pulling against the stream, pulling against the stream

My day started with a Starbucks venti cold brew with cream, which is an unexpected delight in my current life. It also started with putting on a blazer and real pants instead of a tank top and joggers, so this was quite the feat. I made it to the conference in time to pick up my badge and rendezvous with the other two people from my county, so I felt pretty good about my ability to be professional despite being utterly out of practice.

The conference itself was pretty good, I guess. The first speaker was the new head of Extension, who has been in the job exactly six days, so his presentation was a bit fluffy and a good reminder of the value of faking it until you make it, but he seemed nice enough. The next keynote was about food security, and I liked her overall, but I suspect she was somewhat polarizing to the crowd (and her suggestions were things that need to happen at a national legislative level related to the Farm Bill, not things that I can go back to my county and do). And then there were several breakouts of varying utility, along with a lunch where the lieutenant governor spoke (and I liked him quite a bit and wished he were the real governor, since he seems less interested in being a VP pick or highly paid Fox News commentator than our current governor has morphed into).

So overall it was pretty interesting, but I'm oscillating wildly between being eager to get involved and feeling like maybe my talents would be better suited elsewhere. I can get excited about rural issues and feel like there's a long-term investment to be made that will yield results in ten, twenty, thirty years....and then I open twitter and am reminded that Iowa is trying to overturn the previous ban on its no-abortion-after-six-weeks bill. What that *really* means is a woman has two weeks to realize she's pregnant after a missed period if she doesn't want to keep it, since pregnancy weeks start at the date of the last period and not the date of conception. Worse, if she wants the baby but miscarries poorly, she's likely to have a horrific time waiting for the long-dead baby to turn septic and put her life at risk so that the hospital can avoid liability for the D&C rather than providing the woman with the standard medical care for miscarriages that preserves her ability to have children in the future. This is already happening in other states with 'fetal heartbeat' (which is, by the way, not a heartbeat) abortion bans, and it's a tragedy that Iowa is headed down this path.

So, the governor's "we're all for individual patient and parent rights, except we're really not" nonsense makes me immediately think I should move. It feels a little hopeless to be someplace where the government is pushing through things like school vouchers and abortion laws that 65+% of the population disagrees with, and primarying members of their own party who chose to take stands in previous cycles against the most egregious of these laws. And it feels especially hopeless when two of my county's biggest selling points are its hospital and its schools, both of which are likely to be negatively affected in the next decade by what's happening right now.

But that's an issue beyond tonight. After the conference, I was in need of some solo time, so I found a nearby restaurant and holed up with my journal. I ordered some crispy potatoes, and it turned out that was literal, since it was just four whole potatoes cut in half and crispified, which was a little much. Then I had a caesar salad with some salmon, which was a good balanced for the potatoes (which I did not finish). And now I need to sleep so I can wrap up the conference tomorrow - goodnight!

putting someone first only works when you're in their top five

I had a really good day, thanks to some retail therapy. I'm going to a writing conference next week, and it's the first writing conference I've been to in (checks notes) four years. It's also the first conference of any kind that I've been to in three years, so my wardrobe is dusty and my social skills are even moreso. To bolster my ego and ensure that I have pants that fit, I made a last-minute trip to Des Moines to scour the stores at the main mall.

Unfortunately, styles are extremely bizarre right now. I am reminded that I am no longer twenty, and if I tried to wear what the twenty-year-olds are wearing, I would look utterly absurd. But also, I am not built for crop tops and also not built for overly-long jeans, and none of those things are appropriate for a conference anyway. So, shopping was a bit hit or miss, but I found a couple of jacket/blazer-type things and some pants that I think might be cute, but I will need to try everything on again in the lights/mirrors of my house.

On the way home, I stopped at Whole Foods to grab a few tings (I was craving rainbow chard, which is not a thing I have ever typed before, but I can't get it here and so scarcity creates desire). I also talked to Katie for an hour or so, which was excellent. And then I got home, unloaded my car, heated up some spaghetti, and watched election results.

All in all, I'm happy with where things are headed so far. I still live in hope that the Republicans will eventually stop nominating completely crazy candidates and will also stop attempting to pass laws that curtail everyone else's freedoms in the name of keeping a sliver of the population from feeling offended, but the party never learned its lesson about Trump and they seem content to continue dying on his hill. I also live in hope that they will get the message on how all the anti-abortion bills are failing at state levels, since I would like to maintain my access to IVF, like having birth control that keeps me from throwing up for hours every month, and also think it's important for women to be able to survive things like ectopic pregnancies and miscarriages that require abortions to prevent sepsis. Unfortunately, Iowa continues to swing to an R super-state, which is hard to watch since the governor is basically running on a massive state tax surplus + funneling money to private Christian schools while rural counties and public schools are starving for funds to stay afloat, but c'est la vie.

So, I'm sure all sorts of crazy things will come up in regards to election denial (i.e. Republicans already claiming that Maricopa County's voting is rigged despite Republicans controlling the entire elections department there), and I still doubt that the Democrats will hold onto the house, but at least it wasn't a bloodbath. And on that note, I'm going to stop watching coverage and go to bed - goodnight!

the beaches of cheyenne

I have nothing to report today, other than that I intended to be in bed at least 30min ago. I am, of course, deeply unhappy with today's news and fairly pessimistic about what it means for both my own health choices + choices for other women, as well as the very clear signals sent that there will be similarly terrible decisions for any other rights that rely on a belief that the Constitution guarantees individuals a right to privacy. I wonder how many women will die of ectopic pregnancies or complicated miscarriages because they can't get adequate medical treatment, and what fucking stupid takes I'll see on Facebook justifying those women's deaths to 'save the babies' who were never viable to begin with.

sssanyway.

I was pretty lazy today, although I mostly stayed off social media - instead, I slept until almost ten, foam rolled, journaled, played with my planner, made some eggs, took a nap, ate a salad, etc. I'm always pretty fried after driving across Nebraska, and today was no different. [censored] showed up at some point, so we chatted for a bit, and I also unloaded my car (which was the main reason I came this weekend). And we went to our parents' for supper - we picked up Mexican takeout, and my mom made strawberry shortcake, and all in all it was delightful.

And now, I should sleep so that I can head back to Colorado (and get some house stuff done before I leave) - goodnight!

forces of evil in a bozo nightmare

I was quite productive today, all in all. My new washer showed up, and it is lovely but also wrong - for some reason they brought a very slightly different model that is likely $100 cheaper than what I paid for. However, I didn't really want the other model and had only ordered it because it was in stock. This is something I will deal with tomorrow. But in the meantime, I did several loads of laundry today, which was great.

I also did a lot of other cleaning throughout the day - my bathroom (including the shower, even though I hate cleaning showers), part of the downstairs bathroom (not including the shower, because I'm not a saint), mopping half the basement, etc. And I put out new solar lights, which is exciting. Some of my neighbors might have preferred that I spent that time weeding instead of putting out lights, but I love lights and hate weeding, so whatever.

Eventually, I went to my parents' house and had dinner - my mom made me my favorite cheeseburgers and fried potatoes, and it was a delight. I also showed her some photos from Italy, which brought back good memories. And I sadly didn't get to see any new kittens, although they are getting old enough to emerge soon - but it may not happen until I get back to Colorado.

After dinner, I came home and watched the first January 6 committee hearing. I watched the live Jan 6 coverage all afternoon/evening when the riot first happened, and it was clear at the time how violent it was and how close it came to disrupting the quintessential American value of a peaceful transition of power. The committee did an excellent job of pulling together a lot of information, including:

• video compiling the timeline, which was really sad to watch - it's just shocking to see people beating cops and searching for politicians to kill
• the testimony from an officer who was injured to the point of blacking out before she got back up and continued to fight for several more hours
• video testimony from Trump officials (including Barr and Ivanka) about how they'd repeatedly told Trump that evidence of election 'fraud' simply didn't exist (and, as Barr said in his testimony, after eighteen months he's never seen any compelling evidence of anything that would have changed the outcome) 

They're laying out a clear case for how Trump and his circle used the false concept of a stolen election to incite their followers to violence, and that the Proud Boys / Oathkeepers were engaged in a seditious conspiracy to shut down the vote count and ensure that Trump illegally stayed in power. And the hearing didn't have any of the grandstanding I've come to expect from congressional hearings - they treated it like a prosecution's opening statement, not an opportunity for personal soundbites.

Beyond that, I'm just sad. It continues to shock me that principled, staunch conservatives like Liz Cheney (voted with Trump 97% of the time until Jan 6), Bill Barr (a devout Catholic who supported Trump at every turn until deciding he couldn't support efforts to overturn a valid election), Mike Pence (another devout Christian who was completely loyal to Trump but felt he had to uphold his Constitutional duty; Trump later told his staff on Jan 6 that the insurrections had the right idea by chanting that they were going to hang the VP), and others are promptly and completely excommunicated by the GOP for voicing any criticism of Trump. The party has completely lost its moral and ethical center, and engages in obfuscation and whataboutism to avoid any responsibility for how close Trump came to a coup and how dangerous the moment continues to be.

But even though they're trying to act like this is solely a political witchhunt...there is tape of many of them (both politicians and Fox News pundits) begging Trump to stop the riot, and evidence of others, after January 6, trying to get presidential pardons for what they did. As Cheney said in the hearing - 'there will come a day when Trump is gone, but [the GOP's] dishonor will remain.' I just hope there's some accountability for all of this, because otherwise, we're headed down the same road as Germany in the 1930s. Hitler's first coup failed, but too many people were too complacent (or too supportive of his fascist ambitions) to stop the next one.

And now, it's time for bed - goodnight!

i see no volunteers to co-sign on my fears

I have officially stayed up way too late, which means I will probably sleep in way too late, but that's all fine. Today was good until the end; I slept in, made coffee, made some eggs, journaled/wrote, and generally enjoyed my morning. Then I ran to the next town over to talk to the person who is going to sell me some cabinets (and get some new samples), and I also grabbed some groceries. Then I came home and put everything away just in time to talk to Alyssa.

I then settled in for a nice night of reading Met Gala gossip, but got sidetracked by the news about Roe possibly being overturned and was utterly furious at how this is a clear and obvious step toward abrogating a whole ton of rights that have made my current life and the lives of most of my friends possible. I took a break from that to finish one last task for the day job, and I also did some planning for tomorrow and crossed a few tasks off the to-do list. But now I need to go to sleep - goodnight!

river running free, you know how i feel

Well, today was something. I didn't get nearly enough day job work done (although I slogged very steadily all afternoon), but I watched the inauguration, ordered a poke bowl for lunch, and forced myself to answer many emails. In the evening, I made a potato fennel gratin to go with some leftover ham balls from my freezer - the potato fennel gratin is basically just fancy scalloped potatoes, and while it would have been healthier to eat a salad and ride my Peloton, tonight called for fancy potatoes instead.

As for the inauguration, I will spare much commentary since it will likely either offend some of my readers or duplicate what the rest of you already feel. But for my own posterity upon rereading someday, the highlights:

* the national youth poet laureate, Amanda Gorman, read an incredible poem and I'm in awe of her talent

* Garth Brooks' a cappella version of Amazing Grace made me cry (and also text [censored] to congratulate him that one of his classmates got to perform at the inauguration, since Garth graduated from the same graduate school as [censored] and surprised everyone by showing up to get his diploma)

* Lady Gaga definitely had some Hunger Games vibes, but her voice is out of this world

* I wish I looked good in high-waisted wide-legged pants, but I do not, so I will leave them to Michelle Obama

* it was rather nice, after the last four years, to see a pretty bipartisan display of unity in the speeches from McConnell, McCarthy, etc....and now we see what comes next

And now it's time for bed - goodnight!

wish i could turn my mind off for a month

I was pretty productive today, although I hit a wall this evening. But I got up this morning in time to write for an hour before work (mostly from bed - I was at my desk and actually crawled back into bed to brainstorm, since I hadn't showered yet, and it was great). And I slogged all day, mostly successfully.

When I finished work, I threw together a spicy red pepper/chipotle aioli from Barefoot Contessa's latest cookbook (which is a winner so far!) - this just involved chopping up some garlic and chipotle, chopping some jarred roasted red pepper, and pureeing it in my food processor before adding a cup of mayonnaise. The aioli took five minutes but really jazzed up the salmon that I made later, and it would also be amazing with sweet potato fries, or on a sandwich, or in an effort to jazz up many other foodstuffs.

After I did that, I had a quick call with Terry and Lauren (aka Subz) - we were overdue for a three-way catchup, so we made it happen tonight. Then I finished making dinner - I cooked some salmon, roasted some fingerling potatoes, and also roasted some broccolini with sharp cheddar cheese (broccolini also from the Barefoot Contessa cookbook). All in, this took <30min - everything cooked at 400 degrees for varying times, so while it took some careful timing to get everything done at the same time, I pulled it off and the end result was completely delicious.

Then I messed around on Instagram, caught up on Twitter, and did some romance novel business stuff. And now it's only ten p.m., but I'm determined to go to bed in the next 15-20min - I should have done some day job stuff tonight and did not, so I need to get up early and work in the morning. Goodnight!

one day when the tonguing is done we'll take our leave and go

I slept pretty well last night, but even with coffee I wasn't feeling totally in it to win it this morning. However, I did have several hours of work that needed to get done, and I also had meetings most of the afternoon, so it was a fairly productive work day. And, in the late afternoon, my exercise bike got delivered - I have succumbed to the allure of Peloton despite never intending to get one. I ordered it back during the first week of December, as it was sinking in that I will be stuck in my house most of the winter and desperately need to do something for my cardiovascular health since I do not do anything on the days when it feels too cold to take a walk.

I didn't play with it immediately, even though the delivery people set it up super fast and it was ready to go - first, I had a last work call / happy hour with Sara, and we had much to catch up on. Then I called my parents and ended up talking with (or 'discussing' with, as my gram might have said) my dad for a couple of hours. After that, it was almost 8:30 and I perhaps should have wound down and watched tv like I had originally planned. But instead, I decided to check out my bike setup and I ended up doing my first ride. So far so good - the hardest part was figuring how to clip in, since I've never taken an actual spin class or ridden a bike that requires cleats, and so clipping into the pedals was a bit of an adventure. But once I was in, I felt so victorious that I went ahead and did a ride. I think I'll potentially really like it, but we'll see if my legs feel like rubber tomorrow.

Then I messed around online and with my planner to consider what I need to get done this weekend, and now I think I should go to sleep - goodnight!

swimming through sick lullabies

Welp, today was something. It was something I felt like I've seen coming for several years (such as on July 21, 2016, when I watched Trump accept the nomination, which should tell you that I've been concerned about his authoritarian/anti-democratic/completely selfish characteristics since long before it became popular to do so in the mainstream; or on June 2, 2020, after watching him send in troops on protesters in DC (which very notably did not happen today)). And yet it was still shocking and awful to actually watch, and very upsetting to think about what he could incite in the next fourteen days.

So. The morning was pretty good and I got some writing done before work, but I was pretty distracted all afternoon and gave up around five to order guac and enchiladas and margaritas from my favorite Mexican place down the street. But I ended the evening with an emergency doom zoom family time; Adit, Chandlord, Claude, Sam, John, and Jess all made it, so we hit quorum  (I don't know where Priyanka was, and Ritu was at the hospital, so they're excused). We hung out for a couple of hours and talked about politics and tiktok and merch and a variety of other topics, and it was a delight.

But now I need to sleep so that I can try to get something done tomorrow - goodnight!

turning saints into the sea

I got a flurry of hits on my blog tonight for the search term "now I’m falling asleep and she’s calling dekalb", which is a joke I made for myself as the title of a post during the election in November - and I wish I would have tweeted that shit because I saw someone tweet it tonight and they got many tens of thousands of likes. Also, I hate everything I just said about posting it on twitter for the likes.

sssanyway. Today was full of existential dread, but I didn't feel too bad about being unenthused and unproductive because every person I talked to at work felt similarly. Tomorrow is soon enough to rally and get caught up. I did, however, write for an hour before work and thirty minutes after, and that is a feat I very much hope to accomplish again tomorrow. I also made some brussels sprouts, roasted some sweet potatoes, and made a chipotle/maple/orange butter from my new Barefoot Contessa cookbook to go on the sweet potatoes - it was pretty tasty and a good way to add some interest to sweet potatoes. And any 'added interest' to anything in my life right now is a good thing - I risk slipping into deep, soul-crushing boredom while being stuck at home, so fancy butter is at least something.

While I was cooking that stuff, I had a phone conversation with Chandlord, who is just as bored as I am. Then I ate those tasty things with some of the pulled pork I made yesterday, and it was a delightful dinner. After that, I made the mistake of turning on election results and spending too much time going down rabbit holes, but I rallied, turned off the tv, and spent some quality time with my planner.

And now I need to go to sleep if I want to write tomorrow - goodnight!

with that chip on my shoulder, and this past year i got so much older

I had a local minima kind of day - nothing wrong, precisely, but nothing very right either. I did get 8+ hours of sleep, which should have been restorative but perhaps just gave me more energy for my existential dread.

Either way, I finally dragged myself out of bed and made brunch - I tried to recreate Tony's huevos rancheros, and I would say I did a bang-up job. He serves his on top of a quesadilla instead of plain tortillas, so I made a quesadilla w/perfect cheddar and two corn tortillas (and a little olive oil to make the tortilla crispy instead of soft). I also doctored up a can of black beans with onion, garlic, cumin, coriander, cayenne, salt, and lime juice, which made them tasty. And my fried eggs were perfect - crispy on the bottom, soft yolky goodness in the middle.

So they turned out so well that I hummed a little when I took my first couple of bites, which is unusual. But after that, tings went downhill - maybe I was tired from such an awesome meal, or tired from my week in general, but I had a lot of trouble rallying. I did eventually go to pick up /return a couple of things at Nordstrom and Crate and Barrel, and I also made a stop at Locavore to get a few grocery tings that I was missing.

Then I came home, tidied up, reheated some chickpea stew, ate the chickpea stew, procrastinated a bit more, and finally wrote for awhile. I let myself be distracted by Aditya, though - we ended up watching the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air reunion together over zoom, and you can tell how bored I was because I agreed to watch it despite not growing up watching the show. We ended up hanging out for quite some time - Priyanka joined us as the reunion was wrapping up, and the three of us went v. deep on politics, covid, the economy, and mouse infestations until approx ten minutes ago (12:30am MST, for those of you keeping track at home).

And now, even though I have much to say, I want to go to sleep - goodnight!

saying goodbye to bygones

I'm exhausted and need to stop looking at screens and go to bed. I woke up too early this morning, did some virtual event stuff (it ended this morning and seemed to go really well!), then had to immediately transition into a full day of slogging. So, I slogged, got a poke bowl delivered as my #treatyoself moment of the day, took a break for my class with Alyssa, and then slogged some more.

But by 5:30 I was finally done. So I walked to my nearby polling place to drop off my ballot - Colorado has really cracked the code on how to do voting, since the ballot shows up, there are plenty of places to drop it off, and they automatically track it at every step so you know if it got counted. I was only there a minute, but there were multiple cars in line waiting to drop off to the manned drive-through dropoff, and I got to the pedestrian 24hr box just at the same time as another woman. For six p.m., six days before the election, my v. anecdotal survey says that turnout is high.

Then I came home, ate some leftover pork chile verde, talked to Katie, and did absolutely nothing of worth or substance the last three hours. And now I'm going to sleep - goodnight!

so you can wipe off that grin, i know where you've been, it's all been a pack of lies

Today was reasonably good, but winter is definitely coming - I'm not sure it cracked forty degrees today, and it was pretty miserably cold while I took care of my only outdoor errand (unpacking v. heavy box with a shelving unit that got delivered to my front door, and which I needed to move to my garage). But for the most part I was safe inside - I got up this morning and didn't write before work, but I did journal. Then I slogged all day, with a break for some leftover shrimp at lunch. I worked until almost six, then took care of some tings around the house.

And then, rather than watching the debate, I gave myself a break and instead wrote for about forty minutes, which was a much better use of time. And I finally filled out my Colorado ballot, which was v. easy on the national races and a little trickier on the ballot initiatives since there were several pages of them.

And now, having (mostly) done my civic duty (other than dropoff), it's time for bed - goodnight!

when the rain washes you clean you'll know

It's Wednesday, day eleven million of the apocalypse. I woke up in time to meditate / journal before work, but then the day was a slog - I had meetings, more meetings, and a bit of a break to dump a cobb salad out of a jar from my fridge. It was all kind of a lot and I wasn't in the mood for most of it, but I managed to get through with my sanity intact.

Then I took a break and had a videoconference glass of wine with a couple of coworkers, which bled straight into making a fairly elaborate dinner - I tried a recipe for chicken breasts stuffed with cheese/bacon and wrapped in prosciutto, and they were really delicious. It basically involved pounding out the chicken, mixing some cream cheese / goat cheese / thyme / oregano / garlic and smearing it on top, sprinkling bacon on top of that, rolling the chicken, and then wrapping it in prosciutto and baking it. Super tasty, not all that difficult even if it was several steps, and perfect with some roasted broccoli and a baked potato. 100% would make again, ideally for a dinner party.

Then I watched the debate (and drank more wine), then I debriefed with Katie, and now I need to think about going to bed - goodnight!

you vitriolic, patriotic, slam fight, bright light, feeling pretty psyched

Today was something. I woke up and was luxuriating in bed when I got an automated phone call that the guy who was going to install my new bedroom blind was going to be here at 8am, which was 30min earlier than the 2hr window in which he was supposed to arrive. So I sped through the shower and got my coffee going just in time for his arrival. I'm pretty excited about this new blind - as I think I've said before, the previous owner was a masochist who liked to wake up at dawn, while I prefer much more civilized hours (like ten a.m., when I'm not being a corporate whore). So I replaced his spendy mesh shade with an equally-spendy blackout shade, and now all is right with the world (or at least all is right with my bedroom).

I managed to do a bit of writing this morning before the chaos started in earnest, which was great. Work was a bit crazy, but nothing totally unusual - as I said to someone today, my whole job is putting out fires, and in my spare time I coach people to try to keep fires from starting. I was able to knock off around five, and then I made a somewhat elaborate dinner - I made a garlic chile shrimp + coconut rice from the Burma Superstar cookbook. I didn't instagram it yet because I didn't feel like doing it tonight, but it was pretty tasty - and it was only elaborate because it involved peeling two whole heads of garlic for the shrimp sauce. If I make this or the beef/potato curry again, I would be tempted to buy the pre-peeled garlic cloves from Whole Foods, because the garlic prep was the most involved part of both dishes.

Anyway, the shrimp turned out great (and really fast if you already have the garlic paste - which I do now, because the recipe for the paste is a double batch, so I have enough for another batch in my fridge). And the coconut rice is one of the best things ever. I then drank most of a bottle of v. expensive wine and watched the debate, which went about how I expected it to, but I will spare the sensitive feelings of some of my readers and not share my thoughts. Then I read a kitchen remodel magazine to decompress, and now I'm going to bed - goodnight!

with auburn hair and tawny eyes, the kind of eyes that hypnotize me through

I had a pretty lazy day....or rather, I got quite a bit done, but it was all in service of the goal of making a curry, which took hours of effort. Luckily it was one of the tastiest things I've made in quarantine, and I would actually 100% make it again, so no regrets there.

I got up slightly later than planned this morning, and I bummed around the kitchen making coffee and cleaning up and meditating. I also made a grocery list - while I'd gotten most of what I needed at the Korean grocery store the other night, their dairy section wasn't up to the task for what I required, and I had also forgotten to get lemongrass for the thing I wanted to make today. So I cut up the beef for tonight's curry and covered it in paprika/turmeric/salt to marinate, and then I showered, took care of some tings, ate some leftover frittata, and ran to the grocery store (with a stop at the carwash, and an abortive attempt to return something to Nordstrom Rack before I realized that I had no desire to stand in any sort of line that wasn't distancing).

After the grocery store, I came home, put tings away, and then made a beef and potato curry. You can see it on zee romance blog - it wasn't hard at all, but it involved dicing a lot of onion and mincing almost two full heads of garlic, which is time consuming. It also needed to simmer for at least ninety minutes, and then another thirty after adding the potatoes, so it really took quite a long time.

But I got to talk to my parents for quite awhile while I was occasionally stirring the curry. And the end result, as i said, was excellent - would definitely make again.

And now, it's time to head toward bed so that I can write in the morning before work. Goodnight!

the seaweed is always greener in somebody else's lake

I'm still in ye olde Iowa. Yesterday was brutal, only because I barely slept after my excursion with Adit - I was back in my room and attempting to sleep by midnight, but drinking coke zero and fireball at eleven was not a good idea for sleep quality. So I woke up groggy yesterday morning, rallied, dropped Adit off at the airport (we wore masks in the car; someone in my county died of covid after driving people around, so I tried to limit my chances), and then drove home. That meant I made it in time to get settled in before my meetings started, and the coffee / hashbrowns / sausage that I grabbed at McDonald's on the way out of the city went a long way toward helping me recover.

Then I slogged all day, ate with my parents (porkchops and tater tots, which were delish, plus I roasted some broccoli to go with it), and then slogged until [censored] showed up. Today was more of the same - I had a ton of meetings, so there were no breaks and no real work done. But I stopped a little after five to hang out with my mom, which was nice. And then we had takeout Mexican food for supper, which was particularly delicious. And now, after drinking slightly too much wine discussing RBG's death with my friends, it's time for bed - goodnight!

it's either hell or high water, let's get outta this place

I had a pretty good day, all in all. I got up in time to write before I had to start working, so I'll definitely take that. And my day was fairly chill, at least compared to most days - I had a couple of meetings, but nothing too onerous, and I was able to get quite a bit of actual work done. Sadly I'll probably need to do some evening work this week so that I can take the weekend fully off - it's performance review season, which always means more evening work. But it could be worse (which feels like a v. dangerous, fate-tempting thing to say in 2020, so I'll end it there).

sssanyway I worked all day, with a quick break to have lunch (bologna sandwich and potato chips, lunch of small-town champions). I was done a little before six, and then I hung out upstairs with my parents. My mom made cheeseburgers to go with the rest of the sweet corn Dad picked up yesterday + the veggies I'd grilled, and the cheeseburgers were pretty much perfect. After that, Dad was dealing with some political stuff, but Mom and I hung out in the kitchen and talked for awhile (while also watching some budding drama on the patio between a raccoon and a kitten that both wanted to eat the cat food).

Unfortunately, I had to end our convo slightly prematurely - I had a call with some writer friends at nine, so I had to come downstairs and take that. And now I really need to sleep - I have once again stayed up too late, and if I have any hope of writing (or even just getting normal work done) before my meetings start in the morning, I should be asleep immediately. Goodnight!

derelict days and the stereo plays for the all night crowd

I *think* I'm leaving for Iowa tomorrow - it really depends on how much I get done in the morning and whether getting out in the mid/late afternoon is feasible or if I should just wait and take off first thing Saturday. Oddly, I'm mostly packed - I've packed all my clothes and paper goods and dry foods, and so just need to pack my cooler and my electronics and load the car. However, I have a ton of other stuff to do tomorrow - plant maintenance, trash disposal, gas and car wash and snack procurement, and likely more day job stuff than I would like. So we'll see how all that goes - but either way, Saturday I'll be in Iowa for a week in the heartland.

Beyond that prep work, today was meh; I didn't get enough sleep, but I roused myself in time to shower before my first meeting. My 'no meeting week' today included 4.5hrs of meetings, but 3.5 of those were a training that I needed to take, so I guess it was fine. I slogged all day (with a break to eat a v. tasty cobb salad out on my patio), but I wasn't really feeling in it to win it - I was feeling cranky, and I was annoyed with people, and it all was a recipe for having a not-good time.

However, that encouraged me to sign off by 5:30, which is what gave me time to pack. I then reheated pizza from last night, drank some wine, and watched the last night of the RNC. I'm really glad the political conventions are over; I'm glad I watched both, but I'm really really done and ready to just vote and get it over with (but we have a shit-ton of natural disasters and coronavirus deaths and October surprises to get through before then). Then I finished doing some stuff around the house. And now I need to go to bed if I want to be able to drive east tomorrow - goodnight!

skies ripped open by the sun, daylight comes but not soon enough

It's 12:37am and I should almost certainly be in bed, but my schedule is weirdly fucked up and I had to work a couple of hours tonight. When I got up this morning I took care of a bunch of tings around the house rather than writing, and then I slogged pretty much straight from nine to four. I did some of that slogging outside on my patio, which was delightful - there is probably still smoke in the air, but it's so much better than it was that I ignored it.

Also this morning, a couple of guys came over to give me a quote on what it would take to lay some pipe (heh). More specifically, I'm going to put a fire pit in the backyard, and they were quoting what it would take to make the fire pit natural gas instead of propane. It sounded dicey at first, but then they took a look at my basement and said it would be super easy to connect in the basement and run a pipe + a shutoff out through the east wall of the basement (rather than the north wall, where my gas grill is, which is way too far away). They also said Denver permitting is pretty fast, so that's good to know. I still need to figure out the concrete plan outside (i.e. whether/how they'll cut the concrete - but luckily there are seams that they can maybe cut along, so idk), but a gas fire pit would make me super happy, so I think I'll make it happen.

Sometime around four, I paused the endless slog to talk to Tomas, whom I hadn't talked to in ages. We exchanged notes on our boredom and crankiness at the end of the world, which is pretty much all conversations right now. Then I unfortunately needed to do a bit more work, but I did it while waiting for fancy pasta from Bar Dough - I was going to grill tonight, but there was a sudden downpour, so fancy pasta was the way to go.

Then I watched the RNC, which was a bit bizarre because almost all the speeches were pretaped (but made to appear live) and so didn't reference anything about hurricanes or Kenosha or anything else of a more urgent matter. And then I took care of some laundry, took out my contacts, and slogged a couple of hours.

But now I've survived another day, which is always a feat in this day and age, so it's time for bed. Goodnight!