i don't wanna rain on your crazy parade, buddy

Today is essentially my last day in the city of sin, and while my body will be happy to get back to avoiding gluten and getting eight hours of sleep, my heart is happy that I made the trip here.

I woke up this morning in Tracy, and Jen, Joann, Jane, and I finished our sleepover with breakfast, which was basically last night's leftover dinner. We had enough tater tot casserole left for all of us, and we put a fried egg on top of each serving, which made it a total winner. I'm tempted to experiment with making a breakfast tater tot casserole (with sausage and maybe some peppers instead of the carrots/onions), but we'll see what I discover. We also had leftover apricot salad, which is also a nice breakfast treat. So, all in all, my attempt to bring Midwestern culinary delights to California was a success.

Eventually, I left Tracy (while the rest of them stayed and continued hanging out) to drive to Alameda to see Claudia. Claude's mom was visiting, so we had a nice chat - I hadn't seen her since Claudia's wedding, but it was great to see that she's doing well. She brought tamales with her, which were delish. And I took some leftover jello to Claudia and her son Téo - Téo wasn't really interested in lunch since he'd already eaten, but he had a small scoop of jello and then demanded three more scoops of jello with a crazy gleam in his eyes.

So, we had to take him to the park to burn off a bunch of sugar. Claudia and I talked while watching him play in a sand pit, and it was actually pretty delightful - the weather was nice, Claudia and I were overdue for a chat, and Téo (who turns three soon) is perhaps the cutest child in the history of children (no offense to my other friends' children). It was a really nice afternoon, so hopefully we'll get a chance to do it again sometime soon.

Then, I parted ways with them and drove to Berkeley to see John and Jess. I did not see their kid, so I have no report about Ian since they dropped him at his grandparents' place. But I'm happy to report that John and Jess are doing well. We went to Saul's Deli, which is where we always go for breakfast, and I was surprised to see that it's open for dinner and also serves surprisingly fancy (and inappropriately named) cocktails. So we had latkes, and I had a sandwich with roast beef / harissa / horseradish / swiss that was excellent, and John and I each had a cocktail and split another while Jess enjoyed her fancy healthier beverage choice.

And then, I parted ways with them, drove back to the city of sin, and met up with Chandlord. We were supposed to grab a drink, but instead we stayed in - and I somehow, some way, tricked her into watching SAHARA (and paying to rent it). This is basically the opposite of doing something nice for someone who hosted you. I, of course, still love it, but Chandlord seemed rather displeased with a variety of plot holes that I thought she made much too big a deal of. C'est la vie, I guess.

And now, I need to sleep so that I can pack up tomorrow - I'm moving to an airport hotel tomorrow night and doing some exploration of the south bay before that, so I want to get out of the city in good time. Goodnight!

it's two a.m. and i've gone and lost my friends

I made it to Seattle and am safely ensconced in bed after a v. long day of travel and a moderately long night of socializing. In retrospect, I should have rented a car and driven myself from the Oregon coast to Seattle, since it would have been faster than leaving absurdly early (6:15am) to drive to Portland and wait three hours for my flight (to accommodate the people I was with). But still, I was v. grateful to not have to drive in today's intense rain, and I was also grateful to just sip my venti cold brew and offer navigational assistance, so it was probably #worthit.

However, after the many bottles of Veuve Clicquot rosé and various Oregon pinot noirs that were consumed yesterday, and after going to bed at 1am for a 5:45am wakeup, I was not #inittowinit. I had breakfast at the airport post security, and I slept for the ~24mins that we were in the air between Portland and Seattle, but it wasn't enough. So, when I landed, I got my baggage (which took too long), then uber'd to my hotel, where I checked in, briefly unpacked, grabbed some sushi across the street, and took an hour-long nap.

The nap was v. necessary to sustain myself for my evening plans - the only reason I'm here is to see Ritu Rani, and she is notorious for feeding me first dinner, second dinner, several appetizers/desserts, multiple bottles of wine, and an inordinate number of cocktails. I think she thinks I'm a foie gras goose, but I'm going to roll with it. I took an uber to her house a little before five and was greeted with mango mimosas and three kinds of cheese, as well as two kinds of small children (a five year old and a two year old have even less in common than a truffle brie and a mild manchego). We hung out and chatted and played a board game (and by that I mean something to do with dragons and gemstones that was appropriate for a child), and then ate dinner (lamb rogan josh), which was delish.

Eventually, after I read to the girls, Ritu lied and said that she and Bill had to take me to the airport, so we left and went to a bar (don't worry, Ritu's mom was there so the kids weren't fending for themselves). We had a drink there, then adjourned to another bar down the street from that, where I had a truly excellent rum cocktail that I will probably dream about.

And now, I need to go to bed so I can maximize my time with Ritu tomorrow before flying to SF (aka the city of sin) - goodnight!

the salt in my eyes, as i clear the border

I had a delightful day with other Iowans in ye olde Iowa. This required more driving time than actual time spent hanging out, but that's also par for the course in a state where tings worth doing are hours away from each other. I got up this morning and left the house fairly soon after waking up so that I could drive 3+ hours to Cedar Falls, where I saw....

<drumroll>

Ritu Rani, the original Master of Disaster. We are both Iowans (Iowegians), although we didn't know each other here, and she was in the state because her niece started med school at University of Iowa this weekend. So, Ritu and I took Ritu's small children (who are full-blooded Iowans since their dad is also Iowan, although they were born on the coasts) out for lunch in Cedar Falls. We stopped by a cute little paper store, and then we had a leisurely lunch on the patio of a place where I ate entirely too many varieties and quantities of fried potatoes (tots under my steak and eggs, and also truffle fries with cheesy sauce). I'm also pretty sure that Ritu's younger daughter is a raccoon since she washed her pizza in Ritu's water glass, but I could be wrong about that one.

Lunch was a total delight, and we followed it up with a trip to the candy store (where Anika, the older daughter) managed to negotiate her way into far more candy than anyone intended), and then to the Dairy Queen where Ritu used to go as a kid. Ritu also drove me by the house where she grew up, which was fun for me (and prob v. bittersweet for her). I've never been to Cedar Falls or Waterloo, as far as I can remember, because there is no reason for me to go there, but if I were going to spend five hours in Cedar Falls, this was the way to do it.

Eventually, we met up with Ritu's mom at a coffee shop, and then I abandoned them to their evening plans and drove home. And now, I need to sleep so that I can get some stuff done tomorrow - goodnight!

i'm faded

I'm sleepy. Today was fine, but it involved more meetings than I wanted to have - but since I wanted to have zero meetings, any number of meetings was going to feel like too many. However, I slogged pretty steadily from nine until five, and then I snuck out to run to Whole Foods and stock up before the weekend. Dairy and eggs are back, and I got antibac kitchen spray for the first time since before quarantine, and most other things were available - but Cinco de Mayo cleared out limes and cilantro, and the continued disaster unfolding in the slaughterhouses meant that a lot of the meat was gone. Luckily I didn't really need meat (although I opportunistically bought some chicken legs, and I also bought some lunch meat, and also some scallops (which maybe don't count)), so I left feeling in pretty good shape.

Then I came home, put my groceries away, and reheated some carnitas and rice/beans for a carnitas bowl. Then I talked to Riturani for quite awhile - she was in fine form, and her daughter sang some songs to me, and it was all v. lovely. I could have kept talking all night...but instead I think it's time for bed. Goodnight!

sing about the sixblade, sing about the switchback and a torture tattoo

Day 41. There are moments when it feels like I can't cook another thing, clean another thing, do another thing, especially by myself. There are moments where I would give my fortune to sit at a bar and watch someone make me a drink while overhearing a first date gone bad. There are moments when I obsessively count my canned goods and frozen meats, and other moments when I think I could just eat cereal until this is all over.

But then there are other moments, like the fact that my college friends are doing family dinner on Sunday nights again despite being spread across several states (and the SF vs East Bay divide is usually just as insurmountable as SF to Colorado, or East Bay to Seattle). Tonight's family dinner included:

- a long discussion about urine, mostly because of the...
- introduction to Claudia's baby! Téo is less than three weeks old, but he made it to the Zoom call and did so in style. He doesn't have a nickname yet but I'm sure it's coming.
- an also-long discussion of baby massage
- Nepalese nannies
- a tour of my house, which started mostly because I went off in search of a refill on my Bailey's
- nap dresses (aka nightgowns for you peasants out there)
- Bill wearing a blanket like a shawl, but not quite like Lenny Kravitz's blanket-scarf
- John and Jess being out of barbecue sauce
- the lack of barbecue sauce didn't stop them from making the Round Barn their background image for part of the call
- Vidya managed to wrap a scarf all the way around her head and then get it unwrapped before sneezing, which was a real feat of physical prowess in these troubled times

sssanyway. Family dinner was lovely, even if it wasn't spent at Enjoy Vegetarian eating a variety of vegetarian Chinese dishes while being judged/ignored by the waitstaff. The only downside is the lateness of the hour and the fact that I've been drinking slow/steady since two p.m. (truly slow/steady - I had a mojito at 2, two glasses of wine from 5-8, and two pours of Bailey's from 8-11).

The rest of my day was okay - I woke up and could have ended up in a total black pit hellscape, but managed to pull myself out of that mood. I did a bit of writing at some point this morning too, which I'll take. And I did some stuff around the house, talked to some writer friends (Anne, Grace, Veronica, and Barbara), and took a walk while talking to my parents. And now, unfortunately, I need to sleep - goodnight!

i hope i get the chance to travel the world but i don't have any plans

Today was not great - it's hard to eat enough when my tongue hurts, and I'm taking maximum doses of ibuprofen, so I woke up with a stomach ache. So I canceled as many meetings as I feasibly could, which helped, but I talked for three hours straight this afternoon, which definitely didn't help. When I'm not talking and just sitting still it doesn't hurt too much, but talking makes it worse and eating is definitely unpleasant.

sssanyway. I made potato soup for supper and pureed the whole thing, and I let it cool down, and it was almost edible (it tasted really good, but I had to go slow). And I talked to Chandlord and Riturani (and Riturani's husband, mother, and child). Anika (the baby) and I ate our soups together, although hers was miso and she wasn't wearing anything below the waist, and I was just a bit more clothed (although I guess it's hard to tell on videoconference). And the conversation was a delightful way to catch up, although it would be even better if we were all in the same city and not under lockdown and able to eat dinner together.

Then I cleaned up my kitchen and read some twitter and watched the first episode of this season of Top Chef - it's all-stars, which means I'm familiar with a bunch of the chefs, and I was pretty bummed about who got sent home in the first episode. But the food looked amazing and I always enjoy watching Top Chef, so maybe this season I'll watch mostly in real time and stay caught up. A girl can dream (and a girl doesn't have anything better to do anyway).

And now it's time for bed - I'm not going to set my alarm and am just going to see how much sleep I can get. Goodnight!

you been on my mind girl since the flood

I've had a great weekend in Los Angeles, and I anticipate having an equally wonderful week in Oceanside. The weekend was super chill - I got to the airport yesterday morning with enough time to have a tasty breakfast skillet and a mimosa, and then I worked on day job stuff on the plane ride + for another hour in the airport upon landing. That wasn't really what I wanted to do and I had hoped to leave my work laptop at home, but I will feel better knowing I left things in good shape.

Then I grabbed a rental car and drove into LA to check into my airbnb before rendezvousing with Irish Matt. We've been friends for many, many years - this April will be the fifteenth anniversary of when we lived in India together, which feels like a lifetime ago and also feels like it couldn't possibly be fifteen years ago. Irish Matt now has six-month-old twins, which also seems impossible - so our weekend was chill by necessity and design. We grabbed a quick drink together late yesterday afternoon, but then we went home and put the babies to bed while Matt's husband went to a party. So we stayed home and ordered takeout and drank too much wine, and then talked about politics and feminism and homophobia and babies and the tech industry and all sorts of other fascinating topics.

So, last night was #worthit, but I woke up this morning feeling a bit like death after having too much wine followed by not enough sleep in an unfamiliar bed. Also, annoying, the hot water heater in the airbnb was off, so I couldn't shower, which made me super surly. But I did leave the house, grab coffee at Caffe Vita, and write for half an hour, so that made me feel better. And then I spent the rest of the day with Matt and the babies - we went and looked at a house that Matt and Michael are considering buying (but probably won't), then had lunch at Messhall (I just had oysters, since I'd had breakfast at Del Taco and was still super full). The babies started to get fussy at the end, so we went home, and then I took a break to come back to my airbnb and talk to my parents (who were fine, with the exception of a slight fever and a v. v. gruesome story of blood and pain).

I went back over for dinner, though - I hung out with the babies a bit more, and then they went to bed. Matt ordered takeout Italian (my mushroom risotto was perfect), and I made margaritas using my favorite mix (which I found at the liquor store down the street), and we watched a couple of episodes of Gwyneth Paltrow's GOOP show on Netflix, which may be considered research for the project I'm working on now. Then Irish Matt and I said our goodbyes, since I'm headed to Oceanside tomorrow. And now, even though it's only 11pm, I'm going to go to bed - goodnight!

would you choose water over wine

I'm in an airport hotel near SFO and I should have gone to bed awhile ago - but I survived an epic first day in California. I had to wake up at 3:30am MDT (2:30am PDT) to get ready and go to the airport, which made for a very rough day. I also didn't really sleep on the flight - I had work that absolutely had to get done, so I pumped myself full of iced coffee and worked most of the way.

So by the time I got to the office at nine (ten in BLD), I'd already been up for 6.5hrs, was running on four hours of sleep, and knew that I was in for a bit of a rough day. However, I survived my meetings, including an in-person chat with my VP (I had intended to update her on some projects, but she spent the first ten minutes checking in on my burnout levels, likely because she is v. well aware that I'm a flight risk given my previous history (and also that I've got a lot going on and may burn out). But she also knows that I just bought a house, which basically means that I've accepted the golden handcuffs, so she didn't seem too worried). And I v. fortuitously ran into Jane, of my friendship renewal crew - so we had lunch together out in the sunshine, which was delightful.

I eventually left and was reminded why I don't live here when it took an hour and a half to get to the city, where I had the option of getting one taco, from a food truck, for $6.50. I did not take that option. Instead, I ate the pizza Adit had procured - Adit (some people call him the cat), Priyanka, Vihaan, Kaaviya, Ritu (aka the master of disaster), Ritu's mom, Bill, Anika (aka brown bill), Claudia (aka Santy Claude, but only in December), Sam, Sam's sister, and Chandlord (aka Vidya) all met up at some brewery, where the kids v. much enjoyed running around while we attempted to catch up.

At 7:30 the children were kicked out of the brewery, so we ended up going back to Adit and Priyanka's, where we continued to hang out in a slightly less noisy environment with slightly more singing and much more negotiation over the sharing of toys. I'm happy to report that, nearly twenty years into knowing each other, Adit and I might be on the verge of becoming friends. And seeing this group is always a delight.

So, it was worth it that I flew in early...but tomorrow will be painful if I don't sleep right now. Goodnight!

finished symphony

I had another great day in Boulder - the new year is off to a great start if you ignore the day job, which I've successfully done so far. I woke up in time to trim my bangs, shower, and throw together a frittata before John, Jess, and Ian came over for breakfast. The frittata turned out v. tasty, as usual, and I also had a bunch of berries (which was key since that's mostly what Ian wanted, although that turned into him force feeding them to John). Ian ran around my house a bit after, disappearing upstairs for a minute and then yelling down the stairs, "Auntie Wamp, can I play with this?" Since it turned out that 'this' was my rotary cutter, which was possibly the most dangerous thing he could have found in my house with only thirty seconds of searching, we decided that he could not play with it.

But despite my cold-hearted denial of his desire to play with my rotary cutter, we had a good morning. John and Ian went to a park, and Jess and I went to do the free tour at the Celestial Seasonings plant, which is based in Boulder. I don't drink much Celestial Seasonings because almost  all of their 'teas' are herbal infusions (no tea), or tea that has been overly flavored for my tastes - I mostly likely my tea without any flavors, unless it's a nice Earl Grey. But the tour was pretty interesting - they produce something like 1.6 billion bags of 'tea' a year, so the factory was cool.

After that, Jess and I grabbed a quick lunch at Boxcar, and then she went back to their hotel and I came home, napped, and journaled/wrote in the afternoon. We were supposed to rendezvous at Pizzeria Locale at 5:30...but at five, I idly wondered why I hadn't gotten a confirmation today, and then discovered it's because I'd made the reservation for next Saturday. Extreme rookie move. So I dashed over there without much hope, since it's v. hard to get a table there on weekends. I put my name in and they said they'd probably be able to seat us at the pizza bar around the same time as my original reservation, but that a table would be a two hour wait. Resigned to fate, I got a glass of wine - but also chatted up the staff whom I've befriended there, and suddenly a table appeared. We had to vacate it by seven, but that was more than doable - and I was pretty happy that I would be able to show my friends the full Pizzeria Locale experience (although my actual Pizzeria Locale experience is usually drinking three glasses of wine and reading a book at the bar, but this was acceptable too).

John/Jess/Ian arrived just after I scored the table, and we ordered some v. tasty stuff - the pizza that I usually get (a spicy pepperoni-type pizza), along with a pear pizza that Jess chose (delicious!), and some broccolini that was insanely good. We also got the little arancini balls to start, which I loved, and the whole meal was just about perfect. After, we took Ian out to 'hit the town' (it's super cute when he says it), but he wasn't as in the mood for another bar as we were, so we went back to the hotel and hung out in their room until it was time to say our goodbyes.

And now I should sleep - it's back to the usual grind tomorrow, since they're leaving super early and I have a bunch of stuff to do in preparation for the week/month ahead. Goodnight!

tell the waitress i'll come back to zanzibar

I had a somewhat lazy day at work - meetings mostly straight from 9:30 to 4, but there was still time to mess around and joke about dead plants, have lunch (which turned out to be a meeting), and also participate in a very abbreviated happy hour. But I left at four and got my nails done, which was necessary since I'd been peeling the gel off my fingernails while avoiding getting anything done. Then I came home, ate, prepped my house, texted with [censored], and went out and bought groceries.

This is all necessary because John and Jess and Ian are visiting this weekend (yay!). They got in tonight and are staying at the Boulderado, so I went over there after they got checked in to say hello to them. The hotel is really cool (old Victorian with a working person-operated Otis elevator), and their room is v. nice, so we hung out in it for awhile and ate leftover chips and salsa from the Mexican food they'd picked up on the way. John put Ian down while I talked to Jess, and then eventually Jess went to bed and John and I went down into the basement to have a drink at License No. 1. This is probably my favorite bar in Boulder, since it's rather speakeasy style and has a bunch of intimate interconnected rooms. Tonight was hopping, since they had a live band that was quite good, so John and I had a drink and discussed life, and it was all quite lovely.

But now I should sleep since their child will wake them up v. early and that means we will be having breakfast earlier than one might desire (but at the same time that I usually have breakfast). Goodnight!

wanna put my tender hot in a blender

I should have gone to bed ages ago - I didn't get enough sleep last night, and I appear to be on track to repeat that mistake. But today was fun, and probably way more relaxing/lazy than I deserved. I got up, pulled myself together, and drove down to Denver to see Katie. We had brunch at Revelry, which I'd been to once before (without her, shocking) - they can do their whole menu gluten free, which obviously makes me happy. I had some huevos rancheros that didn't quite do it for me; it was all tasty, but it was smothered in a red sauce that was a little too sweet and not at all spicy, and I would have preferred a chile verde or a chunkier salsa. But it was a v. nice place to have brunch, and it was v. nice to talk to Katie, so #noregrets.

Then I went to her house and hung out for a couple of hours, since I hadn't seen James in awhile and the girls had apparently been wondering if I was ever coming back (they got surprisingly accustomed to me basically living with them last summer). I will probably get sick and die after that since I stole a tater tot from Anne before Katie reminded me that Anne is sick and had sneezed all over it, but we'll see how my immune system holds up...

Then, I should have come home and done a million things around the house, but I wasn't feeling it, so I stopped at the mall on the way back. I didn't buy much after all, but I did pick up some new drinking glasses; while I have a million wine and champagne glasses, I'm down to only five remaining pint-sized tumblers (the striped glasses I bought a decade ago were lovely, but they've slowly attrited over the years). So I got a few new glasses and new placemats at Crate and Barrel, which satisfied my greed for the moment.

I also ate an early dinner at the mall, then came home, messed around online, and took a nap. But I did spend some quality time tonight cleaning my kitchen, changing my sheets, etc., etc. And now it's time for bed - goodnight!

despacito

Seriously too tired to blog...I got a ton of sleep last night, but it wasn't enough, and I need to recuperate some more before the week starts. But I did manage to meander down to Union Street to have brunch at my favorite cafe - Tony was too busy to talk since it's Fleet Week and so everything is insane around there, but he sent me a mimosa and we exchanged phone numbers, so I think we're still friends (I joked about not usually taking phone numbers from married men and he tried and failed to take his wedding ring off, so that was pretty special).

Then I was going to shop around Union/Chestnut, but the crowds were huge and I was in no mood to deal with them, so I went to the airport to pick up my rental car. Unfortunately this turned into a total cluster due to the AirTrain being broken, but I eventually got my car and survived some hideous traffic from SFO to Berkeley. I rendezvoused with John, Jess, and Ian - Ian still can't say 'Auntie Wamp', but he can certainly con me out of half my gelato, so I'm predicting I gave him enough for a major sugar high....

...but that's not my problem, is it? We hung out in a park for awhile, then went to Cesar for some tapas, and then adjourned next door for gelato, and it was all delightful. Then I said my farewells to them and picked up Claudia (aka Santy Claude) in Oakland for second dinner - we went to Nito, which is owned by the Nopalito folks. The wait was a lot shorter than the SF restaurant, and the food was delish - totally different menu, so none of my Nopalito faves were there, but it was tasty regardless. And Claudia, of course, was in fine form.

Then I drove back to SF, eventually found parking for my rental car, and holed up in my hotel so that I can recover some of my introvert/extrovert energy reserves. And now I must sleep - goodnight!

i'm only human after all

I haven't gone two nights without blogging since the silent retreat I went on in Bali - and the last two days have been anything but silent. Monday I awoke in Zach and Maggie's house at a rather early hour so that I could leave when they left - I said goodbye to Maggie and Eddie before eight a.m., but then Zach and I went out for breakfast. This was a lovely end to my weekend - we had crepes and I loaded up on coffee for the drive home, and we also had a meandering conversation about life, books, memories, etc. Then I took him to work, where he showed me around his lab - I saw many wonders, and I was super impressed by his work. However, I'm also happy that I went down the romance novelist path instead of the nematode-counting path, even if he may make major breakthroughs in our understanding of aging mechanisms and I may just make major breakthroughs in coming up with synonyms for penises. #noregrets

After I said goodbye to Zach, I drove home, which took several hours (and a couple of stops for caffeine, bathrooms to deal with the results of caffeine, and snacks to keep me going). I spent the rest of Monday wasting time and eating corn, which is the definition of my usual #smalltownlife antics.

Tuesday, I wasted more time, but didn't eat corn. Instead, I tried and failed to answer emails. I also learned that crickets can eat clothing, which was a "key learning", as they say in corporate America.

Today, I vowed to stay off social media - I need a break, since I clearly did nothing yesterday, mostly because I spent the whole day checking twitter like a fucking addict. And for the most part I succeeded - I still read some news and read some emails, and also got a brief fix from a long convo with Katie, who told me some stuff about current events (and I told her about the Twitter parody of Joel Osteen called Joel Dongsteen, which takes Osteen quotes and replaces 'God' with 'your dick', which yields hilarious results if you hate Joel Osteen as much as I do).

But today felt better than yesterday, since I sent like five emails instead of negative two emails, so that's great. And I drove into town to pick up some groceries, so that also felt like a real accomplishment. And then I spent the evening watching fine CBS programming (the hometown boy on Big Brother made a totally dumb move that will probably cost him his game, but I'm cool with that). And now it's time to sleep - goodnight!

don't belong to no city, don't belong to no man

I'm still at Zach and Maggie's - I'd thought about going home tonight mostly so that I would have a full day there tomorrow, but I decided I didn't want to drive back through vast swathes of rural wasteland in the dark. But we had a lovely day today - Maggie was on call and had to go into the hospital, so Zach and I took Edna to a 'museum' that is basically a gigantic multi-story playground built from an old factory with all kinds of cool places to climb, crawl, jump, and generally burn off energy. Of course, this left me totally exhausted and didn't seem to phase Eddie a bit.

But it meant that Zach and I got some time to talk while she jumped around, so that was great. I also got some solo catch-up time with Maggie while Eddie and Zach both napped later in the afternoon. And we ended it all with a walk to a park (where I nearly nauseated myself on the swings), followed by some tasty Indian-style butter chicken at home.

And now I may contemplate going to bed early so that I can leave when they leave for work and head back to ye olde Iowa - goodnight!

fallen empires and raging bush fires

Way too tired to blog, since I got up at 6:15am (shocking, I know) - but I got up, showered, made coffee, and drove off in search of friendship. And by that I mean that I kept my long-arranged weekend rendezvous with Zach and Maggie (and their daughter Edna, who is an adorable toddler dictator). It took several hours to get to them, but it was worth it - I rolled in around one, and we chatted while she napped before taking her to a circus. Some of it was quite impressive - the tumbling acts were incredible, and the contortionists were highly disturbing (and since Maggie is an endocrinologist, she was guessing which genetic issues they probably had to yield such crazy joint/limb configurations). The elephants, however, were super sad - I would have rather not seen them. And I did wonder what life decisions could possibly take a man down a path toward wearing a sparkly shirt in the middle of a circus tent while herding camels and miniature zebras around in a circle....

...but I'll probably never know the answer to that. After the circus, we came home, ate dinner, read books to Eddie, and then we all passed out as though we're octogenarians in truth rather than just verging on old. And now I'm going to bed for realsies - goodnight!

if you want to destroy my sweater

No blog tonight - I spent the day taking care of business and the evening hanging out with John and Jess (and Ian, who is very close to being able to say 'wamp'). John made a cocktail that was better than I expected it to be (we named it 'walk the dog'), and then we had some wine and some tamales and a lot of conversation on their second-floor deck + in their living room (mostly about life, careers, the pursuit of happiness, and the genetics around quadruple half cousins, as we do).

But now I need to sleep - I'm leaving for Denver relatively early tomorrow, which means leaving Berkeley even earlier in an attempt to survive traffic. Goodnight!

storming through the party like my name is el niño

I had a great day, but I don't want to blog tonight - I need to get off screens and devices and news sources, which is basically the refrain for 2017. I woke up relatively early this morning, did some work, and got a mani/pedi - the nails all looked great until, much later in the day, I tripped over my own sandal and wiped out on the sidewalk, bruising my knee and scraping the paint off my big toe. This is not the first time I've tripped like that and I'm sure it won't be the last, so I brushed the dirt off my shoulders (okay, my knees) and moved on with my life. I also got a bottle of nail polish at Walgreens tonight that is a close-enough substitute for the color that got scraped off, so no one will see my unsightly toe and assume I'm a vagrant.

Anyway, after the mani/pedi, I ran a couple of errands and had a salad at sweetgreens (yum). Then I went back to my temporary abode and worked for a couple of hours, but I slacked off to go shopping with Jess. Jess *never* shops for herself, and I was on a mission to make her buy something (err, facilitate her desire to buy something). So we went down to Fourth Street, explored some clothing shops, explored some even more interesting paper shops, and ended up at Marine Layer, where Jess bought a super cute dress and I got a sweatshirt and a button-down. I also discovered that Nopalito has a cookbook, which is a game-changer! If I could make their food at home, I might never have to come to San Francisco again....

...j/k, I would miss the three of you from SF who read this blog too much to abandon you forever. After we shopped, we went back to the neighborhood and hung out with John and Ian, and I delivered the lemons that Adit had given me to give to them - I'm hopeful that this will turn into limoncello that I can benefit from, but we shall see.

Then I called my parents, and then I spent the rest of the evening working (with a break for Mexican food, since I was craving chips like there's no tomorrow...and maybe there won't be a tomorrow, but I'm not in the mood to think about nukes and Nazis, so I'm going to bed instead). Goodnight!

theme and variation

I'm going to bed asap because I have a million things to do tomorrow and not nearly enough time in which to do them. Today was lovely, though, with some unexpected twists. I spent the morning procrastinating far too long on twitter (news is enraging, particularly coming out of Charlottesville - remind me again how we used to have all sorts of national pride over the fact that we destroyed the Nazis? although since some of the top Nazis got to come to the US and be scientists and military advisors after the war, one could argue we didn't exactly do everything we could to root out Nazi ideology..).

But I managed to put away the twitter, make some coffee, take care of some stuff around the house, and then speed (aka crawl) across the bridge to the evil city. I hadn't seen Katrina on this trip, so we agreed to meet for brunch at Nopalito. This is, of course, one of my favorite places to eat when I'm in the city, and it was great to spend some time there while catching up with her - we went deep on a lot of topics, many of which were amusing/wtf-generating.

When we were done with that + our errands, I dropped her off at a grocery store and said my fond farewells. Then I got my hair cut - I was way overdue for a bang trim, and also ready for some of the layers to be cleaned up, and my stylist (Lauren, whom I adore) did a great job. While I was sitting in her chair, I got a text from Adit/Priyanka suggesting that I stop by - if they'd texted thirty minutes later they would have been out of luck, since I would have gone back to the east bay and categorically refused to drive the bridge again.

So, after my hair was stylish again, I went to their new house - they recently bought a place and are in the middle of getting the permits for a renovation. The house shows a lot of promise, although I'm guessing that the construction will take awhile. But we had a good time hanging out in the backyard talking about life while watching Vihaan trying/not trying to impale himself on various thorns, brambles, scissors, and other instruments of toddler destruction.

Eventually, we took Vihaan home so that his grandmother could start the dinner/bedtime process, and then Adit, Priyanka and I went to Namu Gaji (a Korean place near them that I also really like, although I don't make it there all that often, mostly because it usually has a line). Since today was Outside Lands over in Golden Gate Park, Adit's neighborhood was pretty empty, and they were able to seat us right away. We had a delish stone pot (with a small worm crawling on one of the cucumbers, but we ate the dish anyway) and a couple of other dishes, and we discussed how we're living and how to move faster and what we want to accomplish this year, and it was all v. good.

But we're getting old, and they needed to get back to Vihaan and I wanted to come home and sleep, so I drove back to Berkeley as soon as I left them and was here before 8:30. This means I missed out on potential fun in the city with other fun people (aka Vidya), but I probably need to stay in tonight and get some rest anyway so that I don't sabotage my body for all the stuff I've got coming up.

Speaking of, it's time for bed - goodnight!

we could have had it all

I know I start half my posts with saying that I'm too tired to blog, but tonight it's really true. I spent the morning answering emails, the afternoon shopping for clothes (Berkeley has a surprising number of nice capitalist shops given its hippie reputation), the late afternoon hanging out with John and Ian in their backyard (Ian didn't die despite finding every rake in the bay area), and the evening with my friend Rachael (who taught my Venice retreat). Rachael and I spent copious amounts of time in the hot tub, and when she left I decided to reenter for some alone time under the stars (and by stars I mean fog)...so it's no wonder that I'm wiped out, since white wine and steam will do that to a girl.

And now it's time for bed - I have to pack tomorrow to relocate to a different house on this street since the owners are getting back in the afternoon, and I'll probably have to hide my packing so that Lily doesn't freak out and trigger all her abandonment issues. Wish me luck with that - goodnight!

outgunned, outmanned, outnumbered, outplanned

If you'd asked me three hours ago whether I would still be awake right now, I would have said no. Now that I've typed that, I feel like that could be the title of my memoir: "If you'd asked me three hours ago whether I would still be awake right now, I would have said no: The Sara Wampler Story".

But I stayed awake after all, despite a day that made me sleepy. I spent some quality time walking the dog and eating yogurt and messing around in my bullet journal - I need to get back on track with my tasks and writing, and planning helps with that. I also had a long conversation with my friend Barbara (the one who lives in Colorado), another long conversation with my mom, and a third conversation with a guy I met at RWA who wanted to talk about operations/management stuff (not long, but interesting). Then I took a nap in the sun because #yolo.

But after that, I buckled down, did some work, took care of some house chores, and then went over to say hi to Ian because he was making kissing faces at me through the window (supervised by his nanny, who luckily knows who I am and so didn't call the cops on me). As I was walking over, I ran into John, who was just getting home from work, so we sipped some port and watched Ian walk/crawl around and generally troll us.

Jess eventually got home, and we had dinner (tamales! and a boulevardier for me) before they put Ian to bed and I came back to walk the dog again. They rejoined me later, though, for some hot tub action - but this is all v. sedate, since we are old people and want to go to bed at nine.

Of course, I didn't actually go to bed at nine - I came upstairs, quite relaxed, and then finished reading the book I started the other night (PRIMATES OF PARK AVENUE - pretty good, all in all). And now I muuuuuust sleep - goodnight!