we're running with the shadows of the night

I had a much better day today, probably because there was no time for the Sunday Scaries to sneak in. I slept until nine, then messed around my house, trimmed my bangs, showered, etc. And then I drove south to hang out with Aunt Becky for a few hours. In the beforetimes, Easter was a holiday we typically celebrated at Uncle Mark and Aunt Kathy's, but since neither Aunt B nor I were in Iowa this weekend, we had lunch instead. We hung out in the kitchen for a few hours and caught up on many things, and Uncle B grilled the hamburgers that Aunt B had prepped, and it was all quite tasty.

Eventually, I drove home, and I talked to [censored] most of the way. Then, I talked to my parents for almost an hour and a half - I was actually supposed to be in Iowa this weekend, but life (aka work) got in the way, and I'm not going until next weekend. And then, I quickly got ready and met Katie at the Alamo Drafthouse - we finally saw 'The Lost City', which is basically required watching in Romancelandia. I thought it was excellent - it upheld/played with romance tropes really well, and Channing Tatum and Sandra Bullock are a delight. Also, Daniel Radcliffe excels at acting crazy. And since this was my first movie-going experience in over two years, doing it at Alamo (where I can get a gluten free pizza and a glass of wine delivered to my seat during the move) was an especially nice way to do it.

Sadly, the fun times had to end after the movie was over, so Katie and I parted ways. And now I need to go to sleep so that I can get some work done tomorrow - goodnight!

echoes in the dark

Today was marginally less exhausting than yesterday - it helped that when I stumbled downstairs to make coffee, I checked my phone and found that my 9am meeting was canceled, which saved my life. That gave me time to get ready in a more leisurely fashion and still get to the office in time to eat breakfast before my first meeting of the day.

Then I slogged all day, but it was not terrible - I didn't have many meetings, so I actually answered a lot of email that had piled up. And I snuck out around three to drive home before my four o'clock meeting so that I wouldn't be caught in rush hour traffic. I did that meeting, then did a bit more work, and then I picked up Katie for a girls' night out. We haven't seen each other in ages because Katie has had a non-covid plague, so we went to Ash'kara and caught up for a couple of hours. We had many tings to discuss, which we continued discussing after leaving the restaurant - and hopefully we'll see each other again this weekend, because we still aren't caught up.

But now, I really need to sleep so I can get through another slog tomorrow - goodnight!

deep beneath the cover of another perfect wonder where it's so white as snow

It's snowing in Boulder. Not just little flakes - big, stick-to-your-eyelashes flakes that swirled around as I walked to my car, accumulating on all the trees and bushes and flowers that seem to be as over this shit as I am. This is apparently Denver's latest accumulating snowfall since 2002, and this is a record I would like to have opted out of, thank you very much.

So I awoke in a fairly foul mood - I didn't get enough sleep last night, and so rather than getting up and writing, I hit snooze for an hour. I did sit at my desk at home for awhile then, but it was to take care of some mundane stuff. Then I showered and went into the office, where I had a relatively quiet day - I didn't get as much done as I would have liked, but it was better than nothing, and it was probably the last kinda-relaxing day I'll have in awhile, so I tried to take advantage of it.

I ended up leaving at 5:30 and having happy hour/dinner with the other Sara. There are actually many Saras and Sarahs around (two Sarahs sit within ten feet of me, and I just hired another one), but this particular Sara is great. We went to Boulder Depot and spent several hours gossiping, which was super fun - and we exchanged numbers at the end, so I think it went well and that we're going to be real friends now. This turned out to be v. beneficial for her, since she left my laptop in my car when I dropped her off at the office - luckily I went into the office to pick up a package, so she was able to get it with no drama.

Then I came home, messed around online, did a desultory bit of email work for the day job for the last hour, and then did a bit of book business. And now it's time for bed - goodnight!

gloria, there's easier ways to die

I bought a house! It's all official as of today - I went to Denver this afternoon, sat in a conference, and signed my life away. The only bleak moment was when the title guy cheerfully disclosed that I'll be done paying for it in 2049, which makes me wonder whether the house will end up being directly under some flying-car thoroughfare...but we'll probably all be dead by then anyway, so that's a problem I'm going to ignore for now.

sssanyway, the house buying is exciting, but I'm tempering my excitement because the sellers are renting back for three weeks (does that make me a wamplord?), and so I won't actually take possession until June 7. But still, it's all very real, and I'm pretty excited to make it my own.

The rest of the day was also lovely - I went into the office and did meetings from eight to twelve before leaving for Denver, and then I played hooky this afternoon and went to the mall instead of working diligently at a coffee shop as I intended. Then I met up with Katie for #girlsnightout at Bar Dough - we celebrated the fact that we're now basically neighbors by having v. v. delicious salad and pasta. Their food is incredible but the pasta portions are relatively small - probably the 'right' size, but rather than ordering dessert, we got another pasta to share. I'm sure their real pasta is amazing, but their gluten free pasta is pretty incredible in its own right, and I'm getting hungry just thinking about it again.

So Katie and I had a great time together, and then we drove by my new house, and then I gave her some career advice that revealed how ruthless I can be (shhhh, don't tell anyone). And then I drove back to Boulder, and now it's time for bed - goodnight!

don't pick up the phone

I had a delightful weekend, but unfortunately it's back to the grind tomorrow. Friday I was too dead to do much of anything personally; I was at the office until almost six to finish some stuff, and then I came home and crashed. But yesterday I rallied and was as social as possible - I got up in time to have a video call w/Terry, whom I hadn't talked to in forever, and then took care of some stuff around the house before driving down to Castle Rock to have lunch with Aunt B. We went to Pegasus, which is the same place I went to with Barbara a couple of weeks ago, and it was v. tasty. Then we went back to her house and I packed up some inheritance for me and [censored] (Drewbaby wasn't cut out, he just has no interest in china or glassware, which is odd). We also went to a liquor store so that I could use my extensive expertise (or rather, my liver's extensive expertise) to help her get some wine for the rest of her time here.

Then I drove up to Denver, where I had dinner with Katie, James, and their girls - we went to Marcella's, which was pretty tasty (although my pasta was the weakest dish of the night; I would blame the gluten free pasta, but it tasted like they didn't cook the onion or garlic in my carbonara, which made it trend slightly more toward disgusting than I would have liked). However, the rest of the food was really good, so I'd go back and try something else. After we ate, James took the girls home, and Katie and I walked to Lady Jane, where we had a couple of cocktails and went deep on life. I hadn't been there before, but the cocktails were delightful - and of course, Katie's company is always a winner.

When we were done, we walked to her house, where we hung out in the guest room and talked to James for awhile before it was bedtime. I slept reasonably well and woke up this morning without a hangover (rare for my nights with Katie, since I have trouble pacing myself when the conversation is flowing)...but I still stuck around to con James into getting breakfast burritos for us. Then I came home (with a quick stop to run an errand at Nordstrom), showered, messed around for a bit, and went into the office in an attempt to get something done (mostly unsuccessfully - I really didn't feel like working today).

I also talked to my parents, who seemed to be doing better than usual thanks to the fact that the sun was shining and the snow had melted off for the first time in decades. And I took care of my rather dire laundry situation - I'd been keeping up with laundry but had not been keeping up with putting it away, which is super rare for me (and probably the clearest sign of all that I was vaguely depressed since Uncle Mark died, since I never leave overflowing piles of clean clothes lying all over my floor/guest room/living room). I also made avocado toast, then talked to a coworker for like forty minutes (not an emergency but also not something that could wait since it's in relation to a meeting I have tomorrow morning). I should have done more work tonight, but it didn't really happen - which means I should sleep now so I can hit it hard tomorrow. Goodnight!

trying to make some front page drive in news

So, I successfully got ten hours of sleep last night, which was super restorative and made today much better than it could have been. However, we didn't have Taco Tuesday like we usually do, which was so upsetting that I almost cried....especially since I then defaulted to my usual sad sandwich, discovered after I made the sad sandwich that it had mold on the crust, didn't have time to make anything else since I was already late for a meeting, and so just cut around the mold and ate the sandwich anyway. sssanway, it's a good thing I got a lot of sleep last night, because in that moment I was hanging on by a thread.

But the rest of the day was fine, and then I went out for happy hour / dinner with some women from work (Sam, Morgan, and Becca - Becca is visiting, but Sam and Morgan both work in BLD and both are great). We went to Emmerson, which felt super fancy and perfect for #girlsnightout - even though I had some salmon that didn't come with nearly enough carbs to satisfy me. Then I came home, did a bit of work, and now need to go to bed asap - goodnight!

blame it on my ADD

I awoke this morning in an utterly foul mood - no one's fault, but that's what happens sometimes. So I showered, considered going into the office, and instead worked from home for a couple of hours. Then I walked to the office - I never do this, but I really should since it's less than twenty minutes and I used to walk that all the time back in SF.

I didn't walk straight to my office, though; the nicer office is on the way, so I stopped there for lunch and also took a few meetings from there. I went to my actual office around four, which was absurdly late to show up, but I was just in time for the Thursday happy hour - so I met with someone from my group over chips and Chardonnay (I never choose Chardonnay except for when the other alternative is beer). I had one more meeting after that....

...and then I had happy hour with Nicole. We went to License No 1 in the basement of the Boulderado, where we split a bottle of wine and a lot of conversation. Then I walked her to her rendezvous with her husband - he's only met me when I've had several drinks with Nicole, so he probably thinks I'm a monster, but #noregrets.

Then I grabbed a pizza at Pizzeria Locale, and then I came home, and now it's time for bed - goodnight!

chandelier

I was v. v. tired today - while I am typically comfortable in Katie's guest room (and was equally comfortable last night), I think I only got five or six hours of sleep (#blameitonthealcohol). So I got up, took a quick shower, put on yesterday's clothes, and left a little after seven. I walked out with James, who was on his way to work - and the little ginger kid next door stared at us slackjawed as we left, as though I was the worst sort of homewrecker sneaking out of her neighbor's house in the morning. I guess it was deserved, but I felt *very* judged.

I stopped at the car dealership on the way home, picked up my car, then came home, used a face mask in a vain attempt to make myself look more awake, and changed so that I wouldn't look like I'd just done a walk of shame. Then I went to the office and slogged all day, but I left around 5:30 to have happy hour with Nicole. We went to Rayback Collective, which is a bar and some foodtrucks and a lot of very distracting people milling about (one of the waiters was wearing sparkly yoga pants and a silver fanny pack for a completely unknown reason, and many of the children were obnoxious, but the dogs were cute). So we had some rosé and talked about life for a couple of hours, and were eventually joined by her husband, which was fun.

But we parted ways around eight, and I got a poke bowl to go from one of the food trucks (it was super tasty and I'll have to get it again). Then I came home, ate, and promptly took a nap. There were a million things I should have done tonight, but instead I decided that I should get up from my nap so that I could wash my face and go to bed - which is why I shall do now. Goodnight!

seven nation army

I really should have gotten more work done today than I did - but I put in a full day, so while I wasn't maximally productive, I earned the v. dry, unhappy lunch that I ate. Yes, I am complaining about the free food - but it was suuuuuuper dry. Dry rice, dry green beans, dry tofu, and some v. dry pork (dried-out pork is a tragedy since pork can be so delish unless it's totally ruined). But, I did take time to eat with other people at lunch, during which I discovered that scuba divers have hand signals for different kinds of sea creatures, and also that one of the women on my team used to go to a boxing gym as a workout and ended up breaking three of someone's ribs. It's amazing the things I learn at lunch when I have time to hang out....

But at 5:20, I had to skedaddle - I had happy hour plans with my friend Dormain, whom I hadn't seen in forever. She lives in the dirty east bay (although her part of the east bay is actually quite clean) with her husband Anthony and their two kids; I know her through John/Jess/Anthony, since Anthony was John's high school friend and I've hung out with him on many fun occasions in adulthood.

In fact, looking through my blog to see what I said about them, I found this quote from early 2015 (the night of one of Jess's "Lieder Alive!" singing performances): "I also saw Anthony (the guy who threw me into a bush at Lauren's wedding), who now has long hair and looks a bit like he might be a vaguely famous European, and his wife Dormain, who is definitely pregnant." Heh.

So, the update is that Dormain is no longer pregnant, since her second kid was born after that. She was in town for work, and happy hour turned into a grazing sort of snacky dinner and lasted three hours, which was totally wonderful. We caught up on many many life tings, and also brainstormed my young adult book (she isn't a writer, but the conversation sparked some truly interesting ideas that I need to play around with). I hadn't spent quality alone time with her in forever, and I really enjoyed it - so hopefully she makes it out her again.

We parted ways around 8:30ish, and as I was walking to my car I randomly ran into some coworkers, so I grabbed some ice cream and talked about erotica with them, as one does. Then I came home and was lazy and did nothing, and now I need to sleep - goodnight!

stolen dance

Today was mostly good, all in all - I did not want to get out of bed after getting less than six hours of sleep, but I managed to rally, shower, and go to the doctor for a checkup. This meant I didn't have time to write this morning, nor did I have time for breakfast, but at least I checked the appointment off my to-do list.

Then I went to the office, where I worked from 10:15 to 3:30 without any real breaks - but five hours isn't that onerous (although working so much last night means I felt pretty entitled to going home early today). I also spent the last bit of time putting strips of LED lights around my desk, which awed my coworkers - I had lights on my last desk in California, and I kind of missed them, so I'm happy to have them back. So now my desk is completely blinged out and ridiculous, which is as it should be.

After that, I had happy hour with Nicole - it was my third late afternoon in a row of sitting on a patio and hanging out, and it was pretty magical. I may not have as many friends here as I do in California, but when I can scrounge up friends, I'm quite enjoying the warm summer evenings. We went to River and Woods, which is becoming my fave place; the backyard was perfectly shaded, so we had some chenin blanc and split some poutine and generally gossiped/laughed/had a delightful time. I think we're actually becoming friends, which is great, so hopefully we continue to hang out in the future.

Then I came home, took a nap, talked to Katie about weekend plans, and generally did nothing the rest of the night. But even though it's not quite eleven, I really need some sleep - I have some serious deficit from the week and some serious plans to see Katie tomorrow, which means getting some sleep now is the only thing that will save me. Goodnight!

then spring became the summer

So, today was pretty relaxing even though my emails are piling up - I got up, took my time getting ready while drinking some coffee, said hi/bye to Katrina, and then went to work, where I did a bit of stuff while eating breakfast. But from 10am to 5pm I was in a training - it was heavy on meditation and mindfulness, which was a good break from my usual shenanigans. It continues tomorrow and part of Thursday, so that may be too much mindfulness, but so far so good.

But at five I was done, and I spent some time talking to some people before rendezvousing with Katrina. We dropped my car off at my house, then walked to River and Woods, which is my nearby favorite. It was a magical location for dinner - they have a back patio that is way larger than I realized (I have only gone when it's cold/raining/not patio-worthy), so we sat back there and admired the venue and the food and the waitstaff. We ended up getting upsold on a bottle of fancy champagne (they were out of what we wanted to drink, but offered us a bottle of nice champagne they'd stocked for mother's day, and gave us a discount on it, so we took it and #noregrets, since it was fucking delicious). We also ended up having not one, but two orders of poutine (again, #noregrets). We also had oysters and deviled eggs, and a lot of fun conversation, and my favorite bartender was thrilled to see me, so that was all delightful.

But now, I should really go to bed since I should work tomorrow before starting the trainings again. Goodnight!

i want a new drug

I had a lovely day, but I shouldn't have stayed up this late. Yesterday was pretty good too - I spent some quality time at the office, but skipped out at 3:30 to have happy hour with Nicole, who I am determined to befriend. She seems equally determined to befriend me, since she was all in on ordering a whole bottle of wine to split - this is the makings of something delightful. We also had some nachos and some brussels sprouts, and a whole lot of gossip, which was great. Her husband showed up later, so we finished our drinks with him, and then they dropped me off at my place. I then spent the rest of the night doing nothing and watching Top Chef, which was the perfect night.

Today, I had brunch with Katie - she drove up to Boulder, and we walked over to River and Woods, which is becoming one of my favorite spots. We had much to discuss, which we accomplished over a tasty breakfast...and then we went to Sephora, where I had a 15% off deal that we made v. heavy use of. Yes, almost all of my money goes toward food and vanity.

After we parted ways, I retrieved my car, came home, took a nap, and dealt with tax stuff. Then I walked to Boxcar, where I had some tea and wrote for awhile. After that, I got a pedicure - I'm headed for California this week (SoCal, not NorCal), and I was eager to get my feet looking a bit more well-kept before I go. Then, I tried a Greek restaurant I hadn't been to before (verdict: totally fucking delicious), came home, tried to write and instead wasted a lot of time online, and then watched the last two episodes of Top Chef Colorado. And then, of course, I went deep into a rabbit hole of finding out what happened to all of those people after the season ended.

And now I really must sleep - goodnight!

lightning crashes

I want to blog all the words, but I'm too tired - I got up earlier than I wanted this morning so I could run an errand before work, and then I slogged pretty hard all day (well, sort of hard). But I skipped out at 4:15 and drove to Denver, where I met Katie for drinks and dinner at Root Down. Root Down wasn't quite as charming as it usually is, since the bartender was fairly terrible (both of Katie's drinks were truly awful; I stuck to wine, which was safer, but still).

However, Katie and I made the most of it, and had a generally wonderful/hilarious time. We went back to her place after and I said hi to the girls, who only terrorized me a little bit, and then James put them to bed while Katie and I continued to gossip (and listen to 1990's classics) for a bit. Then I came home and spent the last 1.5hrs putting together a page for my Stanford class reunion book - the deadline was tonight, so of course I waited until tonight to do it. Stupid.

But now it's time for bed - goodnight!

don't pick up the phone

I had an amazing day, but all the fun wiped me out and I need to go to bed right now. I rolled out of bed at 7:30 this morning, showered, and went to my old neighborhood to have breakfast at my favorite cafe (ten points if you remember, without prompting, that it's owned by Tony). I sat at the bar and had huevos rancheros and chatted with Tony while he was cooking - I got there early enough that I was able to say more than a couple of words to him, which was exactly my plan, so that was fun. It did make me nostalgic for my old neighborhood, but I think Colorado is still the right move despite the memories....

...but Colorado doesn't have easy access to Sonoma, so maybe I'm wrong. After breakfast, I picked up Lauren (aka Subz) and we went up to Sonoma for the day. Our first stop was Gloria Ferrer, where we had some delicious sparkling wine (my fave) and I ended up signing up for the wine club again (don't judge, I love them). It was just slightly chilly on the patio, but it was totally gorgeous, and they had lap blankets, so it was pretty perfect.

We left the car there and took a lyft into Sonoma proper, where we wandered around the square and stopped in at Schug, where we had a delightful conversation with an Italian guy who was doing an internship with them (I dumped my tastes after a couple of sips, but did buy a bottle of cab franc). Then we had lunch at The Girl and the Fig - Subz and I both agreed it's not quite as good as its hype, but it was still yummy, and I had fond memories of earlier trips there (with Ritu, Bill and Terry when Ritu/Bill were choosing their wedding venue, and with Kathia a lifetime ago).

After lunch, we took a lyft out to Scribe, which I'd never been to before - it requires reservations for tastings, and Lauren had gotten us in, which turned out to be amazing. We had a couple of couches to ourselves on a veranda overlooking the vineyards, and it was a perfect place to chill for a couple of hours and sip wine and eat tasty snacks. We eventually caught a lyft back to Gloria Ferrer and came back to the evil city, where I was sad to say goodbye to Lauren - it was a super fun, wonderful day, which I was v. much in need of, and I'm glad we got to spend so much quality time together.

When I got back to my hotel, I promptly took a nap, then talked briefly to [censored] before wandering out in search of food. I went to Jitlada because I was craving Thai and it's only a couple of blocks away from my hotel - it wasn't quite as good as what I was wanting (because what I really wanted was pad see ew at Lers Ros, but I didn't want to go that far away), but it definitely hit the spot. And now, after feeding myself, taking care of a few tings, and getting ready for bed, it's time for sleep - goodnight!

mom's spaghetti

Today started entirely too early after entirely too little sleep, but it ended v. well, so I'll take it. I got up a little after seven and started slogging immediately so that I could finish creating a presentation before my meetings started at 10. I accomplished this at 9:47, at which point I had to change out of my robe and into some clothes (sans shower) and slather some makeup on so that I could take videoconferences at home from ten to twelve.

But then I drove Terry over to the office, where we had lunch with Natasha. That was a delightful interlude, even if I was made fun of by my team, who were sitting at a nearby table and watching me eat lunch with the people I ditched the team lunch for (#noregrets). Then I gave Terry a tour of the office and we sat on an indoor swing (as one does) and drank some hot beverages before coming back to my place.

Then I slogged until almost 4:30, and then I coerced Terry into watching the rest of last night's ladies figure skating (I was slightly sad about who won, but I'm sure I will forget this in the next four years). And then we went out in Boulder - we were supposed to go to Denver tonight, but it started snowing (and snowed quite a bit), so we stayed local. Our first stop was the bar in the basement of the Boulderado, where we split some truffle fries and I had a tasty old fashioned. Then, we walked several blocks through the snow, which was falling in an idyllic, gentle manner, and we arrived at our next destination complete covered in flakes.

Our dinner reservation was at Emmerson, which someone on my team went to a couple of weeks ago and really enjoyed - and there's a good chance it could become my new Des Amis (although I'm not totally sure since they don't have steak frites, but I can probably slum it with something else). The interior decor was perfect, made even more perfect by all the windows and the snow falling like a perfect snowglobe outside. Terry and I split a v. tasty bottle of wine, a salad and some bread (don't tell my intestines), and I had some v. delicious gnocchi. We also had dessert, and while it was all extravagant, it was less extravagant than SF or NYC, so we left full and happy.

Then we came home and watched some Olympics, but with the little bit of sleep we both got last night, we were crashing early, so it's time for bed. Goodnight!

soon i'll be sixty years old

Today was not too bad, all in all - it certainly wasn't the exercise in pain that yesterday was, even if I didn't help myself out because I somehow managed to miss breakfast. I got plenty of sleep last night, managed to write for thirty minutes (I'm getting somewhere, maybe, somehow, with the gargoyles), and then made it into work just in time for my 9:30am meeting (although I missed breakfast, as stated above, with horrible consequences for my mood/stomach).

I had meetings straight from 9:30 to 1, and then I took a break and ate lunch without looking at my laptop, which was critical. Then I worked pretty much straight until six, although I seized an opportunity in the late afternoon to drive home before my last meeting of the day. So, when things ended at six, I promptly closed my laptop and spent and hour and a half doing mostly nothing - other than watching some figure skating, although I didn't get to watch as much of it as I wanted to.

Then, I ended up meeting a coworker and her sister for drinks at the bar in the basement of the Hotel Boulderado. I went to that hotel for drinks with the fam when people were out here for Thanksgiving, but we had stayed upstairs then - the downstairs bar is smaller, more intimate, and quite fun (especially since they had live music tonight). I had a couple of decent daiquiris and some v. fun conversation, so it was worth going out even if part of me wanted to stay huddled up on the couch with my beloved Olympics....

But that's a plan for another night (namely, every night for the next two weeks). Right now I need to sleep - goodnight!

glory and gore go hand in hand

I had a pretty decent day today, although I need some more downtime soon - I think I've overloaded my brain with information and things are starting to ooze out my ears. But I got some decent sleep last night, didn't rush myself getting ready, went to the office at 10, and had meetings straight through to 4:15 (no, no break for lunch, but a meeting ended ten minutes early so I was able to grab something on the way to the next one). Somehow, only six hours of meetings feels weirdly luxurious - yes, something is wrong with that picture.

But tonight was great - I left the office as soon as my last meeting was over, drove to Denver, and had happy hour/dinner with Katie. We went to Root Down instead of our usual hotspot, and Root Down is definitely way better - I mean, I love our usual place, but the food at Root Down is great and the bar vibe is way more interesting. I had a Don Draper (which was basically an old fashioned), followed by some wine, and Katie had a couple of other cocktails, and we shared a bunch of food - sweet potato fries, some delish bbq brisket tacos, arepas so good that we had to order another one to split, and a perfect beet salad. It was all so yummy that I'm getting hungry again just typing this.

Of course, we had a lot to catch up on, since I hadn't seen her in almost three weeks - and in those three weeks, I'd been to India, California, and here (here being theoretically the easiest, but also the hardest since I'm just unpacking and fighting about cupcakes all the time). So we took our time over dinner, going deep into gossip about #smalltownlife, and it was all wonderful.

Then we went back to her house, where Anne and Julia promptly attacked me - and by that I mean they attempted a makeover, which resulted in Julia brushing my hair with a stegosaurus. I could have gone home when they went to bed, but my hair looked so crazy that I was definitely going to get pulled over for drunk driving even though I was sober - so I stayed and combed my hair for real while Katie helped James start the bedtime routine, and then Katie came back downstairs and we talked for awhile longer. I'm never ready to leave, but eventually I had to - I have a bunch of stuff fairly early tomorrow (all of which is personal, so don't shed any tears for me), so I should go to bed.

So I came home, bringing with me my old succulent friend - I'd brought a succulent with me from California when I left SF last winter, and I'd left it with James for safekeeping. He not only kept it alive, but he repotted it in a cute little pot with decorative rocks, so it was probably super sad to leave his tender care for my indifferent oversight. sssanyway, the drive home was uneventful, and now I need to sleep - goodnight!

i've become so numb

I didn't sleep well last night - my stomach was full of acid, and waking up made my thoughts churn. Between Spinster Honeymoon and my potential new historical book (which doesn't have a plot, but does have a title and a cover), and the secret Iowa project I've wanted to work on for a decade and have never started, and my desire to build a reputation as more of a thought leader for women who want to make bold career changes, and my totally conflicting desire to sit around without pants and read all day....I have a lot on my mind at the moment.

But, I realized that I haven't woken up in the middle of the night with my stomach in knots in ages...possibly not since I lived in San Francisco (where I had a bed specifically designed to angle me upward like an octogenarian when that happened). So, despite all the many and varied opportunities and stories and risks in front of me, at least I can say that I'm generally happier and less stressed than I was a year ago...

sssanyway. Today didn't go according to plan. I woke up surly and stayed there - I had to take my car to the Toyota dealer for service, and because it was the majorest of the major services (120k), and there were all sorts of things to be done to it, I am apparently spending $1000 on it. When I balked at this under the pretense of not wanting to leave my car there long enough to complete the work (also true), they gave me a rental car so that I could go back into town to get some work done (the dealership is like fifteen miles from downtown).

This, it turned out, was a good thing, since they called me at four p.m. to confess that they'd cracked the oil filter case or some shit and that they would of course replace it for free, but that they didn't have the part in stock and need to keep my car until tomorrow. At that point, they also said that I might want to consider replacing my water pump, but I politely declined since I would rather buy $900 worth of shoes if given the choice than spend it on a water pump that may or may not need replaced yet (and I suspect I can find a cheaper place to replace that if it becomes necessary).

sssanyway again. I did get a lot of work done today - when I drove back into Denver this morning, I went straight to Platform T (where I had some good times last week), and camped out with a gluten free breakfast sandwich and an iced coffee and an iced tea until I was floating on caffeine. All that work was super solid, which made me happy. Then I came back to the house and worked for a bit more, but I slacked off at 4:30 and met Katie for a drink and a snack at Avanti. This was where we went when I first got into town, and we had the same bartender (a delightfully dirty jhokester), and it all felt v. lovely. Of course we got into a deep discussion about the 1980s farm crisis, as we are wont to do - don't all of you talk about massive economic disasters and vanishing ways of life over happy hour?

Then I came back to my airbnb and spent the last four hours in varying states of wanting to go to bed but not letting myself go to bed before a respectable hour. But the respectable hour (11pm) is upon me, so it's time to call it. Goodnight!

i know i could stay here all night

Blog is v. v. late tonight (it's 2am in London town) because I had a v. v. fancy dinner with the original Jen Lui. But first, I had to survive my day, which started entirely too early - I had stupidly agreed to go to the community breakfast at 8am, which means I woke up at 7:45am feeling like death and threw on some pants and some mascara in an attempt to look human.

Breakfast was at the Ivy Chelsea Garden, which was entirely delightful. I got the least instagrammable thing on the menu which was some scrambled eggs on top of smoked salmon, but it was the dish that made my heart and stomach happy, so #noregrets. And the community aspect was fun, although I am really not fit company for anyone until I've had caffeine and at least an hour to wake up, so I was perhaps a little too 'real' (or as Penny the Australian documentary filmmaker said at some point, very casually, "You're a hard woman and I like it"...which I think was a compliment, but also could have meant I went too aggressive with the snark. Ymmv.).

Then we came back here, and I worked most of the day with limited actual results but lots of mental exercise. I also took a nap in deference to my tiredness, had some peanut butter toast for lunch while talking to Strong Michael (the Irish personal trainer, who also commented that my claws had come out...perhaps I should ponder all of this tomorrow, although in this case it was definitely a joke), and talked to [censored] for quite awhile, since we were overdue for a catch-up.

And then I showered, made myself more presentable, and went to St Pancras to meet up with Jen before dinner. I was running slightly late, and then she was dealing with work stuff, so we didn't have time to go to a bar before dinner (a 9pm reservation!), but this was probably for the best. We went to the Clove Club, which is as fancy as our usual fanciness (probably fancier, since this restaurant was just named the best in the UK). We started off with a cocktail while waiting for our table, but we didn't have to wait long (we were early, in their defense)...

...and then we ate for well over two hours. Jen had apparently booked the seven course tasting menu, which was pretty spectacular - we decided to split a wine pairing, which means they gave us each a half pour of the wines for all seven courses, which was perfect since neither of us wanted to get drunk (which we certainly would have if we'd had seven glasses of wine each). The wines were all delightful, the food was universally excellent (although my favorite may have been one of the chicken tenders to start, even though it was entirely too posh and presented on top of a bed of fresh evergreen branches), and they gave us a bit of madeira that was laid down in 1908 and kept in a barrel for eighty years before being bottled...

And now I'm dreaming of other stories and other worlds, and a restaurant mostly staffed by ghosts, since many of the servers seemed to be from another time and place.

But we ended the night without them realizing that I was writing a book about them in my head - instead, one of the waiters ended up finding out that I write romance novels, and then he told the bartender, and they all thought that 'Taking the Earl' is a hilarious title, and they wanted me to send them a postcard from Venice. Yes, this is how I roll.

Then Jen and I took an uber to her hotel, and we parted ways after a wonderful evening/week, and then I continued on to my hotel, where I needed a nap before I could contemplate the thought of washing my face and writing the blog. And now I need to sleep - goodnight!

today we escape, we escape

I had a lovely day, thanks for asking! I spent the morning drinking iced coffee and reading/writing/answering emails in bed, which was exactly what I needed. Then I ate some lunch, showered, and met up with Tom for a writing date at Another Cafe - I hadn't seen him since before I went to Tahoe, and I hadn't been to Another Cafe in months, so these were both v. overdue. I was supposed to write, but we spent the first 90mins talking (as always happens at a writing date). Then, I worked for half an hour, and was just getting into it again, when it was time to call my parents.

So I said goodbye to Tom, and I called my parents while I walked to the marina. They were in fine form, and I got a long walk in without really realizing how far I'd walked, so that was good. When I got off the phone with them, I went to Nectar, my fave wine bar ever - the owners weren't there, but their bartender (Jack) was, and so I sat there and intended to have one glass of wine while writing, but instead had a lot of wine while talking to Jack. He kept pouring, and he gave me some tastes of stuff, and I was reminded why I loved that place, and suddenly all was right with the world.

Katrina came over at some point, and she had a taste of something as well before we settled up and went down the street to our dinner reservation. We went to Mezes, my old favorite Greek place, where it turns out my favorite bartender there is no longer working - but we met up with Lauren (aka Subz) and had a delightful girls' night out. So delightful, in fact, that I had a twinge of regret over the fact that I'm going to Bali...but I will still be friends with them when I get back, unless they ditch me for each other, which is always possible.

When we were done, Katrina dropped us both off, and now I need to sleep because I have lots of things to do tomorrow. Goodnight!