muscle to muscle and toe to toe

I had a pretty good day today - it was the first day where I didn't feel like I had to take a nap, although I do feel like I need to go to bed early. I wrote for a bit before work, which was great, and I survived all of my meetings unscathed. And when I was done with meetings, I probably should have done house stuff or packing stuff to prep for going back to ye olde Iowa this weekend...but instead I made spaghetti all'amatriciana (one of my favorite fast-ish weeknight suppers - cook bacon, red onion, garlic, and red pepper flakes, add some tomato sauce, and toss with spaghetti). It was delicious, and also made me want to go to Italy.

Instead of going to Italy, I spent the rest of the evening torturing myself by reading the first couple of chapters of DIRT - it's a memoir by a guy who moved his family to Lyon so he could learn French cooking. So far so good - his style is easy (he's a writer/journalist by trade, not a chef, so of course the writing is easy) and I'm completely ravenously desperate to go to Europe. I also tortured myself by texting with my family time group; Jess had sent an article yesterday about how all the pandemic group chats are dead, which is quite unfortunately not true of ours, since it mostly consists of unwelcome reminiscences (Adit reminded me tonight that I was in his bottom 8 - aka the least cool people in our dorm), insults (see the aforementioned), and too much discussion of Ritu Rani's nephew the tiktok influencer. But at least I'll be in SF in a month, which is not Europe but is also better than nothing.

And now I need to sleep so that I can power through some work tomorrow and then also power through some house stuff and then also watch some Olympics (YAY) - goodnight!

all my favorite songs are slow and sad

I'm back in Denver, after the v. sad realization that the only states I've been in in almost a year are Colorado, Iowa, and Nebraska. Colorado and Iowa are great, but I hate driving across Nebraska (and yet it continues to be my destiny). This is the one-year anniversary of my last week in California, and it feels like a lifetime ago....

sssanyway. Things seemed to be going well when I said my farewells to my parents this morning, so hopefully my dad stays on the mend. I left them with the threat that if I have to come back to cook for them, I'm cooking garbanzo beans, so hopefully that's some motivation. After I packed up my car and ate some breakfast and said goodbye to my parents, I hit the road - the drive is officially ten hours and twenty minutes, but I think I lost fifteen minutes because I stopped four times, so it was more like ten hours and thirty-five minutes. Usually I speed just enough to almost keep up the pace, but still, I feel like I made pretty good time.

The drive grows ever more boring since there is nothing new to see, but I had a long chat with [censored], so that helped. I also listened to an audiobook called CHATTER by Ethan Kross - it's about our internal monologues and how to reshape them (which is key, since my internal monologue veers mostly between arguing with coworkers + being worried about not writing enough + tallying up my quarantine stockpiles). It was really interesting and sort of made me wish I'd gone into neuroscience after undergrad - and it was a good audiobook to listen to while drowning out my internal monologue on the drive.

When I got home, I dragged most of my stuff inside, ordered Indian takeout, and took a quick shower. Then I had a family dinner zoom - we hadn't talked in weeks, so when John suggested a zoom tonight, we all showed up. Priyanka didn't join, and Sam was offscreen, but otherwise it was a full quorum: Claudia (aka Santy), Chandlord (aka Vidya), John and Jess, Adit wearing a v. fashionable sweatshirt, and Ritu and Bill (+ a very creepy doll that Bill left on screen as a placeholder before they could actually join). We had much to discuss, which was accomplished, and we also went a little too deep on discussions of influencers and SPACs and how to wipe off a cake.

And now, I'm completely wiped out and need to sleep since I have to work tomorrow - goodnight!

nothing hurts like your mouse

Today was good, but long and full of zooms. I woke up and had a v. leisurely morning with coffee and journaling, etc. And I made some tasty acelgas guisadas, which is basically just stewed tomatoes, onions, potatos, and chard - I make it every once in awhile as a bed for poached eggs, and it hit the spot today.

The afternoon was then consumed with a variety of catch-ups - I talked to my parents first, which was unusually early, but I wanted to make sure we had plenty of time to catch up. Then I talked to Veronica; we hadn't talked in weeks, so we were v. overdue. Then, almost immediately after that I talked to Terry - we did a phone call instead of a zoom because everyone is zoomed out, and it was lovely.

Then I took a break, ate some takeout thai food, messed around, took a nap, etc. And I ended the evening with a family dinner zoom in honor of Adit's birthday; Marina was a surprise special guest. Vidya won best jhoke for a truly terribly joke about all the mink that died of covid (coatvid), which she only won because there were no other jokes. Adit and Priyanka claimed to be in a local maxima, but everything they discussed seemed pretty minima - they won 'worst problem', which was that they had a mouse staring at them and eating one of their doors through most of the call.

You can catch up on the rest of the topics with the chat transcript, which was used to catch people up as they joined late:

[in regards to Adit's birthday] Adit’s parents ordered cake
Sister ordered cupcakes
Priyanka bought flowers for the photos
They have a mouse

John bought a dinghy

Marina had to teach online bc the Colorado college students all have covid

John and Jess’s kid is still in backyard school

Bill is wearing plaid pants

The mouse is eating through the door
it’s like a zombie mouse
trying to get to them

Ritu and Bill bought a house
but they can’t get out of their lease
one road in, one road out (same road, as Bill said)

oh yeah - John’s new dinghy has a hole in it
The term 'dinghy' is a loanword from the Bengali ḍiṅgi, Urdu ḍīngī, and Hindi ḍieṁgī

They hired a professional [to get rid of the mouse]
$1000

a dingo is not a dinghy

Pls vote for coated!!! coatvid

We also discussed nap dresses and nap suits, Priyanka's problem with mopping floors, how Adit's best birthday was the one he didn't spend with any of us, Bill's parents' house sitting unattended in Georgia (if you need somewhere to break in), paddleboarding, air quality in the bay area, etc. Pretty standard, and pretty low energy if we're all being honest. But seven months into quarantine, everyone is pretty low energy, so I guess that's what you get.

And now I need to sleep - goodnight! 

sing with me, sing for the year, sing for the laughter, sing for the tear

 It is 1:12am, which means my goal of smoothly transitioning back into work bedtimes is behind schedule. Today was v. lovely, though. I woke up this morning in time to write for a bit, which went decently well. Then I took a previously-scheduled hiatus to meet with someone from work - he's the person who I delegated most of my stuff to, and he's out next week when I come back, so we decided to sync up today just to make sure I'm aware of what's happening. Sounds like everything went decently smoothly, and so while I'm sure there are surprises lurking in my inbox, hopefully I shall survive them.

Then I had two house things scheduled - a plumber to check the leak in my bathtub (which I've ignored for months because it doesn't always drip if I turn the handle just right) + hook up my new gas grill, and someone to measure my master bedroom shades so I can replace them with something that is actually a shade instead of a thin piece of mesh. They were both surprisingly early - the plumber was an hour early (so I had to pause my work meeting), and the shade guy showed up before his two-hour slot. The plumber is coming back Monday to fix the tub, but he was able to hook up the gas grill v. v. quickly; the shade guy was quick and efficient, so hopefully I can figure that out in the next couple of weeks as well.

Since that was all over before noon, I had some unexpected time on my hands. So I ate lunch, then went to a local cheese shop and bought some v. delicious cheeses; I also stopped in at my liquor store and bought Fernet, which is the official drink of San Francisco. I don't like it, but I guess I was homesick. I also bought another half-bottle of champagne and some more Aperol for future Aperol spritzes, because why not. Then I came home, put tings away, and prepped some food for tomorrow.

I then spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning, tidying, throwing things away, etc. And then around 5:30, Sarah-Frances came over - we're coworkers, but we had a potential friendship before we became coworkers, so I feel like it's fair game. She came back from maternity leave exactly two days before I went on vacation, so we were overdue for a catch-up, and my patio is ideally situated for social distancing. We ate cheese, drank bourbon cocktails (with Fernet - the other reason I bought Fernet is because I remember she likes it, but she discovered it in Argentina instead of SF), ordered v. delicious Thai food, and drank wine with dinner. It was delightful to hang out, and she stayed until after dark, and it all almost, kind of, not quite felt normal.

After she left, I texted a photo of the Fernet bottle to the family and suggested doing shots, which turned into a zoom call to check in on each others' local minima. For a zoom call at 10pm MDT / 9pm PDT with 20min notice, turnout was steller; Adit and Priyanka joined (Adit for local minima reasons, Priyanka to talk to me about nap dresses), as did John and Jess (whose local minima was the worst of the night), Chandlord, Ritu Rani, and Ritu Rani's naked baby. We discussed a wide variety of topics over the course of two hours, including local minima, nap dresses, the British royal family, the San Francisco housing market, politics and truth and how screwed we all are, sandwiches, the ability of toddlers to button clothes, and a variety of other tings.

So, that was all v. restorative (or at least as restorative as a late-night zoom call can be). And now I really need to sleep - goodnight!

wind chimes

Today was lovely - except for the fact that I woke up and discovered that my torso is covered with chigger bites from yesterday's efforts to mortar the cave. This is unfortunate, since chigger bites last for days. But despite being surly (and itchy) from that, I persevered - I got up, got ready, and the spend the morning taking care of tings around the house.

Sometime around eleven, Aunt B and Uncle B showed up with stuff to give to us (note: my mother's basement is coming a chair graveyard; we already have too many and this haul just added six more to the collection. But we had a lovely couple of hours together - my parents made brats, and baked beans, and five cup salad (which involves fruit and coconut and sour cream, just trust me).

After they were gone, I sat around, did some desultory stuff, and said goodbye to [censored]. The evening progressed through multiple rounds of sitting outside + several western movies (mostly for my dad), and ended up a semi-impromptu family dinner. Ritu (and a sleeping Bill), John/Jess, Chandlord, and Claudia/Sam all dialed in, and it was pretty much the same as usual. We especially went deep on nap dresses, slugs (especially slugs named Naner), snails (which are destined to eat Jess's garden, sleeping patterns of infants, yawning (fake, real, and suppressed), etc. So, it was lovely to see them all - but now I've been falling asleep in my chair for the last thirty minutes, so I need to go to bed. Goodnight!

it took a lifespan with no cellmate

Gotta go to bed immediately - it's after midnight and I had planned to be in bed two hours ago. Today was better than yesterday, though, mostly because I started by getting eight hours of sleep. I took care of some tings around the house this morning, ate some leftover muffins, made avocado toast for lunch, did some laundry, trimmed my bangs, took a full shower (full shower = washed my hair and shaved my legs, so fancy), bought some turnips in Animal Crossing, etc., etc. I also ran an errand to Crate and Barrel to get curbside pickup for my new coffee grinder, which is quarantining in its bag for a day or two before I pull it out.

Then I came home, cleaned up my back patio, and called my mom (Happy Mother's Day!). It wasn't a particularly happy day, it sounds like, since the weather wasn't conducive for gardening and the world is on fire, but it was nice to talk to her. Then I talked to my dad, and then I spent some quality time making supper. I made a perfectly cooked ribeye, and I also made blistered green beans and reheated a twice baked potato, so it was all v. delicious.

Then I talked to [censored] for a bit. And then I had an impromptu family dinner that lasted a couple of hours - I had texted the family asking who had ended up in a local minima this week, and that turned into a zoom call to discuss:

- Chandlord and I are definitely in local minimas, although hers is worse than mine. Mine is just the slowly simmering dread and angst over the knowledge that I'll probably be working from home the rest of the year. Chandlord's is somewhat work-related, with the added possibility that she's been exposed to the 'rona.
- Ritu seemed to be fine, although her child was full of cake and still awake. But I accidentally called her a non-essential employee, so our friendship is probably over.
- John and Jess joined and John said his local minima was last week; Jess hasn't had a local minima in four years.
- Adit added Chris Boyd, whom none of us had seen in forever; Chris claimed to be fine, but the story he told right at the end indicated that he may only be 'not in a local minima' because he hasn't hit bottom yet.
- Adit and Priyanka are dealing with the horror of having two small children at home, one of whom is a loser who can't play basketball. So they may have it the worst of all.


And now it's 12:30am and I have to work in the morning, so I should really really go to bed. Goodnight!

sing about the sixblade, sing about the switchback and a torture tattoo

Day 41. There are moments when it feels like I can't cook another thing, clean another thing, do another thing, especially by myself. There are moments where I would give my fortune to sit at a bar and watch someone make me a drink while overhearing a first date gone bad. There are moments when I obsessively count my canned goods and frozen meats, and other moments when I think I could just eat cereal until this is all over.

But then there are other moments, like the fact that my college friends are doing family dinner on Sunday nights again despite being spread across several states (and the SF vs East Bay divide is usually just as insurmountable as SF to Colorado, or East Bay to Seattle). Tonight's family dinner included:

- a long discussion about urine, mostly because of the...
- introduction to Claudia's baby! Téo is less than three weeks old, but he made it to the Zoom call and did so in style. He doesn't have a nickname yet but I'm sure it's coming.
- an also-long discussion of baby massage
- Nepalese nannies
- a tour of my house, which started mostly because I went off in search of a refill on my Bailey's
- nap dresses (aka nightgowns for you peasants out there)
- Bill wearing a blanket like a shawl, but not quite like Lenny Kravitz's blanket-scarf
- John and Jess being out of barbecue sauce
- the lack of barbecue sauce didn't stop them from making the Round Barn their background image for part of the call
- Vidya managed to wrap a scarf all the way around her head and then get it unwrapped before sneezing, which was a real feat of physical prowess in these troubled times

sssanyway. Family dinner was lovely, even if it wasn't spent at Enjoy Vegetarian eating a variety of vegetarian Chinese dishes while being judged/ignored by the waitstaff. The only downside is the lateness of the hour and the fact that I've been drinking slow/steady since two p.m. (truly slow/steady - I had a mojito at 2, two glasses of wine from 5-8, and two pours of Bailey's from 8-11).

The rest of my day was okay - I woke up and could have ended up in a total black pit hellscape, but managed to pull myself out of that mood. I did a bit of writing at some point this morning too, which I'll take. And I did some stuff around the house, talked to some writer friends (Anne, Grace, Veronica, and Barbara), and took a walk while talking to my parents. And now, unfortunately, I need to sleep - goodnight!

karl malone

I had a fabulous weekend in Santa Cruz + the city of sin, which is dangerous for my endlessly-wandering, never-satisfied soul. My writing class/retreat was really wonderful - the last couple of days were restorative and inspiring in a way that I was really craving, and I hope I carry that with me even though it's back to the grind tomorrow. The teacher (Dani Shapiro) was one of the best writing teachers I've ever heard speak, and the subject (memoir) was something I'm deeply interested in and also deeply avoided. But maybe it's time to stop avoiding.

It was also wonderful to spend a weekend with Veronica, who is one of my favorites - we had a lot to say to each other, and she was the perfect person to have this experience with. It was the perfect blend of 'earnestly engaged with the material' and 'snarkily rolling eyes at everyone else', so we got along swimmingly. We also got massages yesterday, enjoyed some time talking over wine in the cafe, and generally made the most of our weekend away.

The program ended this morning with two hours of work + Q&A, which was pretty illuminating. Then we bounced rather than waiting for lunch to open, so we got back to V's around 1pm. I promptly drove over to Nopalito - when I realized I could have lunch in SF by myself, I considered My Tofu House, Samovar in Yerba Buena, Caffe Union (my true love, but hard to park next to), and a variety of other spots, but I ended up at Nopalito. So I journaled and ate more than I should have just because I never have it, and it was lovely.

Then I drove to the Kabuki, checked in, did an hour of work (a stupid expense report), took a twelve minute nap, got myself ready and went to the lobby. I talked to my parents for a few minutes to verify that they were still alive, and then hung up as Lauren (aka Subz) walked through the door. We only had an hour to catch up but we made great use of that time - it's great to have friends who are always friends, no matter the distance or changes between interactions. Also, she has the best hair in the world (as a slightly sketchy man in the bar told her), so she has that going for her, which is nice.

After she left, I took an uber to Chandlord's, where I made small talk with her roommate (who almost didn't let me in at first) until Chandlord was ready. We went to Rye, where we had a drink, and were shortly joined by John and Jess. We eventually adjourned to Esan Classic, where we met up with Oniel (aka Fauxniel, the surprise special guest who no one knew was coming except for me), Aditya, Santy Claude, and Sam (who needs a nickname at some point). We had a very delightful, very standard Sunday family dinner over a lot of delicious thai food; it was pretty sedate since it's a work night for all of us, Claude is pregnant, and Adit is starting a new job tomorrow. But it was nice to have some family time, even if it was in the heart of the Tenderloin and men were waving iron bars around outside in an ominous and/or drug-fueled manner (note: I chose the location and knew exactly what I was doing when I did it, tanks).

And now, after a v. successful weekend, I need to sleep so I can drive to MTV tomorrow - goodnight!

okay ladies now let's get in formation

Today was a wonderful way to kick the Olympics off in style. Of course, now I'm tired and v. happy that I have tomorrow to be completely hermity before a week of craziness - but today was #worthit.

I got up at 8:30 and immediately baked two cakes - a lemon cake and a blueberry cake (both gluten free). The Olympic Rings Cakes (tm) are traditionally five cakes, and are traditionally full of food coloring - but the last time I baked all five cakes, I ended up throwing away the equivalent of two cakes, and also we're all much classier than we used to be and are somewhat averse to food coloring. So I didn't dye the blueberry cake blue, which I think was a sign of great forbearance on my part (and also the cake looked way better than it does when it's blue).

After the cakes were baked, I did some other things to get ready - I went to Whole Foods to buy fancy cheese and dairy products, and I went to BevMo to stock up on rum and cachaça (where I ran into Julie and Brian, who were stocking up for their own party tonight - too bad we accidentally booked over each other), and I took a shower, and I prepped a gallon of mai tais and a pitcher of mojitos. Shockingly, though, I was mostly on time in terms of getting things ready for the party - usually I'm still cooking when people show up, but this time I was basically done when people arrived, so I was able to enjoy myself.

And it turns out that that's a good thing - far more people arrived than I had anticipated, which means that I actually had a mostly-accurate amount of food for the first time ever (we got through all six fancy cheeses! and a ton of guac, and two and a half bags of chips, and most of the cake, and all the mojitos/mai tais). I had only gotten confirmations from ~12 people as of last night, and somewhere around 25 people showed up (not counting infants), which made for a super fun, super crowded situation. I live in a studio, which is probably not designed for 25 people - but it all felt lovely despite that.

John and Jess (and Ian) were the first to arrive, and they were followed shortly thereafter by Oniel, whom I hadn't seen in years (possibly almost five years, although I think I saw him another time in the intervening half-decade). Walter and Carson and their baby showed up right before Oniel, although their baby was the youngest of the child army and so mostly slept through the whole thing. There was a flurry of arrivals after that - Adit and Priyanka came (with Vihaan), and Anthony (whose hair is reaching peak 80s band), and Dan (whom I hadn't seen in ages), and Vidya, and Justin, and Marco (Claude's brother), and Terry (still in town, although she leaves in the morning), and Lauren and Nathan (and Finley), and Claudia and her boyfriend Sam, and Sheila and Rajiv (Sheila is perhaps the only person who was as excited about the Olympics as I was).

That all turned into a full house, and some people absconded to the terrace with their wine, while others (mostly John/Anthony/Dan) talked about the Guns 'n' Roses concert that they're going to, and we all drank mojitos and mai tais, and Anthony and I very ill-advisedly tasted both the cachaças (turns out that the one he brought is infinitely better than the one that I bought this morning, but they are both terrible). Also, Adit left and then came back and then kept saying goodbye for an hour, as he does. Also, John did inappropriate things with my fake baby (Prom King), including putting him up on the skylight over my bed (which is reachable from my terrace). Also, Lauren's son unexpectedly tried to eat my nose, so if he has any diseases in his saliva, I'm pretty sure I inhaled all of them.

The party started to clear out around six (with a temporary clearing earlier when Vidya and a couple of others went to Taco Bell, although they came back), but then the second round of the party happened - just when it was down to Rajiv/Sheila/Justin, Jesse and Maya showed up, and so did Raja, and also Katrina and Annie. Round two was more lowkey (or at least it had a higher average age, since there were no children), but no less fun - we talked about a variety of ridiculous things, and Raja made some entertaining pronouncements about how easily we could all do gymnastics, and we cleared out the rest of the cheese and mai tais, much to my relief. And Jesse gave me an Olympics medal, which was v. sweet (especially after he had basically forced me to give him one with his crazy eyes - I award medals mostly at random, but it was nice to get one back).

Everyone left around nine, and I ran the dishwasher and watched gymnastics and vegged and inadvertently napped until now. And now I am going to go to bed and revel in the fact that I don't have to set an alarm tomorrow and don't have to do anything or see anyone or cook anything or prepare anything - the full extent of my ambitions is to clean the kitchen (almost done anyway), get coffee, watch some olympics, and maybe read a book about gardening. Yay. Goodnight!

wear my fist on my sleeve

Today was pretty great, all in all...but I'm worried that I'll fall asleep in the middle of writing this, so bear with me. I woke up this morning too late to get any writing done, but early enough to shower and make some iced coffee before leaving the apartment and picking up Chandlord for our east bay adventure. We went to Berkeley to meet John and Jess's baby, whose name is Ian - and he's suuuuuper cute. He's also something like eleven days old, so he's super small. I held him for a significant amount of time, and he slept right through one of the more ridiculous stories that I could tell John and Jess at the moment, so I think he and Auntie Wamp are going to get along just fine.

[note: I do not typically refer to myself as Auntie Wamp, but that's how Jess introduced me to him, so we'll see if it sticks]

So, we spent a delightful hour and a half catching up, and it was great to see that they all made it through the initial local minima of no sleep + starting to breastfeed and seem to be in good spirits. I'll have to go back on a weekday sometime, although I'll admittedly be more eager to visit when Ian is old enough to go to Saul's Deli for corned beef hash. But that's still a ways away, so I think I can be convinced to visit at other points in the meantime.

After saying our fond farewells to John and Jess and Ian, and after letting John get my car out of their impossibly steep/angled driveway for me, Chandlord and I drove back to the city of sin, where we immediately parted ways. Then I came home, ate some leftover pasta, and took a nap, because clearly I did a ton of work by holding a sleeping baby. And then I did some actual work - I alternated between sitting out on my terrace (because it was a gorgeous day) and sitting inside (because it's hard to actually work outside), and I wrote a bunch (or at least enough to not hate myself today, so that's a win).

But eventually I needed another break, so I ended up meeting John (different John) and Sheila at Little Star. I hadn't been there in forever - probably since I gave up gluten. But they have a gluten free crust now, and I think it would have been good if I had ordered better toppings (the pesto chicken was too dry for the gluten free crust, which was also dry). Also, Sheila brought a bottle of rosé, which was much appreciated. Also, I had a brief and delightful encounter with Raja, who is often a surprise special guest at family dinner, and it was nice to run into him in the wild.

So we ate our pizza, and then Sheila and I were both feeling like going to bed, but it was the bottom of the eighth in a close Giants/Dodgers game, so we indulged John's desire to watch the rest of it and went to Giordano Bros to have another drink and finish the game. The wine I ordered was beyond bad (it tasted like it had been open for at least five days and might actually poison me), so I made the unusual (for me) move of sending it back and getting a cocktail instead. But while the drink situation was non ideal (it would have been more ideal if I could drink beer, since their beer list looked great and their wines were clearly an afterthought), the conversation was entertaining and it was all a fun evening.

But then I was super sleepy and had no desire to go to a potential late-night karaoke excursion, so I called a lyft and hopped into it immediately. And now I need to sleep - tomorrow's schedule is cleared for more writing, and I need to make it happen. Goodnight!

thank you india

My goal today was to socialize, and I would say that I exceeded expectations! Hopefully this refills my extrovert well for the week of writerly solitude ahead (although since I have plans most of tomorrow, maybe I'm not exactly being a hermit at the moment). The day started off relatively early - I met up with John and Jess at 9am (which turned into 9:20am to our mutual benefit, since I was able to walk to the destination and get some steps in before a massive consumption of food) at Caffe Union for breakfast. Don't you dare call this brunch, since Jess abhors brunch. But as you know, Caffe Union is one of my favorite places, and the owner (Tony) gave us mimosas (I would say that mimosas makes it perilously similar to brunch, but don't tell Jess).

Thus properly welcomed to my former neighborhood, we spent a couple of hours catching up on our respective lives over tasty food and beverages. Good things are afoot for all of us, since John and Jess are moving to Berkeley (okay, that's bad for me) to be closer to their respective jobs, and I'm still basking in the glow of my freedom, so we had a lot to celebrate. We continued the celebration by walking down the street, where Jess bought a dress and I bought some eyeliner at Sephora before intending to part ways...

...but then our intentions were dashed upon the rocks of a series of texts and calls from Adit and Priyanka attempting to arrange brunch. We were by no means hungry, and John and Jess were leery of going anywhere in the city due to the traffic shitshow caused by pride weekend, but we ended up rendezvousing with Adit/Priyanka/Chandlord for second breakfast (don't call this brunch either, although it was totally brunch) at Rusty's Southern, which is relatively new and is delightfully close to my current abode. In fact, if they were open for breakfast during the week, they might become my go-to. Despite being totally full, I succumbed to temptation and had another mimosa + the pulled pork and grits with poached eggs, all of which were perfect (and, happily, John ate some of it or I might have exploded). The vegetarians were slightly limited in their options, but their eggs and grits looked good as well, and Priyanka's oatmeal was really tasty. And Jess, in deference to her brunch-hating ways, managed to get the most lunch-y thing available (a piece of fried chicken + an off-menu side salad).

So, family brunch lunch was delightful. We spent a couple of hours catching up, thwarting Chandlord's attempt to make us play Uno, and generally making merry. Eventually, though, it all came to an end, and I came home to do laundry and talk to my parents (who are in fine form, albeit sick or allergic or something from Texas). Then, I left my apartment again (shocking, I know!) to see 'Spy' with Lauren (aka Subz). It was pretty funny, but it was more of an actual spy movie with actual plot than I was expecting. However, all the actors were really good (particularly Jason Statham, whom I adore more than I should), and it was an enjoyable way to spend a Sunday night.

But now, after coming home and messing around with my planner for the week (way to end on a dork note, Sara), it's time for bed - Rafe awaits in the morning, followed by some time in the glorious south bay. Goodnight!

boom clap the sound of my heart

Today was close to perfect, even if my cold continues to conspire against me. I woke up around 6:30, made some tea, and crawled back into bed with my laptop and notebook for a couple of hours. I'm kind of stuck on the book, but I think I made some progress today in terms of figuring out what the problem is, so that's exciting. But I had to stop working around 9:20 so that I could make some eggs and fruit, put on clothes, pack more clothes, and scurry down to the south bay to see Alyssa. She gave me a decent workout, although I was perhaps more fatigued than usual due to the cold, but it was great to see her.

After the workout, I showered, ate some lunch, and went to San Mateo to meet Barbara and Anne for a writing date. I'm v. much looking forward to doing these regularly; it actually works perfectly for me to stop there and write with them for a couple of hours, since it's totally on the way and I can get home after with relatively little drama. We weren't entirely productive today, since I hadn't seen either of them in two months, and Barbara had just come back from a publishing conference in NYC, so there was much to gossip about. But we eventually stopped talking and committed to writing...and for me that meant continuing to scribble in my notebook, which wasn't the worst thing ever.

Eventually, though, I had to leave before traffic became abysmal. When I got home, I immediately went to the grocery store to pick up a couple of things for tonight, and then I came home and made chicken tortilla soup and a simple but tasty arugula salad for the family gathering I hosted. This was originally supposed to be something last weekend with John and Jess, but it ended up being scheduled for today, which meant I could add Claude since she was back in town. Chandlord (aka Vidius Chandicus) showed up after we'd finished consuming animal flesh, so she joined us for more of John's (surprisingly excellent - and I only say 'surprisingly' because he was the progenitor of such famous drinks as the Tokyo Army, the Blackberry, the Sugarcane Drain, the Blood of Lincoln/Body of Lincoln, etc.) margaritas and Claudia's wonderfully delicious boysenberry cobbler (which was gluten free to boot).

We discussed all manner of things: cat parties, moving, life, the use of pineapple cake as an assault weapon, bad ideas, artificial intelligence, whether mothers are capable of correctly identifying whether their son is, indeed, a 'catch', etc., etc. But now the time has come to say goodnight so that I can be similarly productive tomorrow - goodnight!

i didn't know i was lonely til i saw your face

Awesome. Today was awesome. I should leave you in suspense and close out now (or, I should close out now because I have to get up in seven hours so I can go down to Palo Alto and train with Alyssa), but I guess I'll record for posterity.

[begin boring part]

I spent some quality time lazing in bed, which was key since I was still recovering from the debauchery earlier in the weekend (and knew I would have more debauchery in the rest of the weekend). But I eventually dragged myself out of bed, had breakfast at the cafe down the street, and then went to BevMo to buy a lot of wine and to Whole Foods to buy a lot of groceries. Then I came home, was v. relaxed about taking a shower and getting ready, etc., and then called my parents. They were the usual - they told me stories about strange deaths, normal deaths, meetings with governors, the weather, etc., which is all pretty par for the course for them. But I talked to them while enjoying the sun on the roof, which made for a surreal juxtaposition of their #smalltownlife and my #firstworldproblems.

After I finished talking to them, I commenced preparation for tonight's family time dinner, which I volunteered to cook for since I hadn't cooked anything more difficult than tuna salad in ages. I made chicken bouillabaisse, which was divine; I also made truffle butter pasta, which I couldn't eat, but it seems to have been a hit.

[end boring part, begin ridiculous part]

Claudia showed up early, so we had plenty of time to catch up sans other people (and she also chopped the potatoes for the bouillabaisse for me while I finished getting ready, which was a real champion move). The rest of the family rolled in later, as is typical for this particular group at my particular dinner parties. It was all the usual suspects (Chandlord, Katrina, Claude, Terry, John, Jess, Adit, and Priyanka), + this guy named Hugo who is friends with Chandlord and Katrina. I think most of us thought that Katrina's email saying that she/Vidya/Hugo would be in attendance was a joke, given the questions we asked Hugo (namely, 'are you human?'), but it turned out that the guy was a winner...

...and this was confirmed when we did a reverse candle ceremony to welcome Claudia (aka Santy Claude) back to the bay area, and Hugo managed to hold his own. The candle ceremony is typically done when someone moves away; as you'll recall, each person holds a candle, says something about the person leaving, and blows it out. The last candle ceremony was a switch on that format, since it was my thirty-second birthday and everyone blew out one of my birthday candles (which were stuck in a ham sandwich). But in this one, each person said something about Claudia and how they felt about her coming back, something about their last week, and then everyone else in the circle had an opportunity to ask that person a follow-up question.

With nine people, this took awhile, but we all learned a lot about each other and ourselves. Also, before the candle ceremony, it was determined that they would read the second sex scene from Thorington's book, which was just as horribly awkward and ridiculous as it usually is. But we all survived (nay, accepted) the emotional trauma, and I think we're all better off for it (even if we now all know that Adit = Gavin (jhokes)).

[end ridiculous part, begin filler part]

But all good things must end, and so everyone left and I spent some time taming the kitchen. And now I must sleep if I have any hope of surviving Alyssa tomorrow + pursuing my other social activities - goodnight!

you're my head start, you're my rugged heart

Slogging is probably uninteresting to you, so suffice it to say that I slogged. Traffic was surprisingly wonderful this morning, and so leaving at seven got me into the office by eight, which gave me time to read my email (translation: ignore my email), eat breakfast, and finish drying my hair. Then I had a meeting, followed by an odd block of free time - so odd that I didn't know what to do with it. I suppose I did some work? Who really knows what work is if it's done without meetings? I also had lunch with a coworker (pulled pork with kc-style barbecue sauce + cherry/vanilla froyo = heaven), did some more work, had a couple of meetings, and left ridiculously early so that I knew I'd beat traffic home.

Once I got here, I ran a couple of quick errands, then worked at my home desk until 6:30. Then I went to the Mission, where I met up with Ritu Rani (remember her?) and Bill (and Alex, whom I haven't seen much of since colege) at ABV, which is the bar I went to on Saturday with Adit et al. We had a small snack to get us through until dinner, and the snack was really quite awesome - the pork tacos were tasty, and I liked the padron peppers even though some of them were way spicy. Also, I ordered the whisky-based drink they'd ordered on Saturday (the Jackel, misspelled like that), and it was so good that I had two of them.

After continuing to prolong their buzz (and start mine), we adjourned down the street to Locanda for family dinner (tm). Chandlord, John, and Jess were there when we arrived - and this was lovely, since I hadn't seen John or Jess in ten weeks or so due to their European adventures. Adit and Priyanka showed up in due course, and we had a v. good, v. relaxing, v. easy family dinner. Also, Locanda has gluten-free pasta, which is great. Also, my friends remain the same, which is both concerning and heart-warming.

And now I should really sleep if I have any hope of functioning tomorrow - goodnight!

drunk in love

Today was awesome - much more awesome than I expected when I went to bed last night, since I just wanted to sleep for a million hours. Instead, I slept for ten, got dressed, had breakfast at my favorite place down the street in an effort to minimize my cooking endeavors, and then went shopping for important contributions to my kitchen. This includes a stop at BevMo for liquor + a stock-up on red wine, the party store for gold medals and paper plates, and Whole Foods for a shit-ton for produce and other overpriced but tasty goods.

Then I got home and started cooking in earnest. And by 'earnest' I mean that I made borscht. I made a double batch, which involved a lot of chopping, and I'm not sure I would have made it had I not had my food processor to shred the beets, carrots, and cabbage. But it turned out amazingly well - so well that multiple people asked for the recipe, which is not common for things that come from the darkest, beetiest heart of Mother Russia.

But I had vowed to be easier on myself at this party and not have to cook for all of it, which I mostly succeeded at - and I succeeded by not making the Olympic Rings Cakes (tm). I have no regrets; I was too tired to do them, and it would have been impossible to do them all today, and besides, there would have been a cake for approximately every four people at the party, which results in a lot of wasted cake. Instead, I made the borscht, and I got fruits in the Olympics colors and made chocolate dipping sauce, and there were chips and guac and salsa, so I think people survived.

And all in all it was super fun. Heather (aka dear respected madam) came in mid-afternoon to say hi after her hair appointment, but she couldn't stay, which was too bad. But I was able to take a break and hang out with her the whole time she was hear, and it was great to see her. Then I made gluten-free chocolate chip chewies, practiced making White Russians (I think I drank most of them anyway), and started organizing tings. The turnout was really good, especially for a winter Olympics that no one seems to care about very much. I spent the first half alternating between cooking in the kitchen and watching in the living room, and then I spent the second half (as per usual) holed up in the dining room with the usual suspects (John, Jess, Adit, Priyanka, Katrina, Vidya). But it was great to see Sarah, Tolu, Fred, Jamie, and all the rest. And Tammy (aka Tammmmmmehh) made a super special and relatively unexpected appearance, so maybe we'll be able to watch together again later this week.

But now I'm falling asleep on my keyboard - it's time for bed. Goodnight!

the winds of change are blowing wild and free

No time to blog - I must sadly get up and go to work tomorrow with all the other poor schmucks, so I need to sleep now. But today was a good first day back in the city of sin. I slept in, showered, had brunch with Terry and her family, spent some time sorting through my massive piles of books, and then had an impromptu Blood of Lincoln tea with John, Jess, and Chandlord. It was great to see them, and I have high hopes that I can be v social the next couple of weeks to store up memories for January, when I must become a hermit again so that I can write Thorington's story. Sigh.

After tea, I bought groceries, called my parents, continued sorting my books, and are supper with Terry's family (they ordered from Delarosa, which was tasty). I'm bound and determined to cut down on my belongings, which is some sort of anti-nesting instinct in between books, but I'm indulging it since cutting down in belongings wouldn't be a bad thing. I have strong hoarder genetics, so throwing away some things is occasionally an important step to keep my hoarding from metastasizing. But I have other, mire pressing things to do tomorrow, so tonight I must sleep!

given the chance, i'm gonna be somebody

Today was particularly brutal, but I seem to have emerged from it unscathed. I didn't sleep very well last night, and it was for far less time than I would have liked, so I woke up groggy and categorically refused to get out of bed to go to yoga with Chandlord. So I slept for another forty-five minutes, which wasn't enough, then dragged myself through the shower and into some pants so I could run for the shuttle. I ended up taking half a mexican dramamine for the ride, since I was already feeling a little nauseated (last night's champagne binge is correlation, not causation), and while it kept me from throwing up all over my shirt, it also made me hella sleepy. Luckily my brain seems capable of rallying in just about any situation, so I think I came off well in the career panel I spoke on - or maybe I came off super cynical and sarcastic, since I had multiple people come up and thank me for being so 'real'. Ha. That's code for something, right?

sssanyway, I had a mimosa after (why? why is there always champagne around me?), then took two bottles of unopened champagne back to my team for their later enjoyment, since they way over-ordered stuff for the mixer after the panel. Then I immediately had four hours of meetings with no break, although I forced a break in there somewhere so I could make a v. boring salad. The meetings were good, though, and I felt reasonably accomplished at the end. So I met up with John and Vidya at TGIF, where we drank some wine (why? why is there always wine around me?) and laughed at jhokes. I only had a tiny bit of wine, so I was able to drive the three of us back to the evil city, which was far more entertaining than taking the shuttle even if tonight's drive was brutal. Then we met up with Jess for an impromptu dinner in my old neighborhood - there's a Mexican restaurant next to Chow that is amazeballs, and I had some of the best carnitas I've had in a very long time, along with a pitcher of margaritas (why? why are there always margaritas around me?). But I didn't finish my margarita, and it was mostly mango anyway, so I'm hopeful that I will sleep the sleep of the just tonight, rather than the sleep of the drunk.

And now I really must sleep; I have a million work things to do tomorrow, since the person who was most inspired by my career advice today may have been myself (hahahaha). Goodnight!

it's a nice day for a white wedding

Lauren and Nathan are married! Really, that's all the detail you need. I am beyond thrilled for them, and had such an awesome day getting ready and celebrating with them. Actually, I woke up at five a.m. because I was so excited (or hungover, not clear), and I didnt really sleep after that. Oops. Anyway, I had a lovely time getting ready - I'm low maintenance, but compared to the other bridesmaids I'm like a makeup addict, so the hair and makeup artists had fun with me. Beyond that, I'm so happy that I got to hang out with Lauren while she prepared - it was so awesome, and she looked beautiful. And when she started to panic five minutes before the ceremony and all the new mothers on her bridal party (since all the bridesmaids other than me had babies under a year old) were just panicking as well, I calmly did what I'm trained to do - I found a bottle of tequila and some limes, and Lauren, her sister, and I had small shots before progressing to the future.

Anyway, the wedding was beyond awesome. The tables were gorgeous, the food was wonderful, and I got to sit by the people who have my love and yet spurn it (aka Vidya and kafria$. And the reception and band were awesome, and I had a small afterparty that resulted in jessica getting body checked, but that's the price you pay, rights? nd now I have to vote - good luck!

[editors note from the next morning: I never go back and fix typos, so I will let the last paragraph go unchanged despite it being a trainwreck, but in my defense I was typing on my iPad while falling asleep, and it autocorrected me in some strange ways. Not really sure how Katrina became kafria$, but maybe I'll start calling her that all the time]

i'd rather run the other way than stay and see

I don't even know what to say about today - it was like I had two days, since I had one fairly awful day, took a nap, and then had one fairly awesome day. The fairly awful day started with getting up at 7:45 so that I could shower, make coffee, and leave the house in time to make it to my romance meeting, where I had to tell the assembled throngs that I'm not running for VP of programs again next year - it's the right decision since so much is up in the air for me, but it still wasn't easy. And the projector didn't really work for one of the most visual presentations we've had this year (by a cover artist), which I felt some personal responsibility for even though there's nothing I could have done. Bleh. But as usual, it was good to hang out with some other writers, and I had lunch after with a couple of my favorite members, so that was fun.

Post meeting, I drove back to the city of sin and went to the Whole Foods in SOMA, where I stocked up on all the ingredients necessary to cook for the dinner party I was supposed to have tonight. I had planned to make boeuf bourguignon, mashed potatoes, gluten free chocolate chip cookies, etc., and I bought a bottle of wine for the boeuf and a bunch of chips and salsa to snack on while the food was cooking. However, as soon as I got home, I opened my back door and discovered, too late, that the wine had rolled up against the door, and when I opened the door it fell out and shattered in the garage, which took ten minutes to clean up. Stupid.

But worse was that just as I was putting the cookies in the over, Salim called and said they had to cancel. That left Alaska Matt and Kia (and their relatively new baby), and so I texted them saying that rather than cooking I would just order in, and they responded by flaking too. While I understand the flake on all sides, I was still pretty pissed off (not at them, at the general state of the world). So I put away the bouef ingredients, ate a row of chewies, knitted, and then slept for an hour. I was v., v., v. close to just staying in and indulging in a pity party...

...but Adit had planned his birthday party for tonight, and I finally, sternly, grimly convinced myself that I had to go (despite the fact that at this point I was already half asleep in my bed). So, I rallied, and I'm v. glad I did; as sometimes happens, I went from zero to six thousand, and so I had at least four hemingway daiquiris and part of a vodka cranberry (on a stomach filled only with chewies, which may have been a mistake). And I saw all the usual suspects - Adit, Priyanka, Vidya, Katrina, John, Jess, Cathy, Tom, Julie, Deano, Minnie, etc. The last small group of us closed out the bar at two a.m., and then Adit, Priyanka, Chandlord, two other peeps, and I ended up at Grubstake, where I v. much enjoyed some v. cheesy potato skins in an old, converted trolley car. Yes, I'm such a hipster.

And now I really must sleep; I have a shower to attend in the morning, which is going to be super brutal, and at some point I need to retrieve my car and write ten pages. Goodnight!

i'm a freak, a star, i'm everything you are

Mmm mojitos. I shall regret this in the morning, particularly since I must awaken at 8:45am so that I may take Terry to the airport. But mojitos, particularly those made by hipster bartenders in lovely, ironic flannel, are worth the pain that I shall suffer.

But as usual, we must begin at the beginning, even though the beginning is rarely as interesting than the ending (as was discovered by all the people at the party tonight who knew that I'd gotten a manicure (per the beginning of last night's post) but missed the spilling of half a bottle of red nail polish all over my couch (per the end of last night's post, which they apparently missed)). My beginning was rather early today, but I made it to Berkeley by 9:15am for the monthly meeting of the San Francisco romance writers group. My friend Vivi (not her real name) joined us, which was great, and the program today was a 'man panel' (a California Highway Patrol cop, a train engineer, a wilderness expert who happened to be female, and two firemen). Obviously, that was both entertaining and insightful. Also, I was elected VP of Programs for next year, which means I get to plan the agendas; this would be more of an accomplishment had I not run unopposed. C'est la vie; a political career must start somewhere, and mine is headed for the stratosphere, right?

After the meeting, we all stuck around for lunch, and I had a variety of wonderful conversations about writing/publishing, and also made tentative plans to have high tea in Sebastopol (which is not in Russia, its Russian name notwithstanding). Then Vivi and I hung out at the brewery for another couple of hours and pretended to work, but failed. Then I drove home and watched the Stanford/Oregon game, which was pretty much the most depressing thing that I've watched this year, so I shan't recount it.

I managed to regroup after the game, and Terry and I went over to Adit and Priyanka's (extremely) early Christmas party. They rented out an entire bar in SoMa, and it was fairly epic; it peaked quickly, resulting in an unnecessarily difficult to navigate crowd, but it was still quite fun. Clearly it was fun for me; I had five mojitos, half of a Hemingway daiquiri (my favorite drink of the night; too bad I spilled it while reaching for a slice of Domino's pizza that Lily ordered), half a glass of wine, and a shot of whisky. Really, I should be dead. Or rather, thank you to my liver for saving me from my self so often. Anyway, all the key players showed up - Adit and Priyanka (natch), Chandlord, Katrina, John and Jess, Folk-e-man, Peder (aka Timmy Timer), etc., etc. Many people left over the course of the evening, but I was part of the last ten who closed out the bar at two a.m., a dubious feat that I will disclaim all memory of in the morning.

And now, after taking a taxi home, I really must go to bed; 8:45 is going to come all too soon. Goodnight!