all i really know is i don't wanna know

Too tired to blog - I'm verklempt because Buckingham Place is likely to announce something big at midnight CA time, and I'm too sleepy to stay up for it. I blame the NyQuil for that - I feel worse than I did yesterday, since my congestion is ramping up and it gradually outshining my sore throat, and so I'm taking more drugs than I probably should.

But I'm still having a v. productive time - I got up at seven and actually wrote this morning, which was a novel feeling (ha). We lost power to the house at 11:15ish, but as we were on our way out to door to grab lunch, this didn't affect us at all. We found a cute place on Dana Point's harbor, and my huevos were yummy (but not as good as Nitks). Then we came back here and worked afternoon. Then I ate supper and watched the sunset with the girls - it was pretty perfect, all in.

But now I'm desperate to sleep, so goodnight!

i know i should have fought it, at least i'm being honest

No blog for you tonight - I need to go to bed immediately, since my flight for Iowa leaves around 8:25am and I have to check a bag and grab some breakfast before boarding (and hope that traffic isn't a complete shitshow).

Not that the blog would interest you all that much tonight anyway. I spent the whole day alternating between getting ready for my trip and running errands (down to Union Street to grab a couple of things + have lunch at my favorite cafe + say happy holidays to Tony; over to Philz to grab coffee to fortify myself for today + coffee beans to fortify myself for the next three weeks). I also spent some quality time sitting on the couch happily reminiscing about the debauchery of the past few days + also regretting the debauchery and trying to rehydrate. And I talked to my parents, even though I will see them tomorrow, and got through a bunch of stuff on my to-do list.

But everything is done, I'm all packed up, and all that remains is trying to squeeze in some sleep and a shower before leaving. Get ready for some #smalltownlife posts - goodnight!

turn out the light

No blog for you tonight - today was pretty productive, including both writing and a lot of house stuff (laundry, grocery shopping, unpacking, etc.). But I've been staring at a screen for way too long, and the rain coming down outside makes me want to curl up in bed again and dream the night away. Perhaps tomorrow I shall be more eloquent...but as tomorrow involved getting eyebrows ripped off my face, as well as some pre-Thanksgiving feast preparation, we shall see what I can churn out for you. Goodnight!

i know he thinks you're fine and stuff, but does he know how to wind you up?

This is a four-minute post. My life has returned to some semblance of normal; Adit is sleeping in my couch, which is lovely, even though it's only for one night. The conference is over, and I can start trying to settle into my house some more. And I'm not drunk or hungover, so both of those are good things.

The rest of the conference today was great; I skipped the morning sessions to do work for the big boss, but then participated in the afternoon session that she was kicking off. Her speech went well, although we didn't have a chance to debrief since she left after her speech and I stayed for the rest of it. But staying was well worth it; the content of the afternoon was great, with the major highlight being the former CEO of Domino's Pizza, who started his speech by handing out free pizza for everyone (smart guy), and ended up being one of the most engaging speakers I've ever heard.

Anyway, the only downside was that the session ran way, way over; it was supposed to end at five, and I didn't leave until after 6:30pm. Granted, I talked for a bit to Pete and Durand, but still. That gave me just enough time to make it down to the glorious south bay for dinner with Adit, Jav, Chris and Connie at Chris's favorite Mexican restaurant in Mountain View; we somehow put away at least five baskets of chips, and we all had drinks and cleaned our plates too. Needless to say, it was totally delicious, and it was great to have some family time before Adit leaves for his cross-country trek. Unfortunately, John and Jess couldn't attend because it turns out that John has whooping cough -- I may have been really, really annoyed that I got the tetanus/pertussis vaccine in January because it made me so sick and put me out of commission for several days, but now I'm glad, since John and Jess were here this weekend and I'm apparently safe from their contagion.

Now, though, I should really go to sleep; I have more work than ever for the day job and so need to go into the office tomorrow morning, but then I need to come back here to await delivery of my furniture! And then I'll probably go back to the office and also work this weekend, but at least my place is starting to come together. Goodnight!

this river is wild

This isn't even a four-minute post, in all likelihood - I did nothing of interest today, and I desperately need to go to bed so that I can get up in time to go to the airport for my flight to Tokyo tomorrow. I woke up this morning, paid my bills, took a shower, went to the mall in search of sneakers and came away with a wireless router and a spare battery for my new digital camera (and some necessities from Sephora, of course), then went to the office to pick up a package that was delivered after I left yesterday. I intended to stay at the office and work, but I discovered belatedly that I had left a crucial notebook at home, and so I couldn't accomplish what I meant to do. So, I came home, rearranged my living room (it looks lovely!), packed, and then slogged for the day job. I also talked to my brother and my parents for almost two hours combined, so I'm feeling v. well connected to my Iowa life.

And now, it's time for bed -- I told you this would be an uninteresting post. However, the interest level should pick up when I make it to Tokyo (particularly if I fail to navigate the bus to the hotel and end up blogging frantically from my cell phone). Wish me luck!

the party doesn't start til i walk in

I have to be on a train to Paris in less than six hours, so this will necessarily be a four-minute post. Despite the fact that I woke up in the middle of the night feeling like I was choking on my lung, I had a good day -- the big boss's staff offsite went v. well, despite a lot of jetlag in the room. We started off by discussing our personality types, which was interesting; as I mentioned last week, I'm an ENTP (boo-yah), but it was cool to see what the rest of the people in the group were. The big boss is an ENTJ, and virtually every person in the group was a T (only 2 of the 12 were F's). I will spare you any more details about people whom you don't know and don't care about, but since I like personality test stuff, it was all good for me.

The rest of the day was spent in deep discussion, with a couple of fifteen minute breaks and a half hour for lunch, which was rather brutal. We did have a short break before dinner, so I managed to come back to the hotel, pack almost everything, and take a fifteen minute nap before rendezvousing with the staff for dinner. We went to Mango Tree, a Thai restaurant a couple of blocks from here, where we spent three hours eating a lot, drinking a moderate amount (two Thai mojitos for me, natch), and generally making merry. We then adjourned to a bar next door, where we stayed until midnight; I should have been in bed two hours ago, but it's hard to walk away from a gathering like that, particularly when the group sees each other in person about once a quarter.

However, I finally escaped, came back to the hotel, finished packing, and am now ready for bed. I have to get up around 5am to catch a 6:55am train to Paris -- I would yell at whoever booked such an early train, but I did it to myself. At least I can sleep on it, I suppose; when I get to Paris, I want to see as much as possible because it turns out that Sunday is Pentecost, and some public places are closed even though the French aren't particularly religious (and isn't it odd that Pentecost Monday -- aka Whit Monday -- is a national holiday in a country that doesn't allow headscarves on the basis that it's too religious??) Anyway, I digress, and my four minutes are up -- goodnight!

girl i gotta watch my back, 'cause i'm not just anybody

This is a four-minute post, not because I don't have time to write, but because I have absolutely nothing of interest to share. The argument could be made that I have nothing of interest to share about 90% of the time, but if you're still reading this blog, you've come to terms with it and persevered in spite of it, so I'm not going to apologize.

I woke up around 7:30 and successfully packed, finished things up around the house, and got out the door in time for the taxi to the airport. The only fly in the ointment was that my brand new trash can from Palo Alto utilities is going to smell like dog shit for the rest of its life; I took the garbage out last night hoping that the garbage collectors would come before my 9:15am departure (I was told I should have it out by six a.m.), but when the time came to leave, they still hadn't been there. I couldn't leave it sitting on the street for two and a half weeks, so I debated taking it into the garage rather than leaving it in the outdoor enclosure (where I figured raccoons might knock it over) -- but when I opened it to see that the garbage hadn't been taken, I discovered that some asshole had tossed a couple of baggies of dog shit into it. I'm sure they meant no harm, but there was nothing I could do -- I'll just have to spray something in there and hope the smell dissipates someday.

Anyway, I made it to the airport with a ridiculous amount of time to spare, and so I bought a couple of small things (travel-sized moisturizer and eye-makeup-remover pads) at Sephora, and then had scrambled eggs at a cafe in the terminal. My flight took off on time, and sadly I worked for the day job the entire flight -- it was wonderful to have wireless on the plane, but in some ways I miss the disconnectedness of my youth. The big boss ended up requesting something urgent, and so I sat on the floor of baggage claim for half an hour after we landed to wrap the thing up before finding the rental car shuttle, picking up the car, making a stop at Chipotle (I was starving and couldn't order food on the plane because the food-service screens in my row weren't working and there was no other way to pay for the items), and checking into the hotel.

I've spent the last ninety minutes or so wrapping up some more work stuff and retinseling my hair for the big event. And now, my four minutes are up, and I'm going to go to bed so that I can go into the city and sightsee a bit with Ritu before bringing her and Vidya back to the hotel. Tomorrow night, the festivities begin in earnest -- I will attempt to emerge from this weekend with my liver intact. Goodnight!

in the end it doesn't even matter

This is a four-minute post. I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to get on a plane Thursday morning for a two-and-a-half-week trip without forgetting something vital, but I'm going to have to slog through it. Unfortunately I'm not nearly as unpacked as I would like to be, although I did unpack my desk accoutrements and do a load of laundry -- but I've just got to accept that I'm going to come home from Europe to a messy house, and that I will only have a handful of days to put it together before I leave for Japan anyway.

Today was fine, although not particularly exciting; the most exciting thing was that I was able to wake up at seven, have a cup of tea at my desk at home while checking email, and still make it into the office by 8:30. Granted, I did wake up at six to register for an appointment with an editor at the romance conference (the registration for my group opened at eight a.m. CDT; unfortunately we were the second group eligible to register for appointments, so my first-choice editor was taken, but I got my second choice and promptly went back to sleep). But, overall, the commute is making me oh-so-happy.

Despite that, I still ended up driving to and from the city today, so that I could turn in the keys in Adit's absence. But, since I drove up and back over lunch, traffic wasn't bad, and when I got back to the south bay, I got a pedicure while answering email (the joys of an always-connected laptop + satellite card), then came home and did some more work before slogging around the house all evening. And now my four minutes are up -- it may be insane to try to wake up tomorrow to write in addition to everything else that's going on, but I'm going to try. Goodnight!

i take the blue ones every time

This is a four-minute post. I think I'm written out for the day, so this is going to be v. brief. I spent the day at the day job finishing with the catchup on all the emails that I got over vacation, finishing edits for an email the big boss was sending out, and coming up with talking points for a couple of her upcoming presentations. I was at the office until 6:30 because I had a meeting with someone in China (yes, China), but I managed to make it home before collapsing from hunger, and I made myself a big plate of cucumbers, tomatoes, pita, and hummus (mmm - clearly I'm going to the opposite extreme of my Midwestern diet from last week). I ate my deliciously snacky dinner while catching up on the last two episodes of "Project Runway" -- this is the first time in several years that I've followed a reality show from start to finish (the last one, embarrassingly, was the season of "Big Brother" that was on while I was home on leave in spring of 2008). Actually, I take that back -- I followed most of last fall's "The Next Iron Chef" as well. But, I've enjoyed "Project Runway" thus far, and I'll be sad to see it end.

However, I continued to do similar tasks tonight as what I do for the day job, only without getting paid for them; I spent some time editing a friend's grad school application, and then I spent even more time drafting a blog post for the group romance blog that I'm part of (just realized that 'group romance blog' sounds vaguely pornographic; to clarify, it is a group that writes about romance, not a blog devoted to orgies). And now, I need to go to bed so that I can get up in six hours and make it to work on time for the only important meeting of the week. Goodnight!

detroit rock city

This is a four-minute post. I'm not in Detroit, but I am in Ann Arbor, which is about as close to Detroit as I would ever want to get. My flight out here was delayed by over two hours, which ultimately was worth it; because the flight was delayed, some people rebooked, which (due to my zealous stalking of the online check-in process) meant that I was able to switch into an aisle seat that someone else had vacated, thus rescuing myself from the hell of sitting in the middle. I would rather be delayed two hours than sit in the middle, so it all worked out. It also meant that I got to do even more work for the big boss than I expected, since we didn't end up leaving the office until 1:30, and we were originally supposed to leave at 11:30. Yay, right?

I spent the flight alternating between working for the day job, working on my romance novel (building my new plot threads into Scrivener), doing a crossword puzzle (either they've gotten easier or I was in the zone, because I finished it all without any assistance from the answer sheet), and reading a book. It was all quite a lovely interlude, despite the delay, and I feel oddly refreshed for it. Now, though, it's one a.m. in Ann Arbor and I should really try to make it to the office by nine; luckily the office is right across the street, but still, sleep is important. Goodnight!

she's writing, she's weaving, conceiving a plot

This is a four minute post. I had a fairly awful day; I spent the drive down to work in a continuation of the same weird panic-attack moment that I had last night, which didn't exactly get me off on the right foot. I interrupted my brooding to get my allergy shots, then continued brooding/slogging for the next several hours. I unfortunately had to cancel lunch with Vidya because I had too much random crap (none of it particularly interesting/fun) to do today, and I had meetings this afternoon (shocking, considering that I never have meetings anymore) before leaving early to go to Stanford for my creative writing class.

So I won't go into detail on the brooding, but it's no doubt tied to the fact that I'm getting older and should theoretically be making some commitments, but the urge to run away (or chop off my hair, which is usually inextricably linked to running away) is growing more intense by the day. I'll leave it at that, and hope that I check myself before I wreck myself.

Anyway, I went to class tonight, and it was better than I expected; the discussion of "The Last Summer of the World" was quite good, and then we workshopped my story and a story from another member of the class. I'm sure that was partially why I was in a bad mood today, because I had savaged the story in my head after I handed it in (it was really the first draft and I knew it had issues and so I was a bit embarrassed by it). But, the class was of course very nice, and they didn't savage it; and the instructor said that the tone was a very nice mix of sophisticated prose and light romanticism, and that the almost-flippant tone disguised but didn't ruin the sophistication of the underlying writing. This pleased me, of course; while in my head this piece wasn't exactly a romance, the class knows about my romance writing and so read it through that lens, and through that lens it still worked. The feedback was all extremely helpful, and I could see myself continuing this piece (it's set during the Crusades, so if I ever want to write medievals...) -- but I need to work on Madeleine and Ferguson's story first.

And now, this is patently not a four-minute post, and I really need to go to bed. Goodnight!

you're driving me crazy, when are you coming home?

This is a four-minute post. Today was somehow both productive and incredibly frustrating at the same time. It was productive in the sense that I accomplished the only real work task I had for the day, got my work laptop fixed so that it would stop crashing every time I turned on the sound, finished my short story for class, participated in class, worked for an hour when I got home, and did the dishes. It was unproductive in the sense that fixing the laptop involved giving it up and having no laptop for nearly four hours, I wasn't happy with my story (it needed at least two more drafts), I didn't know what the reading assignment was for this class and so wasn't able to totally fully participate in the discussion even though THE AUTHOR OF THE BOOK was in class tonight, and I didn't want to work when I got home but had to anyway.

But, all's well that ends well, as the Ingallses would say. Class was still v. interesting despite the fact that I wasn't prepared, and it was good to hear another debut author talk about her process even if her writing and subject matter is v. different from mine. And I'm shaping up to have a good week at work; if my laptop doesn't die tomorrow and I'm able to get stuff done, I should go into the weekend without any looming tasks, and the ability to write to my little heart's content.

Now, though, my four minutes are up, and I should really be in bed *right now* if I want to get seven hours of sleep tonight. I intend to wear these ridiculous heels that arrived from Zappos today, and I will need to be well-rested in order to maintain my balance and keep from falling on my face tomorrow. Goodnight!

matchmaker matchmaker make me a match

This is a four-minute post. The productivity surge continues, in my effort to throw resources at my book problem so that I can beat it into submission. I made it into the office by eight and slogged v. well until five-thirty; at that point, Adit came to my office and we carpooled home in the rain, which took almost an hour and a half. During that time, Adit reorganized my phone, made fun of my music, and read me every definition from Urban Dictionary of the various reputed meanings of the words "Wamp" and "Wamp Wamp", which was v. helpful. We spent the evening engaging in family time by watching tennis, eating leftovers from the fridge, and watching a couple of episodes of "Project Runway".

However, in the midst of all that watching of television, I managed to write 1461 words, which is almost six pages. Yay for me, and more importantly yay for Madeleine and Ferguson -- they are six pages closer to their eternal happiness. I intend to continue this massive outburst of productivity this weekend; my switch to longhand is really working for me, perhaps because there is no clock on my notebook staring me in the face, nor does it have access to the internet. And really, that's my only plan for the weekend -- I can't wait!

My four minutes are up, and I have plenty of slogging to do tomorrow, so I should go to bed!

i can't let go, i can't get out

This is a four-minute post. I was twenty minutes late to my only important meeting of the week (well, with the exception of my one-on-one with the big boss, but this is the big boss's staff meeting) because it was raining sheets and traffic was abysmal even though I left early. That put me in a rather foul mood for the rest of the morning, but I recovered enough to slog with near-perfect productivity until my one-on-one with the big boss later in the afternoon. We covered an insane amount of stuff in the short amount of time we have, leaving me with a list of action items the length of my arm, and a mounting sense of dread/masochistic excitement over pulling off the entire planning, organizing, and executing of a 100+ person conference in the next 35 days (14 of which I will be in Singapore and India). It will happen, and it will be great, but February is going to be an intense month between my travels, my adventures with my father, my Olympic Rings Cake Experience, the conference, my fiction class, and my desire to write 4-5 pages/day.

The writing actually happened today; I left the office at four p.m., came home, washed my sheets (since I had an awful dream right before I woke up this morning that I had head lice -- not true, but it creeped me out), and wrote four pages. I then typed them up (since I'm pursuing my new strategy of handwriting, which seems to be just as fast as typing, and I type fast enough that I can type up four pages in less than ten minutes) and ate a delicious Amy's margherita pizza before doing some work for the day job for an hour. Now, though, my four minutes are up, and I would like to get eight hours of sleep before attempting tomorrow's rain-soaked commute, so it's time for bed!

the party boys call the krem-i-lin

This is a four-minute post. I had a lousy first half of the day and a great second half of the day, so it all balanced out. I woke up with a continuation of the headache I've had for days, and ended up going into the office rather late so that I could apply heat to my arm while lying in bed. But, when I got to work, I had a baked potato with Joy, then slogged violently for a few hours so that I could get through the most critical of my action items before leaving at 4:15pm so that I could meet up with Ritu and Vidya for coffee before my class.

We went to Cafe Borrone, one of my favorite places in the south bay, and ended up having three of their overpriced-but-delicious sandwiches at a v. early hour since I wanted to eat before class and Ritu and Vidya decided not to have dinner afterwards. We had a lovely time, and then parted ways very sadly (or rather, I parted ways with them -- they very well could have hung out for hours afterwards) so that I could make my way to Stanford just in time for the start of my class.

Class turned out to be very good, and I think it's going to be really useful and interesting. The teacher has good things to say and runs the class well, the class itself is small (less than twelve people, which is very small for a continuing studies writing class) and mostly people who are working on projects already and so have some concept of writing, and the discussion tonight was interesting. I'm finding myself really excited about doing research, focusing on historical writing, etc. -- it could be difficult to balance it with work, my book, my upcoming travels, etc., but it's going to be good.

Now, though, my four minutes are done and gone -- it's time for bed!

it takes my pain away

This is a four-minute post. It may be shorter, since I'm having trouble typing -- I went to the doctor for what was supposed to be a routine checkup, but since I'm going to India she decided to stick me with a tetanus/whooping cough vaccine and a pneumonia vaccine. I had a tetanus shot before I went five years ago (can't believe it's been that long), but they recently added whooping cough to the mix, which she recommended due to my allergies and my general lack of lung capacity. However, now I can barely lift my arm and the pain is radiating down my side, which will be quite inconvenient given all that I have to do tomorrow.

The rest of the day was actually pretty good, though; I made it in to work in time to grab breakfast before my two-hour marathon meeting at eight a.m., and then slogged the rest of the day (actually, I was slothful for a couple of hours in the afternoon after getting the shots, but then I slogged really hard until seven). I left the office at seven and made it to the evil city just in time to have dinner with Lauren (aka Subz), one of my favorite former expats, who was back in town for the holidays after finishing her first autumn in business school. We had a great time catching up, although it made me miss her all over again; I'm going to have to con my way into a trip to Ann Arbor at some point in the near future so that I can see her in her new abode.

Now, though, I really have to go to bed; I need to be back in the south bay at eight a.m., so hopefully I'll be able to sleep despite my arm. Goodnight!

run run run away, it's your heart that you'll betray

This is a four-minute post. I wasn't quite as productive as I could have been today, but on the whole I did exactly what I needed to do -- I caught up on work email from vacation, finished cleaning the living room/kitchen, bought tickets for me and my dad to fly from Singapore to Hyderabad on February 6, wrote a letter of rec for someone applying to business school, and wrote romance for an hour. So, as much as I may wish that I had crossed everything off of my to-do list, written for two hours instead of one, and gotten around to cleaning the bathroom, today still wasn't too shabby. I'm also returning to the healthier eating habits that I had developed last fall and abandoned somewhere around the time of the insane conference I planned for work in August, and so I accomplished all that despite subsisting on turkey and hummus -- good for me.

I'm feeling antsy about my writing; I seem to be alternating between feeling wildly confident because I'm in love with my characters and their story, to feeling utterly depressed because it's going slowly and I'm unimpressed with my first-draft writing style. I need to hold on to the confidence and get over the perfectionism, but that's easier said than done. However, I've written a book before, so I can do it again -- I just have to force myself to write for an hour every day, and more on the weekends, so that I can get through the blasted first draft and get to the fun tweak-every-word part sooner rather than later.

Four minutes are up -- goodnight!

springtime for hitler

This is a four-minute post. I was only marginally productive today; I'm trying to get my Christmas cards finished and mailed, but it's unclear whether it will happen tomorrow or not. I did write some this afternoon, but I had a smashing headache and ended up falling asleep for an hour. As a result, it's after three a.m. and I'm just now beginning to feel tired enough to go to sleep.

However, despite that the day was lovely, and my father made pizza for dinner -- it's delicious in a completely different way from Little Star. We then watched the Kennedy Center Honors on CBS, which was better than usual; the performances in honor of Bruce Springsteen, Grace Bumbry (the first black opera singer to sing at Bayreuth), and Dave Brubeck (a jazz musician) were fantastic, and the tributes to Robert DeNiro and Mel Brooks were really funny (particularly when Ben Stiller interrupted his own speech about DeNiro to go off about how much he loved Bruce Springsteen, and then also pointed out 'oh yeah, the Nobel Peace guy', since Obama was sitting next to the honorees).

I continued to attempt to write Christmas cards while watching Craig with my dad, and then retired to my room around one a.m. to theoretically go to bed, but got lost in another Wikipedia odyssey. I tried to set a goal to stop wasting so much time on the internet for 2009, but I think I need to recommit and try again for 2010. Now, though, my four minutes are up, and I should really go to bed if I have any hope of getting up at a non-laughable hour tomorrow. Goodnight!

i tried one day to let you go

This is a four-minute post. I had a pretty good day, all in all; I slept until almost eight and was at work by ten, which was v. good for my energy levels and overall willingness to tolerate annoyances. Not that I had many annoyances to tolerate today -- I worked for a couple of hours, and then had a ninety-minute lunch with Gyre, Lizzie, and Sarah (Sarah is fresh off the plane from Singapore, and so she crashed the every-six-weeks lunch that Gyre and I have with our former coworker Lizzie). It was lovely as usual to catch up with all of them, and I'm looking forward to having lunch with Sarah again tomorrow. Then, I had a conference all with Heather (aka dear respected madam), followed by a good meeting about customer satisfaction. I worked for one more hour, and then peaced out for the day -- we've slowly, tentatively started having (cheap) offsites again, and while I have no team and no one to have an offsite with, a team that I'm marginally affiliated with invited me to come to theirs.

So, five of us went up to Belmont/San Mateo (apparently called Bel-Mateo?) for some bowling action. Wii Bowling has apparently wiped out any ability that I ever had; not that I was ever any good, but I should have been able to bowl better than a 55. So we bowled and talked in the nearly empty bowling alley, and then adjourned to a nearby diner for totally delicious burgers and fries. Then, I drove the rest of the way back to the evil city, where I spent the last two hours doing the work that I clearly would have been able to get done if I had not gone bowling instead.

Now, though, my four minutes are up; luckily, tomorrow is shaping up okay, and if I maintain some base level of productivity, I will hopefully get through everything I need to take care of before the holidays. Goodnight!

caught in a bad romance

This is a four-minute post. Today was v. good, and I need to figure out how to replicate it more often. I didn't get out of bed until eight, and strolled into work at ten; since I didn't break for lunch and stayed until 6:30, I felt not the slightest bit of guilt. Then, I was steadily productive all day, getting through all of the tasks on my to-do list, and so I when I left the office, I had absolutely nothing that needed to get done. I drove to Menlo Park and spent a quality hour at Cafe Borrone, eating my favorite turkey and gouda sandwich while brainstorming Madeleine's backstory. Since I've changed my mind about what her issues are, I'm going to have to rewrite significant portions of what I already have, and so I'm trying to get to know the "new" Madeleine before I jump in. This is the weekend when I start writing again, so spending some time with her tonight was good.

When I got home around nine, I didn't want to go to bed, and since I oddly had no work to do, I decided to read a book. I browsed through all the unread books on my Kindle (no wonder e-books are selling well -- it's so easy to order them and then let them pile up) and decided to read the Kresley Cole story in DEEP KISS OF WINTER. The book is a combo of two novellas by Kresley Cole and Gena Showalter; I usually don't read short romances (no jokes about my stature from the peanut gallery!), but the Kresley Cole story is part of her longer multibook story arc about some Valkyries, vampires, werewolves, and demons, and so I wanted to read it for the sake of continuity. I stayed up later than I intended and finished the whole story, although the premise (the heroine is part-Valkryie, part-ice queen, and so her skin is ice-cold and she can't touch anyone without getting burned) wasn't entirely sexy and certainly wasn't hot. But, I still enjoyed it, and I reveled in my evening of absolute freedom.

Now, though, the four minutes are well past up, and it's time for me to go to bed. Goodnight!