Знаю я, ты помнишь обо мне

I have successfully tracked down a song I heard in Ukraine in 1993, and this is such a feat that I am in awe of my own prowess. Since I don't speak Russian or Ukrainian and yet have a memory for syllables, this song and whatever I remembered of it has haunted me since those early days in Ukraine when we sat in the basement at Viktor's restaurant, eating beefsteak (which was pork) or chickens that had starved to death, finishing up with ice cream out of the finger bowls that we had just used to wash dill off our hands, and listening to a v. earnest band that was trying to entertain us. But the song is "Странник мой", and the lines I remember apparently translate into "My wanderer, my baby / You are not sleeping at this hour. / I know you remember me." This feels like what Taylor Swift would sing if she were Russian, so this checks out.

sssanyway. Ukraine is heavy in my thoughts, and it has moved a bit into my actual day job, which makes it both inescapable and also feels good-ish that I'm not just ignoring it during the day. Today was a long day, since I had a lot of work to do. But I skipped out at 4:30 to get my hair cut, and it was long overdue - I think I got my hair cut sometime during the Delta wave, if that tells you anything, and I've been trimming my own bangs since then. Unfortunately, I think that my bout with covid in January has caused some hair impacts - I feel like I'm losing more strands than usual, and my hair is tangling more frequently. This is a defcon 1 situation (yes, more important than Ukraine) because I'm incredibly vain about my hair and feel that its sleek texture and perfect chocolatey brown color with infinitely interesting red/blonde/white strands means that I am blessed by God (you may think I'm joking, but seriously, my hair is a blessing, and my storytelling ability / people skills / empathy / strategic thinking are all secondary).

So, I got a haircut and added a moisture treatment, and it feels great. I also let the woman upsell me on waxing my eyebrows, which I am not vain about because they look like my granddad's (see: why I have bangs). But I was her last client and she didn't want to go home, so now I look slightly more presentable.

Then, I met up with Sarah-Frances at FNG, which is a block and a half from me ([censored] and I had tater tots there) - it recently reopened with an up-leveled menu, and it was a delight. My hair or my personality scored us a free old fashioned, as per my old skill level at bars, and then we had a super tasty dinner. All in all, it was great to see SF and great to know that the bar closest to my house is a contender for top hangout in the aftertimes.

And now I need to sleep - goodnight! 

lawyers guns and money

I had a long but lovely day. Today started with interrupted sleep - my carbon monoxide detector chose 4am to give up the ghost, so I had to figure out how to get it to stop chirping so that I could sleep. I also had a meeting with my boss at 8:30, so I had to get up and get with it earlier than usual.

Despite all that, my day was good (albeit still too many meetings). At some point, [censored] rolled into town - he is visiting for the weekend, theoretically to take a vacation but mostly to fulfill a bunch of house projects for me. Yes, this is a good thing, [censored] can come back anytime.

However, this visit isn't actually free, because I went to see Micky and the Motorcars with him, which is a country music band that I would never listen to if left to my own devices. The concert was at Globe Hall, which I've also never been to - turns out they serve barbecue and a full bar, and then the concert is held in a room directly adjacent to the restaurant. So we got there early enough to have barbecue and a drink, and then we went into the concert area just in time to snag one of the last barstools along the wall.

I thought both the main act and the opener were clearly v. talented, so I enjoyed myself a lot. I also thought that several of them looked like Lord of the Rings characters, which was apparently not supposed to be my takeaway.

But now I'm exhausted from lack of sleep last night, and I have to get up and get some tings done tomorrow - goodnight!

there are giants out there in the canyons

I had an awesome day despite not getting enough sleep to kick it off. I rolled out of bed perilously close to 7:40am, which only gave me twenty minutes to shower and put on some foundation (and some clothes, I guess) before an 8am meeting. And then I slogged pretty much straight until 1:30, at which point I shut my laptop and greeted [censored].

[censored] is visiting me for the weekend - we had grand plans tonight, and then I intend to con him into doing house stuff. We started off with a tour of my house, and then we grabbed a late lunch at The Universal, which I usually don't go to because it's often packed. It happens to not be packed fifteen minutes before closing, and so I had my usual pork green chili with grits, and [censored] had a delish-looking breakfast with sausage and eggs and a biscuit with gravy.

This, it turns out, was perhaps too much food for the time of day, since we had dinner reservations approximately 2.5hrs later. But we came home first, and I took a v. quick nap to restore myself before getting ready. Around five we took an uber downtown - I'd made a 5:15 reservation at a pizza place near Coors Field since I knew it would be a pre-concert shitshow around there, and I'm glad I made the reservation since they were definitely turning people away. We went to Marco's Coal-Fired, which turned out v. tasty - surprisingly, the lemony chicken wings that we shared as a starter were the best thing I've had for at least a couple of days (but I can't say for a week, since everything is still in competition with Lazy Bear).

After that, we walked to the stadium and hung out on the rooftop a bit before finding our seats. The weather was looking *super* ominous, and it rained a little bit while we were under cover on the rooftop - but it turned out that this was all perfect, since we didn't really get wet and it was way cooler than it has been. So we found our seats (on the field, about thirty rows back, but off to the side) and settled in.

The concert was Billy Joel, and I am super glad that we got the chance to see him live. He's incredibly talented with a very deep catalog, and he played a whole bunch of our favorites (and some songs we didn't expect to hear). There was an unexpected graphic of 'children of thalidomide' during 'We Didn't Start the Fire' that I probably could have lived without, but otherwise it was pretty much perfect. If I could be that creating and productive (and rich) at seventy, I'd feel pretty good.

Then we caught an uber home, after a bit of an ordeal (but not as bad an ordeal as I was expecting). And now I need to sleep - goodnight!

a little bit genghis khan

I spent today doing many things that are required of adults, even adults who are still technically millennials (but I'm among the oldest of the millennials, and I haven't had avocado in at least two days, so I barely count). Most of my day was spent doing my taxes, or rather, organizing all of my information to send it to my CPA. While this is cutting it close, I've had to file extensions the last two years because of my crazy travel schedule, so by that comparison I'm well ahead of where I should be, thankyouverymuch.

I also talked to [censored] for quite awhile; he reminded me that he had sent me the video to a ridiculous song called 'Genghis Khan', and he was correct in assuming that the video was exactly up my alley in terms of ridiculousness (it has a vibe similar to other ridiculous videos that I like, so don't bother to watch it if you have good taste, but definitely watch it if you are Ritu). But speaking of Ritu, I knew I had heard the song before - and long after watching the video, I remembered that we actually saw this band and heard this song at Boston Calling three years ago (blog post here, which reminds me that we had a truly epic night).

So, that was a nice interlude. I also took a couple of hours off from doing stuff to go to Pizzeria Locale for a mid-afternoon pizza and some quality journaling time; it was absolutely gorgeous today, so it was perfect for walking over there, chatting with my favorite bartender, and tasting a couple of the white wines she was pouring in abundance today. I also talked to my parents for quite awhile - since it was still nice at five p.m., I sat on my balcony while talking, which did a lot of good for my heart and for my vitamin D levels.

And now I need to sleep - morning will come all too soon, and I want to write before work, which means morning will come even earlier. Goodnight!

what if i'm far from home? oh [censored], i will hear you call

Merry Christmas Eve! Today was entirely full of family stuff, which has left me a bit exhausted. I didn't get quite as much sleep as I would have liked, but I got up in time to help my mom a little (I made the corn casserole, which was a real honor to be entrusted with such an important dish; I also peeled the potatoes, which is less glamorous, and did the dishes after everyone left, which is even less glamorous than that).

My sister's family came over today for our usual Christmas Eve festivities. There are a couple of little kids on that side now - my oldest niece has two kids (a nine year old and a one year old), and my nephew married a girl who has a three year old, so they were all super fun to hang out with. We did the usual Christmas dinner (at lunch, as per midwest tradition), then opened presents, and then watched the three year old dance around until it was time for everyone to leave. All in all, it was a lovely afternoon.

After they left, I did the aforementioned dishes, and then [censored] and I wrapped presents, which is our other Christmas Eve tradition. I also DJ'd our wrapping session, which was entertaining; we discovered that we often like the same songs for different reasons, since I tend to notice the flute-like melodies and [censored] notices the bass lines (not entirely unreasonable, since I played flute and [censored] played tuba in high school). Also, I showed [censored] the totally ridiculous music video for Annie Lennox's "Walking on Broken Glass" (starring John Malkovich and Hugh Laurie), and [censored] one-upped me with the also-ridiculous "Rock Me Amadeus" video. When your family starts to get you down during the holidays, do yourself a favor and watch those videos. It's the best gift Santa could give you.

And now I should probably sleep - Christmas morning is almost here. Goodnight!

if dreams are like movies, then memories are films about ghosts

I had a jam-packed day in ye olde Iowa. I woke up in time to do a bit of day job stuff (which is neverending) while sitting on the porch and playing with the kittens - three of them let me hold them today, which felt like a victory even though I'm severely allergic and should have left them alone.

Then I drove down to the round barn to check out the festivities there and say goodbye to my parents. They were hosting a garden train exhibit today, which coincided with a local celebration - the trains came mostly from some group based in Des Moines that my dad has recently joined, but there were quite a few local visitors streaming through. My dad had somehow conned Aunt B into coming down and helping to sell tshirts, so I gave her some business (but not enough to get a free jar of honey from her bees...but since I'm traveling carry-on only and she'd already given me honey in Colorado, it's okay). I also saw Uncle Mark v. briefly, since he showed up as I was about to leave. The trains were pretty cool and the barn was a good location for it, and I got to see how to learn morse code (reader: .. / -.. .. -.. -. .----. - / .-.. . .- .-. -.).

But I couldn't stick around - I had plans with [censored] that required me driving over four hours, so I had to say my fond farewells to southern Iowa and drive to northwest Iowa instead. The drive was uneventful; Iowa is perhaps at its best in September, so it was quite pretty the whole way. That is, until I got to Sioux City, which was my destination - the hotel is perhaps the worst Holiday Inn I've ever seen, and [censored] and I somehow got yet another room with an air conditioner that is broken in some unique way (not as bad as the one in the room we somehow always get in Texas, but not great).

However, we're not here for the hotel - we are here because we saw Counting Crows, with Live as the opener, at the Sioux City Hard Rock Casino. How Sioux City has a Hard Rock, I don't know. We got here in time to have a quick dinner at Perkins (v. midwestern), and then we went to the concert venue. When we got there, we discovered that our 'VIP' seats were folding chairs on a dais bearing the brunt of the sun, so we got a drink and stood in the shade. And by 'we got a drink', I mean I bought a strawber-irta, showed it to [censored], [censored] said, 'doesn't that have gluten in it?', and so [censored] drank a strawber-ita while I went back and got a vodka cranberry.

Eventually, though, the sun subsided while we watched Boom Forest (yeah, I don't know), and so we took our seats in time for Live to start. They were really good, at least for the songs I recognized - I love all the songs of theirs that I know, and we were glad they played 'Selling the Drama' in addition to the other three or four songs that everyone knows. During their set, an increasingly drunk woman was cheering for them with increasing frequency, to the point that it almost seemed to be what she did whenever she exhaled. Luckily for us, she reached almost-passing-out stage and then was hustled out by security at the beginning of Counting Crows' set (during 'Angels of the Silences', which seems appropriate). So, needless to say, the people watching was fun.

Counting Crows played for almost two hours, and they were wonderful - they hit a lot of my favorite songs, including 'Mrs. Potter's Lullaby', 'Omaha', 'Round Here', 'Angels of the Silences', 'Colorblind', 'God of Ocean Tides', 'Palisades Park', and 'A Long December' (and a few others that I either forgot or didn't particularly care about). I felt a bit melancholy during some of the set - many of these songs are inextricably linked to moods or memories from high school or college or my early twenties. I also saw Counting Crows in 2002, I think, which feels like a lifetime or two ago. But the melancholy was worth it, and I totally loved the set, so I'm glad we came.

Of course, this was the most inconvenient concert to get to, since it required a flight and a four hour drive (and a three hour drive to the airport tomorrow), and [censored] had to drive a couple of hours, and we're staying in a mildly terrible hotel. But we agreed it's not the dumbest thing we've ever done - dumbest thing ever is tied between when we took a five-hour detour via Casper due to I-80 being closed for snow in Wyoming and the time I drove from Chicago to Walcott after my flight was canceled for weather and then we drove home together in a crazy blinding fog to make it in time for Christmas. And neither of those resulted in seeing Counting Crows, so this is clearly a winner.

But now I need to sleep - I have to get up in time to shower, pack, have breakfast, say farewell to [censored], and get to the airport so I can go to California. Goodnight!

say it ain't so, i will not go, turn the lights off, carry me home

Apologies for not blogging last night - by the time I was ready to blog, it was actually this morning, and I needed to eke out whatever sleep I was capable of before boarding a plane.

You can guess, therefore, that yesterday was eventful. I got up earlier than I wanted to so that I could finish packing, check out of my airbnb, and return my rental car to the San Jose airport. I was supposed to fly out of there last night, which would have meant dropping off the car in the afternoon - but since my plans changed, it made sense to drop it off before work. But my diligence was rewarded with tostadas for breakfast in the work cafeteria, so I felt pretty smug about that.

Then I sat in meetings all day (two weeks in and my life has returned to meetings), took care of some tings, and caught the 3:48pm shuttle to the city. It took almost two hours to get there, which proves, once again, why I don't live there anymore. But I went to Vidya's and promptly forgot my pain, thanks to red wine and thai food (although I had to walk four blocks downhill and then four blocks very much uphill for the thai food, so that gave me a different kind of pain (or mostly whininess)).

Chandlord was having a party last night, which was why I rescheduled my flight - it seemed like the kind of thing I needed to be there for. The early arrivals at the party were inauspicious (a bunch of people I either didn't know or didn't particularly care to see), but things picked up dramatically after we went outside and lit things on fire. And by that I mean she had a firepit, and so someone started a fire, and then others' attempts to keep it going mostly resulted in lots of smoke, which got into everything all of us were wearing.

But I made some v. entertaining new connections (in particular, a couple who climb stupidly high mountains; a guy named Adam; and Sarang's boyfriend). I also spent some quality time with key players (Santy Claude; Adit and Priyanka). And we had a v. delightful time in Chandlord's back yard until eleven, when we adjourned to Yamasho for 2+ hours of private-room karaoke, which wrecked my voice and my body (even though I was surprisingly sober for such a series of events).

Anyway, we rocked out (yes, I sang Nickelback, #noregrets), then I went back to Chandlord's house and slept fitfully for a few hours. But I had to get up relatively early since I had a 10:45am flight back to Denver. Chandlord very graciously took me to the airport, and I got through security with enough time to have a proper breakfast, which was probably all that saved me.

When I got to Denver, I drove to Boulder first to check out my apartment and retrieve that packages that were delivered there today. I unloaded some more stuff from my car, contemplated what I need to get, and was pleasantly surprised to find that my landlord had left a welcome gift (probably his standard starter kit for people who buy homes through him - toilet paper, paper towels, a bottle of wine, a wine opening kit, and a hummingbird feeder) - which was super thoughtful, especially since I didn't just spend a million dollars with him.

Then I stopped at REI to buy a jacket since it's suddenly cold here and I will also be freezing in Tahoe next week. Then I drove back to Katie's, since I'm staying here tonight - I picked up food for myself along the way so that I don't seem like quite such a deadbeat, and then spent the evening watching 'Aladdin' and drinking champagne. Yes, we're living the dream.

But now I'm desperate to sleep - goodnight!

colorado passes by like writing on a wall

I'm in Denver, safely ensconced in Katie's guest room, which has begun to feel like my room since I've been showing up here so regularly this summer. Sometime soon, I'll have my own place and she'll no longer be subjected to my presence...but let's not kid ourselves, I'll probably still come to her place for dinner and then end up spending the night anyway.

I woke up in North Platte this morning and was extremely loath to get in the car again, so I dawdled - I ate breakfast quickly, since the hotel breakfast wasn't particularly yummy (although their coffee was excellent), but then I sipped my coffee and wrote some emails, and so I didn't actually get out of North Platte until 10am. This was over an hour later than I'd intended, but it didn't really matter since I had no pressing plans.

The rest of Nebraska passed by in total boredom, although I had a bit of excitement wondering if I would run out of gas, since I had decided to press on and get gas at the westernmost Casey's that I know of rather than stopping when I should have. Casey's is a convenience store chain that is particularly beloved in Iowa (where it started), and has slowly been spreading its virtuous tentacles across the midwest. They also make the best convenience store pizza ever, for those of you who can still eat gluten. The westernmost Casey's that I've seen is in Ogallala, Nebraska - and I just checked the Casey's map, which indicates that Ogallala is tied with a small town in Kansas for westernmost Casey's.

This is of interest to none of you, so I'll move on. Spoiler: I didn't run out of gas.

Most of today's drive was through Colorado, which was also supremely uninteresting since I've made that trip several times. When I got close to Denver, I veered off and went to Boulder instead - I'm checking it out as a potential place to live (which is looking highly likely at this point), and I wanted to scope things out. After only a couple of hours there, I was in love - I had a nicoise salad while sitting in a restaurant overlooking a pedestrian shopping area, and the weather was perfect and everything was delightful (even the bluegrass buskers playing banjos and washboards on the sidewalk, which I normally don't love but was somehow into today). The only downer was the moment when, halfway into my salad, I had a sudden, intense fear that the pile of indeterminate shredded white matter was actually crab - but the waiter eventually told me that it was 'confetti eggs', which I've never heard of, but at least I didn't spend tonight throwing up everything I've ever eaten).

So, Boulder gets a big thumbs up - it actually reminds me a lot of Palo Alto/Berkeley, but with fewer Teslas and more potential for snow. I drove around a bit more after eating, then came to Denver, where I sat at Avanti and journaled until it was time to meet up with Katie. I got to her house before she did, and the nanny stupidly let me watch them until Katie got back, which meant that I let them draw all over themselves in an effort to buy their love.

Then we ate supper (delish pulled pork and sweet potatoes), and I made mojitos for me and Katie to enjoy in the basement while James got suckered into putting the girls to bed. And now I need to go to bed as well - goodnight!

return of the mack

The family reunion today was a smashing success (emphasis on smash), although I mostly hung out with my immediate family (as often seems to happen at these gatherings). [censored] and I joined our parents for breakfast at the hotel, and then [censored] and I both [censored] for awhile before heading out to the ranch (with a stop at [censored] to buy tequila).

The ranch is, as always, nearly impossible to find - Google Maps clearly has no idea what's out in the hills of Texas, and whether something is a passable road or a deadly ravine. But we only made two wrong turns, one of which we make wrong every single time (note to self: don't turn left at the scarecrow!), so that was all good. When we got there, we proceeded to spend the afternoon having a grand old time. Lunch was some v. delicious chicken enchiladas with rice and beans, which made me super happy. Then I was going to make margaritas, but when I wandered toward the kitchen to make them, I started talking to Melissa (her last name is, unsurprisingly, Wampler), and then over the course of the next hour, every person sent to discover what had happened with me and my margaritas succumbed to the lure of our conversation.

But I eventually made margaritas and proceeded to get somewhat sloshed (only because my first one turned into a full solo cup as I kept readjusting the ratios). And I spent the afternoon engaged in desultory conversation, including a game of 'guess the pregnant girl' played with possible girls from Drewbaby's high school class ([censored] and I know no one in Drewbaby's class, but it was somehow really fun nonetheless).

Also, someone hired a band because one of the couples was having their fiftieth wedding anniversary today, so there was music for a couple of hours - including a rendition of 'Amarillo By Morning' (you would have to be there to understand why we found this delightful). Also, someone skinned a rattlesnake, and I kept seeing snake in the fridge when I would make another margarita and was startled every time.

And now I need to sleep so we can do it again tomorrow - goodnight!

baby you're like lightning in a bottle

Ritu and Bill are married! Yay! Can I be excused now?

j/k, of course. I mean, j/k to my request to be excused, not to their marriage. Although since I have the marriage license in my possession and have been asked to mail it, it's possible that their marriage won't legally happen either (insert evil laugh, even though we all know I like checking things off lists too much to let that one slide).

However, I'm fucking exhausted...so much so that I slipped out of the party without saying goodbye at 12:30, and am ignoring the music still pumping nearby so that I can get some sleep. I blew past all my limits last night, which made this morning rough - I theoretically didn't have to get up until ten, but I woke up at seven (after four hours of sleep) and never fully fell back asleep again. I should have brought my earplugs - remind me to just always keep them on hand. So, four hours of sleep, on top of the five I got Thursday night (plus all the stress of driving), and the five I got the night Bill stayed with me, and the other short nights due to Olympics watching have combined to totally wreck me.

It was all worth it, though. I spent the morning getting ready, failing to caffeinate (another major problem), taking care of tings, getting my hair done (a ridiculous experience), and eventually getting Chandlord to help me wrap my sari. The wedding pictures were at one, and then the baarat was at two - that involved Bill sitting on a horse while we all danced around him and led him to the wedding site. Eventually, we all walked down the aisle and took our seats for an incredibly long ceremony (so long that I got up and got lemonade at some point) - but I liked the priest, who had a ridiculous sense of humor and storytelling.

Then we did more bridal photos, and then I changed out of my sari and into a cute dress that wasn't nearly warm enough for nighttime even though it would have been perfect this morning. The reception was fun - the signature cocktails were named 'master of disaster' (for Ritu, bourbon-based) and the 'transatlantic romantics' for Bill, replete with gin. I went master of disaster all the way, even though buorbon wasn't what I really wanted after last night's extravaganza.

I enjoyed my table (Claude/boyfriend, Adit/Priyana, Robert and his husband (I haven't seen Robert in a decade, perhaps)), and we played some madlibs and generally had a good time. I had to keep breaking to go on stage and announce things (along with Vidya and Chad), but it seemed like everything went smoothly. And I rocked a Burger King hat, so there's that.

But now, after a long, entertaining conversation in the bitter cold (where I probably offended Priyanka by telling her she looked like an Indian auntie giving advice), and having a catch-up convo with Shen, and a brief conversation with Keith......

But I'm falling asleep as I write this, so I'm going to cut it short. Suffice it to say that the wedding itself was gorgeous, as were the bride and groom (face it, mostly the bride), and I had a great time. I shall tell you more someday, perhaps - but tonight I'm desperate for sleep and so this is all you get. Goodnight!

we both know we ain't kids no more

I have had too much bourbon and not nearly enough sleep, so I will attempt to keep this brief. I am in Guerneville, which is part of the Russian River area in Northern California, in a room that is entirely too cold (which is better than a room which is entirely too hot), nursing feet that were bruised/cut after an ill-advised barefoot adventure in a meadow (doable) that turned into gravel stairs (omg so fucking painful).

This morning didn't go according to plan - I went over to the airbnb where Ritu was staying to pick up some stuff, which turned into a 90-min adventure instead of a 30-min task. Then I came home and rapidly packed, showered, and stuffed some salmon into my face to stave off hunger. And then I drove to Adit's - at this point, I was already 45-min later than I had intended to be for the day. The lateness was compounded by a variety of additional 45-min delays (speakers took longer to pick up than anticipated; I had to take Adit home; traffic was awful thanks to an accident), so I only made it to the venue 15mins before rehearsal, and was super stressed as a result.

But rehearsal went smoothly, and I had a glass of champagne before descending back into sound madness (but Adit had it all under control in the end, despite some mishaps and calls to tech support). I also had time to make one of Ritu's other friends (Geetha) help me put on one of my saris - I've never worn that one before, but I really loved it, and I was comfortable in it all night.

The sangeet and dinner were all great, and I took a few moments to reconnect with the staff of Dawn Ranch (who jokingly warned the bartenders to cut me off before I'd even had a drink - they know me too well). The food tonight was incredible - they did a really good job with everything, and I now wish I'd eaten more even though I was full then. I also talked about Scotland with Shelly's husband Keith (they were the bride and groom in #summerofmygermanwedding), and reconnected with several people whom I haven't seen in a decade, so it was all lovely. And I got henna in the form of the Olympic rings on my wrist, so yay me.

After dinner, we adjourned to the bar, where DJ Purple (the karaoke DJ extraordinaire) kept the party going. I sang "Bad Touch" with Chris to relive our youth, and I had a stirring rap rendition of Nicki Minaj's "Super Bass", and between that and my awful, totally ineloquent on-the-fly toast to Ritu and Bill, I think I've established myself as the bridesmaid with nothing to lose.

Or at least I thought I had nothing to lose, until I had multiple bourbon drinks (on top of the wine from dinner- and I was getting great pours, since I bonded with the reception barmen over romance novels and turkey slaughtering, and bonded with the regular bartender over an open bottle of wine), and also a lot of singing, followed by a trip to the meadow with Bill and a couple of his groomsmen to attempt to see the meteor shower (verdict: too cloudy, but with a lot of chance of ridiculousness). And now I must must must sleep so I can look okay tomorrow - goodnight!

the world turned upside down

Today was quiet, hermity, and less productive than it probably should have been. I didn't get enough sleep last night, on top of not getting enough sleep the night before, so I was lethargic this morning.

But I had a call with my old friend Durand this morning - I hadn't talked to him in far too long (possibly two years), although we used to hang out fairly frequently (including a memorable trip to South Africa waaaaay back in the day). He wanted some advice on some job stuff, but it was mostly a delightful and entertaining way to spend an hour. And I seem to have effortlessly slipped into corporate-meeting mode, since my internal body clock cut the call off perfectly at exactly one hour, just like the old days.

Then I spent the afternoon considering my storylines and thinking through some stuff I'm still mulling over. I took a break to call my parents, as per usual, and I continued to talk politics for the second day in a row, which is unusual for me. Then I ran down the street to grab some snacks for the writing tasks ahead, and I ordered takeout, and I took a shower (rather late in the day for a shower), and I took care of the edits I'd been contemplating this afternoon.

I should have kept working all night, but instead I took a break to watch most of the Tonys - seeing other artists succeed is fairly inspiring, and this particular show was pretty well done. And 'Hamilton' is, obviously, a phenomenon. I'm already guaranteed tickets in SF next year (thanks to my pricey season pass to the Orpheum), but they recently announced that it's also going to be in Des Moines (what?!) during the 2017-2018 season, well before it gets to other major cities. So maybe I'll have to go see it in Iowa then, if I can get tickets.

So. Now the Tonys are over, and I really need to sleep - I must get cracking faster tomorrow than I did today. And I want to take a walk tomorrow morning and gawk at whatever happened on my block tonight - I heard a pretty major crash, but couldn't see anything from my window, and so far haven't found any news reports, but I found one person on Twitter indicate that they'd seen a car crash into a restaurant at an intersection half a block from my building, so that sounds fun! Or terrifying, take your pick. But if that's true, they cleaned it up in less than two hours (or, at least, the police are no longer blocking off traffic), so I don't know what to believe. I'll scout it out tomorrow and report back - goodnight!

imma wade, imma wave through your shallow love

Today was about as perfect of a capstone as I could ask for on this east coast trip - I'm sad to leave tomorrow, but also excited to wear some clothes that haven't been in my suitcase for the past two weeks, so it's probably time to get back to the city of sin. But Boston, Provincetown, and New York were everything I wanted, so it will be bittersweet to say goodbye.

But that's not for a few hours yet, so let's recap. My morning/midday/afternoon will be exceedingly uninteresting to you - I got up, showered, and then spent a couple of hours at Irving Farms, where I ate mediocre eggs and tasty gluten-free toast with avocado, and drank some hipster iced coffee while writing. Then, I was going to take a call with my editor from Terry's apartment, but I couldn't get the keys due to an unexpected snafu, so I went to another cafe and talked to the editor there instead. The verdict seems to be that I'm overreacting about hating this book and that it's all fixable, but we'll see.

Then, I was going to come back to Terry's, but the key situation was still a problem. So then I was going to go to Starbucks, but that didn't feel appealing - so I ended up at Cafe Tallulah, which is a French bistro that would be my Des Amis equivalent if I lived in this neighborhood. I sat at the bar to dry out (it was raining and I got exceedingly wet), and I wrote while eating some truffle fries and drinking an excellent pinot noir. My 'give me free alcohol' face must have been working today, because the server gave me a 'splash for the road', which turned into a full glass, which meant I drank more than I intended. But the work I got done there was pretty valuable, so #noregrets.

Then I finally came back to Terry's, and we talked about life and generally relaxed and drank cosmos and then ordered/ate some gluten free pizza that was really tasty. We also watched James Corden's Carpool Karaoke with the 'Hamilton' creator + some other Broadway stars, and it was totally awesome - definitely watch it.

And then we progressed to the main event - we had tickets to see Beyoncé tonight at Citi Field (the Mets stadium), and so we took the subway over. The opening act was DJ Khaled with a bunch of people whom we'd mostly never heard of because we're old (so old that I could only roll my eyes when the kid behind me was begging his friend to let him use her snapchat in exchange for $80, and she declined the offer). But he was mercifully over eventually, and then we watched some ads for Beyoncé's athletic wear clothing line, and then there were some music videos....

And then Beyoncé came out, and it was like the heavens parted and we were temporarily raptured for two hours, only to be brutally dumped back into the apocalyptic hellscape that we inhabit (okay, sorry, NYC isn't a hellscape, but SF is). Everything was incredible - from the main stage (involving a massive cube with screens on all sides, which kept rotating/opening/closing/occasionally shooting fire), to the catwalk out to the secondary stage (the catwalk had moving walkways to make the dancers appear to float sometimes; the secondary stage seemed normal until the end, when it became a shallow pool they cavorted in), to the costumes, to the dancers, and everything and anything in between.

But Beyoncé herself is an incredible artist, and there were parts of her performance that left me in awe. It helped that we had great seats and I could actually see her at various points, which was amazing (I mean, I've been closer to way more important musicians, like Gavin Rossdale, but this was pretty cool too). So Terry and I had an awesome time singing and dancing around and generally being inspired.

But all good things must end, and after she told us she could see her halos (which was nice of her to say), we left and braved the hordes of people to get on the subway back to Manhattan. We were lucky and got seats on the train, so it could have been way worse. And we made it back safely, and still in awe, and it was all great.

Now, though, I must sleep - my flight isn't early tomorrow, but I want to get some rest so that I can work on the plane without wanting to sleep the whole way. If Beyoncé can drop this surprise album and build an elaborate tour around it, I can surely write a fucking book this summer. Goodnight!

if you ain't gonna do me right, i might just do you in

Boston's climate today was a frozen hellscape - it was thirty degrees cooler than it was yesterday. At first, we were super psyched about this since we almost died from the sun yesterday...but we were cold all afternoon/evening, and the fact that we weren't sweating constantly means we didn't get dehydrated, which means we had to use the gross portable toilets more than once (although to be fair, they were significantly cleaner than could have been expected at this stage in the game).

However, cooling off was welcome, if only because it might not be too hot in the apartment to sleep tonight. I spent this morning lazing about in bed since I needed to recover from several nights of no sleep - I'm not all the way there yet, but this morning went a long way toward restoring me. After I woke up, Ritu and I sat on the couch and watched "Lemonade" (Beyonce's recent music video/movie) - we'd already tried to watch it twice while doing wedding invitation stuff, but we decided to watch it this morning so we could focus on the production. It was pretty off the wall crazy, and I loved all of it.

But eventually we had to go see live music instead of video music. But first we had brunch tapas at Barcelona, which is in their neighborhood - I've never had brunch tapas before, but these were so fucking delicious. Ritu and I split the spicy shrimp and grits (good news: I was able to eat two shrimp without throwing up, and I had oysters the other night, so I'm hopefully that I'll get over my seafood aversion at some point), and we also split the crispy pork belly with this really fresh, delightfully tart tomatillo salsa, which was probably my favorite thing. I also had the short rib hash with an egg on top, which gave the pork belly a run for its money - the short ribs were perfectly cooked and falling apart, and the egg on top of the potatoes/peppers was a nice touch. I finished off with some patatas bravas (fried potatoes with spicy mayo/aioli), which were not strictly necessary, but were v. welcome.

Of course, we also had two cocktails each, because that's apparently how we roll. Then we went to the festival for day three - and unlike yesterday, once we got there we stayed there. As I mentioned, we were all cold (although we were at least dressed more appropriately than a lot of people there) - but it was a really fun afternoon/evening. We saw Vince Staples first - he was a rapper whose intrasong commentary was totally hilarious (railing against drug use and 'youth culture', encouraging kids to go to college - did I mention he's 22?). Then, Charles Bradley and His Extraordinaires performed - he has an amazing soul/blues voice, and dresses like he has been famous forever (or dresses like Vidya, maybe), but I looked him up and he's in his mid-sixties but just released his first album a few years ago (before that, he was homeless, and at some point a chef, and then a James Brown impersonation act).

After that came the Front Bottoms, which we mostly skipped in favor of finding someplace out of the wind where we could drink some wine. Elle King was after that, and she may have been my favorite performance of the night - she sings 'Exs and Ohs', which I've loved for awhile, as well as a lot of other great, raspy-voiced songs of note. Oddly, she's also the daughter of Rob Schneider, and you can kind of see it on her face if you know it (but would never ever guess otherwise).

After Elle King, we grabbed some food from the food stands, and then we watched Janelle Monae, Haim, and Disclosure, with random breaks at certain points for more wine. All three of them were great - I particularly liked how female-centric today was and how strong the female vocalists were. So the festival ended on a high note, and I would definitely consider coming back - it was nice to do a city festival that was still not that crowded and still easy to get a lyft to/from (we only waited four minutes after the concert ended for a lyft, which would never happen in SF).

Then we came home, ordered pizza (because we're now all wired to require a midnight supper), and watched half of Zoolander 2 because I recommended it and Ritu and Bill are gullible. And now I need to sleep - I have stuff I want to do with Ritu and Bill tomorrow (mostly eat food, drink, and do some wedding stuff), and then I'm catching a ferry to my next destination tomorrow afternoon, where I shall write like a madwoman all week. Goodnight!

i get a little bit genghis khan, don't want you to get it on

Boston's climate today was a scorched hellscape, but the music scene was angelic...so perhaps the net net is that I wound up in some sort of weird purgatory? Read the following paragraphs and be the judge....

I didn't sleep all that well last night - between the jetlag, the alcohol, the excitement of seeing Ritu, the relatively warm room, and the fact that I usually don't sleep that well on my first night in a new place, my slumber was super fitful. So theoretically I got seven and a half hours based on when I went to bed and when I got up, but it felt like five. This was v. unwelcome coming on top of Thursday night's redeye (barely slept) and Wednesday night's sleep/writing break (another five or six hour night). But I got up and hung out with Ritu while drinking coffee and doing nothing, and that was great.

Eventually, we all showered and tidied up and had brunch/lunch at Ribelle, which was delish - I had an omelette with cheese that was a standout winner of its class, and the coffee also went a long way toward restoring me. At that point I was still trying to be healthy(ish) - I had turned down morning champagne with Ritu, which had taken her completely by surprise. Of course, that ended as soon as we got to the concert venue. It was at least ninety degrees today, which made for a v. intensely warm experience, and so when we got there we pretty much immediately sought out cold wine in a can and a bit of shade on the back terrace.

But we listened to some of the afternoon sets and really liked them - in particular, I liked Battles, the Vaccines, and also Børns, who sings 'Electric Love', which is a delightful song. We alternated between hanging out in the main area and seeking shade in some of the back channels, and it was all great (albeit super sweaty).

But by 4:30ish, we needed a break, so we left the venue and had a v. long, leisurely early dinner at Rigoletto, which was a couple of blocks from the stages at City Hall. They had a gluten free pasta with a really excellent bolognese sauce, and we had two bottles of wine, because that seemed sooooo necessary. And then, after we'd cooled off and eaten and liquored up, we went back to the festival....

...but by that point, I was so sleepy that I was practically falling asleep standing up. We watched Miike Snow, who was great, and then we mostly hung out away from the crowds during Odesza (whose music I really like, but it's all electronica, which I wasn't really in the mood for). We also watched some of the Warriors game, since there was a lounge area with TVs (lol). And then, after even more alcohol, we infiltrated the stage area and watched Robyn (who was great, but it's hard to top the amazingness that was Sia's performance last night).

When the concert was over, we adjourned to Eastern Standard, where we all had another full meal at 11pm + cocktails that were delightful. At this point Ritu went off the rails and was talking nonsense (I think due to exhaustion, not alcohol), and it was all ridiculous (but the food and ambience were great!). The ridiculousness continued on the way home, when it suddenly became scarily clear that I am the only person sober enough to make decisions (and since Ritu, as of fifteen minutes ago, thought Bill was possessed by the devil and Bill was making no efforts to convince her otherwise...but then, I make terrible decisions on far less information than this, so I suppose they're good for each other).

And now, after getting them safely into bed (and considering hiring a pagan goddess to confine them there, although that would be a real blow to the romantic ideal of falling in love easily or staying together no matter what)...it's time for me to sleep and hopefully survive tomorrow. Goodnight!

ricochet, you take your aim

[note: this didn't post last night when I wrote it, since I was falling asleep and probably failed to hit publish (falling-asleepedness proven by the last couple of lines, which make no sense). but I'm alive, which, ironically, is one of the songs Sia sang last night. And now I'm going back to sleep - yay!]

It's entirely too late to blog - it's 3:15am in Boston, which is well beyond my bedtime, especially since I took a redeye here and so only got a couple of hours of sleep last night. But today was, quite frankly, awesome despite the exhaustion. I got to Boston at 7:45am, but sat for a few minutes so paramedics could get someone off the plane (she looked fine to me, which is obviously a valid medical opinion). Then, I was supposed to go directly to Ritu's - but I had to get a crucial email to my editor, and I knew that as soon as I saw Ritu, I would want to go on vacation. So I grabbed coffee in the airport and sat for forty-five minutes and got through what I needed to get to so that I could take the weekend off without regrets.

Then, I took an uber to Ritu and Bill, who greeted me in style - we had hard boiled eggs and smoothies made with the same blender I recently bought, which was delightful. Then, Ritu and I ran wedding-related errands - mostly at the post office, where the guy with tattoo sleeves and an awesome Boston accent helped us price and assemble the stamps necessary to send out invitations with abnormal sizes. Then, we adjourned to Zaftig's, a deli where Bill joined us for lunch. I tried the corned beef hash, as I've been doing at new breakfast places - the hash itself was great, but the eggs were so-so and the potatoes were supremely uninteresting.

After that, we came home and pretended to watch 'Lemonade' while stamping envelopes and dealing with address labels. Eventually the wedding "fun" (note the quotes) ended, and we were temporarily bailed out to have dinner. We went to some extremely delicious oyster place, where I verified that I can still eat oysters after my food poisoning disaster (although I ordered steak for my entree, since I didn't want to tempt fate).

I must wrap this up, since I'm falling asleep - after dinner, we went to Boston Calling, which is the music festival I'm out here for. It was all delightful - we had more wine while watching Sufjan Stephens, and then we totally rocked out to Sia (who somehow got Kristen Wiig to be part of one of her show). Sia was a pretty amazing high to come down off of, but we adjourned to a northside cocktail place (which is home),

So now I'm exhausted and have to get up whenever my ghosts give up - goodnight!

twelve souls from now you and me will still be here

Today was not ideal from a productivity standpoint...I woke up fairly early and then decided to change my sheets and wash my duvet cover, which is always a sign I'm procrastinating (I change my sheets regularly, but the duvet doesn't get washed as often as it should). I did some writing in the morning as well, but I mostly frittered away the afternoon by reading about Prince and going down internet rabbit-holes and texting various friends and family. Oops.

But I buckled down later in the afternoon and got some decent work done, so whatever. And then I walked down to Hayes Valley to have drinks at Fig and Thistle with someone I used to work with - she and I knew each other a lifetime ago, but she recently joined the team I used to manage, and so we'd set this up a couple of weeks ago so that I could share some industry knowledge with her and generally catch up. But this turned into a gossip session extraordinaire since we know a lot of the same people, which means we didn't actually talk industry knowledge or share anything in our personal lives at all. Lolololol. Still, although my mind is blown, and I think I blew her mind as well, it was a delightful way to spend three hours (even if I should have eaten way more than I did tonight...c'est la vie).

And then I came home, and now I'm going to crawl into my freshly-made bed and sleep and dream of purple rain. Goodnight!

in the darkness i will meet my creators

I have returned to the grind, sort of, for one day and one day only. I wish it were more days - I really don't want to have to go to this conference thing tomorrow, and am tempted to skip it. But I think my current plan is to go late (there's a presentation up first that I've seen several times before), try to write before going, and then attempt to enjoy the afternoon - and if I don't enjoy the afternoon, then maybe I'll be similarly lackadaisical about my Saturday attendance (also, I spelled lackadaisical right on the first try, so if I drank too much last weekend, the wine didn't kill whatever brain cell knew that).

Today, though, I tried to get things done. I was at my laptop by 8:30, and I tried this music program that I'd heard about - brain.fm claims that it will help you to focus like nothing else, although they warn against pregnant women using it, and you're absolutely not supposed to drive while playing it (these are strange warnings to get from a music site). And I have to say it worked - I spent two hours working, without really wanting a break and without really getting distracted. However, then I felt perilously close to tears over ancient wounds this afternoon for no good reason...so maybe when it reworked my brainwaves, it cut through some old scar tissue. Or maybe I'm just a hot mess when I'm writing, which is probably true.

sssanyway. The focus was great, so I'm going to try it again tomorrow. But I had to stop working and go to San Mateo for a writing date, which was probably ill-advised - I learn a lot from that group about publishing and marketing, so it's good to keep the connection, but I have a lot of trouble writing around them. So I wrote a few hundred words, and ate a delicious salad, but it really wasn't what I needed to be doing.

However, I came home, did another hour of work-type stuff, and then walked down to the financial district to have dinner with Jenn, who is the photographer who has done all of my covers. She's in town for the conference I'm going to, so we had tapas at Bask. It was super tasty and I would recommend the food heartily, but the service was fairly bad and so I was thirsty and had to wait forty minutes to get our check at the end. But it was great to catch up with Jenn, so #noregrets (even though I could have seen a movie and done things with 'real' friends tonight, but sometimes business takes precedence).

Then I took a lyft home with a slightly weirder than usual driver, and I did another hour of work. And now I need to sleep, and hope that my brainwaves settle into some sort of productivity-sans-tears pattern - but at this point I'll take productivity no matter what the side effects are. Goodnight!

love don't hear no more, no i don't fear no more

Today was mostly great, with a sideways turn into even greater, but that sideways turn means that tomorrow is going to be chaotic and crazy and I hope I can make it out of my apartment in time for all that I need to do. I had intended to go to bed early tonight, get up at five, and drive to socal - but since it's almost midnight and I haven't packed yet, that seems like a fool's errand.

However, today was worth it. I woke up around nine, took care of stuff around the house, showered, etc., and then did a couple of hours of work from my dining table. I also made myself a delicious omelette, which always makes me feel both fancy and hermity. Then I drove to the south bay for a writing date with Anne and Barbara - we met an hour earlier than usual (1pm instead of 2pm) so that we could talk about advertising stuff. We're all trying to implement the things we learned in Hawaii, and talking through it and sharing tips is so so helpful.

Eventually Poppy joined us, and we stopped talking about ads and got some writing done (what I wrote went well, but it wasn't nearly enough). Then I came home while enduring the awful traffic (it's raining today, which makes it brutal), ate some yogurt, changed my clothes, and walked down to the Mission to meet up with John and Charu for drinks and music at Amnesia. I should have taken a cab - it was only sprinkling when I left, and I was determined to walk and get some exercise before my upcoming weekend of partying, but there were a couple of sudden downpours and the forty-minute walk left my totally soaked (like, I could wring water out of my jacket).

Still, despite never totally drying out, it was a really fun night. There was bluegrass-ish music going at Amnesia, and I had a couple of glasses of wine and we talked about all sorts of fun things. Then we warmed up and nourished ourselves with soup at Mau - I had the beef pho, which was extremely delicious, and warming up with broth and beef was exactly what I needed.

After eating, Charu left so she could go to bed, but John and I continued down the street to another bar (Sycamore), where I had a third glass of wine, which was enough wine to loosen my tongue to the point that I confessed that 'Sahara' is one of my favorite movies, so I'm pretty sure I'll never hang out with him again. But it was all fun, so #noregrets. Then we parted ways, I had a delightful lyft back to my apartment, and now I need to sleep immediately - I think I'm better off going to bed now and getting up early to throw some stuff in a suitcase, but we'll see whether this is a good plan when I get to San Luis Obispo and discover that I brought nothing suitable for a wedding. Wish me luck - goodnight!

hold me closer tony danza | them baggy sweatpants and the reeboks with the straps

At approximately 11:30p.m., I turned to Adit and said that I needed to take it slow tonight because I have brunch plans at 10a.m. and didn't want to repeat last night's off-the-rails adventure. But then he got this crazy light in his eyes, and I got a crazy light in my eyes....and experienced readers can guess what happened, and why it's now four a.m. and I have to get up in 4.5hrs. So I'm taking the unprecedented step of using two song lyrics for the post title, but since I feel like I lived several days compressed into this one, I'm going to go with it.

The first part of my day was highly professional; I went up to Sausalito to meet with some writer friends, and we found a really awesome coworking space that I would love to go back to. Then we had lunch at Salito's, which was right on the water, and my fish was delicious.

But you don't care about any of this - you're just waiting for the part where I had like ten drinks, so I'll try to speed this up.

I got home around three, and then I cleaned my bathroom, took a nap, and worked until six. And then I got ready and walked across the street to Yamasho for karaoke. John (the John from two weeks ago) had suggested karaoke themed around singers who died recently...but a combo of David Bowie and the Eagles is actually fairly depressing/ridiculous, so we added any singers who have died, or any singers who we wouldn't mind seeing dead. That expanded us into Nirvana and Stone Temple Pilots ('Vasoline' is always a song I love when I remember it, but I never remember it) and a variety of other choices...although how we ended up singing 'Tiny Dancer' multiple times is beyond me.

But after singing for 2.5hrs, we were all famished, so we adjourned to Flybar for drinks/dinner. There were six of us (Chandlord, John, Rajiv, Sheila, and Nina), and we spent a couple of hours having a highly ridiculous conversation about high school crushes on Al Gore + sending goats as gifts.

At that point, my evening was still sedate, but it was about to go off the rails. John, Chandlord and I took a lyft to a bar in SOMA for Misha's birthday party, but John walked in, took one look at the party, and left - he somehow tops even me on the hermit spectrum. But I kept walking in, and we immediately found Annie, who gave us a tour of the bar (lost on us, since we spent most of the evening in the same four feet of space, until it was time to dance).

And then we saw a bunch of other people, and then Adit showed up, and my liver waved a white flag upon seeing his face, Pavlovian-style, as though it knew there were no other options. So I had a pisco sour and a gin and tonic (and a bit of another gin and tonic), and a shot of whisky and a shot of tequila, and I was glad that we're getting old since Adit stopped there rather than continuing to ply me with alcohol (or me continuing to accept it).

We also danced a ton (although the deep house went way too deep for awhile), and I met some new people, and I avoided talking to some old people (mostly just the guy whom I've been introduced to many times in the past decade who always acts like he's never seen me in his life). And Adit and I somehow worked a lot of real-life stuff into our conversation despite the club-like atmosphere, so that was great. And then, at 2:20ish, Adit/Katrina/I caught an uber to Grubstake, where Vidya met us (she somehow had escaped with her life before, but put it in danger again by coming to Grubstake). There, we somehow 'befriended' a South African bartenderr in line, who was exactly the kind of ridiculous stranger you hope to see at Grubstake (unlike the two furries who came in in full-on animal costumes, which was a little too far beyond even for my tastes.

sssanyway, we accomplished the first part of our recovery over cheese potato skins, and then I made it home, and now I'm going to get every bit of the four hours of sleep available to me before I have to get up and be social again. Goodnight!