the final party, since I'd taken off my pants and my bra and was happily deep in the book. But I went to the party and had a final glass of wine, and then she and I came upstairs and had yet another great conversation that I think left us both with big dreams and lots of chills (I have lots of big ideas for the year ahead - now it's just about organizing and implementing them).

And now, I shall sleep, and dream of everything I want to do, and get cracking on some of it tomorrow. Goodnight!

the other night i dreamt a nice continental drift divide

I have to say that I adore Salem. It's a town that has made its whole economy off the fact that it killed a bunch of women in the 1600s, which is highly problematic, and the Beyonce part of my soul wants to #slayallday and leave this place. But the part of me that is more interested in history and tragedy and chaos and lovely architecture has really enjoyed the days of wandering around Salem and immersing myself in stories.

Today I was much more focused than yesterday; I slept last night, and didn't have to get up early, and so was #inittowinit. I made it to my friend Barbara's workshop at nine (real sacrifice, I know) at the House of the Seven Gables (yes, that one), and I got some really good stuff out of it - it was all about voice, and short writing prompts, and I adore that kind of stuff. She talked about how your voice is what is is, but your genre/style is like clothing that you put on top of your voice/body, and some clothes fit great and some clothes look terrible. And that, to be honest, fit in with all the signs I'm getting in my life that maybe my voice is better suited for something other than historical romance...I love it, but it's not a natural fit, and my snarkiness/cynicism/outlook on life would probably fit better with YA or contemporary fiction than it does with historical, and I need to listen to that calling....

But I'll listen to that calling tomorrow. After Barbara's class, I went to another workshop (also great), and then Barbara and I had lunch at a v. tasty diner (Ugly Mug, I think) a few blocks away, where I had salmon and perfectly poached eggs and hollandaise, and we talked about story and life, and it was all wonderfully satisfying. Then, I walked her to the cemetery and we parted ways, and I went to a coffeeshop and people-watched and wrote and daydreamed to my heart's desire.

Eventually, I came home and took a nap, and then Barbara and I had drinks in the hotel (with a truly insufferable mansplainer who tried to tell his wife that Hillary is still a sitting senator and so can still go back to the senate, and the wife clearly wasn't having it, but he was convinced, so c'est la vie). Then we went across the street and had dinner and more wine, and then we came back to the hotel, and we agreed that we are besties and are so so glad to have met each other, and we have committed that we're doing a train trip in India in 2018 (yessssss, since there are other places in India I want to go and she's someone I can always travel with).

And now I need to sleep - I have several hours of workshops tomorrow and need to metabolize a lot of wine before that can happen. Goodnight!

world serves its own needs, don't misserve your own needs

I'm tempted to just direct you to [censored]'s attempt at writing a blog post for me (see last night's comments) and call it a night, since he #nailedit. But I suppose I should tell you that I'm still alive, although I'm brutally tired - I was up until after one a.m. last night, and didn't sleep well (thanks to almost five glasses of wine), and I woke up at seven feeling like death (mostly due to lack of sleep, not a hangover, which I miraculously avoided as the only gift of today).

It was rather interesting experiencing the aftermath of the election with a bunch of writers - writers are strange beasts anyway, and tend to be highly emotional (or at least sensitive to drama), and often very opinionated. And it was clear that the energy throughout the hotel was awful - there were a lot of tears and red eyes, and a lot of fear.

So I tried to put it all out of my head and focus on the work of learning how to tell better stories, but the morning workshop opened with a rather long diatribe about the election, and it totally distracted me. I took a couple of great things away from that workshop, but I was really exhausted and really unable to focus, so I ended up skipping all the afternoon stuff so that I could relax in my room, then go out and seek a late lunch by myself (salad and a glass of wine at a bar where the locals were also devastated), and then wander around Salem for a little bit. Salem's a really pretty town, and I wish I had more time here - but I think I'll be ready to go home when the time comes.

Then I came back to the hotel and hung out in the bar with my new friend Heather, who is awesome. She and Barbara were signing books at seven because they're workshop presenters and all the presenters did a signing, so I picked up a couple of books and then hid in my room for another hour. But then we all had a late dinner at Bit Bar, which was charming - it had a video game theme, with lots of old gaming machines, and Barbara had tater tots shaped like Tetris pieces, and it was delightful.

But now I'm desperate for sleep and hoping that I can refocus tomorrow since there are some workshops that I really want to get something out of - goodnight!

your trojan's in my head

So, my blog post ended abruptly last night because I was on the extreme verge of typing nonsense (which I rescued myself from, other than the fact that I tagged the post 'potatoes' for unknown, unknowable reasons). Allow me to add that after our gorgeous dinner at Sarma, Ritu and I took the best lyft ever to Trina's Starlight Lounge, where we had another drink (the pint-glass-sized bourbon cocktail that I briefly referenced in the post). Our lyft driver was named Sayed, and he had amazing long blondish hair that may have been a weave, and a white coat like he was a ski instructor. He has been in the US for four months, and he said that he originally lived in Worcester but had just moved more into Boston because Worcester is the worst - and that even the founders must have known it was the worst, because they named it Worcester (which is pronounced 'wooster', which is, admittedly, close to worst).

So he was highly entertaining, in a good way, as opposed to our earlier lyft driver, who was entertaining in a bad way (he had been a bartender and a cop and an insurance agent and a cabbie and several other jobs, and he insisted that he knew the best way to get to where we were going, but it mostly seemed to involve taking illegal turns from the wrong lane). And our night ended well, with a final drink and some more delightful conversation before we were both wiped out.

Today was great all in all, although I'm wiped out - I felt better than I deserved to feel this morning, but I woke up late and felt late all day. I slept until ten, and then I showered and packed and talked to Ritu, and we eventually left the house and had lunch at Regal Beagle. Then we ran a few errands for her trip to India before she took me to the train station, where we said quick, sad farewells (sad because I have nothing definitive on the books to see her next, as opposed to the many weekends we've spent together this year...actually, now I realize that I've spent five weekends with her this year, which is 10% of my weekends, which is really good considering we live several thousand miles apart).

My train to Salem was quick and uneventful, and I took a cab to the hotel, where I promptly descended into writerly madness. My roommate (Barbara S, who was in Tahoe for the retreat two weeks ago) checked in last night and she was here when I arrived, so we promptly started talking and catching up again. Then I threw on a dress and we went down to the opening dinner -- there aren't any other big planned meals, but there was dinner tonight, which meant I couldn't hide in my room and sleep like I wanted to.

This turned out to be a good thing - it was really fun to meet some new people, including a woman named Heather whom I hit it off with immediately. I'm excited to get out of my romance writing comfort zone and meet some new people and hear some new ideas, and this seems like a good group for that. But it's also helpful to have Barbara here, since it's always good to have one friend (and she's awesome in so many ways, so if I were to pick someone to hang out with for a week someplace, she would definitely be on the list).

But as soon as dinner was over, I left immediately and came upstairs and put on yoga pants, and Barbara and I filled out an order for room service breakfast in the morning. She's giving one of the workshops in the morning, so she'll have to get up early (and she's an early riser anyway) - so maybe I'll be forced to not be my usual slothful self, which will be good. But for that to happen effectively, I desperately need to sleep - goodnight!

the monsters turned out to be just trees

I was slightly hungover this morning, but tonight I am unusually up way too late because I was working - this is not a phrase I've ever typed while staying with Ritu, so take a screenshot because it won't last. I didn't sleep all that well last night from a combo of jetlag/alcohol/unfamiliar noises, so I laid in bed until ten, and then I got up and hung out with Ritu. We drank coffee and laughed and looked at pictures from her honeymoon (oddly, that was highly enjoyable and not at all something that I pretended to like doing), and we ate brie for breakfast, and it was all delightful.

But then we realized we should do something outside the house, so we v. quickly showered and drove out to Walden Pond. To my eyes, the fall colors were still gorgeous; to Ritu's eyes, they were boring and dead, since the leaves were much more vibrant a couple of weeks ago. But we parked and walked around part of the pond, and I really enjoyed it despite the fact that I had the wrong footwear for it. Thoreau clearly would have been an annoying hipster if he lived today, so we of course took some selfies and were generally jokey about the whole thing. But the fact that we rallied to do something outside that didn't involve alcohol is both rare and commendable for us, so I think you should all give us a round of applause.

After that, we were beyond starving, so we drove back to Brookline and had a v. late (3:45pm) lunch at Otto. They have a great gluten free pizza, which is what I got; Ritu got two premade slices and a salad because she had to eat really fast and go straight to work for her night shift. After she left, I lingered over my glass of wine, and then I walked back to her place and promptly took a nap.

That kind of derailed my intended productivity, since I was then a little too groggy/not in it to win it. But I made some coffee, messed around on the internet for too long, and then finally worked for most of the night. I was editing/cleaning up what I have, so there was no massive gain in wordcount, but what I did accomplish was good.

Now, though, I need to sleep - I want to do a bit more work in the morning before Ritu and I pursue our day of fun, and that requires a break from the screen. Goodnight!

take me to church

I'm in Boston and it's almost three a.m., and I've had more than my body weight in alcohol, which should not surprise you since I'm visiting Ritu, who is perhaps the only true rival Adit has in terms of consistent ability to push my liver past its limits. [note: I don't actually hold either of them responsible; clearly the strange, wonderful alchemy of our friendships encourages us to keep going long past when we all know we should stop, because who would want such a wonderful thing to stop? it's just that in most of my relationships, the other person is smart enough to call a halt after the fifth drink rather than getting a crazy light in their eyes and going all in....]

sssanyway. Today was pretty much perfect, although I only got five and a half hours of sleep. I was so disoriented when the alarm went off at 5:30am that I bolted awake, thought 'I don't go to work anymore and no one owns me!', and almost went back to sleep before remembering that I had a plane to catch. So I hustled through the shower and out the door, and I made it to the airport in time to eat a proper breakfast and get an iced coffee before boarding, which was perfectly timed.

The flight was super uneventful (after they got the boarding door closed, which looked dicey for about five minutes), and I actually wrote 3200+ words, which is close to my record for a non-end-of-book day. Apparently knowing that there is no internet to check is good for my creativity; who knew. And that was even with some breaks to enjoy my coffee and play sudoku on my phone.

When I got to Boston, I discovered that Ritu was working later than planned. At first I bought a coffee, but then I realized that I was about to have a heart attack from so much caffeine, so I threw it away and went to a bar, where I had a glass of wine and wrote some more. I got another 800 words in and finished the scene, which was super awkward - awkward because I was writing the prologue (which I'd been putting off until today, when I have a flash of genius insight and realized that the prologue needed to be Lucy's grandfather's death, not Lucy in London or any other time), and to conjure the emotion needed for the scene I was channeling my own grandfather's death, which I have mostly ignored/not processed/refused to acknowledge for the past fourteen years. So as I was writing, I would occasionally write a line that made tears streak down my face, which looked SUPER DRAMATIC since I was sitting in an airport bar (pre-security, where not a lot of people hang out), drinking wine and looking at my laptop and silently crying. Oops.

But the scene is great, so #noregrets. Then I took a cab (after an uber fiasco) to Ritu's, where we proceeded with our glorious reunion. She's great, as always, and we're great together, and everything is great. We started with dinner at La Voile, where we split a bottle of wine (I chose it poorly, or else it was bad, but we drank it all) and had foie gras with duck and lardons (super super rich, obvi), and then I had a ribeye with french fries. I only ate eight of the ten ounces, which was probably for the best...because as soon as we were done there, we went to Eastern Standard (where we've been together before) and had second dinner.

Second dinner has become a tradition of ours, but usually second dinner happens when first dinner is ~5pm and second dinner is at midnight. Tonight, first dinner was at 8:30 and second dinner was at 11, which was waaaaaay too close together - especially since, for second dinner, we split another steak. Lolololol. But I had a cocktail named Inca Tea (or something similar), with pisco and tea and all sorts of other goodness, which was delightful. Then, I switched to the Dutch Courage, which was mostly like an old fashioned, and I loved that as well.

At some point, Ritu's friend Steph (yet another Steph from the other two friends of Ritu's whose names are Steph) joined us, so Ritu and I had to stop congratulating each other on how great we are and incorporate her into the fold. Luckily, she was wearing a great shirt covered in elephants, so she fit right in. We finished off the steak (rather abruptly), and had dessert, and I declared that we weren't ordering a third drink because otherwise we would have had ten more. But our waiter, who adored us (okay, maybe he didn't adore us, but he humored Ritu for several minutes while she tried to convince him that 'Bread and Leather' would be a great title for a romance novel - and it's such a bad title that the single guy sitting next to me interjected himself into the conversation to say it was awful), took my joke about a shot-like cocktail to heart and ran with it, so we ended up with shots for the road (so welcome, so not necessary). Steph had had a drink called 'The Long Goodbye', and I had said that it would be great if they had shots called 'The Short Goodbye' - and he came back with our bill and three shotglasses of something that they chose to call 'The Final Word'. Apparently my ability to charm waitstaff into drinks spans timezones....

Then Ritu and I came home (with a truly weird lyft driver, but c'est la vie), and I am desperate for sleep. And I'm not as drunk as I thought I was, since typing wasn't much of a challenge tonight...but I'm sure I'll rectify that on Sunday (Ritu is working tomorrow night, so the liver gets a reprieve). Goodnight!