you got a fast car

If San Francisco is the city of sin in my mind, what does that make Washington D.C.?

I don't have an answer for you yet. But today was pretty delightful. [censored] and I fulfilled our desires to sleep in, but we still managed to make it to the club lounge for breakfast before breakfast closed (this was not a particularly heroic feat, since breakfast ended at ten). Then we indulged our inner nerds and went to the Postal Museum - it's part of the general Smithsonian collection, but is perhaps the least-trafficked of the Smithsonians due to the fact that it's about fucking stamps and not about the Apollo Program.

But those of you who prefer the Apollo Program to stamps are #basic and really missing out. The Postal Museum was great - I learned a lot about all the complete idiots who formed the first air mail (one guy threw a rock at a bull who had charged him when he landed his plane to smoke a cigarette, but accidentally hit the farmer, so couldn't take breaks there anymore). In fact, the history of the postal service had a lot of daredevil idiots - people wandering through the woods making their own trails from NYC to Boston in the 1600s; the Pony Express; the air mail guys; the people still running a mule train down into the Grand Canyon every day to provide mail service to the Havasupai (okay, they probably aren't idiots, but if you've tried to haul a mail order washing machine into the Grand Canyon via mule, you may occasionally question your life decisions).

After that museum, which was excellent, we walked outside and were promptly greeted by the blast furnace that is DC in summer. So we didn't stray to far for a late lunch - we went across the street to The Dubliner, which had better food than I was expecting and the critical benefit of not requiring us to be in the sun for more than five minutes. After our meal, we spent two minutes paying respects at the Ukrainian famine/genocide memorial across the street, and then we took a lyft to the Air and Space Museum....

...which was about a hundred times more popular than the Postal Service museum, which was real annoying since I hate people and I especially hate children. However, the WWI and WWII exhibits were great - especially since I don't know much about the air war in WWI, so I enjoyed / was sobered my all of that. We also watched some videos of Medal of Honor winners from WWII who were telling their stories on video...you know you had to survive some really nasty shit to get a Medal of Honor in WWII, so that was pretty powerful.

There was more to the Air and Space Museum than that, but if you want to know the rest, you should just visit since the museum is free and my time is more valuable than that.

sssanyway. After the museum, we meandered back toward Chinatown and had dinner at Matchbox, which is a pizza place that I went to after Adit's wedding like eight years ago. The pizza (even the gluten free pizza) was super tasty, as was the rosé, and so I felt pretty satisfied with life. When we got back to the hotel, we adjourned to the club lounge, where we ran into some of [censored]'s coworkers - [censored] is in town for a conference, so the chances that we'll see coworkers will continue to go up in the next day or two. So we said hi to them, grabbed a drink, said bye to them, and ended up taking our drinks to a pair of chairs overlooking the atrium, where the lights slowly cycled through the colors of the rainbow and might have driven us mad if we'd been trying to read.

But we were just trying to drink Bud Light ([censored]) and sauvignon blanc (me) - we're such cliches - so the lights were fine. And now I must sleep so we can do fun stuff tomorrow - 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!

put that record on again

I'm back in Boulder and it's back to the grind tomorrow, so I should really go to bed. Today was fun, though - I got plenty of sleep, and then I spent the morning working (okay, maybe it wasn't totally fun, but I'm glad I got some stuff done). Terry went skiing while I worked, which I didn't miss at all - and then she came back to the house to drop off her ski stuff, and we took a shuttle into the village to grab a late lunch at a Mexican place. My margarita was only okay, but my enchiladas were decent, and I enjoyed talking to Terry while watching the utter destruction some children were causing next to us.

Then we went to the lobby of the Hyatt, where Terry had a glass of wine and I had a cup of coffee. She was reading a book that I had forced upon her, so I took the opportunity to call my parents, who were in fine form. Then we went back to the house, threw all our stuff in the car, and drove back to Denver.

The drive took 2.5hrs, made slightly longer by an ill-advised detour to find a gas station (I was v. inefficient). When we got to Denver, we picked up Katie and went to Linger for dinner - this was the first time that Katie and Terry had actually met, so we had to go out and make it special. We split some devils on horseback (bacon wrapped dates, obvi), and I had a pad thai that was pretty tasty (although possibly not as good as Terry's dosa). We talked politics for quite awhile, but it all eventually devolved into me and Katie gossiping about Iowa (which we usually do, even when no one else is interested).

But eventually we had to part ways, and I drove back to Boulder, where Terry and I said our goodbyes in advance in case our paths don't cross as we're both getting out the door in the morning. And now I really need to sleep - goodnight!

electronic refrigeration hum

I'm in York, and I have hit peak mania that happens when I'm finishing a book, which means I'm not fit company for anyone. Luckily, no one expects me to be fit company. My train up here was lovely and uneventful (but stupidly early in the morning). I spent a couple of hours working in the hotel bar while drinking tea, then took a long lunch break (longer than planned, since the restaurant I went to was waaaay too slow and the kid next to me was one of those kids who would have been better off staring at a screen instead of having his mother take the phone away from him and then let him bounce around and play with some sort of clicking gear for an hour - toddlers are one thing, but this kid appeared to be ten and I despised him v. irrationally).

sssanyway, you know I'm not a nice person at heart, and my peak writing emotions have removed my filters. I walked around York a little bit and saw the outside of York Minster + the shopping area known as the Shambles + a bit of the medieval town wall (it's all gorgeous!), came back to the hotel, finally got my room, unpacked, took a nap, and then spent the rest of the afternoon/evening/night working. The hotel is perfectly suited for this - the desk in my room is great, and the bar and bar food are lovely, and I think I'll get a lot done here.

But now I'm beyond desperate for sleep - goodnight!

i gotta stay high all the time to forget i'm missing you

Allow me to start by saying that Katie is the oldest of best friends and the best of old friends, and that I shall love her until the bitter end. She is also a wonderful person with a hugely generous heart, and I enjoy watching how she is passing that on to her daughters. No matter how many miles separate us, I look forward to many future visits, and I hope that we grow to a fabulous old age together -- one in which we can still compare fashion notes, ogle firefighters, and reminisce about how awful junior high was, preferably while drinking delightful cocktails and wearing dark glasses and telling kids to get off our lawn. I've loved spending time with her this weekend, and I can't wait to come back.

That said, toddlers are fucking monsters sometimes.

I woke up at five a.m. to shower so that I could assist in the get-out-the-door process (where my assistance was mostly limited to eating the scrambled eggs that James made, and making myself some iced coffee to survive the trip). We were headed to Pikes Peak and had tickets for the 8am train to the top, and we couldn't be late. The drive down was almost lovely - the sun was coming up, and there was no traffic, and there was the possibility of a great day ahead.

But then Julia threw up approximately ten minutes before we reached our destination (car sickness is no fun, as I know), which set things off on a swift decline. We made it onto the train (after some cleaning occurred), but I'm sure Julia wasn't feeling all that chipper, which was a bummer. The train ride up was really pretty - the scenery is gorgeous, with lots of waterfalls and rock formations and aspen, etc.

Pikes Peak itself, though, was a frozen hellscape. They had closed the highway up because of wind, if that's any indication...apparently the winds were gusting to fifty miles per hour (I believe it), and the windchill factor was 17 degrees. This was way too fucking cold. Also, at 12,000 feet, altitude issues kick in pretty fast, and I was feeling somewhat woozy and lightheaded by the end of our forty minutes at the top. The girls didn't wander outside at all, and we mostly spent the time huddled in the snackbar at the top, where James bought $11 lollipops out of pure desperation, and the temperature of my ovaries quickly dropped to match the temperature outside.

So then we took the train down, which was still lovely, and it was gorgeous in Manitou Springs by the time the train pulled into the depot. I was still feeling pretty delighted at this point, and we went to a brewery in town for lunch - the food itself was average, but I had a glass of wine and we sat on the patio and enjoyed the sun/shade, and that was all great...

...until we got back in the car and it was going to take almost twice as long to get home as it took to get there, and Julia threw up approximately ten minutes into the drive, and we all began to melt down. I shall draw a veil over the rest of it, because it's a memory best left behind, but suffice it to say that we got back to Katie and James's a little before four and promptly fell apart (and by that I mean the adults were all wandering around like soulless zombies and the children were refusing to acknowledge that they were tired).

At some point I realized I really needed to get out of the house or I was going to go mad (I'm not used to not walking, and also I had recklessly eaten a Kind bar and had part of a Sprite and ordered corn tortilla tacos for lunch, so I think my body was flipping out over corn/sugar). I thought about seeking out a wine store so I could take the edge off (recommended dose: two bottles), but thought better of it and went to Black Eye, where I restored my equilibrium with a dose of hipster life by sipping a cold brew iced coffee in an uncomfortable rocking chair (mission accomplished). James and the girls went on a walk and joined me for a bit, and then they left, and eventually I returned to the house and the remainder of my visit.

Katie was going to cook dinner, but I convinced her to order takeout instead, which I think was the right call. The girls stayed up relatively late since they weren't tired after the naps they took this afternoon, but eventually they went to bed and order was restored. Katie and I then retreated to the basement, where we watched the first half of the remake of 'The Man from U.N.C.L.E." However, we couldn't finish it since we're beyond tired, so I'll have to watch the rest of it myself.

And so ends my visit - it really was lovely, and I had a delightful time. Tomorrow it's back to the grind - and while my life hasn't seemed like a grind the last couple of months, summer is over and playtime is over, too.  San Francisco and a lot of writing await - goodnight!

what's wrong with being confident

There are parties going on around us tonight, and while I'm fondly remembering my youth, when I used to stay up all night drinking in rental units in Tahoe on snowy weekends like this one, my inner octogenarian is currently wishing the kids would get the fuck out of my yard.

However, despite my curmudgeonliness, today was great. Or at least it was productive - but my brain is fried, and I really need to sleep (and I'm glad I brought my earplugs). I basically spent the whole day working with Barbara and Bella, with some breaks for snacks and caffeine and a lot of laughter. We stopped around five and spent the rest of the evening hanging out...and a game of "Balderdash" sort of made an appearance. I say 'sort of' because Bella's daughter basically read us snippets from cards and tried to get us to guess stuff, which was actually pretty amusing (and interspersed with occasional outbursts of rage from other people in the house about the extremely loud party going on below us). But the most interesting part for me, since I'm a dork, is that the house has a newer version of Balderdash than the one that my family played over Christmas, and the non-1980s version has many different clues (including stuff around weird laws, which was kind of fun).

sssanyway, I'm even boring myself tonight, so I'm going to sleep and hope that my brain restores itself so I can work just as much again tomorrow. Goodnight!

rebels and mutineers

So all the planning I did yesterday was certainly helpful today, but I didn't achieve peak productivity. However, that's possibly because I went to bed later than I should have, needed to make up my sleep deficit from the previous night, and so stayed in bed far later than I usually do - I didn't open my laptop until almost ten a.m., and I've previously been getting up around seven. That scotched my peak writing time, which was unfortunate, and I'm going to try to rectify that tomorrow.

But then, I probably wouldn't have concentrated all that well anyway; I had a promo scheduled for one of my earlier books and was distracted by tracking the rankings. But the promo went as well as I could have hoped; the book hit #6 on the free list at Amazon and #6 on the free list at Apple, which is the highest I've ever gotten with a free book. Hopefully this translates into more sales of the other books in the series, but we shall see.

sssanyway, so I worked a bit this morning, ate some breakfast, and then walked to Alta Plaza Park to get some fresh air + some exercise + some writing out in the sun. The walk was perfect, and I climbed the stairs all the way to the top of the park, where I happily ensconced myself on the perfect bench and wrote a page and a half before suddenly being surrounded by a mob of children who were apparently in the park for some sort of recess/field trip/whatever. Ugh. I tried to tough it out, but they were settling in for what appeared to be the long haul, so I vacated my bench and came home. Then I ate a late lunch, took a nap, showered, procrastinated, and then wrote for another couple of hours.\

My final task of the evening was to talk to Kathia; we hadn't caught up properly in a v. long time, and we had a FaceTime call so we could actually see each other while doing this. It was good to catch up, even if it's vastly inferior to going to a coffee shop together, and we talked until her battery was about to die. Then I procrastinated some more (online shopping, but since I used a credit I had on ThredUp, I only spent $2), and totally neglected to remember that I was supposed to read a book or watch a movie tonight instead of wasting time on my laptop. Stupid.

Tomorrow's another day, though, and I have grand plans to write much earlier in the morning + be vaguely, possibly social in the evening (although my hermit week is actually kind of lovely, so we'll see). Goodnight!

baby, kiss me before they turn the lights out

I don't know what to say about today - parts of it were hard, parts of it were lovely, and all of it is worth remembering in some capacity. I failed to write this morning as planned, since I'm still not feeling well and so allowed myself to sleep in. But I got up, showered, got dressed, and then ended up seeing my niece (Sammi) and her daughter (Jaicee), who came over to visit for an hour or two. Jaicee is six, and while she is super cute, she was also super squirmy and demanding, possibly because she recently had pneumonia (which she is still recovering from) and so was banned from a lot of fun times over the last week or two. I'm somewhat convinced that she has given me whatever she had, since she wanted me to hold her/play with her the whole time. At some point, I asked her to stop smearing her hands all over my face because she was going to give me pneumonia, and she said, "Pneumonia isn't that bad." Lol. #themoreyouknow, I guess.

sssanyway, Sammi and Jaicee eventually left, and I ate a forlorn leftover lunch, then did a tiny bit of work, and then took a nap. Then I talked to [censored], and then I talked to my dad, and then I got ready and went into town for Katie's dad's wake. They are having the funeral in Illinois, but they did a visitation here for the people who knew him in our community (which is where he lived for almost forty years, but in rural areas that's just past 'newcomer' status, I guess). I can't remember the last time I saw Katie's dad, but I can still hear his voice, and it was very bittersweet to see all the photos of him and Katie's mom and their family.

The wake lasted a couple of hours, and I mostly spent it catching up with Hannah and Elaina (Katie, Hannah, Elaina and I were mostly inseparable, in varying configurations, through high school). I also spent some quality time with James's husband and her daughters (mostly Julia, who was too young to run away, which sounds creepier than it is), and I talked to Katie's siblings, and it was good to see all of them despite the circumstances. Even though in many ways it feels like I haven't changed and things haven't changed, moments like these remind me of how much things *have* changed...especially when I start to think that, for Katie, there's not much reason to come back here after this, and perhaps that will be true for me someday as well (although I still have siblings here, and she doesn't).

But those are ruminations better saved for my journal. After the wake was over, Elaina and Hannah and I dropped a bunch of food and stuff off at the motel for Katie's family, and then we went with [censored] to Ludlow's, which is the main dining opportunity in town. We spent a couple of hours there, laughing to a perhaps unseemly degree over a lot of slightly inappropriate things (as often happens when [censored] is involved...unlike me, since I am so pure and unlikely to say anything inappropriate). We were also continually judged by a pair of toddler twins who stared at us with the most condemning looks ever. And, in an odd twist, one of my favorite high school teachers (social studies with a side of inappropriate humor) happened to be eating there; he came over and said hi, and it was all as ridiculous as one might have hoped. And it was really nice to see Hannah and Elaina - I tend to be terrible at seeing anyone here since I tend to join my mother in hermitville whenever I come home, but I'm glad we hung out, and hopefully it won't take another funeral to see them again.

So, after a really strange series of highs ands lows today, and the ebb and flow of memory, and the odd mix of grief and relief and nostalgia and bittersweet goodbyes, it's time to go to bed. Goodnight!

this magic, this drunken semaphore

I am quite happy to be sitting on my couch rather than in a moving vehicle, especially since it feels like I'm still moving even though I got home half an hour ago. But today was lovely despite the incessant driving. I didn't get up all that early this morning, but I got up early enough to do some work and drink some iced coffee before pursuing my plans for the day.

And those plans involved picking up [censored] at the airport, who is in town for [censored]. [censored] got in around 9:45am, so we had brunch at Peter's Cafe, which is a fond memory from the days of my youth, when it used to be open all night so that those of us who played 'shrimp or feet' at the Hong Kong Flower Lounge across the street could fortify ourselves there in the wee hours before meeting our 'shrimp or feet' fate. It's no longer open all night, but the food was still tasty, so [censored] and I caught up over some good downhome cooking before continuing our peregrinations.

The plan for today was to go to the Monterey Aquarium. We accomplished this, but it was not without its downsides. The main downside was that it took nearly four hours to get there, which was significantly longer than the hour and forty-five minutes originally promised to us by Waze (if I'd know it would take four hours, I might have suggested doing something else, like dousing ourselves in kerosene and immolating ourselves in the nearest fire). And once we were there, we discovered that the aquarium was full of screaming children, which is all the birth control I need for awhile. However, the aquarium is still awesome even after driving that far, and even with the kids, so we spent a delightful couple of hours exploring it.

After that, we had an early dinner on Cannery Row, at a place where we could overlook the water (although I gave [censored] the better view). Then we drove back to the evil city, and traffic was actually really smooth, but it still took 2.5hrs to get back. This wasn't terrible, and it gave time for me and [censored] to catch up and talk all about [censored], which was vastly [censored].

But eventually, I dropped [censored] off at [censored], and then came home, where I intend to sleep the sleep of the dead. Goodnight!

the dog days are over

I'm pretty happy with how much I got done today, even if I deeply, deeply regret that I have to go to work on Monday. I could really use a full week (or month) of writing to get this book done, but I'm not going to get it. Boo.

However, I made good progress today. I met up with my friend Kathia for a writing date, and I wrote for close to three hours before throwing in the towel and parting ways with her. Then I grabbed lunch and wrote for another couple of hours. However, I needed a bit of a break tonight, so Terry and I walked down to Chestnut so that I could buy overpriced hand soap and look at new laptops at the Apple store (I refrained from the laptop, but the soap was kind of a necessity). Then we picked up salads, came back, and watched the second episode of this season of "Project Runway", in which we realized that Millennials are taking over the reality tv space and that the world is going to really suck as they continue to take over more of the workforce. Two different youngish twenty-somethings made the most hideous dresses ever, but one of them was really proud to have not given up, and the other was super-confident that she was the best evening-wear designer ever until she saw her dress compared to the other dressed people put up, and then she sobbed so hard about how awful her dress was that they had to stop the runway show so that Tim could console her. I mean, really, wtf? Get your shit together and sew a damn dress or get off the show. Or get the kids off my damn lawn, as the case may be. Yes, I'm becoming a curmudgeon.

After that, I excused myself from the living room and came upstairs, where I successfully wrote for the last three hours or so. I got through the awkward first scene with Prudence's mom, which I'd been putting off for a couple of months, so that's good news. And maybe Alex and Prudence will have sex tomorrow! Isn't that exciting? In preparation for that awkwardness, I suppose I should sleep -- goodnight!

we've been poisoned by these fairy tales

I made it to Iowa, no thanks to the eggnog still going through my veins when I woke up at three a.m. - but my hangover was mercifully mild and I don't think anyone could have guessed what I got up to last night, since I woke up in time to shower, dry my hair, put on makeup, and dress v. cutely for my trip. The flights were all perfectly on time, although I was forced to sit with the peasants from SFO to Denver - specifically, two of the dumbest people I've had the misfortune to listen to in recent memory, who had a toddler sprawled across their laps. I shan't recount all of their tales of stupid woe to you, since it will just make my blood boil, but suffice it to say that they asked the flight attendant if he was going to give them an infant life vest like the people on the last flight did (apparently from Hawaii to SFO). He said no because we're not flying over water from SFO to Denver - but when we took off, the woman was like, "omg, we're flying over water!", because the runways extend out into the bay. Of course, we were away from water in like thirty seconds, but she couldn't see that because of the fog, and so then they speculated for a couple of minutes about how stupid the flight attendant was for not knowing which direction we were flying in. Um. Thank god for earplugs, is all I'm saying.

sssanyway, my second flight was much better, and my parents picked me up on time and took me to a steakhouse for lunch. I had warned them that I would be surly and hungover, but I was surprisingly chipper - I think I'm so exhausted from the past ten days that I am past my surliness, which is a rare state for me. So we all had steak, then stopped at Walmart (hiss) and Hy-Vee (yay for an expanded gluten free section!) before coming home. And then I stayed up until now, which is really quite shocking; I thought I would fall asleep hours ago, but I hit a second wind around seven p.m. California time, as I always do. I think perhaps I'm diurnal...I do get some stuff done in the morning, and I thrive at night, but afternoons are the devil.

And now, I should sleep, or at least try to; [censored] arrived from [censored], which is part of why I'm still awake, since we exchanged insults and generally [censored] for longer than I intended. And so, goodnight - more Iowa fun awaits!

it's a nice day for a white wedding

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

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

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

light my candle

I am beyond tired, but I've had a v. lovely day! I awoke in Ritu's bed, vacated it, showered, and was mostly dressed by the time she got home from work. Then, I kept her awake in a nefarious attempt to make her as loopy as possible by taking her out for breakfast to the diner down the street, which was all sorts of fun. Then we came home, I grabbed my laptop and notebook and other supplies, and she went to sleep while I wandered out into the city to get some work done. I ended up at a tea place, where I had a v. terrible earl grey tea (I think they put vanilla into it, which I'm pretty sure Earl Grey would not have approved of), which I nursed for several hours while procrastinating and trying to figure out how to structure the next scene and what information I need to impart.

I got hungry at some point, so I wandered around and had lunch at some Thai place, which was pretty tasty. Then I had half an hour to kill, so I tried to go to Starbucks, but the seats were all taken, so I bought a bottle of water and sat in the park across from Ritu's building. It turns out the park is a playground and adults aren't supposed to be there without kids, but I must have looked unthreatening because no one harassed me, and I actually wrote a couple of pages of zee romance novel while sitting on a bench.

At that point, it was time to go wake Ritu up. Her boyfriend Bill (whom she met at the glorious German wedding we went to last summer) got into town this afternoon and was already there, but it took quite some doing to rouse Ritu and get her showered/dressed/packed. And by 'some doing' I mean I heckled her for an hour and a half. We eventually got ready, got to Grand Central, got on a train, and spent a couple of hours hanging out on zee train before arriving in New Haven, home of Yale University, and more importantly home to some of my v. favorite people, Claudia (aka Claud, aka Claude the Fraude), Zach (aka Stinkubus), and Maggie (aka...she's too sweet to be aka anything). They've all been here forever, but it's the first time I've made it up to New Haven, which is v., v. exciting....

...and we had a totally lovely, awesome evening. Claudia picked us up at the train station and brought us to Zach and Maggie's, where we had pizza ordered in (there was a gluten free version for Claude, which was delightful, but I was bad and tried the New Haven classic pizzas, which were also delightful but probably unwise). Zach made us drinks (first a gin martini, then a gin/elderflower concoction, then whatever whisky/rye/bourbon we wanted), Maggie made a salad, and later Maggie gave us bourbon vanilla ice cream with a caramel/ground cherry sauce. Yum yum. We laughed ridiculously hard, reminisced excessively, and probably made Bill doubt his decision to be part of the madness, but it was all quite entertaining. And now, I'm exhausted, and I must go to bed before staying up this late ruins all the good work I've done trying to get adjusted to the time change. Goodnight!

this is berk

How am I so exhausted when it's only 11pm in California, which is 1am in Iowa, which is earlier than I've gone to bed at any point in the last two weeks? Perhaps it's because I haven't had any caffeine in the past nine hours, whereas in Iowa I live on iced tea until midnight...

Hmm, I think I just answered my own question. sssanyway, I am back in California (obvi), after a mostly uneventful trip. I woke up this morning at eight (another reason why I'm probably tired), showered, finished packing, and had breakfast with the parents (sausages, a fried egg, a bit of bacon, my last slice of gluten-free bread, and, oddly, a few potato chips with the french onion dip that I can only get in Iowa). Then, they took me to Des Moines, escorted me into the airport, and we went through our usual goodbye waving ritual at the escalator before I disappeared into the bowels of the airport. My flight to Denver was awesome; it landed early, and more importantly I got upgraded to first class, where I was quite comfy as I worked on Nick and Ellie for a couple of hours. The woman next to me kept clearing her throat/making odd mouth noises the entire time, which got a bit tiresome, but I thought it was preferable to screaming children...

...and then, on my flight to SFO, there were two screaming children right behind me, one of whom occasionally kicked my seat. UGH. And I was in economy (not even economy plus) with the peasants, so double ugh. And forty minutes before landing, I made the mistake of asking the woman next to me if she wanted out (since she was making gestures like she wanted to), and instead got trapped into a long conversation with her(can you call it a conversation if you're just making one-word interruptions in a monologue?). I actually had quite a bit of sympathy for her while hearing her life story, but there came a point where my neck hurt and I was starting to feel nauseous from not facing straight ahead, and you can only listen to someone's unrelenting tale of woe so long before you want to put them out of their misery.

Yes, I'm a horrible person, but we all know that, so moving on. I got home, unpacked, did a load of laundry, washed dishes and ran the dishwasher, took a shower, ordered a pizza (gluten free), and watched an episode of Project Runway. And now, I'm desperate for sleep, so I'm going to go to bed, and hope that tomorrow is both productive and less full of odd strangers. Goodnight!

scar tissue that i wish you saw

I'm back in California, curled up in my own bed, listening to the foghorns in the distance. I wasn't precisely ready to leave Iowa, but I'm excited to be back for all sorts of fun times this weekend, as well as as much writing as I can squeeze in. But first, I must sleep a lot; I got less than six hours last night, which made this morning a rough and brutal slog so that I could catch my plane on time.

But I did catch my plane; my parents took me to the airport and helped me take in my bags (which I had to redistribute some weight in; the first bag was over by 2lbs, so I had to move a couple of books to the other bag, bringing them both in at 49lbs). Then we said goodbye, and I went to my gate to board my flight to Denver. All in all, my trip was uneventful -- there was a lot of turbulence in and out of Denver, and there was a screaming child on my Denver/San Francisco flight, but I still managed to write nearly ten pages (yay).

When I got to San Francisco, my old friend Claudia picked me up at the airport. Careful readers will remember that Claude doesn't live here and hasn't for nigh on half a decade, but she's in town for the holiday to see her mom and brother (who live in San Jose), and so she picked me up on her way to have dinner with Adit and Priyanka. It was super nice of her to do so, particularly since we then had to drag my suitcases up to Adit's apartment so they wouldn't get stolen from her car while she parked, and then had to drag them back down when we left, and then had to drag them up to my apartment when we got here. She's a trooper.

So we met Adit and Priyanka, who were leaving tonight for DC, and had a quick, lovely dinner at Little Chihuahua in Noe Valley. It's a clean, modernized version of a taqueria, and it was really tasty. It was also good to have some family time with Claude, an original family member, particularly since I won't see Adit and Priyanka for awhile longer. After dinner, Adit and Priyanka left for the airport and Claude brought me home. We spent another couple of hours hanging out while drinking bai mudan (a white tea that tasted vaguely of mint, since I'd made mint tea in my teamaker earlier), and it was great to catch up. Terry showed up sometime with one of her friends in tow, so we all hung out for awhile before Claude went back to San Jose and I realized I'm flipping exhausted.

And so, it's time for bed. Tomorrow holds laundry, grocery shopping, and a shitload of writing -- goodnight!

watching the throne

I'm super sleepy, so this is gonna be quick. I was supposed to go down to Palo Alto this morning to train with Alyssa, but I canceled on her at the last minute; I woke up with a headache and didn't particularly feel like driving down, so I skipped it and got a whole bunch of work done instead. I still ended up going to Palo Alto later, but I was glad that I was productive (even if my headache never did go away).

I left home around 2:30 and went south, where I spent an hour-plus running an annoying errand (buying rubber bands/binder clips, then picking up a printout of HEIRESS from Kinko's, then going to the post office and mailing it while listening to a toddler have a fifteen-minute tantrum and ignoring his mother's ineffectual but loud threats to cancel the play date he was supposed to be going to after the post office). The errand was necessary, since I was sending a copy of the manuscript to get a possible review from Romantic Times (the magazine that I know you all wish you were subscribed to) and it needs to be there early next week. Then, I went to Starbucks, where I worked for another couple of hours and also randomly ran into an old coworker who ended up sharing my table.

The real reason I went to Palo Alto was to have a friendship renewal dinner with, Tolu, Joann and Jane; I didn't feel like driving down, as I mentioned before, but I didn't want to miss out on dinner with them since we might not get together again before the holidays. We went to Coconuts, a Jamaican restaurant that I was last at a couple of years ago (April 14, 2009, to be exact) during an earlier friendship renewal dinner. The drive was worth it to see them, and we had a v. lovely time discussing our respective lives for a couple of hours.

Now, though, I should really sleep; I have no plans to go anywhere tomorrow, which is so exciting, so hopefully I'll get some serious writing done. Goodnight!

meet me halfway, right on the borderline

I'm in ye olde Iowa after an entirely uneventful trip -- and so far I haven't contracted any strange new illnesses, so I'm considering this a success! And I even left the apartment ten minutes earlier than I had planned this morning; verily, my preparation for this trip astonishes even me. Terry was kind enough to drop me off at the airport on her way to work (sort of), and my premier status on United meant that I got through check in and security with plenty of time to get a latte and stroll to my gate. It also meant that I got upgraded to first class, which was lovely -- I can report that the other half lives on complimentary pseudo gourmet food served with table linens, and that they get little ceramic dishes of warm mixed nuts (in the edible culinary sense, not in the 'Lance Armstrong is missing one of these' sense). I can also report that I can't quite touch the floor in first class, which is pretty much the story of my life. I had a lovely conversation about e-publishing with the man sitting next to me, then proceeded to write three or four pages of the young adult book (which I should really brainstorm a title for someday, since its code name in every document I have for it is still 'gargoyles' even though gargoyles have no role in it).

We landed in Denver on time, so I killed a couple of hours eating some more (mistake) and typing up the pages I'd written out in longhand on the plane. I didn't get upgraded to first class on the way to Des Moines, so I survived sitting with the peasants by sleeping (and dreaming of a plane crash that would silence the incessant screams of a child two rows ahead of me who seemed to be screaming just for the hell of it rather than out of true pain or frustration). We got into Des Moines early, but my parents and brother were miraculously early to pick me up; I was half expecting them to still be out shopping, but they were in the terminal when I arrived. They didn't have a fatted calf to slaughter in my honor, so we went to Johnny's Italian Steakhouse and ate some of their fatted calf instead. Or rather, we had calamari (which is wholly unrelated to beef, for my vegetarian readers who are confused about such things), my parents had steak, I had a pasta with a spicy sausage/tomato/mushroom sauce, and [censored] had his usual chicken alfredo variant. And then we drove home and my family enjoyed quizzing me on whether I noticed the one new thing that we passed, since I notoriously don't really pay attention to things that we pass on the road. I actually knew immediately what was different -- for the first time, there are now crossbars and flashing lights at the railroad tracks near our house, which means that theoretically you'll get some warning before being slammed into by a train, rather than having to stop, turn off the radio, look both ways, and hope you're not going to get killed. Yay for modernity.

Upon arriving home, I caught a brief glimpse of the dog that is trying to be adopted by my parents (and by that I mean it showed up this morning and is desperately friendly), but I allowed [censored] to take the brunt of his affection while I slipped into the house. My brother showed me a Jon Stewart clip about how the media is ridiculously over the top in its lack of regard for the Ron Paul campaign, and then I went upstairs and watched Letterman and Craig while messing around on my laptop. And now, I think I shall go to bed; it's my usual bedtime in California, which means it's 1:40am here, and I should probably try to get up by ten a.m. so that I can clean up and unpack before my mother hosts her garden club. Ah, small town life. Goodnight!

you think i'm funny when i tell the punchline wrong

I've had Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream" stuck in my head for well over a week. I posted that dilemma on Facebook several days ago, and it sounds like Tammy is suffering from the same malady -- but she's also hooked on the Glee version, which I didn't even know existed, and a "death metal" version that may or may not be similar to the dance remix that I heard at the gym (which is what kicked off my addiction in the first place). I'm hoping that someday it will go away -- I tried to listen to other stuff on the plane, including "Rio" by Duran Duran, but to no avail.

However, given the number of screaming children I was subjected to today, perhaps it makes sense that my traumatized brain took refuge in the familiar vocals of Katy Perry rather than fully comprehending the horror around me. There was screaming, even louder screaming, the mother behind me who decided to play a DVD out loud for her children (one of whom was kicking my seat), and some general panicky wails, etc., etc. on both my SFO->Denver and my Denver->Des Moines flights. It was awful. While my biological clock may be ticking, today was enough to hit snooze on it for at least six months, right?

But, I made it to Iowa safe and sound, despite getting some v. fitful sleep between midnight and four a.m. and having a surprisingly disgusting lunch at what is normally my go-to Mexican restaurant in the Denver airport. I spent the flights alternating between napping and brainstorming possible topics for the romance blog; as I've said, you're stuck with my muddy, cottonmouth-filled stream of consciousness here, but I have to actually give a damn about my audience on zee romance blog, and so I'm trying to plan out what my angle and voice are so that I can attract a readership (rather than gathering more people who implicitly expect freebies of my books like most of y'all). I came up with about eighty post ideas, which would get me halfway through the year if I post three times a week, and likely further since some of the ideas are either multi-post series or standing blog items that I can refresh weekly or monthly.

But enough about that. My parents picked me up on time, and I bundled up in my down-filled bomber jacket against the 23-degree external temperature. We came home, I futzed around with my luggage, we ate supper (steak and baked potato, natch) while watching "Survivor", and then I continued the trend of watching some fine CBS programming by catching "Criminal Minds" (excellent show, albeit sometimes creeptastic) and "The Defenders" (surprisingly not that bad). But even though it's only 11:30 in Iowa, and therefore 9:30 in California, and therefore many, many hours before my usual bedtime, I need to sleep -- there's a lot to do the next few days to finish (er, start) my Christmas shopping, finalize stuff for my grandmother's 80th birthday party (which I've had very little hand in), etc., and I also want to write steadily while I'm at home, so we shall see. Goodnight!