you don't know how lucky you are boys

Too tired to blog - I got approximately four hours of sleep last night, and then got up at 5:30am to go on a hike with Aunt B. We went to a state park near her place, and it took a bit of time to jockey ourselves into position (we left my car at one end and took her car to the other), but the hike itself was great. It was three miles, not too difficult, and no rattlesnakes in sight despite copious warnings. The advantage of getting there so early is that we didn't boil to death in the heat of the rocks, so getting up was worth it (although I really didn't think it was worth it when my alarm went off).

Then I stopped at Starbucks on the way back to the house, and then I made avocado toast to satisfy my hipster cravings. Eventually I showered and Aunt B and I went to the outlet mall nearby - turns out they have a Lucy store, which is my favorite brand of workout/athleisure gear, so I got a pair of capris, a tank, and a sweatshirt and was rendered very happy for as long as the 'I just bought something' endorphins remained in my bloodstream.

When we got back to the house, I alternated between watching 'The Crown', working, napping, and journaling until it was time for dinner - a v. delish pork chop courtesy of Uncle B (it was a bona fide Iowa Chop, since they brought them with them from Iowa) and some twice-baked potatoes and salad courtesy of Aunt B. I read for a little bit after dinner, and then hung out in the kitchen and talked to Becky until it was time to go to bed.

And now, that's exactly what I'm going to do...goodnight!

my body's made of crushed little stars

Today was my first full day back in Iowa, and I celebrated by not leaving the house and therefore not having to get behind the wheel of a car. I did touch my car, since I unloaded half of it, but I didn't drive it (even to get it out of my mom's parking spot in the garage - how long will it take for her to notice that I've conned her out of an indoor space?).

I also celebrated by getting eight hours of sleep, which was great. Then I lazed about for two hours and caught up on online life, which I've mostly ignored for the last two weeks, and I think I should go back to ignoring it stat. Then I went upstairs, went straight to the car to unpack my burr grinder and my Philz beans and my Aeropress (I have priorities), and made coffee and talked to my parents for quite some time. I also made myself bacon and eggs, since I'd missed breakfast hours earlier, but I regret nothing.

By 2pm I was beginning to feel like maybe I should accomplish something, so I took a long shower. Then I unpacked half my car in a rather desultory fashion. [censored] eventually showed up, and we watched too many clips of [censored], as we usually do. We also had supper - it was warm outside (like a balmy 35!), so my dad grilled bratwurst, which is one of my favorite things, and my mom made baked beans and fried potatoes, which are two more of my favorite things. Then I was going to be productive, but instead I got sucked into some fine CBS programming - I really like 'Life in Pieces' a lot, and they showed three episodes tonight, and I watched them all.

But rather than stay up way too late pretending that I'm going to get something done, I'm going to go to bed shockingly early, hope for nine hours of sleep, and get up in time to finish unloading my car and taking care of Christmas shopping and wrapping and email and all the other million things I've been neglecting. Goodnight!

i had a one-way ticket to a place where all the demons go

So I'm kind of mostly done with this book, but it hasn't really sunk in yet (and there are a million tasks I need to complete before it launches, which probably plays into it). But I got up this morning, showered (unlike the last couple of mornings...), and then worked pretty much nonstop until three p.m. That involved a final proof of the final chapters, cleaning up some random stuff that I realized needed cleaning up, and speed-teaching myself a new epub formatting software (which made a v. beautiful epub with a pretty clean stylesheet, from what I saw when I peaked into it using my old hacker-ish software, and it built perfectly the first time when I used some other tools to validate it).

I uploaded it to Apple at 3:15pm, and then went straight to my 3:30 mani/pedi appointment. I went for Apple first because they require uploading ten business days before the preorder date, which I had already missed, but I had guessed that this was longer than was actually necessary (and I have a contact there). As it turns out, any concern about uploading too late was for naught - by the time I got home from getting my nails done, it was already processed and approved. So now I need to spend tomorrow morning making the files for the other retailers (each retailer needs their own file with their own specific formatting tweaks + back-of-book links to other books I've written, which is a moderate annoyance and major time suck) and uploading, but I'm in a good place for next week....

But since I basically worked in a nonstop haze today (I ate leftover pizza standing up, which was #winning), and then went straight to get my nails done, and then came home and changed and dashed down to the mission/castro, I really didn't have any time to think about my accomplishment. I'll do that later, I guess. Tonight was lovely, though - I went to Blackbird (one of my favorite bars in the neighborhood where I used to live with Adit) for a drink with Jen Lui. My 'give me free alcohol' face somehow worked there, but it was accidental, I think. Then we went to Mission Beach Cafe for dinner - she had the rabbit pot pie, which made me exceedingly jealous since it was my favorite thing on their menu before I stopped eating gluten. We also caught up on many work and life events, and we spent the last ten minutes trying to figure out how to use snapchat, but we're clearly too old.

Then I walked her halfway to the bart station and abandoned her on a corner, hoping that she wouldn't get stabbed on the way to the station but also having no desire to walk that much farther. Then I went back up to Market and met Katrina for a drink at Aatxe, which is not a word (although a Google search reveals that Aatxe is a "spirit in the folklore of the Basque people", which is of course something a bar in SF would be named after). I was trying to squeeze in social activities before two weeks in the wilderness of ye olde Iowa, so we had a drink and talked about weddings and books and generally had a lovely time.

Then I came home, and I fell asleep on my couch because I couldn't handle the thought of blogging. And now I need to sleep - I have a million things to do tomorrow, and several people to see, and a suitcase to pack before my trip to Iowa on Wednesday. Goodnight!

we were built to fall apart, then fall back together

Most of my day was an exercise in misery, but I went out for drinks and had enough fun to salvage the end of it. After staying up late last night to work on my taxes, I only got seven hours of sleep before I had to get up again and deal with my leak situation - Chandlord came over with some people from the building to look at the leaks, and the verdict was as expected (there's nothing to be done right now, but they're going to talk to the people above us). So that only took five minutes, but it meant I had to get up, get dressed, make my bed, etc. Yes, my life is hard.

Then I slogged on taxes straight through from 10am to 5pm, with a v. brief break in there to talk to Katie, and another brief break to eat an omelette. I probably should have had way more food and way more caffeine, but I was trying to stay in the zone, so I just sorted through receipts and typed things into quickbooks and generally monkeyed around until it was all done. I really need to get better about doing this throughout the year....but you've heard that before. But I'm ready for my CPA appointment tomorrow, so at least I got through it all.

But that meant I did no writing, because by 5pm I could no longer bear to look at screens or type anything. So I took a shower, walked to Union Square, and met John at Bartlett Hall, since it was close-ish to where his friend Srini (who we also met) was staying while in the city. We decided we didn't like the vibe, so we had a single drink there, and then I dragged them up a v. steep hill (Nob Hill, as a matter of fact) to Hopwater. I'd been there once before, and it was as delightful as I remembered it - or maybe it wasn't delightful, but the fries and tots and deviled eggs were delish, and I had a couple of good glasses of pinot noir, and we hung out for several hours. Srini, it turns out, is quite good to hang out with, and obviously I always have fun hanging out with John, so the three of us had a v. good time. And I may have said 'cock' more times than I usually do in mixed conversation, but we were talking about my books, so it's required.

But all fun things must end, and I need to get my taxes done tomorrow and then run away to write and finish my book, so I said my goodbyes and walked home earlier than I wanted to. Hopefully Future Sara will reward my forbearance and write an amazing book, but that remains to be seen. Right now I need to sleep, which is what I shall do - goodnight!

but i won't be just another mistress

As expected, today got off to a late start since I didn't go to bed until 2:30am last night - sometime around seven I woke up and put my eyemask on, which helped to blot out the unwelcome daylight streaming through my skylights, but I really just dozed fitfully after that. I finally got out of bed around ten, and I stumbled around and cursed my poor decisions (which were entirely bedtime-related - last night was fun and I moderated my consumption enough to avoid a hangover, but going to bed after two is not a recipe for morning success). But I made some iced coffee and did three hours of work at my dining table, so I wasn't totally worthless.

Then I took a quick shower and a very very slow drive to the south bay - it was raining all day today, which made for a miserable drive to San Mateo even at the offest of off times. In other words, it was less than 20mph most of the way, so it took an hour to get there. Blergh. But I met up with Anne and Poppy at Philz - we usually go to Starbucks, but Barbara was out of commission today and so I lured Anne and Poppy into hipsterville instead. We were super lucky to get a table for just us, and I like Philz coffee way better than Starbucks, but we all agreed that Barbara would never want to go there, and since Anne only drinks tea it's probably not the best location since tea is $4+ per cup (and she drinks two cups), while Starbucks is $2.75 per cup with free refills.

But I enjoyed Philz while I had the opportunity to be there, and I got some decent writing in, so I'll take it. We also had fun talking about back cover blurbs (I told Anne that the one she was working on was definitely on the right track for selling it, while Poppy trashed it instead (which matched Anne's husband's opinion, which is why Anne didn't want to show it to Poppy at first - but Anne wants to sell books, and for selling books, it's better to write something with a lot of buzzwords + excitement rather than trying to say anything specific or even relevant to the plot (yes, I'm a cynic now))). And I was glad I went, despite the traffic.

Luckily, I didn't have to brave it back to SF during rush hour - instead, I met up with Shedletsky and Tina for dinner at a restaurant across the street. We talked a lot about spinsters and wizards and jihad and television and trips to a variety of cities, and it was as delightful as it usually is. But after 2+ hours, I realized I needed to go home if I wanted to go to bed tonight at a reasonable hour so I can reset myself for tomorrow. And that's exactly what I am going to do now - if I go to bed at eleven, I have high hopes that I can get out of bed by seven (okay, maybe eight). Goodnight!

in every lost soul the bones of a miracle

Today was melancholy and bittersweet, and full of memories, and ultimately full of connection and happiness. I woke up this morning after nine hours of sleep, which was enough to restore me, but also enough to give me waking dreams for the last hour, none of which I wanted. But I got up and took care of a bunch of stuff around the house (mostly cleaning/dusting - it was so dusty after six weeks of neglecting the dusting that I couldn't bear to work from home until the dusting was done, so I did it at nine a.m. on a Monday like a crazy person). And then I showered, and did some planning for the week ahead.

But then I had to drive to the south bay to have lunch with my old boss - hence the melancholy, bittersweet memories. It has been eight months since I left work, and some things have changed completely and irrevocably, and some things haven't changed at all. For starters, I haven't finished my book, but you know that. But the old boss and I went to one of my least favorite cafes (Root), which has gotten strangely better (the carnitas tacos were actually delicious), and then grabbed coffee at Coffee Lab (writing there in the early mornings is one of the things I still truly miss, after having let go of most of the rest of it). Then we went back to our old building, where I spent a lot of quality time talking to Tom and Howell, and a little quality time talking to Tomas and Manuela and Ravi. Then, I absconded with Eugene and made him talk to me for half an hour in my car in the parking lot; he's the one who put a noisemaker in my car a year ago, so if anything happens to my car in the next few weeks, I'm blaming him.

Then, full of gossip and without anyone to tell it to, I left campus and drove myself back to the city. I'm truly happy that I left work, and truly don't regret that - but it's still bittersweet to see the old team. And Sriram (the old boss) gave me a Christmas present that he'd given to everyone else on the team (a nice metal water bottle + a card with pictures from their offsite), so it's almost like I never left...but of course I've been gone forever.

sssanyway. I got home, took care of a few more things around the house, and then walked two miles into the Mission and wrote at Ritual for an hour. This is a great place to write by hand, since they don't have wifi, and so I got an iced coffee for fall-of-Rome prices and wrote in my notebook for an hour. As I've said, I'm making a solid, last-ditch push this month on finishing Rafe and Octavia's book (before deciding whether to abandon it forever), and so I scribbled for an hour on what I want to change and what I've realized about it, and what makes the story feel alive vs. dead for me. Now that I've owned the decision to push forward, and now that I've owned what the book is about, there's a chance I could just drink whisky for the next three weeks and bang it all out in one long, emotional orgy of writing and drinking, but I think I'll take the non-Hemingway approach and try to write it sober instead. But we shall see.

I had to stop writing, though, to meet up with Can Sar (remember him?) at Foreign Cinema. We hadn't seen each other since Shedletsky's wedding a year and a half ago, so we were way overdue for a catch-up. This was duly accomplished over a delish dinner (I had risotto, into which they had snuck some kale, but it was so good that I forgave them; I also had two glasses of Banshee's pinot noir, which I'm glad I discovered during my epic Healdsburg adventure in December) - Can seems to be in fine form, and is reading books for like twelve hours a day, which leaves me in awe and also slightly jealous.

And then I took a lyft home, and then I had an impromptu phone call with Katie, who always makes my heart sing and my spirits soar. And now that I've connected with old coworkers and old friends and even older besties, it's time for me to sleep - I want to write tomorrow before commencing my social whirl, and I also have some business to take care of, so sleep is imperative. Goodnight!

cause all of my kindness is taken for weakness

My liver continues to take New York by storm. My writing...not so much. Today was lowkey and wonderful, though. I woke up around 6:30, promptly decided that was stupid, and went back to bed until nine. Then I did some business-type stuff, showered, grabbed a coffee and some yogurt to prevent my untimely demise, and did some more work until it was time to abandon Terry's apartment/neighborhood and go to Hell's Kitchen (appropriately named in this heat) for lunch with a romance writer friend.

Some of you may remember her - I call her Vivi, but her name is also Sarah, and she attended the wine bus birthday celebration that Terry and I had when we turned thirty. Vivi/Sarah and I hadn't seen each other since the romance conference last year in San Antonio, and we had a ton to catch up on. This was duly accomplished over margaritas (only one each! I feel so puritanical!) and food at Limon Jungle; the food was decent enough, but the company was great, and it was excellent to reunite and get caught up on everything before the conference begins and we're both slammed with other activities.

After lunch, I came back to Terry's, cooled off for a few moments, and then went out in search of more hipsterish iced coffee than I could get at Starbucks, since my hipster soul was becoming parched. I succeeded at Irving Farm, where they served my iced coffee in a widemouth mason jar, which made me feel right at home despite the fact that it's so absurdly fucking hot outside. So I did some more work there for a couple of hours, which made me feel slightly better about life.

Of course, I wasn't really intending to work all that diligently on this trip, so when I found out Terry was home from work, I abandoned my writing and came back to her apartment, where we had a glass of wine and talked about corporate ridiculousness like the good old days. We then had an early dinner (sushi, with some really excellent/interesting rolls), and then we met Vivi/Sarah and her friend Leigh for drinks at The Smith. Leigh also works in television, so it was good for her and Terry to meet, and the four of us had a delightful, albeit slightly 'Sex and the City'-ish, conversation.

But all good things must end, so Terry and I came back to her apartment, watched a couple of episodes of "Parks and Rec" (shut up, not addicted), and then called it a night. And now I must sleep - I intend to write tomorrow, and maybe go to the gym, and maybe buy a handbag, and definitely check into my hotel, and absolutely have drinks with a blast from the past (suspense!) before going to a romance writer event. Goodnight!

beneath your beautiful

If all goes as planned, I'm going to hit publish on my book tomorrow. I KNOW. That means you might get a six-hour reprieve or so before I start bitching about how hard it is to write Rafe's story, which should really excite you! Or maybe you'll get a six-week reprieve as I go into hardcore social butterfly mode to feed my starving heart and my content-deprived soul, which should really excite you since my blog posts are always better when I actually leave the house like a real human girl.

Today, thought, was a slog with some lovely socializing at the end of it. I woke up at 4:45am, laid in bed until 5:45 trying to pretend to sleep, and then got up and went to work. Leaving the house at 6:30 on a Friday meant I got there at 7:30, which enabled me to meet a coworker for coffee and get v. v. close to finishing the proofreading. I probably would have finished it if I'd been perfectly focused, but it was all good. Then I went to the office, had meetings mostly straight through until 2pm (with a break for more coffee + some v. delicious sushi), and then promptly left the office to avoid the worst traffic. Leaving at 2:30 got me home by 3:30 through some miracle, and so I actually only spent two hours in the car today, which is nearly unheard of in the modern era.

Once here, I did a tiny bit more work, then abandoned my apartment (and the strong smell of paint from the ongoing painting project going on outside) to finish proofreading at Rapha. Since I only had a chapter left when I stopped this morning, that wasn't a very onerous task. And I have to say, even though I don't usually brag, that at the moment I really love this book. It may not quite overtake Nick and Ellie in my affections, but I really love it and think it's great. Or at least I do now - we'll see how I feel in a few days.

After I finished that and started adding the edits to my docs (over the third latte of the day, which probably should have given me a heart attack), I eventually came home, changed, and went out to be social (shocker). Very longtime readers may remember Claudia (aka Claude, aka Santy Claude, aka Claude the Fraude), who was my roommate freshman and sophomore year of college, and with whom I've shared many highs/lows, ups/downs, triumphs/tragedies, shrimp/feet. She has been sprung from jail (aka Yale) and has taken a job in the bay area, and this was our first rendezvous since she moved back last weekend. We had drinks and delish pulled pork tacos at ABV, and it was so great to know that we can now do this whenever we want.

Then we got into a car with some random people (aka Adit and Priyanka) and went to Central Kitchen, which is both delicious and beyond pretentious. Would you like fennel pollen? 'Hen of the woods', which it turns out is a mushroom instead of a wild chicken? Salsify? $300 bottles of wine? In that case, my friend, you've come to the right place. I had previously gone there for a v. romantic dinner with Adit a couple of years ago (editor's note: February 9, 2013, which I had forgotten was the start of a truly epic disaster of a night which somehow detoured through Trick Dog (where I recall Katrina saying my eyes lit up and I was suddenly going big), through a bar where Adit/Vidya/I played Jenga, and ultimately to Adit's house and whisper karaoke at 5am). Central Kitchen is still ridic, and I didn't go big tonight, but it was all delightful.

Katrina ended up joining us late, and John and Jess were theoretically supposed to come, but there wasn't any room at the inn for them, and so they cut their losses and stayed home. However, the company was delightful, particularly when we all pulled out our phones and started messing around with Instagram (well, those of us who've been living in the city and turning into tech assholes pulled out our phones; Claude stared off into space and no doubt wondered why we all suck). Then we all parted ways around 10:30, and now I must sleep so I can publish a book tomorrow. Goodnight!

let's get drunk off the minibar

As you could probably guess if you read yesterday's post, today was completely brutal. I was out of energy, out of words, out of alcohol processing power in my liver, and mostly out of sorts. I managed to drag myself out of bed around 9:15 so that I could shower, put on some clothes, stare dumbly at my room, and pack two suitcases full of stuff. But I made it down to the lobby just in time for Laura and Dave to pick up me, Kathia, and Katie (Kathia's assistant) for brunch and fun times. Kathia and Katie were in about as bad a shape as I was, but we rallied for brunch...and I'm so glad we did.

Laura had made reservations at a place called Arcade, which was super yummy. I had a lobster taco, which was really lobster wrapped in a corn crepe with some delish green salsa and crema on top, and a side of v. basic scrambled eggs to up the protein quota so that I might begin the process of surviving the day. I also had three cups of coffee, and Laura forced me to order a cocktail since the bartender is apparently famous or something. Having tequila at eleven in the morning was either a great idea or a terrible idea; as I guessed would happen, since I know the biochemical processes that go into processing alcohol, it made me feel better briefly, and then I was sad. But she was right (even though she doesn't drink), and the cocktail was great, so I guess c'est la vie.

After we'd hung out there, we took a brief walk around the Pearl Brewery area to see some of the other restaurants/sights before the heat became too much for us. Then we stopped at a coffeeshop, where I had water to continue my survival process while everyone else had coffee. And then they took us to the airport. I was sad to say goodbye to Laura - it was really great to spend some quality time with her and her husband, and I'll have to go back to San Antonio again someday and spend some more time exploring the non-touristy parts.

But we got to the airport just in time, since I was about to totally hit the wall. After security, I parted ways from Kathia and Katie so that I could buy some water and call my parents for our usual (albeit abbreviated) Sunday call. Then I got on the plane; Kathia and I sat together, and while we both tried to be chipper, clearly neither of us were having it. But I made it home in one piece, dragged my suitcases upstairs, threw a load of clothes in the wash, and had dinner down the street with Terry since I needed food immediately and had neither the energy nor the ingredients to cook anything.

But now I desperately need to sleep since I have to go to work early tomorrow (booooooooooooooo)...goodnight!

i saw satan laughing with delight

This is one of those nights when I vow never to drink again, but the memories of this night will be lovely enough that I will promptly forget that vow in an attempt to reclaim them. Today was utterly wonderful, after it got started; I spent the first couple of hours wrestling with the iBookstore, which was not wonderful, but once I stopped messing with that, everything started looking up. I had lunch at Chipotle (don't tell Ritu), and then I took the subway to Grand Central Station, where I met Claudia (aka Claude, aka Claude the Fraude, aka Santy Claud, aka The Devil), who was gracious enough to come into the evil city for the afternoon. Of course the afternoon turned into her needing to crash on Ritu'a couch...but I digress.

We started off tame, with coffee near Ritu's apartment. Then we wandered twenty blocks south toward the place where we'd agreed to meet Ritu for drinks/dinner, and we had a glass of wine and a bellini each at a subpar wine bar with above average people watching. Around six p.m. we adjourned to the Mermaid Inn, which has an oyster happy hour, and Ritu met us there. Ritu confined herself to a dozen oysters, but Claude and I had sixteen each - delicious. We also had tasty tequila beverages and a v. lovely, entertaining conversation.

Then we adjourned to the trashier part of the evening - 50%-off sushi at some nearby dive-y sushi bar, which helped to fill the voids that oysters could not fill. Properly fueled, Claude and Ritu vetoed my suggestion to continue descending the seafood ladder (apparently Long John Silver's is beneath them - I KNOW). Instead, we went to two different speakeasies -- the first, Gin Palace, serves only gin-based drinks, while the second, Death and Co., serves a variety of liquors (not death - confusing, right?). My drink at Gin Palace had cinnamon in it and was the best of the night, but our new best friend Fletcher (the door guy at Death and Co.) hooked us up with a table and called to let me know it was ready, so we only had to wait twenty minutes for it instead of the two hours he quoted to the party who showed up right before he seated us. Score! I had a drink with fennel b/c I'm an idiot, followed by an adult alcoholic version of an Orange Julius, and now I'm quite happy (and soon to be quite headachy). Ritu had left us after the first drink at Death and Co since she had to work tomorrow, but now it's time for me and Claude to sleep as well so that Ritu can go to work, Claude can take the train of shame, and I can pack up and head for the airport tomorrow afternoon. Goodnight!

don't you leave him, samwise gamgee

What shall I say about today? What can I say that will keep you from skimming this, looking for your own name before moving on to other internet pursuits? Probably nothing, I realize, so I'll just write what I normally write, and you can go about your merry way. Today was lovely in a quiet sort of way; I woke up close to noon, after my time out and about last night, and discovered that I'm probably getting sick -- the vague sore throat, the early stages of a cough, and the sinus problems gave it away. I didn't mope around feeling sorry for myself, though; I took a quick shower, and then Terry and I went to Morning Due and ate/worked for a couple of hours. I wrote four pages of a v. intense post-coital scene with Malcolm and Amelia, which I felt v. good about. Then I came home and talked to my parents for awhile; nothing's changed since I was home four days ago, although my father now has a herd of cattle, so I suppose that's a change worth noting (miniature cattle, which is even more worth noting).

Post parental call, I sat around for a bit and got annoyed over the BCS championship, since I would have liked to have seen Oklahoma St play LSU (and felt slightly bad for OSU that the game that kept them out of the championship was their loss to Iowa State, but c'est la vie). However, the Stanford/Oklahoma St matchup in the Fiesta Bowl should be a great game, particularly since [censored] went to Oklahoma St for grad school, and this is one of those rare times when our college teams will play each other. I v. nearly succumbed to temptation and got tickets for the Fiesta Bowl, since Chris Boyd is going and we had discussed it last night; however, upon further reflection, I would rather spend several hundred dollars on airfare to London/Paris (or, equally likely, alcohol) than on a two-day trip to Arizona. I may regret this if we never go to a bowl again in my lifetime, but I live in hope.

I was supposed to have family dinner with Chandlord and Katrina at 7:30, but at 6:15 (just as I was about to write for an hour, I swear), Chandlord called and asked if I wanted to have a drink with her first. That was a temptation I couldn't resist, so I picked her up and we went to Nopa, a bar/restaurant conveniently close to Katrina's place. Katrina joined us there v. shortly thereafter, and we all enjoyed a nice hipster cocktail (I had a Hemingway daiquiri to replace the one that I spilled at Adit's Christmas party several weeks ago; Chandlord had a cocktail involving amontillado (not an entire cask of it, just a shot) sherry and champagne; and Katrina had a v. lovely hot toddy). I must say that pretentious hipster cocktails are right up my alley. This bar even had a bottle of Templeton Rye prominently displayed, which will mean nothing to anyone who lives outside of Iowa or isn't a rye fanatic, but nearly made me abandon my hatred of whisky long enough to have a drink made out of it. I would like to get really good at making hipster cocktails, but living in a city like San Francisco, it's easier to just go out and get one or five whenever you feel like it.

After our drink, we nearly had another drink, but instead made a prudent decision to continue on to dinner at Enjoy Vegetarian in the Inner Sunset. They are, as you guessed, vegetarian, although they perform some sort of weird alchemy on things like seitan and tofu to make them taste like meat. In fact, I was a little weirded/grossed out by how much the fake stuff actually tasted like sea bass in the "eggplant sea bass" dish -- half the things on their menu look like meat dishes because they're called things like "sea bass" and "beef" (those sound like meat, right? am I crazy?), but they're actually weird soy/gluten products. However, everything was really tasty, and I did enjoy it. We also ran into Adit and Priyanka, who were there with Adit's brother-in-law and the BIL's brother, although we all pretended that we didn't know each other, which was the highlight of my evening.

We all decided after dinner that another drink was foolish, so I dropped them both off and came home. Then I proceeded to forget my decision of twenty minutes earlier and had a drink with Terry, although I didn't have to leave my house for it, since she made us cosmos so that we could drink while watching some tv. She went to bed, and I should have written, but instead I booked a round-trip-in-a-day flight to a secret location in a few days -- you'll have to read the blog to see where I go. I checked my United status and realized that I hadn't hit premier with my last trip -- I thought I would, and so I used miles to book my ticket home for Christmas rather than buying the ticket. But I'm 450 miles short, so I found a $100 roundtrip ticket for next Tuesday, leaving here at 7am and getting back around 2pm. If I had more time and wasn't trying to write a book, I would have gone overnight and seen Walter or Lizzie or someone else in the general vicinity, but time is of the essence, so instead of going to a cafe and writing next Tuesday, I'll just do my writing on an airplane. It feels a little ridic to do this, but given that $100 covers the cost of my bag check fees for two trips home next year that would be waived if I had premier status, I think it's worth it, particularly since I usually go home 3-4 times and also intend to go to London/Paris, New York, and possibly Dallas/Chicago/New Orleans (romance conferences - tbd).

But now, I really need to sleep; I have to train tomorrow, and I hope my illness doesn't take over before then. Goodnight!