erdy flerdy borg borg borg

I finished the weekend in style, let me tell you. I went to the grocery store relatively early this morning, where I threw money at the problem of tonight's dinner by buying fancy cheeses and jams and wines so that I could hoodwink my guests into thinking I had expended some effort toward the task of entertaining them. Then I went to my favorite mani/pedi place, where I threw money at the problem of trying to look like a real girl instead of a crazed hermit troll. And then, once I looked like a real girl again, I went to the florist and threw money at the problem of trying to make my home look like a home instead of a cave where I hide from sunlight.

sssanyway, after throwing money at a lot of problems, I had a v. late lunch, threw some more money at the problem of not having plaid pants (solved!), and then came home, cleaned my room, folded some laundry, and talked to my parents. And then I prepared for the main event - family dinner to celebrate the launch of my latest book.

Family dinner was the same as always, which meant that it was a special and highly ridiculous evening full of merriment, embarrassment, and general contentment with life. We had a full house (Terry (obvi), Lauren (aka Subz), Nathan, Chandlord (aka Chandlord), John, Jess, and Adit), and the conversation was all v. entertaining (particularly when Nathan, in all seriousness, suggested that I write choose your own adventure romance novels, which left everyone else dying since Adit has been pushing this idea for over four years without Nathan realizing it). Then, to honor (or debase) my book launch, they took turns reading part of one of the sex scenes - this is almost becoming a tradition of sorts, which is v. strange and v. funny. Jess tried an Australian accent (A for Effort), John programmed his section to be read by a Stephen Hawking voice (which will live on in my nightmares forever), Adit critiqued every line as he read it (excruciatingly funny), and Nathan went Swedish Chef on it, which was just bizarre. So, while I was laughing so hard that I was crying, and I might have been crying because hearing a sex scene read out loud makes it all sound weird and uncomfortable, it was all v. funny.

Sadly, though, all things come to an end, and I must sleep so that I can go to work early tomorrow (stupid day job - after tonight, I either want to write Rafe's book immediately or crawl under a rock and hope no one ever reads my sex scenes again (but I think the right answer is Rafe - I happen to like my sex scenes, even if they don't stand up to the Stephen Hawking test)). Goodnight!

when i look at the television, i want to see me staring right back at me

Thorington was pretty much all-consuming today, but it was v. slow going, and I didn't get the word count I'd hoped for. It wasn't for lack of trying, but I need to catch fire tomorrow if I have any hope of sustaining momentum through the week and turning a final draft into my editor next weekend. Since I have afternoon plans tomorrow, it would have been more ideal if I'd caught fire today instead, but c'est la vie.

That said, it wasn't all bad; I'm happy with what I did write, and I feel way more immersed in the story than I did yesterday. I woke up around seven, poured some tea and ate a snack, and worked in bed until almost ten. Then I showered and had breakfast down the street, where I stunned Tony (the owner) and the entire waitstaff by ordering an omelette instead of huevos rancheros. I knew this would stun them, and I had to say as soon as I walked in that I was going to order something else because Tony just starts the huevos as soon as he sees me walk through the door. I love that place. But the omelette was delish, and it didn't put me to sleep like huevos sometimes do, which was critical for my afternoon writing session.

After that, I ran a couple of errands, got a pedicure (and wrote a tiny bit while getting the pedicure, but I mostly just sat there and enjoyed a few minutes of not working), came home, and wrote the rest of the afternoon. But I slacked off around 5:30 to meet up with Kathia - we hadn't seen each other properly in awhile, and so we had a long, leisurely dinner at Des Amis. It was particularly good tonight, both because of the company (okay, almost entirely because of the company), and because we started with a delightful heirloom tomato salad and lingered over coffee at the end.

And then I came home, thought about writing some more, laughed at the thought, and procrastinated instead. But now I must sleep so I can get up early tomorrow and write before my afternoon plans lead me astray - goodnight!

there'll be peace when you are done

I just sent Thorington to my editor. This should probably call for champagne, but I'm going to sleep instead. It's not a complete draft, since what I need her help on is the structure of the last act, but it's better than nothing, and way better than it was a month ago.

Needless to say, today was a long and brutal slog. I got up early to work on my own stuff, then showered, drove down to Mountain View, and did a lot of stuff for the day job. Any day when I don't rage quit is a good day, particularly when I'm dreaming of Thorington when I should be sending work emails. But I left at five, came home, spent fifteen minutes in bed staring at the ceiling and begging myself to let me nap, and then got up and went to Des Amis, where I worked for three and a half hours over a steak and a couple of glasses of wine. I happened to be sitting next to what was possibly the douchiest first date I've ever witnessed (my own included), in which they talked about venture capital and pilot licenses and United Global Services membership and meeting Richard Branson and Christmas in the Caribbean, etc., etc. Ugh. Thorington would not approve.

But perhaps the fact that I just used a fictional character of my own making to judge them says more about me than it does about them. Oops. So I came home, took care of a couple of other things, and sent the draft over to my editor with a long email of questions. And now I must sleep so that I can get up, take some meetings, and generally slog - but I have high hopes that I can maybe take tomorrow night off, which is something I don't really even know the meaning of anymore. Goodnight!

laissez les bon temps rouler

I'm thoroughly exhausted, but I'm delighted to be in New Orleans. Why have I waited ten years to come back?

That could probably be the end of this blog post - and probably should be, since I had considered going to bed an hour and a half ago. But I will continue writing. I woke up at 4:30am, showered, dried my hair, and was out the door exactly on time to meet my 5:15am ride to the airport. All of my travel today was completely smooth, which was v. much appreciated. I also wrote a bit and figured out some crucial stuff with Thorington's book, so now it's all a matter of executing it. And, I happened to be in first class on the way from LAX to New Orleans, and I happened to sit across the aisle from Craig T. Nelson (aka Coach), which was a fairly exciting celebrity sighting. Clearly flying first class out of LAX yields much better results than all the douchebags one might see out of SFO.

Sooo...(no comment on the fact that I fly out of SFO), eventually we arrived in New Orleans. I happened to be on the same flight as Tessa Dare, and so we shared a cab to the hotel and caught up on the way, which was v. nice. Then I took an hour or so to unpack, hang up my clothes, etc., before it was time for dinner with some people I know from twitter. Yes, this is the kind of conference where one gets super excited to go out with people one has never actually seen in person. But I'm really glad we went out; we took a streetcar to the Garden District (the hotel is on the edge of the French Quarter, right on the river) and had a sumptuous feast at Commander's Palace. It's located in an old plantation-style mansion, and the service is super old-school - they have multiple waiters so they can serve all the food at the table at exactly the same time, they swapped out our water glasses halfway through when the ice started to melt, and they brought the girl with a black dress a black napkin instead of a white one so that she wouldn't get lint on her dress. Classy. So classy that I almost felt bad taking photos of all my food for Alyssa, but I did it anyway.

And she may not like what she sees, although I thought it was to die for. I started with a pisco sour (drink of champions, particularly if you like egg whites), had the pork belly appetizer (my favorite thing there, and perhaps my favorite thing this year), their special gumbo for soup (only ate half of it because it was so filling, but it was pork belly + andouille + some other pork product and it was stellar), the shrimp and grits (yummy and gluten free), and a praline parfait of which I could only have a few bites, but it was also amazing. And I switched over and had a v. good glass of zinfandel with my entree, so that was great. All in all, I was super impressed - it was a really fun introduction to New Orleans, and I'm v. much looking forward to eating my way through the city over the next week.

But now I'm going to indulge my jetlag and whatever flour may or may not have been in the gumbo and go to bed so that I can hit it hard tomorrow - goodnight!

and the walls come tumbling down in the city that we love

I had a v. v. hermity weekend - probably the most hermity weekend I've had this year (or at least this month). I did leave the house to go to Philz Coffee this morning, which was exciting, but I came back at eleven and spent the rest of the day subsisting on peanut butter and leftover chicken while attempting to get some work done. What I wrote turned out pretty well, but my mind kept wandering (likely because I got < 6hrs of sleep thanks to my inadvertent Civilization marathon last night - and like an addict I'm getting the shakes to turn it on again, but that way lies ruin). So I only wrote 6-8 pages, which doesn't feel like enough given how long I slogged.

But I know that's how it goes, particularly when I'm writing rough draft. I did take a quick nap, and I talked to my parents, who were even more entertaining than usual. And I cleaned the kitchen and tidied up downstairs, and took care of the disaster that was my makeup bag - in case you were curious, spilling half a bottle of hair smoothing liquid in it does not do good things for it, so I had quite the mess on my hands (which is why I went to Sephora yesterday, since my eyeshadow brush and makeup bag were both beyond salvation).

And now, I'm going to bed at the absurdly early hour of 9:30 so that I can get up at 5:30 and write before work - goodnight!

or maybe this is stuck up in the air

Soooo...I'm in Minneapolis. This was not the plan. But my flight from Milwaukee to Minneapolis was delayed four hours, which was so long that it ate up all of my originally-absurdly-long layover in Minneapolis, and I missed the SFO flight because it was for once in its life on time. Stupid. So I'm staying in another Crowne Plaza hotel, provided by the lovely folks at Delta, and I must wake up in <7hrs so that I can shower, put on something I've already worn, and go back to the airport to try again. And then I must go home and start working straightaway on day job stuff, which seems cruel and unfair.

But today was a great end to my vacation/writing life/whatever this last week has been, if you don't count the travel issues. I checked out of the hotel and had brunch with the readers I hung out with last night - they're a really fun bunch, and it was cool to see some more of Milwaukee (and discover that they have all you can eat breakfast buffets with custom omelette bars for $12, which is like the price of a mimosa in San Francisco). A couple of them dropped me off at the airport after, where my ridiculous travel odyssey began. But I bought a day pass to the Delta club lounge so that I could write in blissful peace, which worked perfect - I had a glass of wine and wrote six or eight pages of Thorington's story, and I think the last little issue with the plot fell into place. So I'm feeling quite swell about that, even if I have millions of words to write and rewrite before the end.

And now I should go to bed so that I can wake up tomorrow and feel somewhat refreshed (until I put on dirty clothes and have to schlep myself back to the airport). Goodnight!

collect your things, you're coming with me

Today was mostly uneventful; it rained off and on all day, which felt rather dreary (I suppose I could dress it up and call it 'atmospheric', but dreary is more accurate). But I had breakfast shortly after my parents did, then messed around online, showered, and did a bit of work and took a meeting for the day job. After that, I contemplated Thorington all afternoon and actually wrote three pages that I'm pretty pleased with. I wish it had been thirty, but at least I'm getting back into it. Then I took a brief nap, ate supper with the parents (steak and potatoes, supper of champions), and went to a meeting with my mother. We got home around 9:45, and I was supposed to write for the past two hours, but instead I went down a rabbit hole of royal family photos. Oops.

But hopefully I'll get some writing done tomorrow, in the midst of my other family activities - goodnight!

when you look into my eyes and you see the crazy gypsy in my soul

I continue to make slow, tortured progress on Thorington's book - not nearly as fast as I would like, nor are the words flowing yet, but I've been drafting things out in my notebook and that seems to be helping. But I got ten hours of sleep last night, and I did some good work this afternoon and evening, so that's all nothing to sneeze at.

But after a full day of staring at my screen and procrastinating on Twitter and writing cryptic notes to myself in my notebook, along with a meeting for the day job and some tasty food (leftover bratwurst for lunch, roast beef and potatoes for supper), I think it's time to sleep and plan to hit it better and harder tomorrow. Staying off social media will be key, and I think I need to take a walk or get some other form of fresh air, but we shall see. Goodnight!

just know that these things will never change for us at all

I must go to bed immediately if I'm to accomplish the impossible dream of getting eight and a half hours to sleep tonight and still being able to write before work. Today was good, albeit odd; it started with an ultrasound to rule out any other abdominal causes for my general stomach woes (verdict: they didn't find anything, which I take to mean that they didn't find anything abnormal and not that they failed to find any organs in my belly). So I left covered in gel and debating what other causes could explain my issues (options: hypochondria, general craziness, stress, exotic parasites, some food intolerance beyond gluten which will require a lot of annoying experimentation). I pondered that question while eating a late breakfast at Joanie's; I should have gone straight to the office, but I hadn't been able to eat or drink anything before the ultrasound and was totally starving, and work wasn't serving food at the time I would have gotten back to campus. And Joanie's took less than 30mins since it was early in the morning, and it was a much-welcomed break.

After that, I went to the office and slogged relentlessly for several hours. After my last meeting of the day, I took thirty minutes to get a latte and sit in the sun, and then I slogged for another hour or two before calling it and driving home. When I got here, I thought about working, but instead I did some laundry, made some chili, and talked to Terry. And now I'm going to sleep and hopefully dream of Thorington - I think I figured out a major plot issue while sitting in the sun with my latte, and I hope that realization survives the cold light of dawn. Goodnight!

oh girl you stand by me

Today was another v. long, entirely work-filled day. I woke up at 6:30 and wrote for an hour before my eight a.m. meeting, so at least I snuck in some progress for Thorington. Then I had meetings from eight to ten at home, then sped down to Palo Alto and trained with Alyssa, then grabbed a quick shower, and then had lunch and coffee with John at our place of work. I ate lentils, which is v. unusual for me, but the coffee (New Orleans-style iced coffee with chicory and milk) was to die for. Then I had meetings from two to five, followed by what was supposed to be some work time but instead turned into a two and a half hour powwow with someone I work with (good, but exhausting since I was starving and rapidly decaffeinated). Then I drove home, ate the pizza Terry had ordered while watching some tv with her, and then did some more work for the last half hour.

Tomorrow promises to be more of the same - I'm going to try to get up and write before work, but I have to slog brutally the rest of the day. Boo. Goodnight!

the time has come to push the button

I'm working my way into a much better place with Callie and Thorington, and I even took some time to relax today, so that's all v. surprising. I woke up at some relatively early (for me) hour, had brunch, came home, did some bookkeeping and housekeeping stuff, and then wasted time and messed around on the internet for longer than I had intended. I also wrote in my journal, so that's something, but I was having trouble focusing at home. So I walked over to Rapha, where I drank an iced latte and contemplated Callie and Thorington for quite some time. It was still slow going, so I adjourned to Des Amis, where a couple of glasses of wine and some delightful conversation with all the people I now know there helped to lubricate the words. So I wrote 5-7 pages of background stuff about Callie's family, and I think I may have finally figured out what I needed to figure out in order to move the story forward more satisfactorily.

The Puritanical part of me tried to force myself to come home and answer email or do business stuff or try to write, but the part of me that is attempting to be sane instead put on my nightgown and crawled into bed with a historical mystery novel. SHOCKING, I KNOW. Even more shocking, the part of me that is trying to be sane put it down at the start of chapter ten, rather than letting me stay up until one a.m. to finish it and thus wrecking myself for the morning. I may not be very good at this relaxing business, but when I try I occasionally succeed. And now I'm going to go to bed and pray that I can write an actual scene of the book tomorrow - wish me luck. Goodnight!

oats in the water

I am inexpressibly glad to not have to go to work for the next two days...until I remember that I need to write a book this weekend, which doesn't make for particularly relaxing contemplation. Today was productive, if nothing else; I only had two meetings, which meant I was able to get through the 400+ emails that had been lingering in my inbox for days (er, weeks). And I met up for a chat with the big boss (remember her?), since we hadn't caught up in a year or so and I was feeling long overdue for some catch-up. She was in fine form, and I left feeling happy even if it made me miss working for her all over again.

After that, I abandoned the office, picked up John, and took him back to the city as a carpool buddy/involuntarily sounding board for all of my woes. Then I got my bangs trimmed and my brows waxed. And then I came home, laid in bed for awhile because I was burned out on talking, and then had sushi with Terry, during which we discussed a wide variety of tings and may have fixed Thorington's plot. And now I must go to bed - goodnight!

all of the lights

Thorington and I are not friends right now.

That would probably suffice as a blog post, actually, since it tells you all you need to know about my day without getting into the mundanities of it. I wasn't feeling well and continue to need way too much sleep, so I slept until 8:30 or so, messed around online, and went out to grab food. I was going to write somewhere outside the house, but I took one look at Union Street and all the young things dressed in green and getting drunk for St Patrick's Day, and it made me wish that I had brought my Ides of March-style knife rage out to kill them all. But since I don't want to go to prison for killing bros (or for anything else, for that matter), I decided to retreat to my room and contemplate Thorington in solitude rather than in the midst of a massive pub crawl.

But Thorington was not cooperating, nor was my brain excited by the tasks at hand, so I did some desultory bookkeeping-type stuff and kept procrastinating. I left the house once to mail some stuff and buy flowers, and then I left another time to buy a croissant for my daily gluten intake, and both times made me feel temporarily better but didn't get me totally back in the game. Finally, I met Kathia at Nectar, where we commiserated over how much pain we're both in, and I was able to write up what I needed to write up to send to my editor tonight.

She left around 7:30, and then I worked until Terry showed up at 8:15 for my 'vacation' (which is a v. sad, v. sobering way of saying I took two hours off-off today) (and the fact that I call it 'off-off' instead of 'off', as though I need to designate when I'm really not working vs. when I'm pretending to not be working, is probably worrisome). So I had another glass of wine with her and we caught up on all the usual subjects after several days of not really seeing each other. Then we came home, I did a bit of work to clean up what I needed to send to my editor, and I got it off to her a few minutes ago. That means I can sleep as much as I want tonight without feeling guilty, and I think I'll do some non-writing in the morning (probably bookkeeping, since I'm seeing my CPA next week, but as that doesn't require writing new scenes, I think it's practically like relaxing) before considering Thorington again in the afternoon. Goodnight!

love lies bleeding

I had a really long, often brutal day, but it was exactly the day I signed up for and so I'm really pleased with it despite the pain. I got a full eight hours of sleep, which was v. necessary, and then I threw on some yoga pants (yes, I'm one of those girls now) and joined Kathia in the lounge for breakfast. We paid to have all-day access to the club lounge, which turned out to be the best decision ever because there were lots of tables and couches to work at, a steady stream of new and interesting foods, and endless champagne/wine/alcohol on hand. I was a good girl and limited myself to tea and coffee until mid-afternoon, but the white wine saved my life later in the day when I was staring down at the blank page and trying to figure out what to say next. Also, they made me a gluten free roast beef sandwich with a nice kick to it, which may have been the best sandwich I've ever had, so they've won my heart forever.

So we wrote all morning, and then I took a break to go outside for some fresh air, followed by a rejuvenating shower. This place is totally gorgeous, btw; I saw multiple rainbows over the ocean this morning, including a great double rainbow, which was super cool. Then I wrote for another three hours in the afternoon, at which point my brain was melting. So I went downstairs and sat in an adirondack chair and watched the ocean for half an hour while a bagpiper (yes, a bagpiper) played. Then I repainted my nails, rendezvoused with Kathia, and had supper in the bar - Alyssa would be happy to know that I chose the awesome roasted chicken, although she would be unhappy to know that I had Bailey's later (if she knew what Bailey's was, which is perhaps doubtful). After supper, we wrote for another couple of hours. But at 9:45ish we were both beyond done. So now I'm lying in bed, watching a fake fire on the television, and contemplating whether to read for a little bit or go to sleep.

But I wrote almost twenty pages of Thorington's book today - I would have hit twenty, but I decided to stop writing and instead plot out what I think needs to happen in the rest of the book. I'm feeling good(ish) about it, although I have a shit-ton of work to do before it's done. But that's a stressful thought for another day - goodnight!

see the light, touch the light, we're together now

I'm in full-on crazy writer mode now. Or maybe I'm not entirely in full-on crazy mode; I allowed myself to take a nap and get a mani/pedi today, so it could definitely be worse. But I got up in time to meet Kathia at 7:15 (okay, I got there at 7:30) for a writing date, which is totally crazy-town given how tired I was last night and how little I enjoy getting up in the morning. But it was worth it, since I typed up what I'd written in my notebook and wrote a couple of pages before vacating the coffeeshop for my mani/pedi appointment.

The middle part of my day involved some much-needed downtime; I got my manicure and pedicure, and my nails look lovely even if I forsook the gel polish in favor of not getting melanoma from the UV light used to cure it. Then I went to Caffe Union and had huevos while reading part of the Lonely Planet guidebook for Devon and Cornwall - I'm not going there anytime soon (although the guidebook made me want to throw everything away and go there immediately), but my next series is set there, so I was looking up facts and towns and photos. Then I came home and took a much-needed and mostly-deserved nap before talking to my parents for an hour.

But after I was off the phone, it was showtime again. So I rendezvoused with Kathia and we wrote for a couple more hours. I'm making progress, even if I'm so far from done that it makes me feel vaguely ill (yes, I know that's nonsensical; no, I'm probably not going to be able to calm down and enjoy my many and varied accomplishments instead of beating myself up for not being able to write four books a year). But Thorington and Callie (that's his heroine) are amazing together, so I think I'm just going to have to skip the scenes where there not together and figure all that out later. I probably should have kept writing, but instead we went to Izzy's for prime rib, and I had an entertaining conversation with her and her husband while being plied with wine by their favorite waiter.

And now I am going to go to bed so that I can get eight and a half hours or so and then try to write before work - wish me luck. Goodnight!

forty-seven heartbeats beating like a drum

I'm exhausted and had hoped to be in bed an hour ago, but the fabulous writer life kept me up. And by that I mean 'dear God, why would anyone ever want to be a writer?!'. J/k. But that is what Kathia and I asked each other when we met up at ~7:30am (it was supposed to be 7) for a writing date. I mean, really, why would anybody be so dumb as to pursue this on top of a day job that actually pays pretty well and perfectly matches one's interests? Only idiots would do that.

sssanyway. I wrote five pages of Thorington's book before peacing out and taking the shuttle south. Then I slogged for many hours, although I took a 'break' to attend an interesting talk on women and negotiation. Then I went to a 'wine Wednesday' event at work solely because Gloria Ferrer was the featured winery - they make my favorite champagne (aka sparkling wine), and have a lovely vineyard in Sonoma that I took my parents to way back in the day. So I had approximately one more glass than I should have had, along with the food being served (an amazing risotto and some decent mahi mahi, with chocolate covered strawberries for dessert), and hung out with a couple of my coworkers for a couple of hours. Then I sat with my personal laptop and was going to write, but instead messed around with metadata for an hour until I felt completely safe to drive home.

And now I desperately need to sleep - I have to train with Alyssa tomorrow, and my alarm is going to go off much too soon. Goodnight!

i watched the mighty skyline fall

I had intended to be in bed hours ago, but I actually went out tonight (shocker), so my plan to get adjusted to east coast time is not destined for success. But today was great, albeit frigid. I slept until 9ish, took my time getting ready, and then decided to walk from my hotel to the place where I was supposed to meet Parisa for brunch. This was good for my plan to walk a lot while in NYC, but bad for my body temperature, since the walk was at least two and a half miles and I was freezing the entire time. But it was a good excuse to stop in at Nordstrom Rack and get an awesome cashmere scarf for 60% off, so I'll take it.

Brunch was worth it, though; Parisa and I went to Northern Spy, which I'd been to with Ritu once before, and the food was delish. I had a chicken sandwich (sans the bread) with green salsa and a poached egg on top, along with some tasty homefries and a grapefruit ginger mimosa. And Parisa was in fine form; she had just gotten back from the same trip that Kathia was on for the past couple of weeks, so she was v. tan and generally entertaining. After brunch, we worked together for awhile at a cafe down the street, where I kept trying to make progress on Thorington, but it was slow going.

So I came back to the hotel, sat around when I should have been napping, and talked to my parents in lieu of our usual conversation tomorrow. I learned more than I want to know about scours, if that tells you anything (which it probably doesn't, if you're not familiar with the digestive systems of cattle). Then I rallied and went to a French bistro for dinner, where I felt like I was cheating on Des Amis with a lowrent but convenient whore. I mean, it wasn't exactly cheap, but it wasn't Des Amis either. Still, the atmosphere was nice (although they did play "I'm Too Sexy" at some point, which I found odd), and I had escargots and a steak, and I had two glasses of wine, and I wrote about five pages of Thorington. So that was all v. lovely and totally perfect.

I really just wanted to go to bed at that point, since it was nine p.m. But I had told my friend Vivi (aka Sarah) that I was in town, since she recently moved here from Alaska, and she had invited me to a houseparty she and her roommates were having in Harlem. And I felt like I should go since I really wanted to see her, even though I had less than zero desire to go that far from my hotel. But I rallied again, took the subway up to her place (which was really pretty convenient, even though it took more time than I wanted to devote to this task), and spent an hour at her party. And by 'party' I mean that we sat in her room and talked while the party continued in the rest of the house. But around midnight I let her go back to her other guests, and I made it back to my hotel without losing an appendage to frostbite or my purse to a mugger, so it was all great.

And now I must sleep if I'm to have more fun tomorrow - goodnight!

but it's sad and it's sweet and i knew it complete when i wore a younger man's clothes

It's not quite ten p.m. at home, but it's almost one a.m. in my current undisclosed location (okay, you twisted my arm - it's New York), so I'm going to try to go to bed so that I can start adjusting to east coast time. I had to come to NYC for a work trip next week, and I decided to come a couple of days early so that I wouldn't waste a weekend day on a plane. I think this was a good decision; I did some day job stuff on the plane, but I also worked on Thorington, and I had a critical breakthrough that may help me to get over my current block. The morning was a little stressful, since I didn't get out of bed until eight, I hadn't packed or folded laundry or done any of the other million things on my to-do list, and I needed to leave home by 10:30. But I managed to make it, and I don't think I forgot anything serious, so it was all good.

I got into Newark around nine p.m. EST, and then I took a town car (thanks, employer) to my hotel in Manhattan. Once here, I realized I was hungry and also realized I would freeze to death if I went outside, so I had a slightly overpriced hamburger at the hotel restaurant and worked on Thorington for another hour or two. And now, I'm going to sleep - the weekend promises to be a lot of fun, since I have grand plans to write a million words and hang out with Claudia (aka Santy Claude - don't tell her I said that), so I want to get some sleep in preparation for the shenanigans. Goodnight!

now is your time and you know where you stand

I really need to go to bed, but today was mostly great from a health standpoint even if it wasn't great from a productivity standpoint. Actually, scratch that; I spent almost three and a half hours commuting, so that totally sucked. But while I was at the office, I spent a couple of quality hours cleaning off my desk - I realized that I hate working in that space and I needed to do something about it, so I attempted to fix it by cleaning everything and getting rid of stuff. Yes, I'm still in purge mode. I feel pretty good about the new layout, so that's good, even if my team probably now thinks I'm secretly planning to quit.

After that, I had lunch with Chandlord and Heather (aka dear respected madam), which was awesome. Then I had some meetings, which was less awesome. Then I drove home, which was terrible. But when I got here, I adjourned to someplace down the street (ten points if you can guess where I went), where I had yet another steak and did some seriously good brainstorming for Thorington's book. It's shaping up better than it was a week ago, so hopefully I can start writing someday soon. But I got slightly tipsier than I had planned since the waiter poured me an extra glass of wine for the road (free of charge, and also I was walking, so it wasn't really an endangering move), which means I was slightly less productive than I had planned when I got home. But I made some more progress organizing my room, and I'm hoping that I can be totally done this weekend, barring disasters or laziness.

And now I really must go to bed if I want to get eight hours tonight - goodnight!

maybe if i leave tonight i won't come back

I'm way tireder than I had intended to be tonight, as evidenced by the fact that I said 'tireder'. Last night was enough fun that it was totally worth it, but even though I thought I had behaved myself reasonably well, I woke up this morning feeling like death. That could be partially because I only got five and a half hours of sleep - in retrospect I should have canceled my writing date and slept in, but I'm eager to get cracking on Thorington's story, so I held to my commitment.

I probably shouldn't have; halfway there I realized I'd forgotten my headphones, which is a rookie move, and my fountain pen was out of ink. I don't think that even qualifies as a #firstworldproblem, but it's certainly an unusual one. However, I got some good brainstorming in, and I think I'm getting marginally closer to understanding at least enough about Thorington and the as-yet-unnamed heroine to start plotting the book.

But after writing, I was in desperate need of sustenance, so I went out for a steak-filled brunch with Kathia. Then I came home, attempted to rally for a party I was supposed to go to, and instead slept for two hours because I'm a flaky octogenarian instead of a hip thirty-something who honors her commitments. Stupid. I think the real issue, though, is that I'm still coming off the book-release adrenaline + the stress of my thanksgiving travels + the general annoyances I've had at the day job recently, and when I'm in an overly stressed mode, my first instinct is to hunker down, clear my head, and fix all my problems. If I were more balanced I would have gone out just to get out of my own head, and perhaps I'll do that this week - but this weekend, I'm feeling the desperate need to sleep, clean, and brainstorm before I go crazy.

So anyway, I slept for a couple of hours, and then spent the rest of the day cleaning out my closet, obsessing over my sales rankings, and making chili for me and Terry. I'm nowhere near done with my closet, but I cleared out all my drawers and went through half the hanging stuff, which leaves my shoes and the boxes on the top shelf as the main task for tomorrow. But now, I'm going to read a bit and then go to bed - goodnight!