bounce back when i lost, scraped off all the rust

I was pretty productive today, despite sleeping in (but maybe I should stop saying that I'm sleeping in and start acknowledging my natural state). I got up at a reasonable-for-me hour, made some coffee, and drank it while reading some newsletters. I also talked to my mom, who caught me in the sweet spot between when I was awake enough to be coherent and when I lost coherency due to writing too much.

After I talked to her, I wrote for a couple of hours, and it felt great. Then I ate a late lunch, had a quick video chat, sent some emails and other tings, and took a walk to the post office and other areas since the weather was really nice today. This place would be a million times better if I didn't have a mud season and get grey for several months in the winter, but I think I'll survive.

Then I came home, cleaned my kitchen, did some laundry, ate leftover salmon, and finally took down my Christmas tree. Yes, it's March, but at least it's not April. I'd left it up for family Christmas in February, and then was too busy getting into the writing groove to take it down, but it felt like it might be time. So, that chore is duly accomplished, and now I can think about other ways to decorate the house now that the kitchen is done.

Eventually, [censored] showed up, so we talked for awhile, and then I came upstairs, folded laundry, and procrastinated instead of journaling like I had planned. So now I'm going to close my laptop and either journal or go to bed - goodnight!

i played it hard and fast 'cause i had everything

I had an extremely hermity, lazy day today - perhaps to be expected since I'm still recovering, but I haven't spent four straight days in my house without leaving in awhile, so I may be getting bored. My abdomen is still pretty sore, but it's not as bad as it was, so I didn't have to take anything stronger than ibuprofen (although right now I'm tempted). And I'm clearly more tired than usual, since I took at least three naps today (#noregrets).

Otherwise, I have v. little to report - I finished FOUR THOUSAND WEEKS this morning, and it was v. thought-provoking. It's basically an anti-productivity book - or rather, the premise is that if you can let go of beliefs around perfection, maximum productivity, attempts to get everything done, grandiose visions of what might be (and all the doors you leave open just in case), etc. and instead focus on the couple of things that really matter to you, that level of acceptance is the only way to come to terms with the human condition and do the things that you should be doing. This feels like a good reminder - I have, after all, been prioritizing everything but writing for a long time, ostensibly for good reasons, but I no longer want to put it off for some distant day where I theoretically might have more time.

At some point I had a ham sandwich for lunch, and took a couple of aforementioned naps, and basically messed around online. I also ordered dinner from a Mexican plan I hadn't tried before, and the enchiladas were exactly what I needed (even if my stomach briefly rebelled after several days of soup and snacks). And tonight I started reading THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS AN EASY JOB - it's fiction, translated from Japanese, and it has some v. surreal elements as the nameless protagonist goes between slightly-supernatural temp jobs looking for something mindless to do while recovering from burnout. So far I'm enjoying it, although I can't quite tell where it's headed yet.

And now, I think I should attempt to sleep - goodnight!

the name of the ship was the billy of tea

I am falling asleep downstairs rather than upstairs, which is really not a good idea, so I need to wrap this up. I had a relatively productive day - I continue pursuing my strategy of 'get something done today because maybe tomorrow something terrible will happen to keep you from being productive', and it seems to be working. Unfortunately, when it comes to the day job, the more productive I am = the more work shows up for me, so I'm not sure this is a great strategy.

But I had a decent day, so I'll take it. I wrapped up around five and eventually went to the grocery store (with a brief chat with Katie somewhere in there) - this time I went to Safeway, rather than Whole Foods, because I wanted bologna and potato chips and Coke Zero and other preservative-laden wonders that I can't get at Whole Foods. Then I came home, put away my groceries, and talked to [censored]. Once we were done, I finally ate dinner - the last of the leftover salmon/broccolini/potatoes from the other night, which were still perfect tonight.

And now, I think I shall go to bed since I have grand plans tomorrow - goodnight!

let me introduce you to the featherweight queen

I somehow only got six hours of sleep last night, so I'm going to try to go to bed as soon as I write this entry. I had a pretty productive day, all in all - I started with some coffee, yogurt, and my to-do list, and then I did a Peloton ride. I was not in it to win it today - when I got on the bike I realized how tired my legs still were from Friday, and so my performance was not at all impressive. But I did the whole twenty minute ride, so at least there's that - and as I told [censored] tonight, doing my second ride meant that I cut my cost-per-ride for the bike in half, so that's a win!

Anyway, I think I'm really going to like the bike - it felt good to get some activity in without having to freeze to death to do it. Then I foam rolled, showered, poured some more coffee, and had a virtual writing date with Veronica. We caught up on some tings and then silenced ourselves to write, and I spent a good chunk of time brainstorming and scribbling notes to myself. I'm nervously excited about the writing at the moment, and I want to keep it going.

That means I probably should have written more this afternoon, but instead I knocked a variety of tings off my to-do list, did some laundry, and talked to my parents. I also made a v. tasty dinner - chicken thighs with mushrooms, roasted carrots, and mashed potatoes. The carrots were a new-to-me recipe from Barefoot Contessa and they were super tasty - roasted under the broiler to get a bit of char, then tossed with orange juice, balsamic vinegar, and salt to give it some added oomph. I need to work on my broiler technique, since rather than charring the carrots, I ended up with a bunch of smoke and had to open the windows [I think the sheet pan I was using was too cheap, and so it warped in the heat, and I think that splattered some oil onto the oven and burned]. But overall dinner was super tasty and I'm looking forward to leftovers.

Then I did some more stuff around the house, planned out my week, took a look at some day job stuff to prep for tomorrow, etc. And now I'm going to sleep - goodnight!

diamonds aquatic

Merry Christmas! Okay, it's not Christmas, but we did a white elephant gift exchange over zoom with my dad's side of the family tonight, so it was almost like Christmas. And we ate the second half of the zucchini lasagna that I made the other night, and lasagna used to be our Christmas Eve tradition, so I'm still feeling the Christmas spirit.

That said, I worked most of the day (on writing stuff, not day job stuff) - I'm still making my way through content from the conference I went to earlier in the month, and I was also doing some side research + playing around with some ads stuff. I did take a break to make a run into town to buy some supplies, and while it wasn't super treacherous at 1pm, it certainly became treacherous later in the day. We had winter storm conditions all day, and this morning it looked almost pretty - nice snowflakes, not too much wind. But as I was at the grocery store, the snow turned to ice. The power flickered in the grocery store, which took down several checkout registers, but luckily I escaped and made it home before anything bad happened. Still, it was a v. bleak day, and it means I'm not quite sure when the best time is to drive back to Denver given that there is much snow and many miles between here and there....

But that is a problem for another day between Thursday and Saturday - for now, it's time for bed. Goodnight!

hands, knees, please, tangerine, sugar, honey, sweet

It's amazing how much time I have at night if I don't cook something elaborate. Today was pretty good, overall - I got more sleep than I had been getting, and I did some tidying up around the house while drinking my first cup of coffee, which was good. I slogged most of the day, but a bunch of meetings got canceled, so it wasn't too onerous. I had time to make some poached eggs for lunch to go with some leftover potatoes/chard. And I stopped at five, looked at the weather, and realized that it might freeze tonight - so I drained the water from the main sprinkler pipe and put insulation around the backflow preventer. I was thinking I could make it another week before blowing out my sprinklers, but that may become an activity for Sunday....we shall see.

Then I ate some leftover shepherd's pie, which was much better today than it was last night. I also took a walk and listened to a podcast - it was v. chilly and getting dark and winter is definitely coming, which feels grim in a world of rapidly spiking covid cases and working from home. But tonight wasn't grim - I got a whole bunch of personal shit done, did a tiny bit of day job stuff, ate a funfetti cupcake with rainbow chip frosting (seriously, keep unfrosted cupcakes in the freezer and a can of frosting in the fridge, it's the best), and generally felt uber productive. I've been uber productive for a few days, so I wonder when the crash is coming....but I'll keep going as long as I'm able to, and then I'll eat more cupcakes to get through the unproductive days instead.

And now I want to take a break from screens before going to bed - goodnight!

heavy as a feather when you hit the dirt

I had a pretty good day, all in all - I slept until almost nine and was feeling a bit lethargic after spending eleven hours in bed. But I took care of a whole bunch of personal stuff today, ran a few errands, did a couple of loads of laundry, and spent a very nice hour in the mid-afternoon writing part of a scene for my new book while eating pizza at Pizzeria Locale. I think they gluten'd me this time - the pizza tasted different than usual, but I got a white pizza this time (delicious garlic oil and mushrooms) and so didn't really question it. However, the bill didn't have the upcharge for the gluten free crust, and I have a bit of a stomachache, so that was a bummer. But I probably shouldn't be eating this much pizza anyway, so now I have a good reason to toss the leftovers.

Still, I got some great writing done while sitting at the bar, so I'll take it. Then I came home, talked to my parents for awhile, and spent the evening taking care of more business (and also reading too much news on my phone). And now I really need to sleep - I have to be in Denver around 9:15 and I'd like to write in the morning (and possibly swing by the office to eat free breakfast rather than having to make anything myself) - so sleep would be a good idea. Goodnight!

strike the harp and join the chorus

Today was infinitely more productive than yesterday, most likely because I awoke feeling like a normal human rather than a burned-out wreck. I took care of some stuff around the house this morning, spent an absurd amount of time brushing my hair (I didn't wash it yesterday, so it was still half-curled from Friday and absolutely full of hairspray to achieve that level of hold), showered, and then walked over to River and Woods to have brunch with Kelly. We both love that place, although we've never been together, so I think the wait staff and bartenders were shocked to see us together. The breakfast sandwich cured whatever remaining issues lurked in my body, and it was fun to catch up with Kelly outside of work.

Then I came home, messed around a bit (I did five loads of laundry today, which required a lot of effort), and then spent some time taking care of my RAV4, which has been sadly neglected (did I tell you I bought an Audi?). There's a good chance that I'm going to drive it to Iowa this weekend, so I checked up on it, drove it around, and cleared out the stuff that needs to stay here (like my rusty railroad spike, my heavy duty prybar, and a couple of pairs of shoes). Then I came home, called my parents, called [censored], and dealt with more laundry.

I left the house again (shocker) to run to Apple to pick up my laptop and to grab dinner at Motomaki. Then I came home and finished dealing with the laundry, remade my bed, and spent the last three hours doing day job stuff so that I'm not quite as scrambled and stressed in the morning. Only four more work days until vacation - I think I can make it, but no promises.

And now I need to sleep - goodnight!

i'm gonna stand by you

I need to go to bed RIGHT NOW - I have to leave for the airport in eleven hours, and I haven't packed and I also need to do a bunch of work in the morning. Lol. But today was mildly relaxing (I laid in bed reading news until ten) and also moderately productive (four loads of laundry, an office that is mostly organized, a semi-complete Christmas list, and a bunch of other tasks resolved). I didn't leave the house, but I did talk to my parents (as usual) and Terry (totally unusual, since I haven't been keeping in touch with anyone the last couple of months) - so at least I had some social interaction, even though I could use about a week of hermitville right now.

But I don't get a week of hermitville - instead I get a week of an offsite/onsite, which sounds thoroughly exhausting right now but will probably be fun when I get there. Goodnight!

don't let me down

I slept late this morning, but that was the extent of the relaxing that I accomplished today. When I finally got up, I started unpacking...and that was pretty much all I did today. Things are slowly coming together, although I don't think my place is going to be as tidy or pretty as I'd like by next weekend - I may be fully out of boxes, but I probably won't be at the point where I have photos on the walls or drawers that are organized instead of haphazardly filled in a fit of unpacking madness.

But I got a lot done today - mostly organizing books and shoes, which says a lot about my priorities. I can't fully organize my closets until my dresser shows up at the end of the week, but things are getting closer. I also did some laundry, made some delish eggs/bacon/hashbrowns for breakfast/lunch, ran the dishwasher, and put together two shoe racks - which took 45mins, because I bought them at Container Store, which insisted on making them 'sturdy' by using screws instead of pushing them together with plastic bits, and my lack of an electric screwdriver made this an onerous endeavor. Now I have a stripe of possible blisters on my right hand that, in another life, would have been prevented by my kettlebell calluses - but it's been so long since I've swung a kettlebell that my calluses are gone. This is another thing I need to start doing asap - but unpacking (and maybe some writing) comes first.

I did take a couple of breaks, though - mostly to have a long, leisurely talk with my parents, and also to chat with [censored], who was [censored] and so bored enough to talk to me. I also ate some leftover spaghetti carbonara, which was almost as tasty today as it was yesterday.

And now I should probably sleep - this week doesn't look like it's going to be nearly as onerous as the last few, but I need to get up relatively early and deal with the millions of tasks I've been ignoring recently. And at night, the unpacking fun will continue - lucky me. Goodnight!

don't put your blame on me

I had a delightfully productive day despite feeling like I was overheating for almost all of it. I woke up this morning after sleeping surprisingly poorly last night (or not surprisingly, since I'd had way too much wine). Then I drove into Denver - I had a date with Katie to work at her coworking place, and this was a great decision, because I was extremely productive. Of course, I need to be similarly productive for the rest of time, but I'll take today as a good start.

We had a break for lunch (I grabbed a v. tasty burger from the place across the street), and then I worked the rest of the afternoon (with another break for me to go to Tattered Cover to pick up a book). I parted ways with her around five and drove back to Castle Rock, where I had supper with Aunt B and Uncle B - Aunt B made some awesome fish tacos, which I'm going to have to replicate as soon as I have a home again. Then we watched the first two episodes of 'The Crown', which I've been meaning to watch forever, and it became clear that I know waaaaay too much about the royal family.

And now I need to sleep - we're apparently going on a hike tomorrow, which requires waking up super early to avoid getting heatstroke. Goodnight!

we order different drinks from the same bars

Blogging from my phone because my computer is in the middle of a v. ill-advised update/reboot cycle and I want to sleep. My fucked up shoulder almost got the best of me today, but I seem to have treated it with a lot of ibuprofen and a couple of margaritas, so hopefully I can sleep tonight.

But today was great - great for friendship, and great for getting things done. Katie and I went to a coworking place that she frequents so I could check it out, and I got so much done there - I did some actual bonafide writing in the morning, and then got a lot of admin work done this afternoon that I'd been putting off forever. And I got to take a break in the middle to have a tasty omelette and a glass of rosé with Katie at a cafe down the street, which felt so lush and delightful. So, the coworking space is a winner, but I won't be in the neighborhood for the next week or two, so I probably won't get to indulge in its comfort for awhile...

Then we came home and Katie made supper, which was v. tasty (turkey burgers and sweet potatoes), and then I had a long call with my friend Maya while Katie and James worked on getting the kids ready for bed. I hadn't talked to Maya since something like November (how sad/embarrassing), so we were way overdue and it was fun to talk to her. Then I hung out with the girls and said goodnight to them, and then Katie and I (and later James) sat out back and enjoyed the night air (hopefully it doesn't cause fever and ague, but this isn't the Kansas Territory and I'm not Laura Ingalls Wilder, so I'm probably safe).

And now I must sleep - goodnight!

only love can break your heart

I had a slow day - I didn't wake up hungover, exactly, but I didn't sleep well last night because I'd eaten so much that I basically had a food baby and had to pee like three times to relieve the pressure. So I woke up tired and lethargic, but still dreaming of dinner, so #noregrets.

I spent the day hanging around Roam - I wanted to get some work done, and I didn't want to exert too much effort, so that meant working on the roof and eating a smoothie for breakfast and nasi goreng for lunch (standard, really). I didn't get much writing done, but I got a lot of other work done, so I'll take it.

Part of the reason I stuck around here is because I had a friend coming into town - this girl Erin arrived this evening, and I wanted to be here when she got in. She's also a historical romance writer, approximately my age, and she's embarking on a few months of nomad travel - and when she started planning her trip (about a month after I did), she decided to start in Bali since I would be a familiar place and the hotel situation is a very easy soft landing. She got in tonight, just as a massive downpour happened - it had been rain-free all day, but suddenly it rained as hard as I've ever heard it, which made conversation impossible while we were sitting on the roof deck (we didn't get wet, but the sound of rain pounding the roof drowned out everything else for awhile).

But we had a glass of wine with Tamara and Xavier, and eventually Tamara, Sarah and I inducted Erin into the ways of Element (two-for-one cocktails from 1pm to 8pm, although Erin refrained and only had one). Then we came back and I said my almost-goodbyes to Alex and Sanj; I'll probably see them in the morning, but they're leaving tomorrow and I am sad about that.

But that's the way the nomad life goes, so I shall harden my heart, go to bed, and plan to get some real writing done tomorrow. Goodnight!

i've had my fun and now it's time to

I think I had the best meal of my life tonight. I wasn't expecting it; I've had amazing, incredible culinary experiences before, and while Locavore was recently named the best restaurant in all of Asia, I didn't actually expect it to live up to the otherworldly meal I had a Momofuku in NYC, or even the likes of Gary Danko, Rich Table, or Octavia (Octavia isn't a crazy stand-out like Momofuku, but the strawberry float with homemade strawberry soda, and the Eton mess, and the deviled egg, will live on in my memory long after the rest of you have faded into the darkness of dementia).

(wow, that got bleak. let's rewind.)

I think I had the best meal of my life tonight.

Unlike everywhere else I've been in Ubud, it's essential to have a reservation for Locavore - a restaurant that is committed to the local food movement, and which also partners with local artisans to produce all of the serving dishes and other products. I managed to score a reservation for me, Sarah, Tamara, Gemma, and Xavier for eight p.m., and we all agreed to do the seven-course tasting menu with paired drinks. The paired drinks were all cocktails instead of wine, and they were some of the most inventive, interesting cocktails I've ever had.

But before we did that, we each ordered a cocktail to start. Mine was called 'trouble maker' (of course) and was served in this ridiculous wooden urn with lots of ice, a flower, a straw, and a bunch of bulleit bourbon and hibiscus - yum. But Gemma ordered the one I'd almost ordered ('into the wild'), and it was delicious - but on the side, they had a little pot of herbs which they lit on fire, and she said the cocktail was even more incredible when you sipped it with the smoke from the herbs wafting around the drink.

Then the food started, and it just kept coming. Before we even got to the first course, there were like three pre-amuse-bouches and two amuse bouches, and they were all totally incredible. There was some sort of seaweed 'pillow' with a delicious liquid inside that none of us understood but all of us loved; there was a potato fritter with some sort of sauce that I would have killed to be able to eat more of; there was a salted spinach chip that was somehow beyond my usual enjoyment of any of the base components; and there was a palate cleanser of 'bloody mary sorbet', which you will just have to trust when I say it was fucking delicious.

And then the main courses and the drink pairings started, and it was a culinary wonderland. Little touches, like spraying mushroom essence into the cocktail at the table, turned into gorgeously tasty moments. There were seven courses, but the standouts were the beef tartare, which had some accompaniments that I can't remember but that made for the best single bite of the meal; the catfish, which was laughably decadent compared to the breaded and fried (and delicious in a different way) catfish of my youth; and the slow cooked duck egg with rice, snails, garlic, frog, and wild flowers, which I could have eaten forever.

Dessert was way too much - there was the regular dessert, which was a trio of sorbets (good way to end)...and then they brought out like five more bites for each of us, including some sort of yogurt in a spoon, a chocolate cake bite, and an egg custard served inside an eggshell. So we were all totally stuffed at that point. But throughout the night, the conversation flowed, the people were lovely, and the food was delightful - so it made for an epic night. And while it was certainly decadent by any standards, the total came to <$140 each for all the food and eight drinks each, which I consider a total win.

Then we came home, and now I just want to lie in bed and rub my belly and dream of this meal, and past meals, and future meals, and how food binds us all together. The rain is falling outside, as it was when we were leaving the restaurant, and the thunder and lightning and rainfall is as soothing and exciting as the meal was...and makes me miss other summers, and other storms, and other meals, even as I wouldn't trade this one in for anything.

Other than the meal, the rest of my day was unexciting; I went to Yellow Flower with Sarah for breakfast, and then I came home and worked allllll day, with a brief break to eat some nasi goreng and chat with Katrina via whatsapp (the app of the future). [also, I just noticed that I called this place 'home'...interesting]. The work was good, in the end - I redid my whole sararamsey.com website, and it looks like it's basically launched, which is great since the old one was in dire need of a revamp and I finally figured out how to get Squarespace to do what I wanted it to do.

But now, it's definitely time for bed - real life returns tomorrow, since I will be mildly hungover, still full, and v. much in need of some writing time. Goodnight!

on top of this, i ain't ever gonna understand

Today was more productive than yesterday, which makes sense since I am starting to feel under the gun in terms of getting ready for my trip. I got up earlier than I have been (which is by no means early, and is also unlikely to be repeated tomorrow), and I took care of a bunch of stuff (including setting [censored] up with [censored], which [censored] probably won't use because [censored]). I also packaged up a bunch of returns from a bunch of online shopping mistakes and took them into the post office. The post office was a breeze (no lines ever!), but I accidentally got gas right as a horde of high schoolers flooded the convenience store (where I used to work!) to get snacks before boarding a bus to an away basketball game. This would normally not be a problem, but paying outside was broken, so I had to go inside, etc. Yes, my life is hard.

Then I came home and unpacked most of the rest of my clothes so that I could repack them into plastic containers or my closet or possibly into my suitcase to take to Bali. I stopped doing productive stuff in time for supper (cheeseburgers and homemade french fries courtesy of my mother), and then we played two games of Ticket to Ride. One was the highest scoring game we've played so far, and one was likely the lowest, which made for an odd combo. [censored] won the first one, and my dad won the second on a tie-breaker, so really, what do I have to live for now?

So I came downstairs after we were done playing, and I put away a bunch of food stuff, and then I plotted out my trip itinerary for the past couple of hours. I keep things online anyway, but I think I need some printouts in case customs officials have questions, and my family needs some vague sense of where I am so that they don't alert the authorities in the wrong country if I go off the grid.

But now I really should sleep - I have a ton that I want to get done tomorrow, and tomorrow will start late given how late today is ending. Goodnight!

last train to clarksville

I probably should have gone to bed a couple of hours ago, but I was spending some quality time with my bullet journal and lost track of time (yes, that's incredibly dorky; no, I don't care about your opinion on this one). I have a new journal to start the new year, so I had a lot of pages to create, and I'd been putting it off while I enjoyed the holidays and the waning hours of 2016. But now that it's 2017, I want to hit the year hard.

Of course, that doesn't mean that I got up early. But I did make some coffee and a killer omelette before spending the afternoon working - no writing, but a lot of emails and other random tasks. I took a break in the evening for supper - my dad made an incredible smoked new york strip, which was to die for, and my mom made some vegetables to help with our dearth of healthy foods (brussels sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, and peppers, which were delish, along with some roasted potatoes that were also delish (especially with butter on them)). Then we played a game of Ticket to Ride, which I won handily thanks to some long routes early on.

After that, I watched some fine CBS programming, and then I talked to [censored], and then I did some journaling, and now you're all caught up. Goodnight!

i've touched this place before somewhere in another time

Maybe my toe isn't broken...it hurts in odd ways depending on how (and how long) I've been standing, and it aches a bit, but it's nowhere near as bad as the last time I broke it. This is a huge relief, since I wasn't looking forward to navigating multiple airports and new cities with a broken toe.

To celebrate, I spent the day taking care of business...I answered a bunch of email that I've been neglecting (but not all of it), dealt with some financial/residency business (but not all of it), and generally tried to be productive. But I took a break for supper and continued to break for the rest of the evening - we had leftovers, which were still yummy, and I drank some Decoy pinot noir that I'd brought back with me, mostly because my dad had given me a wineglass that said 'Shit's about to get fancy' and I wanted to use it (and instagram it, because that's how I roll).

We also played two rounds of 'Ticket to Ride', since we're apparently total fucking addicts; I won the first round and my mom won the second, so that was fun. We're so addicted that we skipped the Kennedy Center Honors for the first time that I can remember, but hopefully we'll watch it another night. And now I must sleep so I can continue the productivity tomorrow - goodnight!

wrap her up in a package of lies, send her off to a coconut island

Today was rather shockingly productive, considering I was not feeling #inittowinit for awhile (especially after I had some bourbon, but I'm getting ahead of myself here). I woke up this morning and forced myself to sit down and write for twenty minutes before I did virtually anything else, and that seemed to help get me into story mode even though I didn't have time to keep going. Instead, I showered, ate a snack, and drove down to Mountain View, where I had lunch with my old coworker friend Tomas. I hadn't been to campus at all since April, I think, and I've been v. removed from the gossip as a result. So, we caught up over one of those lunches that maybe would have wowed me ten years ago, but now doesn't feel totally worth driving down for (yes, I'm still spoiled even though I haven't worked there in a year and a half).

Then, I drove to San Bruno, where I had a writing date with Anne, Barbara, and Deborah. I often don't get much writing done with them, especially when we haven't seen each other recently - Barbara spent last week in Hawaii and Deborah and I have had alternating travels for several weeks, so I wasn't expecting much in the way of productivity. But I eventually settled down and got four pages, which I'll totally take. This was even with the distraction of email and texting and scheduling social activities for the week - so that was good.

Then, I sat in my car and called my mom, and then I drove home and quickly ate a frozen enchilada and made myself a boulevardier and called my friend Maya. She and I have been trying for weeks to get time together to talk about writing stuff - she lives in NYC, which makes the scheduling tricky. But we finally talked tonight, and it was great - we both want to make similar career switches over the next year (she also writes historical romance and wants to write something closer to YA or women's fiction), and we're going to start talking monthly and sending chapters to each other, and I'm excited about that.

I was also excited to discover that I make a mean boulevardier - I probably could have happily had five of them tonight. But since it's pure alcohol (bourbon, campari, and sweet vermouth), five of them would have put me under, and I need to work tomorrow and not spend the day recovering from a hangover. So, I limited myself to one (heroic, I know). Then, I turned on the tv and played a couple of episodes of the last season of 'Top Chef' so that I had some background noise while I was working. I've been meaning to finish reformatting the paperback for LORD OF DECEIT forever, and I really need to get it done - and some cooking in the background was the perfect complement to my eye-straining endeavor of redoing the InDesign file so that the book size can be 5"x8" instead of 6"x9".

So, I finally finished that - I still need to redo the cover to fit the new trim size (smaller overall size, but wider spine because there are more pages in the smaller book), but I'm going to attempt that tomorrow. For now, it's time to sleep and hopefully dream of something like Bali instead of something like running from Nazis (in other words, I'd prefer sweet dreams instead of my usual nightmares). Goodnight!

endless island

There is finally internet, but it's my last night in Tahoe and so I'm too tired to do this blog justice anyway. All in all, it was a very productive week - I wrote almost forty pages, and I spent a lot of glorious time talking about writing and business and life with some of my favorite writer friends. It still fascinates me that this group can come together in virtually any permutation (duos, triads, quads, whole group, whatever) and have a great conversation in which everyone is engaged and no one hates each other. It's hard to find that kind of cohesion in a group of eight (although we were only seven this time), and since we've now had several successful weeks together, I'm hopeful that this will continue for a long time to come.

Still, despite the cohesion and general feel-good vibes, my introvert soul is close to being ready to get the fuck out. I'll miss it once I'm gone, and I actually could stay here quite happily for another few days - but I need to get some writing done and recharge my introvert batteries for the much harder task of going to a writing conference where I know almost no one (and am sharing a room with Barbara S, which will be delightful because I love her, but also exhausting because room-sharing means less downtime).

So, today was all about trying to get stuff done - unfortunately, the internet was down most of the morning, and I squandered that quiet time by freaking out over the fact that the internet was down. But I did what I could do, and I ate lunch, and then I dragged Anne and Bella to Nevada, where we had a v. productive writing session in the Starbucks in Harrah's. Then we came home, had a bit of downtime, and then went out for dinner - we sacrificed our usual Riva Grill for a new spot (Azul, which was Mexican fusion), which was really delicious and encouraged me to eat way too much.

Then we came home again, and I sat around in the other house, but the introvert wall hit hard and I realized it was time to come back to my room. And now I need to sleep rather desperately - I need to get up and pack and clean out the house so we can leave by ten, which means sleep now is imperative. Goodnight!

my name is no, my sign is no, my number is no

Today was almost fully productive, which made me happy. I still got up later than planned (I am such a sloth in the mornings when I don't have to be anywhere), but I was at my desk by nine, and I wrote steadily until almost noon. I also came up with an excellent idea to tie some stuff together that was bothering me about the plot, so I felt pretty smug about that.

Then I left the house and sped down to San Mateo, where I went to the gym and worked out for the first time in months. It was embarrassing how long it's been - long enough that my kettlebell calluses are mostly gone and I'm going to have to earn them back. Also, doing swings kind of made me want to throw up. But I did a version of a workout I would have done three months ago (although I dropped the weight on the swings/snatches so that I wouldn't accidentally hurt myself), and it felt really good to go back. I'm going to try to be more disciplined about going to the gym whenever I meet up for writing dates with Anne and Barbara - adding a 45min workout in my day really isn't stopping me from writing enough, and it's good for me (and it's way better than wasting those 45mins on twitter).

However, I'm sure I'll be sore tomorrow and will regret whatever blithe assertions I've made about how often I'm going to work out going forward. But that's a problem for tomorrow. The rest of my day was lovely - I showered at the gym and ate one of their paleo to-go lunches (one thing that would be hard if I left the bay area is that I've gotten used to all my gluten-free/paleo-ish whims being catered to, which isn't true everywhere). Then I met up with Anne and Barbara. We spent three hours at Starbucks, and while we talked the first hour, I definitely got more stuff done during the next two hours - I wrote a few pages in which my hero's family sprung up from nowhere, so that was kind of fun (the writing process is weird and inexplicable).

But by 5pm I was done. The drive home took an hour, which was very displeasing. But when I got here, I messed around for a little bit, and then I ate an apple because I was starving, and then I made dinner - roasted chicken thighs and sweet potatoes and shallots. This may sound kind of boring, but a) it was all roasted in the same dish, which made it super easy, and b) it was covered in garlic and a vinaigrette of olive oil, red wine vinegar, dijon, italian seasoning, so it was actually really delicious. I found the recipe here; I skipped the tarragon, but otherwise thought it turned out really well. And that vinaigrette would probably be good on roasted fish too (although the potatoes would have to be cooked separate in that case) - I'll have to try it sometime.

While the chicken was cooking, I spent some quality time cleaning out my bathroom - I have way more cosmetics/beauty products than anyone needs, and things were getting messy enough that it was starting to stress me out (because that's the kind of person I am - the kind who gets stressed by messes hiding in closed drawers). Order has now been restored, which means I can move on with my life (or, more likely, start stressing about my closet instead).

After I'd finished with the bathroom and eaten my chicken, I watched an episode of 'Project Runway' and sent/answered emails until I was tired of that activity. And now I need to sleep - I have grand plans to get a lot done tomorrow, especially since my weekend is shaping up to be v. social. Goodnight!