the beaches of cheyenne

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

sssanyway.

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

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

pull it out of park put it in drive

I'm sleepy - I had meetings earlier than usual this morning, and I stayed up for an 11pm version of a meeting that I could have attended tomorrow instead (but I preferred to watch it in my pajamas). Today was good, though - I had some entertaining and bizarre meetings, which are my jam. Then I went to my parents' house, where I gratefully scrounged leftovers for dinner. And then I came back to my house and watched the Olympics before my late meeting - I continue to be astonished and disgusted over the Russian doping issue, and it will be interesting to see what comes of this.

But now, I should really sleep so that I can make it to tomorrow's meetings - goodnight!

while he wishes he could escape this but it all seems so contagious

My mood is improving slightly, which is good news for my fitbit since it has been tracking a higher-than-usual heart rate the whole last week. Rage is a powerful drug, kids. But today was better - I had a bunch of meetings, but all of them were good. I had some time in the afternoon to get some work done. I had a training session with Alyssa in the late afternoon, and doing some work with kettlebells may have helped burn out just a little bit of my grievances. And then I took a quick shower and walked down to El Camino to meet Katie for dinner. She was in fine form, and we had much to discuss, so we did so over queso (it turns out their queso is great) and margaritas. Since we had plenty of chips with the queso (as well as guac and salsa), I skipped my usual nachos there and got fajitas instead. And Katie v. kindly listened to my raging about various tings that happened last week, thus ensuring she didn't end up on my rage list, so our friendship lives another day.

After we finished at El Camino, we walked down the street to Sweet Cow and got ice cream for dessert. Then we parted ways and I perhaps should have worked, but instead I did absolutely nothing. And now I'm going to go to bed and hope that I get some decent sleep before tomorrow, since tomorrow is brutally packed with meetings. Goodnight!

i spin on a whim, i slide to the right, i felt you like electric light

I continue to be in mostly a bad mood, thanks to a wide-ranging variety of perfect storm factors. But I started my morning with coffee, a shower, and a playlist based on 'Machinehead' by Bush, thus proving that when stressed I revert to the angry music of my teens and early twenties. Hopefully my stress levels will go down in the next few days, but we shall see.

So, I spent the morning / afternoon working and attempting not to think about anything stressing me out (not entirely possible, since some of my meetings added to it). Then I spent the evening drinking a margarita, eating frozen enchiladas and an ice cream bar, and watching the Olympics. It's entertaining to watch world class athletes at the peak of their athletic performance while eating the most unhealthy meal I've had in awhile - I highly recommend it. I finally logged in and did an hour and a half of day job stuff to get a little bit more caught up from being out Friday, so I can go into tomorrow without things being quite as bad as I expected.

And now I need to go to bed and hope that my stress factors start getting better soon - goodnight!

feels like a night to carry a tune

I'm too tired to blog tonight - today was fairly boring work-wise, with at least one chaos meeting to liven things up (with my coworker who 100% agrees with everything I say while stabbing me in the back, but this time I caught him stabbing me in the face, so we shall see how I deal with that!). I ended the day by making a chicken stir fry (pretty good but needs a lot more salt / umami), talking to my friend Nicole, talking to [censored], doing a crossword puzzle, and generally messing around until now.

And now I'm going to shut off my laptop and start winding down - goodnight!

time is a valuable thing, watch it fly by as the pendulum swings

Today was okayish. Work was ridiculous this week, and while it's all fine, it was also a lot of dealing with other people's emotions, which always wears me out. So, I ducked out around two to run some errands - I had glasses sitting in Boulder that I should have picked up three weeks ago, and I needed to make a return to Nordstrom Rack (of which there is one in Boulder). It was a bit bizarre to go up there because I realized I might not have a reason to go back at all this year - it's unlikely that I'll go to the office, and there almost certainly won't be a holiday party, and I don't have any other reasons to go. Strange times, friends.

Then I made a Costco run, which I refuse to do on the weekends. I was mostly there to stock up on canned goods and other sundry supplies, but I also found a space heater / cooler / air filter that I'd had my eye on and it was deeply discounted (enough to get it under the remaining budget that I had from my company giving us money for our workspaces). So, that was exciting - I want to actually work out in my basement, but it's slightly too chilly, especially in the winter. And the smoke has been bad off and on here, so an air filter is not amiss (if I choose to have it in my bedroom or office instead).

And then, depressed that the most exciting thing about my day was finding a space heater, I came home, unloaded my bounty (actually, I meant that metaphorically; literally, I left the 18-pack of Bounty paper towels in the car), and took a nap. Then I ate leftovers, but they were so delicious that they still felt decadent - that chicken stuffed with cheese and wrapped in prosciutto is really fucking good, and I reheated some broccoli and made a fresh baked potato, and it was a delight.

Then I finished reading UNTAMED (also a delight), texted with some people, etc. And now I think I will go to bed, unless I start another book - goodnight!

i should be on top but i'm always underground

#sorrynotsorry for not blogging last night - it completely slipped my mind, and I remembered about five seconds before I fell asleep. You didn't miss out - my day was pretty chill, and while I had a ton of meetings I was still able to have a nice morning before they started. I also spent some quality time yesterday evening talking to Veronica, then talking to Katie, then trying on some clothes I'd ordered (why did I order clothes? I'll definitely wear the sweats, but not sure the summer dresses are really gonna get much airtime this summer). Also, in v. exciting news, my Animal Crossing island got up to three stars, so I guess I've got that going for me.

Today wasn't quite so wonderful; I again had a nice morning, and my meetings weren't all bad, and I v. much enjoyed some leftover sweet potato hash with freshly fried eggs for lunch. But my last couple of meetings were frustrating, and so I was beyond done when I finished a little before five. I then vacated my house immediately and braved Home Depot, where I picked up a bunch of bags of mulch, some lawn fertilizer, and a few garden implements. I want to work on my yard and patio this weekend, which requires materials, but I've heard that Home Depot on the weekend is a trainwreck. This seems quite likely based on what I saw - I had to wait to get in, and the people next to me in line were not wearing masks, seemed drunk, and were very belligerent that they just couldn't go in the store.

But I was in and out in twenty minutes, since I'd pre-researched what I wanted to get and so had aisle numbers and bin numbers already written down and could be as efficient as possible. Then I came home and played a bunch of Animal Crossing, while also eating leftover palak paneer and drinking a boulevardier. Yes, this is a coping mechanism, and no, I'm not sorry.

But tomorrow will be much better - I'm taking the day off, and I'm planning to mess around with my yard, give myself some much needed sun and a break from screentime, and then do some socializing to round out the day. Wish me luck with that - goodnight!

we sang dirges in the dark

I would like to say that I'm in vacation mode, but I'm not yet - there are still several tings that I need to do to leave the office in good shape for next week, so I may take my work laptop with me so that I can accomplish those tings on the plane. I was planning to leave my laptop at home, but I would rather get some sleep tonight instead of trying to get everything done right now, so the laptop may be unavoidable.

But I told everyone at work that I'm going to be offline and not to bother me and that I won't even be checking my work phone, so hopefully I can do a couple of things in the morning (and one minor thing on like Thursday) and ignore the office the rest of the time. I shouldn't need a break, since we're like three weeks into the new year, but I'm pretty happy that I'm going to miss a week of work and focus on writing instead. I'm especially happy that the weather in Oceanside looks lovely - I could use some sun and warmth (sorry other people trapped in the midwest, for whom sun and warmth is a distant memory).

sssanyway. I went into the office today even though it probably would have been more efficient from a time perspective to work from home - but I knew that my mood still wasn't great, and it was better to see people in person rather than hermiting out. I was still a wee bit more direct with just about everyone than I probably should have been, but c'est la vie.

But I got the most pressing things done, left the office at five, came home, ate some delish leftover carnitas (seriously a perfect thing to batch cook, since reheating it in a skillet takes five minutes and adds just the right amount of crispy bits to the meat), and spent the evening packing, taking care of tings around the house, and generally getting ready to go to California. And now that I've accomplished all of that, I really need to go to bed - my flight is at ten, which means I can't dilly dally in the morning. Goodnight!

because the love, the love, the love, the love, the love that i gave was wasted on a nice face

I had a fairly horrible day at work, thanks for asking. Part of this was my fault - while it always feels good in the moment to stay up late and get things done (because I'm a night owl), my night owl self is never happy to wake up after too-little sleep and too much thinking about work in my dreams. So I woke up a little surly, ran late as a result, and never quite recovered my equilibrium. I made my best efforts (got a bit of work done, had lunch with others rather than eating at my desk, drank a Mountain Dew), but by five p.m. I was beyond done.

So I went to the mall and engaged in some retail therapy, which was probably a poor investment because it would be cheaper and probably better in the long run to pay for real therapy rather than assuming a hot pink sweater and some new moisturizer will cure everything that ails me (but I swear it will!). I grabbed dinner at Motomaki, then drove home and spent the evening ignoring work. I should have done a million things because I'm going to be off next week, but I wasn't feeling it - so I did laundry, put away dishes, took out trash, made a packing list, used my new moisturizer, journaled for awhile, and generally tried to unwind so that I can approach tomorrow with a slightly better outlook.

And now after that very woe-is-me post (which deserves a whole symphony of tiny violins, since I am paid very well for my rage and so can deal with it), it's time for bed. Goodnight!

primadonnas of the gutter

Today was pretty much unpleasant. I unfortunately had a headache for most of it, but I knew going in that this would be true....and so rather than going to my actual office, where I would be at risk of having to talk to people even when I wasn't in meetings, I went to the nicer main office, where I could hide in solitude whenever my calendar was empty. Of course, I only had like 90min of emptiness today, and some of that had to be used for eating lunch, but those 90 empty minutes maybe saved my life.

I left around five, went to Nordstrom Rack to return a bunch of stuff (and got suckered into buying a pair of jeans and some pajamas), grabbed takeout from Motomaki, and came home. I talked to my parents for a bit, then ate my takeout, and then sat on the couch and did absolutely nothing. I watched half an episode of "Love It or List It" (can you tell I'm in house-buying obsession mode?), then kind of watched some "House Hunters", then talked to Katie for half an hour or so, since yesterday wasn't enough time to cover all of the topics we needed to cover.

Also, I experimented with a new toy - I bought a Coravin during a Williams Sonoma Black Friday sale, and I have to say I'm in love. I tried it last night, because I wanted a glass of wine but didn't want the 2.5-3 I would have had if I had convinced myself that I needed to finish the bottle quickly so that it wouldn't go bad. The Coravin sticks a needle through the cork, extracts wine, and replaces the wine with argon gas, thus keeping the wine in the bottle from going bad. I've wanted one for a long time but never bit the bullet...but this was a good investment if it enables me to have a glass of good wine without feeling compelled to drink the whole bottle in 2-3 days. Not that I wasn't drinking good wine before, since I have expensive tastes and refuse to compromise taste for savings, but drinking good wine is also what compelled me to finish it fast.

sssanyway. The glass of wine was v. useful, but I probably got more use out of the fact that I completely boycotted work tonight even though I have a lot to do. I need to make this week a little less insane, so we'll see whether I accomplish that or whether I succumb to the tyranny of my calendar. 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!

you do your brain surgery with a monkey wrench

Today was a v. annoying day. I got up in time to write for thirty minutes, which was great, but it was pretty much downhill from there...had a last minute meeting added to my calendar for 15min before I intended to be in the office, and that meeting was aggravating, and then pretty much every other meeting was aggravating too. Maybe I haven't recovered from last week's overly-extroverted offsite as much as I thought I had....

So, I bounced at 3:30, looking for all the world like a total slacker - but I worked for the last four hours from my couch, so I didn't exactly win the relaxation game. However, I did take a couple of hours to do nothing this afternoon, which helped my mood a bit - and the work I got done tonight made me feel better about some things, so I guess I'll take it.

But now I need to go to sleep - goodnight!

little dreamer

I was extremely surly today - I really didn't want to go to work, since going to work required talking to people and wearing pants, and neither of those activities were on my list of things I wanted to do today. However, I did force myself into the office, and I managed to stay for over six hours before throwing in the towel and coming home (yes, this is v. impressive, thanks).

When I got home, I promptly crawled into bed and took a nap, which made me feel much better. I then spent most of the evening finishing a game of Civilization that I'd started in August and hadn't had time to finish - it was nice to have a night of totally mindless relaxation. And now I am going to go to bed and sleep as late as I want in the morning - goodnight!

world serves its own needs, don't mis-serve your own needs

It's only 8:30pm, but I think I'm going to go to bed - my neck and shoulder are hurting and I'm worried that it's going to turn into one of those debilitating neck things that I've had every few years since age started to descend upon me. Also, I have to be on the east coast on Tuesday, so I might as well go to bed early / get up early and start acclimating to the time zone, I guess.

But despite the neck spasmy end to the day, today was pretty perfect for some much-needed indulgence of my inner loner. I woke up after getting lots of sleep, then walked down Pearl to The Kitchen, which is one of my favorite restaurants in Boulder. I got there when very few people were up and around yet, so I chilled at the bar and drank coffee, journaled, and had a v. tasty breakfast (poached eggs with green shaksouka, chickpeas, and gluten free toast - not my usual thing, but the flavors were really bright and tasty, and it felt healthier than my usual slab of bacon and potatoes). Taking myself out for brunch is a thing I used to do all the time and haven't had time for the past few months, so this felt like a much-needed return to my roots.

I then wandered back up Pearl Street, stopping in at a few shops and buying some v. cute fall/winter items. Then I came home long enough to drop some stuff and start some laundry before grabbing my car to run some other errands - mostly a much-needed Target run and a quick stop at my office to scan/print some documents. Then I came home, talked to my parents, straightened up my bedroom, and put away some clothes that had been sitting in a laundry basket since before Labor Day (I'm usually not this slovenly, but the last few weeks have been rough).

I was going to work after that, but things started to slowly go downhill...my neck started to hurt, and I could hear my downstairs neighbor (well, technically, his girlfriend) having sex while I was heating up my soup, so I had to eat while listening to music to drown out the moans. I then did some retaliatory coffee grinding and kitchen cleaning before deciding that work couldn't happen due to my neck and choosing to go to bed instead of opening my work laptop.

So, if I don't feel like I can work now, sleep is the right option so that I can get up and do stuff in the morning. Goodnight!

how to save a life

I'm so glad that I came back to Colorado and had a day at home, even if I was minimally productive and really wanted to do nothing at all. The day started off perfectly - I slept well, lazed in bed for awhile, and then dragged myself out of bed so that I could have brunch with Katie. She drove up from Denver, so we went to the other side of Pearl Street and hung out at Arcana. It's a v. v. hipstery place, with an incredible interior - I'd been there once before with Navin, and so I was looking forward to brunch. It was pretty good, all in all, although my huevos rancheros had a sauce on it that was a little too hollandaise-y for my liking (I love hollandaise, just not on huevos rancheros).

But the coffee was tasty and the company was perfect, and our booth was just right for catching up about what it means to be in your late thirties and how we both feel old (Katie's birthday is a month before mine, so we are pretty much in lockstep on our emotions related to getting older). After we ate, we walked around Pearl Street for awhile - we especially enjoyed browsing in Peppercorn, which is my favorite kitchen goods store, and we especially disliked seeing an adult human dressed as a dog prancing around on the sidewalk (I get that there are a lot of street performers in Boulder, but this costume looked like it was verging dangerously toward furry/fetish, which made me unhappy to watch the little kids throwing money at it). People are strange.

sssanyway. Katie went home after that, and I spent a couple of hours procrastinating and doing absolutely nothing, which wore me out enough that I needed a nap. But I eventually rallied - I walked to the grocery store to get a couple of things to get me through the next few days, and then I moved my old car and washed it so it didn't look quite so abandoned. I then spent an hour on the phone with my parents - I'll see them in a few days, but we had a lot to catch up on since I unusually didn't talk to them last weekend.

I then did my post-travel laundry and made some huevos rancheros for dinner (more satisfying than the brunch ones, since I used salsa verde instead of hollandaise - but my huevos rancheros were pretty tasty, since I bought nice tortillas and some delicious black beans at the grocery store). And I just took care of some personal emails. I should have worked on day job stuff tonight, but I wasn't feeling it - so I'm going to try to go to bed now so I can do that stuff in the morning. Goodnight!

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!

scheming on a thing that's a mirage, i'm trying to tell you now, it's sabotage

I'm back in Boulder after a truly epic four days in Portland and its strangely-named surrounding cities. I should probably do a full writeup of Claudia's wedding, but I'm still too tired to do it justice - it was a mad dash to get everything taken care of, and I celebrated that mad dash by staying mostly sober at the reception (I was the emcee and had to give a toast, so I needed to stay somewhat sane)...but then went back to our airbnb around 10:30 and drank most of a bottle of white wine while hanging out in the hot tub and gossipping about the wedding. Adit, Vidya, Ayla and I were staying together, but we convinced John and Jess to come back with us and camp on the floor of the living room rather than camping in the llama fields, so it made for a super fun night (despite another guest thoroughly enraging me, but hey, I often rage over things, so it felt like I was in the zone).

The wedding, though, was totally gorgeous - everything came together well, and Claudia looked beautiful, and I cried during her vows, as I am wont to do. The reception was also fun, even with a bunch of mangy kids roaming around. And I'm glad I got to spend so much time with Santy Claude over the course of the weekend - it was a good bonding adventure, and I really enjoyed all of my time with her even if the amount of work we had to do in the last few days was bordering on insane.

So, today was all about recovering and getting the fuck out of Portland. Chandlord and Ayla left super early, but John, Jess, Adit, and I (and the fifth houseguest, who was the one who enraged me last night after deciding she wouldn't come with us when we left, then calling in tears wanting us to come back and get her, which was super annoying since it's a 30min round trip from the airbnb to the farm and I don't know her well enough to gracefully handle such ineptitude) drove a bunch of stuff over to the farm. We said our last goodbyes to Claude, and then we drove into Portland, where we had brunch at Proud Mary. It was well worth the wait - it was one of the best meals I've had in awhile, which is surprising since I had a lot of good food this weekend. I had a hash with ham and a poached egg and kale and a delish garlicky sauce, but I also tried the hotcake, which was covered in edible flowers and was one of the best breakfast sweet dishes I've tried in awhile.

Eventually, though, the fun started to die...Adit had to go to the airport, so I bid him farewell. John, Jess and I walked around Portland for another hour or so, admiring all the shops and wishing we could eat all the food, and then I said my goodbyes to them and went to the airport. I had just enough time to grab some iced coffee for the plane before we began to board, but all that iced coffee wasn't enough to keep me from sleeping through the first half of the flight.

And now I'm successfully in my own bed, and I am desperate to sleep and get a head start on what's bound to be a ridiculous week at work. Goodnight!

shake me down

Today was an exercise in pain since I didn't get enough sleep last night - I woke up at 6:30am like I needed to, went downstairs and got some water, and promptly crawled back into bed for another 45min because I couldn't imagine staying awake at that point. But I eventually dragged myself out of bed, showered, and then went to the second day of my offsite. I was really cranky to be there - not because I don't love the people I work with, but because I get antsy and bored with vision/mission statements and was ready to answer some questions about our collective fate instead.

But I got to play with legos to take some of my aggression out - someone helpfully brought stuff to play with to help with the brainstorming, and while it may not have helped my brainstorming, it did keep me from strangling anyone (#smallvictories). I also took a break at some point to eat cheerios while sitting on a balcony, so that was pretty soothing. And the offsite actually went really well, all in all, despite my crankiness - so don't read anything into my annoyed mood.

We had a happy hour after, and I stayed for exactly and hour before bowing out and coming home (with a stop at my regular office building to pick up some packages). When I got here, I did a whole lot of nothing for a couple of hours - tried on some clothes (including the dress for Santy Claude's wedding, which fits well except for the fact that it's eight inches too long), kind of took a nap, ate some peanut butter, etc. Unfortunately, I had a call with Singapore/Hyderabad at 8:30, which got me out of my mellow groove. But now I'm going to ignore the work that has piled up and go to bed instead - goodnight!

feeling like an animal with these cameras all in my grill

I was pretty cranky all day today, to be honest. It doesn't help that I'm on day three of a headache, so I worked from home this morning. When I went to work, I discovered that some coworkers had played a prank on me and removed my desk, replacing it with a bookshelf with some of my stuff artfully displayed - which I think I was visibly annoyed by, since I have meetings straight through for the next four days and don't have time to put my desk back in order in those random free moments that I occasionally get. I mean, I like pranks, but I was not in the mood - which someone must have picked up on, since I got back to my desk at some point at the end of the day and discovered they had put everything back. Ha.

So I spent all day in meetings, then left to drive into Denver and have dinner with Katie. We went to Root Down, where we had a v. lovely evening of food and conversation. I also stopped at their house after to meet their new hamster, who was quite friendly; James and the girls were good too. Then I came home and was planning to work, but my headache was still driving me a bit nuts - so I watched House Hunters, and now I'm going to bed early and hoping some sleep will drive the headache away. Goodnight!

but we keep loving anyway

I had a really long day at work, so apologies to the several of you whom I ignored over text/ping/email - I started working at eight, had a meeting from 8:30-9, drove to the office, and had meetings straight from 9:30 to 5 (although I forced my noon meeting to end a few minutes early so I could make a sandwich).

However, I at least got a bit of a break - I came home, rendezvoused with Veronica, and had dinner with her at The Kitchen. I really adore that place; my glass of wine was slightly too fruity for my tastes, but my porkchop and grits were delicious (and the company was pretty good too). We then went to the Boulder Bookstore, which is one of those stores that prides itself on its selection - so of course it has a huge room that reeks of incense and has all sorts of books on witchcraft, the occult, spirituality of all kinds, etc., but can't deign to carry a romance section. Gross.

Of course, I still bought a book, but this shouldn't surprise you.

Then we came home, and even though I should have been maximizing my friend time, I instead read twitter for a bit and then worked like a crazy person for the last two hours to try to catch up on stuff (mission failed). And now it's time for bed - goodnight!