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!

she's holding her tonic like a cross

I spent most of today aggressively working toward the goal of getting on a plane to New Orleans tomorrow without leaving anything behind, and also while looking like a semi-polished semi-professional. I think I mostly succeeded; I got up at seven (since when did I start getting up at seven on weekends? especially after cocktails?) and took care of a variety of tings around the house (mostly folding clothes - I think I need a wardrobe mistress someday). Then I packed two suitcases full of stuff; my actual clothing would come close to fitting in a carry-on, but with the 25 or 30 books I have to take + other types of swag and giveaways, my bags are overloaded with stuff.

But that's all boring and you're skimming now, so allow me to move on. I grabbed a late brunch and chatted up the owner of my favorite breakfast place, who is v. entertaining. Then I got a mani/pedi; I had told myself repeatedly to just get a regular manicure, but I succumbed to the siren's call of gel, which will last for at least two weeks and make me lovely even as my hands turn wizened and my cancer risk increases. But since hermits don't go outside enough to get UV-based skin cancer, I think this is probably an acceptable risk. Then I came home, called my parents (happy mother's day to the woman from whom I get my inability to take compliments!), finished packing, and crossed a whole bunch more stuff off my to-do list.

I did take a break, though; it's Sunday and we were overdue for family dinner, so we made it happen. John had originally suggested Nopalito, but I called later than I should have (they don't take reservations but they allow calling ahead to be put on the waitlist) and the wait was two and a half hours for a party of seven. Stupid. So we sat around Katrina's place trying to make a decision, ultimately walked to Nopalito anyway and probably annoyed/confused the greeter, and then gave up our place on the waitlist and went to Little Chihuahua instead. This was all as ridiculous as you might expect from a family dinner, particularly one with good turnout (John, Jess, Adit, Priyanka, Katrina, and Katrina's guest Chris, who was only hanging out with us because it wasn't time for 'Game of Thrones' yet). But I'm glad we made it happen, particularly since John and Jess are going to Europe shortly after I come back from NOLA and so I probably won't see them until August. Sadness.

And now I must sleep, since I'm likely to only get six hours before I have to wake up and go to the airport - wish me luck! I'll be in Sara Ramsey mode all week, so prepare yourself. Goodnight!

forget about what i said

I had a great day, even though I need approximately fifty hours of work time to catch up on the tasks I need to do, not even counting finishing the book. But I got some sleep, ate some breakfast, did some general administrative work, and then ran a few errands in the neighborhood (mostly mailing a package and buying lunch). Lunch turned out to be dangerous since I discovered that the deli where I usually get chicken and sweet potatoes also has a gluten free focaccia and other breads for gluten free sandwiches. You may not remember this about me, but I love sandwiches. So I got a sandwich with chicken, pepperjack, some sort of spicy chipotle spread, etc., and it was incredible.

Or maybe I would have thought anything was incredible in my burned-out state. So I threw in the towel and went to get a massage at the place that Kathia goes to. We were supposed to meet there and enjoy some relaxation first, but the directions from their website were confusing and I ended up trapped into getting on the approach to the Golden Gate Bridge (luckily, I was able to get off at the last SF exit, but still). So instead of having twenty minutes before my appointment, I had four. But the spa is probably the best one I've ever been to, so it was worth the stress of getting there.

After relaxing, I came home, took a shower, did my makeup, tried on a whole bunch of clothes for my upcoming trip, etc. Then I met Kathia again for a birthday celebration; her husband had made other plans even though her birthday was today, so I got her all to myself. We went to Comstock with the intention of writing but instead talked for two hours over gin (me) and templeton (her). Then we went to our dinner reservation at 5a5, which was super fancy and delicious.

But now I really desperately need to sleep if I'm going to get everything done tomorrow that I need to get done before going to New Orleans - goodnight!

baby when i'm yelling at you it's not your fault

If you've been tracking my blog over the past couple of weeks, a) I'm sorry and b) you can guess that I worked excessively today. Luckily I worked from home, so at least I didn't have to drive to Mountain View. But I was really unfortunately busy from 8:30 to 4:30, at which point I slacked off and went downtown to get my haircut and get my eyebrows waxed. But my fabulous blowout was wasted on the empty shell of my apartment, to which I returned after the haircut so that I could work some more. And I pretty much worked on writing stuff for the last five hours, with a break to eat a frozen enchilada (dinner of champions).

But I'm happy with what I accomplished, even if I stayed up too late and probably burned out my brain for tomorrow's tasks. Wish me luck - I need to write, but I also need to pack and organize for New Orleans and take care of a million other things on my to-do list. Goodnight!

nothing's unconditional

I'm super sleepy, as I have been all week. I'm pretty sure Alyssa is trying to murder me, if the last two workouts have been any indication. But I survived again today, and I managed to shower and get a juice at work before beginning the perpetual slog. It wasn't all awful, though; I had lunch with a coworker who was visiting from NYC, and I got in a ten minute walk in the sun on either side of it, so that was nice. Also, I got promoted (yes, I'm buring the lede) -- I knew about the promo last week, but it wasn't announced until this week. So I must be doing something right. It almost makes up for the fact that I'm a workaholic with no significant social life.

After my last meeting ended at four, I slacked off and met Heather (aka dear respected madam) for 'tea', which turned into us drinking water while sitting in some rocking chairs and staring at the new meditation garden. Our conversation wasn't particularly meditative, especially when we discussed werewolf erotica, but it was wonderful to see her. We parted ways around 5:30 and I went into a building to eat some cereal before making the long trek home (made potentially longer because Obama was in the area and so a bunch of roads were closed). And then Heather showed up there with Salim in tow, since he'd come to pick her up, and so we hung out for another 45mins or so.

But finally it was time to come back to the city of sin, and I miraculously made it home in an hour, which is good for a Thursday and great for the carpocalypse that Obama's visits cause. When I got here, Terry and I attempted to go to Tortilla Heights, only to find that it's permanently closed (disaster!). So we went to Mezes instead and had delicious greek food, which was probably more Alyssa-approved even if I did order a Coke.

And now I must sleep so I can recommence the slog tomorrow - goodnight!

she's got a boyfriend anyway

There is nothing that I can blog about tonight; it's all either boring (isn't it always?) or strange interpersonal stuff that I don't blog about since I'm no longer 21 and stupid (my blog would probably be much more interesting if I didn't censor this stuff, but you're out of luck). I spent the day slogging, then had champagne at work (not as glamorous as it sounds), then came home and ate a frozen tamale (exactly as glamorous as it sounds, particularly when you drop some of it into your cleavage).

And now I must go to bed and repeat it all tomorrow, although I sincerely hope I get out of there earlier and also get some actual non-meeting work done and also get some writing done. Dream the impossible dream, Sara. Goodnight!

i woke up like this

Another brutal slog...I managed to get nine hours of sleep last night, and then I squandered it by working excessively today. I woke up at 6:30, put on some workout clothes, made some tea, and wrote for an hour before starting the day job. Then I took two hours of meetings from home, dashed down to the south bay, and trained with Alyssa. I don't know what I did to earn her enmity, but I swear she tried to kill me today. I survived her machinations, although I'll likely be sore tomorrow. Then I showered, grabbed a salad and some juice, and slogged for the day job until six.

At that point I was beyond done, so I drove home. But the drive gave me an odd sort of second wind (or at least a renewed desire to write), so I went to Des Amis and wrote for an hour over steak (and a coke, since I had promised Alyssa to only drink once this week - stupid). All told, I got six pages today, which is pretty good for a school night. But now I'm totally wiped out. So I came home, stared at the wall, folded my laundry, washed my face, picked out an outfit for tomorrow since I'm going to be too wrecked when I get up at six a.m. to contemplate clothing, and wrote this blog post. And now I must sleep - goodnight!

perfect blue buildings

All work and no play is making me incredibly dull, so I wore the shiniest dress in my closet today in an effort to spice up my nonexistent life. It mostly worked, although the morning didn't go quite as planned; as I did last week, I tried to get up at 5:30 to write, and instead messed around and didn't get out of the house until 6:50. Oops. But I made it to work a little before eight with the intention of writing for an hour, but instead I went to my favorite breakfast cafe and got an omelette and kind of messed around with the manuscript without accomplishing anything of substance. Double oops.

But by the time I felt like rectifying that, it was time for my meetings to start, and I basically had meetings straight until five p.m. Then I should have worked or written, but instead I came home and had dinner with Terry, whom I hadn't seen for a week. It was a v. lowkey affair at Roam, which was lowkey until some crazy guy came in, which was all v. bizarre. Then we came home, I thought about writing and instead took care of some writing business stuff (aka ordered some gift bags and read up on the Met gala on tumblr), and now I'm going to try to get nine hours of sleep so that I feel slightly more human 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!

top down ac with the cooling system

So, today got off to a decent start, and I got quite a bit of writing done. But then I got a massage (which was necessary), went to Sephora (necessary only in the loosest sense of the word), procrastinated, and made the mistake of starting a game of Civilization, which I somehow just played without moving for the last five hours. I had no idea it was two a.m.; I thought it was perhaps 12:30. Damn. So now I must go to bed immediately, get up whenever I wake up in the morning, and try to make up for lost time. Goodnight!

until the dust settles around us

Today was a long and brutal slog; so long and brutal that I didn't shower, which is somewhat rare for me (although perhaps not as rare as it should be). I woke up early and wrote for an hour, then immediately started day job stuff - while the downside of working from home is that I have limited food supplies compared to the veritable cornucopia at the office, at least I can transition from writing to working without an hour and a half of sitting in the car in between those tasks.

And so I slogged quite aggressively until around five p.m., when it became clear that no one else was online and it was time to call it quits. Then I switched out of yoga pants and into a dress and went to my favorite French place, where I had two (ish - they brought me an extra bit at the end) glasses of wine, a steak, some quality time with my favorite manager, and a bit of rereading of Amelia and Malcolm's story. It's going up for an advertisement in a few weeks and I decided that it was time to reproofread it now that two years (!) have gone by and I'm more likely to catch stuff. It's a bit painful since there's stuff I would definitely change now, but the proofing itself is fine and there are some things I still love about that story, so that's good.

But now I really must sleep if I'm going to make progress on Thorington tomorrow - goodnight!

glycerine

No blog tonight, too much work has fried my wits and rendered me completely incapable of coming up with anything interesting (unlike all those other nights, when I'm soooo fascinating). Better luck getting something from me tomorrow - goodnight!

don't forget me when i'm gone

No time to blog - I worked nonstop today, which was all rather tragic. I tried to get up at 5:30 to write, but instead laid in bed until 6:15. At that point I realized that showering would put me into the commute death zone, so I threw some clothes in a bag, drove to work in under an hour, and showered at the office. Then I wrote for forty minutes while drinking a free iced latte (life is hard). Then I had meetings straight from nine a.m. to five p.m. And then I went for an impromptu drinks/appetizers thing with some women from work, which was v. unexpected and meant that I didn't get through everything I meant to do tonight.

But I got home at nine, and then spent the last two hours working to make up for going out. And now I must sleep so that I can get up and train with Alyssa in the morning before repeating my meeting marathon - goodnight!

can't live without your love

I must go to bed immediately; I'm pretty sure I had gluten tonight, I didn't sleep well last night, and I have grand plans to get up at 5:30 and write before work. Yes, I'm crazy. Today was mostly okay, but I'm drowning in day job stuff and also trying to write like mad, so I got up and wrote before work, then worked a bit, then trained with Alyssa, and then slogged brutally until 5:30. Then I met a coworker for an earlyish dinner; she's also a writer, but we know each other because we work in the same general area of the business, and since she was in town for the week we decided to get together.

So that was nice, since I like connecting with other writers and she's quite enjoyable. But I didn't get home until 8:30, and my jetlagged, gluten-filled body needs a break. Goodnight!

now you're just somebody that i used to know

I'm totally exhausted, and I need to go to bed immediately if I'm going to succeed in doing anything tomorrow. Today was a bit brutal since I spent the first half of it on a plane, scrunched into a dreaded middle seat since I'd lost my prime aisle seat in yesterday's flight delay debacle. But I wrote a few pages of Callie and Thorington, so at least there's that. We got to SF without incident, and I grabbed a taxi, came home, immediately went out to eat something for lunch since I had no groceries, and then came home and worked on day job stuff from 12:30 to 7ish. Then I started designing some swag stuff for New Orleans (which I should have done ages ago) until it was time for dinner with Terry. We went to the newish Mexicanish place near us, which was pretty tasty even if I would have potentially preferred something less authentic and more cheesy. But it was good to see Terry on the one night we overlapped between my trip and hers, so that's good.

And now I must sleep - 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!

hey little sister, what have you done

I meant to be in bed two hours ago...and I also meant to write a lot today. Both of those were probably pipe dreams, since I had my event all day today, but a girl can dream. However, the event was super awesome. I had seven people at my table, six of whom had specifically reserved to sit with me and one of whom was so laughably not interested that it made for good fodder for everyone else. And the group was really fun, so the conversation was great. After the luncheon, there was a book signing, and I sold out my books in the first twenty minutes, which was both gratifying and frustrating (gratifying to sell out quickly, frustrating because I probably could have sold another four or five books if B&N had ordered more).

Then, I had intended to hole up and write all night. But the opportunity presented itself to go out for dinner with some of the readers from my table + their friends, which meant I could see more of Milwaukee than this airport hotel, so I jumped at it. We had tasty Mexican food with a ridiculously large margarita, and then went to a pretty cool bar where an irish coffee sounded like a good idea (it's really cold here). The group was super fun, and it's cool to start getting to know people; two of the women were a mother/daughter I had met randomly at RomCon in Denver two years ago, and they were the ones who had recommended that their friends sit at my table. So all the little steps I've been taking to meet people and get my name out there seem to be working, even if it feels horribly mercenary to say that.

But now I'm desperate for sleep; I need to write in the morning before packing and having brunch and going to the airport, so wish me luck. Goodnight!

she's always a woman to me

I'm in Milwaukee at this reader event, after a rather boring day of travel. I woke up early this morning so that I could finish packing and have breakfast with the family before [censored] took me to the airport in Des Moines. So I waved goodbye to my parents at home rather than at the airport; hopefully I'll make it back sometime this summer. [censored] got me to the airport right on time, which was still way too early since it took all of ten minutes to check my bag and get through security (I love the Des Moines airport). So I sat around there, sat around on the plane to Minneapolis (a forty-five minute flight is too short for drink service and also too short to pull out zee laptop). Then I sat in a restaurant in Minneapolis and wrote a page or two of Thorington's book before boarding another short flight to Milwaukee.

When I got here, I had to immediately go into author mode; I ran into some readers as soon as I got into the check-in line at the hotel who informed me that they'd bought tickets for my table, so that was super exciting. I'm still enough of a newbie that things like that totally make my day. But I had to hustle up to my room to freshen up/change before this Q&A thing, which took an hour and a half, and while it was quite entertaining, I was starving by the end of it. So I snuck back to my room and ate a snack, then went back to the bar and forced myself to mingle for an hour. Then I came back to my room, ordered room service, stuffed the gift bags I'm giving out tomorrow, and wrote two more pages of Thorington.

And now I desperately need to sleep if I'm going to be on tomorrow - goodnight!

i play my music in the sun

Alas, tonight is my last night in ye olde Iowa; I leave tomorrow for Milwaukee, where I shall don my writer persona for a Friday evening party and a Saturday luncheon/booksigning. I've had a lovely week at home, even if I didn't write as much as I had hoped to. But it was good to see my parents, and I caught up on sleep and generally relaxed a bit, which should rejuvenate me for the bitter slog ahead.

Now, though, I must sleep if I'm to avoid having to rush around in the morning - 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!

time makes you bolder

I've been staring at a screen all day - you'd think I was working instead of vacationing. Alas, you'd be right. I didn't do anything for the day job, but I spent the entire day researching stuff for Thorington's book to make sure that the final pieces of the plot make sense logistically and legally. That involved falling down a lot of rabbit holes around marriage licenses, immigration, privateering, the War of 1812, and a whole host of other issues. But I think I'm in good shape, even if I'm frustrated that I had to take so much time to figure this stuff out.

But the day was mostly good; I woke up in time to eat breakfast with my parents, and then I worked mostly without break until three-ish. Then I messed around, worked out outside with my kettlebell (a cat watched me for most of this, which was a bit disconcerting), messed around some more, showered, and had supper with the parents. Then I watched tv/worked from 7:30 until now, and now I must sleep if I have any hope of being productive tomorrow. 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!

you had to have the white-hot spotlight

Happy Easter! I spent it as I always spend it when I happen to be in Iowa for the holiday - at my Uncle Mark and Aunt Kathy's house for Easter dinner. I rode up with [censored] and enjoyed the limited-time-only nonstop Billy Joel station on satellite radio, which brought back many memories. Then we partook of a veritable feast of ham, green beans, sweet potatoes, and layered lettuce, which was super yummy. [censored], Drewbaby, and I sat at the kids' table, which had a surprisingly high number of references to alcohol given that it was the kids' table. But Aunt B wasn't there to keep us in line, so things got a bit out of hand.

We spent the rest of the afternoon visiting (that's 'conversing' for you cityfolk) on the back porch, where it was eighty degrees with a brisk breeze. Then, [censored] left me to the trauma of riding back with our parents and grandmother. We stopped at Walmart (double trauma) so I could pick up a couple of things I needed (we tried Target, but it was closed), and Gram only asked me when I was leaving about a dozen times, so I guess it was all good. And then I watched an episode of 'The Good Wife' (I really need to binge watch the whole thing), ate some leftovers, came downstairs, wrote in my journal, and am now contemplating bed. I have to call into a work meeting tomorrow, but I'm debating whether to do any more work for them during the day or whether to write like mad. We shall see, we shall see. Goodnight!

memories are films about ghosts

Today was an utterly sloth-filled day. I got quite a bit of sleep, but woke up in time to make my mom prepare a second breakfast (well, she was making bacon for a salad, so I got her to make me some extra, and then I fried two farm-fresh eggs in the bacon grease, which is pretty much the tastiest breakfast ever). Then I messed around upstairs and did nothing before finally rousing myself for the only real activity of the day (a mile-ish walk). I didn't get attacked by a bobcat, so that was promising.

I was going to write this afternoon, but instead I messed around on social media and was generally a totally lazy wench. Then I ate supper (yum), and watched some television with my parents; I boycotted 'Criminal Minds', so we watched some European news broadcast about Moldova on PBS. And now, I'm going to go to bed and hope that two days of sloth have rejuvenated me for a more productive week ahead - goodnight!

you will become an accomplished writer

So says the fortune [censored] passed on to me from a fortune cookie he'd opened at some point - I'm not sure whether passing on a fortune is beneficial or is actually a curse, but we shall see!

Today was long but uneventful; I woke up at four and managed to shower, put on makeup, half-dry my hair, make my bed, and rendezvous with a driver to take me to the airport. I checked my bag at the curb to avoid all lines, and so I had time to have a real breakfast - not particularly welcome at 5:30am, but better than starving to death. Then I spent the plane ride to Minneapolis alternating between dozing and making notes on Thorington's book. In Minneapolis, I killed time, ate lunch, considered Thorington some more, walked all the way across the airport, and daydreamed until the Des Moines flight. I spent that one mostly dozing and trying not to rip the phone away from the person across the aisle from me who played her music so loudly that I could hear it escaping from her earbuds over the sound of my own music. She had been doing that in the terminal for over an hour (when she wasn't talking on the phone), and I had switched seats to get away from her, but unluckily we sat next to each other on the flight to DSM. So I got to practice my deep breathing, which I suppose is a benefit.

My parents and [censored] picked me up at the airport, where we had a brief celebrity spotting (Vilsack, the ag secretary and former Iowa governor - it's funny that I never recognize 'real' celebrities but spotted Vilsack immediately). Then we visited Aunt Becky and Uncle Brian, since we may not see them over Easter - one of their cats protested my presence by sneezing on me repeatedly, which was ironic since I'm more allergic to it than it is to me. We didn't stay particularly long, but it was great to see them, and I'm not even saying that just because Aunt B bought me off by giving me a couple of pieces of Gram's costume jewelry that went out of style forty years ago and that I plan to bring back.

We then proceeded to dinner, where we feasted like kings (or, like we always do when I fly into Des Moines) before making the long drive back to the cradle of my youth. And now that I'm unpacked and decompressed and all that, I should go to bed; I have grand plans to hang out with my family, but I also have grand plans to finish this draft of Thorington while I'm in Iowa, so we'll see how the twain shall meet. Goodnight!

good good

I need to get up in less than six hours to go to Iowa, so no blog tonight - but I'm all packed, so hopefully the morning won't be too awful even though a six-thirty a.m. flight is always rough. Goodnight!

tear me down, tell me i don't need to fear

No time for zee blog tonight - I have to get up at some ungodly hour (5:30am) to drive down to Palo Alto and train with Alyssa at seven because it was the only time I could see her tomorrow because I have meetings straight from nine to five. Woe is me. But I worked from home today, so at least I didn't have to drive to the south bay. And I actually got some stuff done, which is shocking. And I did some of it while getting a pedicure, so that was a good call; I had to write a guest post for some internal newsletter, and that was a task that I could easily do while getting my feet fixed.

But now I must sleep or I'm going to be dead tomorrow - goodnight!

and the world keeps spinning

Today was a long day; I woke up at 6:30 and worked on my book until eight, then had meetings from eight to ten, then drove to Palo Alto and trained with Alyssa. She continues to push her kettlebell clean agenda, which continues to leave me with a big bruise on my left arm, but I'm hopeful that this will stop happening as I get used to it. Then I went to work, showered, and had meetings straight from one to five. All these meetings are slowing my roll, and I have so much to do that I haven't had time to do because I sit in meetings constantly. But tomorrow looks lighter, so I'm hoping I can power through a lot of work so that I'm in better shape for Iowa.

So I worked for an hour after my meetings were done, and then I went to Shedletsky's for dinner. He and Christina were supposed to come up and see me in the city at some point, but their plans had changed and so we rescheduled for their place tonight. It was good to see them, and now I know what I need to get for their wedding (black dress with purple accessories - I'm thinking a fascinator is a must). And now I really must sleep; I think it's fifty/fifty that I'll go into work tomorrow, but the chances are growing worse with each minute I remain awake. 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!

the wealthiest lie in graves of dirt

Today was once again filled with a lot of work and not nearly enough words on the page. I did write three or four pages this morning, which I felt good about, but when I broke for breakfast I had trouble getting back into it. So I took care of some tings online, showered, made myself look pretty, and then drove to the Haight (definitely the city of sin) to have lunch with some romance writers who were in town. One of them is also the photographer who shoots the photos I use for my covers, so I really wanted to see her - but in retrospect it was a couple of hours that I could ill afford to take out of my day. But we had a lovely time, so I'll have to forgive myself for being social instead of productive.

So I got home at 3:45 (after stopping at Philz to get a restorative mint mojito iced coffee) and called my parents. By the time I was off the phone, it was after five. I thought of writing again but instead took a nap. Then I decided to work on promo stuff, which is what I spent the rest of the evening on; I need to order swag immediately if I'm going to have anything for this thing I'm going to in Milwaukee or for RT, but swag must be designed before it can be ordered. But the rest of it is going to have to wait for another day; I should have gone to bed an hour ago anyway. Goodnight!

i seen it all the time on forty-second street

I worked a full day today; in fact, it was pretty much a straight nine to six, albeit for a job other than the one that pays me a regular salary. I woke up around 7:45, laid in bed for awhile, and eventually got ready in time to drive over to the Inner Sunset to meet a friend for a writing date. The friend's name is Amber, and she's quite interesting - she writes paranormal romance and is also an Episcopal priest. So we caught up on life and wrote for a couple of hours, which was awesome. Then I came home and worked the rest of the day, although it was all on administrative tasks rather than getting more words out for Thorington. I'm trying to figure out what I need to buy/make/acquire for my upcoming conferences, so I spent some quality time shopping for swag. I also bought an airline ticket for NYC in June, wrote the checks for all the taxes I have to pay (boo), dealt with some emails, etc., etc. None of it was particularly exciting, but it has all been hanging over me, so I'm glad I"m in a better place with it.

But by 5:30 I was ready to knock off, so I left my hermitville and met up with Lauren (aka Subz) for a drink. This, as per usual, turned into two drinks and a lot of discussion of our lives, so that was lovely (or at least authentic, even during the times when the topics weren't lovely). Then Nathan showed up and the three of us ended up having an impromptu dinner at an Italian place down the street that they go to all the time; Italian usually doesn't work well for me, but it turns out they have a gluten free pasta that's really quite delicious, so I had that with a tasty spicy lamb and tomato sauce, and it was all delightful.

But now I must sleep, since I have to write tomorrow and also need to order some more swag and see some friends and generally try not to freak out over all the stuff I need to do. Goodnight!

it was too cold to cry when i woke up alone

I had both too much screentime and too much champagne today, so it's no wonder my eyes are foggy and my head is aching. I worked from home today, which made for an easy commute - perhaps too easy, since I had little incentive to be perfectly productive while sitting at my desk reading royal tour blogs. But I slogged mostly steadily from nine to four, then talked to my dad for half an hour about chickens. Then, I ventured out into what I thought was sunshine (it was really wind and fog) to have a drink with Chandlord. We were going to have wine at Amelie, but Amelie was closed, so we had whisky at the bar next door instead. Then I walked her up Nob Hill, cursing her name with every tortured step. But it was good to see her, so yay to that!

After parting ways, I was going to walk home and write and eat leftover chicken. Instead I met up with Kathia and her sister Parisa, drank champagne, and ate steak. Way better, even if it was much less productive. But now I'm desperate for sleep and even more desperate to write like mad tomorrow - wish me luck. Goodnight!

handprints and footprints on the glass

Today involved far too many hours (3+) in the car, but other than that it was mostly delightful. I was slightly later than usual leaving, and thanks to accidents and fog it took ninety minutes to get to Palo Alto (on 280, which is usually mostly traffic-free). So I was thirty minutes late to my training session with Alyssa, which was super unfortunate. But we got our workout in, and I stayed after to spend some quality time with the treadmill, so that was fine. Then I sped to work, showered, blowdried my bangs so they wouldn't get too funky, and then went to two hours of meetings with wet hair and no makeup (or sans fard, as the French and Michael K like to say). At noon, I slathered on some foundation to make me feel better about my still-red, still-inflamed post-gluten skin, ate some lunch, and slogged through meetings all afternoon.

But I left around 5:20, and spent an hour and forty minutes sitting on the freeway on the way home. When I got here I was already late for dinner, so I put on some more makeup, changed my top, and walked down the street to Sabrosa, which I'd never been to before but proved to be quite delicious. My reason for going was to hang out with Todd, my favorite manager at Des Amis (yes, I've attained the new status of hanging out with Des Amis people outside of Des Amis (I almost said outside of work, since I work there and they work there, albeit in v. different contexts)). He was there with another person from the restaurant and two of her friends, and it was all quite delightful. But now, I must sleep, since the morning is going to come all too soon even if I get to work from home -- goodnight!

world music

I worked from home today, which was lovely because of the lack of commute even if I felt rather slothful. I laid in bed much later than planned rather than getting up and writing, and then I wasn't a perfect paragon of productivity, but I'm trying to get better about celebrating what I have achieved rather than bemoaning what I haven't. Yes, you've heard that before, and yes, I'm going to try again even though it seems to go completely against my protestant work ethic. And at least I'm up to date on the royal visit to New Zealand, so that's a big win.

I wrapped up work for the time being around five and hung out with Terry, who was home earlier than usual. Then I abandoned her and went to Des Amis, where a steak (which was not the healthier chicken salad I'd planned to have) and some time writing in my notebook helped to restore me. Then I came home, painted my nails, and worked on day job stuff for the last hour. And now I must go to sleep and hope that Alyssa's workout tomorrow is lovely and not murderous. Goodnight!

we be all night

I'm trying to get back into this writing thing, but I wasn't totally successful today. However, I was eminently successful at working out with Alyssa; she had me try deadlifting a barbell for the first time (we've been doing lifts with kettlebells but not barbells), and I was able to deadlift 175lbs, which both of us found rather surprising. She'd started with ninety or so and that was totally easy, so she kept increasing the weights to find my max, and 175 is where I was still able to lift it before my grip started to fail me. So she dropped me back to 135 and we did some reps there to work on my form. But being able to lift more than my body weight without doing a significant amount of training first is a testament to my strong peasant stock, I think - my Mayflower ancestor was probably a total pansy, but zee Germans have served me well.

Of course, now my back is sore and I expect that my hands will start bleeding at some point in this deadlifting odyssey, since my hands are really a little too small for any normal adult activities that require gripping things (yes, I realize that sentence could be misconstrued). But the workout was really good, and I went back to work feeling reenergized. Then I spent the afternoon sitting in meetings, which were all fine. And I cleared out around 5:30 with the intention of writing for an hour before dinner, but I mostly just stared at the first few chapters and made minor tweaks.

But I met up with Joann, Tolu and Jane for our semiregular friendship renewal dinner; it's pretty amazing that we've kept it going for so many years, and it's always fun to see them and hear about what's going on with life and work. We ate at Pacific Catch, which just went into the San Antonio Shopping Center - San Antonio used to be a total shithole, but they've put in $2800/month studios and some restaurants and the nicest Starbucks I've ever been too, so it's clear that even Mountain View is getting too pricey for most people. However, dinner was tasty and the company was great, and I don't really mourn the loss of the dilapidated Sears, so I suppose Mountain View will survive.

And now I must sleep, since I have grand plans to write in the morning before work - goodnight!

lights down you up and die

I should have gone to bed thirty minutes ago, but I needed some mindless internet browsing, which was accomplished while lying in bed with a masque on my face and the fan going to ward off the unusually warm San Francisco evening. Today was mostly good; I woke up at 6:30 with the intention of writing, but I didn't really get down to writing until eight since I showered and procrastinated beforehand. But I wrote for an hour before it was time for my first meeting of the day, so that was good. Then I took my meeting, ate some breakfast, and went to the glorious south bay for the rest of the day. I had lunch with Alyssa, since she wanted to discuss my goals somewhere other than the gym. Then I had meetings straight from 12:30 to 5, which was sad.

But I left at five and the drive only took an hour, so that was perfect - and it meant that I could write for an hour at a coffeeshop before going to dinner. Thus feeling accomplished, I picked up a prescription, put gas in my car, and made it to Presidio Social Club in time for dinner with Lauren and Terry (aka Subz and Terry). It was great to catch up with both of them, and my steak was particularly restorative, so that was all good.

And now I must sleep; I was going to try to write again tomorrow morning, but on second thought I think I'll sleep eight hours and do my writing between work and dinner tomorrow night. Goodnight!

say no more, get on the floor

I'm tempted to stay up and work for another two or three hours, but that's the devil whispering in my ear, so I'm going to go to bed instead. Today was lovely and mostly productive; I woke up early, feeling slightly like death (thanks for nothing, whisky sours), and took care of some tings online before putting on some clothes and going to eat some v. restorative huevos rancheros. Then I went to Beacon to meet up with Kathia. I got in two solid hours of writing and think I had a breakthrough (thanks to five minutes of talking to Kathia), so that was perfect. Then we walked home together while enjoying the abundant sunshine. When I got here, I cleaned my room (which mostly meant folding and hanging a ton of clothes), ate a snack, and called my parents. Then I worked on stuff for an hour or two; I had some day job stuff that I had to do tonight, so that was a bummer, but I'm done now.

By seven I really just wanted to curl into bed with a book (or keep working, who am I kidding), but instead I stuck to my plan and had family dinner with Katrina, Adit, and Priyanka. We went out for Chinese and I had perhaps the blandest thing ever; I'm trying to be better about avoiding known sources of gluten, which means soy sauce, which means just about all Chinese is suspect at best. So I had steamed chicken and vegetables, which was just sad. But the company was entertaining, as per usual. And now I must sleep so that I can write and slog (and write and slog some more) tomorrow - goodnight!

all your perfect imperfections

So I kind of, sort of, almost took today off. This was pretty necessary, given that I seem to have developed an allergy to looking at a screen; the two times that I spent more than 30mins on my laptop today made me feel incredibly exhausted, but I'm hoping that that reaction is temporary. I woke up at 6:15 and decided to start working because I'm an idiot, but after an hour of doing rote bookkeeping work, I was tired enough to go back to bed for awhile. Then I got up, put on some clothes, ate some leftover steak while talking to Terry, and went downtown to have coffee with Heather (aka dear respected madam) before she got a facial and hair cut at my salon (yes, I convinced her to start going there, and they should probably pay me for it because she spends just as much on overpriced beauty products as I do). I hadn't seen her in six weeks, which is pretty much criminal, and so while we caught up on the basics, I'm hoping we can get together again soon so we can move beyond my jury duty/endoscopy and her work/life issues.

After she went to keep her beauty appointments, I had originally planned to be a good little Puritan and buy groceries before working all afternoon (although I suppose a good little Puritan would have spent the day curing maize in lye to make hominy, so I shouldn't act so saintly). Instead, I decided to fuck work and go shopping. This proved to be a relaxing, albeit financially imprudent, decision. I hit Nordstrom pretty hard, scoring an awesome top + sweater, a couple of dresses, a pair of jeans, and two pairs of shoes. I also bought a new watch, which was completely unnecessary and yet totally necessary.

But all things must end, even the glorious feeling of complete freedom. So I left the mall and met up with Kathia to write for an hour, which resulted in me writing three pages and then deleting two of them. Stupid. Also, writing (or the caffeine I ingested with it) gave me a massive headache and totally killed my post-acquisition buzz. So I came home, showered, dried my hair, put on my new top (yay), and dragged Terry out to hang out with John, Jess, Adit, and Priyanka.

The group was just the same as always, which only surprised the people who think that individuals are capable of change (that would not be me, obvi, given that I tend to think most people's natures are set in stone). Terry and I went to John and Jess's first, where we drank whisky sours while I tried to negotiate a dinner settlement that met our desire to eat promptly and also met Adit/Priyanka's desire to eat fashionably (note: we won). Then we had a lovely dinner, followed by an inexplicable couple of drinks at the 500 Club. And now I must sleep; while today's day off was fantastic, I can't take tomorrow off or I deserve to be strung up by the thumbs and horsewhipped. Goodnight!

lately i been i been losing sleep

I worked from home today, which was v. welcome since it meant I could sleep until 7:30, but it was still a long and brutal slog. But I got through a lot of stuff (although there are a couple of things I have to do this weekend), and I am happy about the stuff that I got through, so that's all good. And I shut my laptop with a definitive slam around five p.m., made myself a mojito, and enjoyed it in the bathtub (yes, I ran a bath; no, I didn't sit fully-clothed in the bathtub with a glass of rum, as tempting as that sounds). I was determined to relax tonight, which was pretty much forced on me anyway since I'm too tired to think of anything Thorington-related (or much of anything else, for that matter).

After my bath, I made myself some delicious eggs to go with last night's leftover steak, and I enjoyed it while talking to Terry. Then I came upstairs, painted my nails, played on my phone, and started reading THE DISCOVERY OF FRANCE, which is a fascinating bit of nonfiction - it's all about rural France from Louis XIV to World War I, and how crazy and unmapped and desolate and populated the various areas were. I'm only a couple of chapters in, but so far so good, and clearly this is exactly how any hip, hot thirty-something should spend Friday night in the metropolis.

And on that note, I'm going to find out more about what those peasants were up to in the 1600s, and then I'm going to go to bed. Goodnight!

we're gonna rattle this ghost town

I am attempting to embrace a calmer, less angry state - or, as I told someone at work, I'm getting off of the 'rage plane' that I had gotten onto last week, when I had transcended anger and entered some entirely different state of being that was mostly pure rage. Part of this is an attempt to remember all of the things I've learned and self-awareness I've gained over the last decade; part is sheer exhaustion with the idea of being enraged; and part is some sort of smug satisfaction over being the first person in my general vicinity at work to get out of the rage plane. Yes, that's not a very healthy or charitable response. But I'll take what I can get; I am much more productive and generally better able to help others and move things forward for my own nefarious ends when I'm not enraged, so that's an admirable goal.

sssanyway, I went to Palo Alto this morning and trained with Alyssa, but our workout wasn't particularly intense because I was so sore from Tuesday and generally unable to recover that she took it easy on me. Then I went to work, took a meeting, showered (you can see that those were in a rather unfortunate order, so it's good that Alyssa went easy on me so that I didn't end up stinky), worked, had lunch (fish tacos, sans taco), and had meetings until fiveish. Then I did a bit of work, left at six, and somehow managed to keep from stabbing myself in the eyeball during the ninety minutes it took to get home. When I got here, I should have either gone to Jess's musical recital or gone out for drinks with someone I recently befriended, but I was thirty minutes late already for the musical thing and the new friend socializing didn't seem soothing enough for my exhausted state (being calm and holier-than-thou takes soooo much energy). So I had dinner with Terry instead, which involved steak and wine (can you guess where we went?). And now I must sleep; I'm working from home tomorrow so that I can get a lot of stuff done and also end at four p.m. so that I can write. Goodnight!

disinfect the scene

I had a v. long, v. productive day. I laid around for far longer than I intended this morning, since my brain simply wasn't having the idea of getting up and writing. But I finally got up, showered, ate some toast, and caught a shuttle to work, and I took my personal laptop with me so I could write on the bus since I wasn't able to write at home. Thus feeling somewhat productive with the story, I got to campus and slogged brutally the rest of the day, in between bouts of walking between buildings lugging two laptops in my backpack. Luckily, one of my meetings was canceled, and so I was able to get a coffee that likely saved my life.

I peaced out around 5:30, dozed a bit on the shuttle, and spent the last thirty minutes of the ride wrapping stuff up for work. Then I went straight to Nectar, where I wrote five pages over a glass of wine and some burrata. I was eventually discovered by Kathia, whom I hadn't seen in nearly two weeks (shocking and unacceptable), and so we had dinner and caught up at Izzy's. But I was so tired and braindead that I'm afraid I wasn't very good company - yes, woe is me. Then I debated getting a cab, but instead I forced myself to walk the eight blocks home. And now I am desperate for sleep; I have to train with Alyssa tomorrow before doing all of this again, so some kind of sleep recovery is vital. 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!

all my tears have been used up

I'm far too tired to blog; I had hoped to relax when I got home, after doing one wee tiny thing that should have only taken ten minutes...and instead I spent the last two hours working on day job stuff, which means I'm either going to have to sacrifice sleep or writing time in the morning. I got up early this morning and made it into the office by 8:30ish, giving myself enough time to dry my hair there and eat breakfast before my meetings began. So I slogged from nine until six, then adjourned to a coffee shop to write for an hour while waiting for the commute to die down. I succeeded in writing four pages of Thorington's story, and then I sped home, ate some leftover chili, and slogged on day job stuff for another couple of hours.

And now that I've committed this unsustainable schedule to the blog for posterity, I'm going to go to bed so that I can do it all again tomorrow - goodnight!

i know how it looks but all that glitters ain't gold

Today was quite all right, if you like being a hermit. I slept later than planned but just as much as needed, messed around on the internet for awhile, and then ate some breakfast and walked over to Fort Mason to work for a couple of hours. I got six pages of Thorington's book - not an epic output, but I like what I wrote and I'm slowly getting back into the story proper, so I'll take it. Then I came home, took a shower, and was going to go to the park, but it was cold and turning dreary, so I canceled and ate a late lunch instead. Then I bought groceries, came home, talked to the parents, played on the internet, made chili for supper, and talked to Terry.

Now, though, I must sleep; I'm determined to be less angry this week than I was last week, which may be an exercise in complete futility. But I think it will help if I disengage a bit and stay true to my plan of working from home a couple of days this week and doing some writing in the mornings - so if I don't say that I worked from home and wrote in the morning a couple of days this week, please shoot me. 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!

give me something to break

[editor's note: this was supposed to publish last night, but for some reason it didn't] Today was a long day, but it wasn't nearly as infuriating as yesterday, so I suppose that's something. I had hoped that yesterday would be a red-letter day - I was feeling v. relaxed after a couple of days of sedation/lying around in bed, and I hadn't read any work email or thought of anything particularly stressful. Instead, something chipped my windshield on the way to work, it rained the whole way and traffic was bad, I didn't final in the RITA awards, and my team unleashed two massive firedrills on me as soon as I walked in the door. And I had to stick around and have dinner last night, which meant I didn't get home until ten p.m., which only gave me eight hours before I had to turn around and do it all over again.

But today was better and brighter, and I ended it at Fiesta del Mar, so that's always lovely. And then I came home and worked for an hour and a half, which was unfortunate. But now I'm going to try to get eightish hours of sleep so that I can be more on top of my game tomorrow - goodnight!

the day the music died

No blog tonight - I had a brutal return to work, followed by a team dinner, followed by driving people home, so I'm totally wiped out on talking. Goodnight!

mrs. potter's lullaby

I was so good and rested so much today - and then I torpedoed it all by deciding to work on my taxes for the last four hours. Oops. But I'm done, and I have a new bookkeeping system set up so that it isn't so painful going forward and so that I can more accurately track my profits and project expenditures (and remind myself that the vast majority of what I spend on promo is a waste). And I painted my fingernails and toenails, so that's something. And my throat isn't hurting very much, and I don't seem to have any internal or external bleeding, so I think I'm cleared to go back to work tomorrow.

The rest of my day was mostly spent in quiet reflection. This was precipitated by the fact that I had to get blood work this morning, so I slept late to help avoid the intolerable hunger of fasting until 10:30am. I took a taxi to the lab since I wasn't sure I should drive yet and got the bloodwork done (I felt massive trepidation when the phlebotomist introduced herself as a student, but she's graduating on Friday and got a vein on the first try, so even though she had to take six vials it wasn't as bad as yesterday). Then I had a late breakfast nearby, which proved to be v. tasty. Then, in some false economizing, I took the bus home to make up for my uber over there. Then I laid in bed all afternoon and napped/dozed/messed around on the internet. But by six I was totally stir crazy and my Puritanical roots were berating me - so I worked tonight, and I'm getting up early to go into the office and get some stuff done tomorrow.

But hopefully my gluten odyssey is over, and may I never succumb to that siren's evil allure again. Goodnight!

dance to the beat that we like best

You will (hopefully) be happy to hear that I survived my endoscopy today without complications. The only unfortunate factor was that they had to try three times to get an IV going, which was a more annoying process than anything they did while shoving a tube down my throat (but then, I was asleep while they did that, so maybe that was annoying too and they just didn't tell me). But it was all relatively straightforward. And now I never have to eat gluten again, which is v. exciting. They didn't seem to find immediate indications of celiac disease, but they took a tissue sample to test for it, so I'll find out in a couple of weeks exactly what's going on.

So anyway, I woke up pretty quickly, joked around with the attendant, and was released into Terry's tender care. I briefly considered throwing up on her, but I was able to hold it in despite the combination of anesthetic and carsickness (and anyway I probably would have failed in my mission since my stomach was empty). I spent the rest of the day recovering at home - you'll be proud to note that I didn't do any work for the day job, nor did I do any writing, and instead I dozed, napped, read, watched tv, and ate ice cream and takeout.

And now I must go to bed; I'm staying home tomorrow to finish recovering, and I have high hopes that I'll get a million hours of sleep and generally start feeling better as soon as I start coming out of my gluten coma. Goodnight!

they tried to make me go to rehab

Today was lovely, and might have even counted as a day off had I not spent several hours inputting receipts into Quickbooks so that I can send my tax info to my CPA. Yes, I realize that means it wasn't a day off at all. But I didn't write or do anything for the day job, and I watched basketball all day, so I'm going to count it.

I slept in this morning, then took a quick shower, went down the street to get a sandwich, and watched the second half of the Stanford/Kansas game, which was OMG amazing. Terry and I even opened a bottle of champagne after to celebrate. Then I talked to my mom, watched some more basketball, and talked to my dad before the Iowa State/North Carolina game. I couldn't handle watching it all without any distraction at all, so I worked on my taxes from two to seven while watching basketball (and having more champagne when ISU pulled it out).

But by seven I was desperate for a break, so I conned Terry into going to my favorite French place, where we hung out with my favorite manager dude (who has instructed them all to open my favorite bottle of wine whenever I want it by the glass even though it's no longer on the by-the-glass menu). And they gave us steak tartare, which Terry wasn't able to take advantage of, so I ate it for her. And Terry somehow got Todd to try to convince me to do a Soulcycle class with them, which sounds like a horrible idea, but we shall see.

And now, alas, I must sleep; I'm going to get up at 4:45ish to have a snack and some water before going back to sleep for awhile, since I can't eat anything for six hours before this endoscopy thing at noon. Boo. Needless to say, I'm taking tomorrow off; it's a sign of how stupid and crazy I am that I'm almost looking forward to this as a day off, when in reality I must be forcibly sedated in order to take a break. Stupid. And on that note, it's time for bed!

everybody wants a thrill

I continue to slip deeper into my gluten coma, but I managed to eke out a decently fun/productive day, so yay for that. I woke up earlier than I wanted to after sleeping less well than I had hoped, and I threw on some pants and met Kathia at Rapha for a writing date. I have so much to do for Thorington that I can't even contemplate it - and so I mostly spent the time there not contemplating it, which, as you can imagine, is not particularly good for productivity. Terry met us there as well, and so we all worked for a bit. But Kathia had to leave, and then I threw in the towel, and Terry wasn't going to leave me to wallow in my own despair. So we went out for brunch and caught up, which was v. lovely and overdue.

And then I came home, thought about writing, and instead spent the afternoon reorganizing my room, talking to my mom, [censored] to [censored], and doing some financial tracking stuff. I would have happily entered expenses all night, but instead I took a nap (see: gluten coma), took a shower, and picked up Adit so that we could go to the glorious south bay for Peder (aka Timmy Timer's) birthday party. It turned out to be totally delicious; we went to Terun, which is a relatively new establishment on California Ave, and the food was pretty much perfect (even if I ate veal ravioli to get my gluten count up for the day). The company was lovely as well, although I didn't get as lubricated as some of them did since I was driving. But eventually they adjourned to the Nuthouse, which Adit and I weren't interested in, so we came back to the evil city, where I'm sure he's making plans to go out to all the many parties he's been invited to. But I find it more appealing to curl up in bed and hope that my sleep lasts until it's all better. Goodnight!

honeymoon in beirut

Today was another long day with a brutal start, but it ended on a high note. I had to be in the office by 8:30 for this presentation thing, so I left home at seven just in case, and made it there without incident (other than almost dying in a car accident, but I swerved in time). Perhaps that adrenaline rush was just what I needed to get through the preso, which went much better than I expected (but as well as I deserved after this week of pain). After that, I had some more meetings, sent some more emails, got a latte, ate a salad, and peaced out around 1:30 to come back to the evil city before the even more evil traffic thwarted me. Then I worked a bit more before getting a facial, which was v. necessary for both my gluten-inflamed skin and for my general relaxing and well-being.

Post-facial, I came home, messed around on the internet, and took a nap. Then, I rallied against my better judgment and had dinner at the Presidio Social Club with Lauren (aka Subz), Nathan, Kathia, Jerry, Terry, and Sumir. It turned out to be a v. entertaining and lively group, and I think that Subz and Kathia could be dangerous together (especially for my liver, provided that I am still allowed to drink alcohol after whatever the doctor finds with the endoscopy on Monday). We discussed many and varied things, including a lot of words beginning with 'pin', and a great time was had by all.

Sadly, though, I must go to sleep and hope that the memory of the last nine hours of relaxing is enough to sustain me through the weekend, since I have to write all day tomorrow. Goodnight!

all of the lights

Today was almost worse than yesterday, but I got to spend the last four hours of it sitting on my own couch, so at least that was a victory. I got up in a daze, drove down to train with Alyssa, and discovered that I had forgotten my gym bag for the first time ever, so I couldn't shower or change into real clothes after my workout. So, rocking a sporty (aka sweaty) look, I went to the office and slogged viciously and brutally until fourish. Luckily I got to take a break to have In-and-Out to celebrate one of my teammates becoming an American citizen, and sitting in the sun outside of In-and-Out was exactly what I needed at that moment (other than tequila, which is what I really needed).

But my boss and I were both totally done (mentally, not actually) at four, so I left and spent almost two hours driving home (boo). Then I ordered a pizza and cranked through three hours of work for the day job. Then I spent my 'break' taking out my contacts, prepping my tea for tomorrow, and painting my nails. And now I must sleep; the presentation I've been working on is at 8:30am tomorrow, and I'll be v. glad when it's over so I can move on with my life. Goodnight!

we used to play outside when we were young

I had a pretty miserable day at work on top of what's been a miserable week at work, and now I'm only going to get seven hours of sleep when my gluten belly really needs nine. So, you're getting this blog so you know I'm alive...but that's all you're getting until tomorrow, when I hope that I will be in a better and more loquacious mood. Goodnight!

not giving in

Today was lovely, albeit too busy, and I must go to bed immediately if I'm going to recover in time for tomorrow. I spent altogether too long on the shuttle this morning, spent an hour putting out fires at the office, and then trained with Alyssa, who caused a much smaller bruise on my wrist than the last time we tried kettlebell cleans, so I guess I'm improving. Then I rushed through my shower and hied my wet hair over to lunch with Chandlord and John, which was totally delightful. It's so odd that we all work at the same place, and even odder that the place's amenities keep improving. So we had a delicious lunch at a new cafe, followed by lattes and macchiatos at a new coffee bar, followed by altogether unnecessary juice at the juice bar. But we had to return to work, which is the downside of hanging out at work, and so we parted ways and I returned to putting out fires the rest of the afternoon.

But I left at 5:40 to go home, and spent another annoying amount of time driving back to the city. Then I went to my favorite French place and worked on my taxes for two hours, since I'm seeing my CPA tomorrow. And now I am desperate for sleep - the end of this gluten binge can't come fast enough. Goodnight!

salaam namaste

I continue to be totally felled by this gluten thing, but I've only got to survive another week-ish before I can move on with my life, so I think I'll make it. Today was somewhat an exercise in frustration; I went to Mountain View almost entirely for a meeting that was later canceled, and the main project I'm working on currently brings me no joy. But I like the people I work with, which I realize is better than what most people can say about their jobs, so at least there's that. And I took a break in the afternoon to walk to a nearby coffee bar and get a free latte, which is also more than most people can say about their jobs, so that was good too.

After my last meeting, I peaced out, took the shuttle back to the evil city, and sat at Nectar for an hour and a half nursing a glass of wine and quietly freaking out about Thorington. I'm stuck until I hear back from my editor, which should be any day now, and yet I don't want to completely abandon the story while waiting for her because I know from bitter past experience that it's very hard to get back into it once I've taken a break. So I messed around for awhile, and then Kathia showed up and told me to work on the next book, which was actually a helpful suggestion. But I parted ways with her and the story half an hour later so that I could have dinner with Lauren (aka Subz) and Terry. It was v. lovely to see them both, even if Alyssa won't be happy when she sees pictures of the two margaritas I had after my glass of wine -- oops.

But now I'm desperate for sleep - this is the latest I've stayed up in awhile, and I need to get myself together and go south in the morning, so wish me luck. Goodnight!

clap along if you feel like a room without a roof

I took today off. Shocking, I know. Since I didn't set my alarm and my body seems to be slowly succumbing to gluten coma, I slept for ten hours, which I suppose must have been necessary even though it felt totally ridiculous. Then I lazed about in bed, made some eggs to go with my reheated steak/fries from the other night at Des Amis, and enjoyed my perfectly all-American breakfast.

I spent the afternoon in a similarly lazy state of mind; I did a couple of quick email-related things, then walked down to the grocery store to get some tings to eat for the coming week. I called my parents earlier than usual so that I could avoid Selection Sunday, but since my dad answered first, it threw off the timings, and so my mother was forced to talk to me while watching the brackets get filled out. The Cyclones seemed to have done well, though, so hopefully the do okay in the tournament.

After talking to the parents, Terry and I made daiquiris and sat on the roof for awhile, which was perfectly lovely - it was just a little windier than I would have liked, but that kept me from roasting alive, so I suppose it was a good thing. The fog kept trying to encroach but never quite made it, so it was a v. relaxing couple of hours. Then I did about half an hour of tax-related stuff before going over to My Tofu House for family dinner with Adit, Priyanka, Katrina, Chandlord, and Sumeet (not an OG member of the family but Adit seems to have adopted him). Since the wind had picked up the line was crazy long and it took over an hour to be seated, but we managed to stay entertaining while waiting. Then we discussed all manner of things over dinner, and many good jhokes were made. And I felt Adit's teeth, so that was a highlight.

But now I desperately need to sleep; I was supposed to get up and go down early, but given my general state of exhaustion I'm now going to sleep later, take my first two meetings from home, and go down at ten. This seems like a better, albeit lazier, plan. 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!

in the daylight we'll be on our own

My Puritanical instincts are telling me to stay up all night and keep working, but my stomach and my gluten fatigue are telling me to go to bed. Today was far more tiring than I had expected it to be, but Alyssa thinks that eating gluten again when I haven't had much of it in almost two years and clearly have a lot of difficulty processing it is making me way more tired than I should be. The theory makes sense; I've gotten almost nine hours of sleep every night for the past three nights and I still required a nap tonight before I could get down to business.

Anyway, I went to work this morning in my gym clothes and slogged from 8:30 to noon without pause. Then I sped over to the gym to train with Alyssa, who made me do more kettlebell swings than my arms were in the mood for. Then I returned to work, sans showering, and inflicted my stinky self on the coworkers who had scheduled meetings in such a way that prevented me from taking a break and showering. I finally got out of there sometime around four, which was later than I had hoped, and so I sat in traffic until I reached my home at 5:30.

And then I took a nap, laid around for a bit, took a long-overdue shower, and schlepped myself over to my favorite french place, where I had a steak and a glass of wine that didn't have the restorative power to overcome the two slices of bread I forced myself to eat with it. They are no longer serving my favorite wine by the glass, but since the manager, the sommelier, and two waiters apologized to me for taking it off the menu, I suppose I shall forgive them rather than filing a lawsuit. I should probably add that the apologies were completely unprompted - I think they like me and don't find me particularly frightening, although since I often come in looking half-crazed, perhaps they're more frightened of me than they let on (but I somehow doubt it).

Anyway, I got some work done there, came home, was going to work some more, and then realized I would be better served by sleeping for nine hours and considering Thorington in the morning. So I sent the first half of Thorington to my editor and will finish making notes on what I'm doing on the second half tomorrow - which means I should stop dallying here and go to bed. Goodnight!

jealous of the rhyme and the rhyme routine

Today was a v. long day. I had jury duty for the second day, and while I was thankfully not called to serve, I spent more time than I had expected to spend sitting there listening to jury selection. I'm glad I participated, since I got some v. interesting glimpses of human nature (including my own), but since I never got called up and so spent the entire time sitting in the back listening to tales of woe/obvious lies/claims of not understanding English, there were moments when I was a bit bored. But my faith in humanity was also reinforced by the fact that everyone from yesterday showed up again today, and no one seemed truly horrendous (with the exception of a couple of people who seemed to lie about their ability to be impartial just to get out of it).

But I was finally released at a point when it would be pointless to go to Mountain View. So I got my boots shined in the lobby of the courthouse, retrieved my car from the lot (where the lot attendant flirted with me for a second day and was sad to hear I'd been dismissed), came home, contemplated work, and instead took the rare opportunity for a gorgeous sunny day and met up with Kathia to write. Yes, I know that sitting in a darkened room writing isn't taking advantage of the sunlight. But over the course of the late afternoon/evening, I wrote twelve pages, so that was awesome. Then I met Priyanka and Ariel for burgers at Roam, where I ate a bun for the first time in ever and discovered that it's tastier than I would have liked to have known about.

And now I am desperate for sleep; I've learned that I can write 2000 words (8-10 pages) in a day without much problem, but when I extend it to 3000 words or more it melts my brain. So, I must sleep if I've any hope of getting my brain to congeal again before work tomorrow. Goodnight!

grand tour

Today was an unusual day, and nothing that I expected it to be. I had jury duty, which I had expected to get out of relatively quickly from what I'd heard from other people. Instead, I sat in a courtroom for seven hours, and they haven't finished selecting the jury for the trial that I got called up for, so I have to go back tomorrow. Sigh.

But I had a decent lunch during the break at a restaurant somewhere in the up and coming SOMA district, and I was home by five. And then I blew off work work and went to La Boulange, where I got my gluten quota in by eating an almond croissant. And then I met Kathia at Nectar, where I wrote ten pages and was v. diligent in making the story happen. Then I came home, stopping along the way to buy some chicken and green beans from the deli, which I ate while watching Rick Steves be interesting and unstylish in England. And now I must go to bed so that I can do this again tomorrow - goodnight!

make that money, watch it burn

The day job was brutal today; I got up early and was in the office by eight, and I stayed there until almost six. I realize that that's a normal job for most people, but adding the commute + the fact that I had meetings the whole time made for a long day. But I managed to sneak a workout in, and I got a fancy juice from the juice place on campus, so that was good. Then I ran errands (I got new glasses!), did some desultory shopping at Stanford Shopping Center (which is even more upscale than it was when I was in college, which I didn't think was possible at the time), had Chipotle for dinner (Ritu would be so proud), and came home. And now I must sleep immediately - this gluten thing is not making me feel well at all, and I'm hoping sleep will help. Goodnight!

never to touch and never to keep

Internet at home is being stupid and I need to go to bed immediately, so I won't spend much time typing on my phone even though you deserve better. But if you're still coming back after all this time, I guess the lure of my mundanity is too much for you to resist, so this post will be right up your alley.

Today was v social and v productive. I wrote five pages before work, went south, had coffee with Alaska Matt, worked a but, had lunch (a delicious seafood stew, aka cioppino) with Cari, worked some more, took an impromptu walk and got juice with John, worked again, and left at 5:30 to rendezvous with Kathia. She's back at Half Moon Bay and I was tempted to stay the night, but prudent thoughts (aka my upset stomach) made me come home instead. But I met her there, wrote another five pages, and had dinner before coming home.

And now I must sleep so I can write and slog tomorrow - goodnight!

it's the heart that matters more

Today was mostly frustrating, but I finally remembered to chill the fuck out at the end of it, so at least I'm ending the weekend on a positive note. I spent the morning doing bookkeeping-type stuff, since I'm trying to turn this writing thing into a real business with better records (as opposed to the old system, in which I throw all receipts into a box and spend two days during tax season sorting through them all, which guarantees a) misery and b) that I missed things I should have deducted). And I spent the afternoon trying to write, but I'm feeling blocked and unhappy and generally anxious about finishing it to my satisfaction in the time I've allotted myself (which I realize is a crazy self-imposed deadline that has no basis in reality).

So when I had my usual call with my parents, I took it from the roof deck so I could get some much-needed fresh air. Then I ran a couple of errands and was going to come home and try to write some more, but I realized that trying to force it tonight was just going to make me cranky and continue the burnout. So I grabbed a coffee (and sat for half an hour daydreaming + eavesdropping on an AA sponsor meeting), and then had family time dinner with Adit, Priyanka, Katrina, and Akash at a Koreanish restaurant near Adit and Priyanka's place. Family time was just what the doctor ordered; we had to go around and discuss what we learned last week, what we'll change, what will make us faster, and how we can be more social (because these are obvious questions to ask over dinner). My realization was that I should have taken either yesterday or today off-off despite my deadline, which frustrates me to no end but is probably something I need to force myself to do more often. Ugh. But I was not the only one who was feeling stressed, and I didn't almost get killed by a crazy man in a laundromat like some people, so I guess all in all I'm in okay shape.

So that was all lovely. And then I came home, painted my nails, regretted painting my nails for a split second when I felt a minor earthquake and was worried I'd have to ruin my nails and take cover if it turned major, and have just written this post. And now I'm going to go to sleep - goodnight!

tell me that you want me

I'm way tired, but that could be because I read four books in the last two days while also attempting to write and work on the day job and have a tiny bit of a social life. I had to judge seven books for a romance contest, and of course I procrastinated, and so I had to read the last four immediately. Oops. So I read two books last night (they were short), then read another in bed this morning, and I read the last one in bed tonight. In between those reading festivities, I had brunch, cleaned my room, tried to write and mostly failed (I got about two pages, although I made a lot of notes about character development, so it's not like I wasn't thinking), and made supper. I also ate my allotted two slices of bread, which may be contributing to my foggy malaise.

But tomorrow is another day and I think I am coming unblocked on the current issues with my story, so hopefully Thorington submits to my cruel mercies tomorrow. Goodnight!

wheat belly

I can't express how wrong it felt to buy a loaf of bread, cut two slices off of it, and eat it. The bread was great (fresh sourdough from Whole Foods), and I bought some absurdly delicious and overpriced French butter to make it even more decadent, but ultimately it felt like I was eating poison. Which, to be fair, is probably accurate; I felt sick most of the afternoon, and now my back is itching in what is probably a psychosomatic event but could also be the start of what may, in a few days, turn into hives.

Sooooo, this attempt to decide whether I have celiac disease is probably going to make for a miserable couple of weeks. Combine that with an impending deadline of doom for Thorington, jury duty, the upcoming end of quarter at work, and a host of other to-dos, and I think I'm destined for some unpleasantness. But hopefully I get some answers to my stomach issues, and then it will all be worth it.

But if you want to hear something other than my octogenarianish recounting of my digestive issues, you are in for a disappointment. I will say that I worked from home, then slacked off at five and went with Terry to Nectar, where we were going to read but where we just talked over wine instead. Then we had sushi, which was utterly delicious. And now I am desperate for sleep - goodnight!

the forbidden fruit must be tasted

Today was v. odd. I trained with Alyssa, who spared my wrist any further attempts to slam a kettlebell into it, so that was nice of her. Then I went to work, had some meetings, went to my eye doctor (my eyes continue to kick ass, although they're getting dry compared to my youth), then had more meetings all afternoon. I did have a nice lunch interlude, though, since the cafe staff v. randomly offered to make me an omelette rather than making me wait for whatever was coming out of the over. Yes, I'm totally spoiled - so spoiled that I was a little annoyed that I could only fill it with whatever I could find on the salad bar, which meant mushrooms/tomatoes/cheese since I didn't want fetal corn/garbanzo beans. I'll say it again - yes, I'm totally spoiled.

I left the office around four to see my actual doctor - today was clearly all about my health, which was efficient for my mind if not for my work email. My ulcer friend appears to be coming back, and so my doctor has chosen to take some steps that are probably smart in the long run but will make me unhappy in the short run. She wants to test me to see if I have fullblown celiac disease rather than just a gluten insensitivity, but the test requires that you have eaten gluten daily for at least two weeks. So I'm on strict orders to eat at least two slices of bread (or some such equivalent) for two weeks, at which point I'll need to get bloodwork and an endoscopy. Boo. So I guess if there is some gluten-filled food you've been dying to feed me, you should do it now, since there's a somewhat decent chance that I will never eat it again after this month.

So that was all a little bit of a bummer. Then I came home (traffic was a real bummer), messed around a bit, and had supper at my favorite French place, since I needed to feel safe and loved (and eat some bread, and theirs is great). Then I came home, and now I must sleep - goodnight!

pompeii

I need to go to bed immediately - I stayed up later than planned reading a book (I need to judge it for a contest), and training with Alyssa is going to come all too soon. Today was fine, albeit not great since my stomach has been hurting a lot, so I stayed home and am going to go to the doctor tomorrow. But I got some work done, took care of some writing-related stuff, wrote about a page of Thorington's book, and read, so that's all good.

And now I must sleep - goodnight!

long train running

I'm going to bed two hours later than I had planned, so I'll keep this brief. Suffice it to say that I got up early enough this morning to write two pages (but not the five I had hoped for), then attended meetings, then drove down to the glorious south bay to train with Alyssa. She's got me doing kettlebell cleans now, which bruised the hell out of my arm from swinging a 16kg bell into it over and over - I will get better or else my arm will fall off. Then I had a v. depressing lunch (everyone around me was raving about some cafe they went to while I ate something sad from my building), then had meetings all afternoon.

But I was able to get out of work on time and go to Shedletsky and Tina's house for dinner. I hadn't seen them in ages and ages since I'm horrible with email, but they've bought a house, and so they had me over for a v. tasty steak dinner. We discussed weddings, careers, porn, romance novels, trains, Russia, would-be spies, bitcoins, and a lot of other topics, not necessarily in that order. And it was fantastic to see them - so fantastic that I stayed for four hours, which meant I didn't get home until 11:15ish.

So tomorrow will be brutal, particularly since my stomach is already hurting...hopefully my stress case can pull itself together by tomorrow. Goodnight!

we be all night

So, I'm really pleased with the progress I made on Thorington's book this weekend, but spending three days staring at a screen nonstop didn't exactly make it easy to go into the office and face the prospect of doing the same thing for the day job this week. I woke up in Half Moon Bay, had breakfast with Kathia, packed, checked out, and made it into the office around 10:45 (waiting out traffic was imperative). Then I slogged all day, with a break to have lunch with Alyssa, since she wanted to see my place of work.

By four or five I really just wanted to come home, but I had a work event/dinner/thing that I had to stay for. So I ended up being on campus until sometime after 7:30, which was way later than I wanted to be there. I had fortified with coffee and ibuprofen, but it wasn't really cutting it. However, I made the drive home safely, stopped to buy milk for my tea and salmon for my breakfast, and I'm now ready to go to bed so that I can get eight hours of sleep before starting this process again tomorrow. I have grand plans to get up and write before work, but we shall see how that goes - goodnight!

sleep experience

I need to go to bed immediately, since I have to go to work in the morning and I somehow have to metabolize all this rum before that happens. Life is hard.

But this weekend was exactly what I had hoped for, even if what I had hoped for was a world of pain and misery. I woke up this morning, laid in bed for an hour and caught up on current events on my phone (Ukraine makes me sad and is giving me visions of Czechoslovakia '38), and then showered before joining Kathia downstairs for breakfast. We broke our respective fasts with some lovely omelettes, and then I wrote from 9:30ish to 1ish. Then we took a walk along the cliffs before coming back to the hotel and having a late brunch. After brunch, I was sorely in need of a nap, so I slept for thirty minutes, then sat out in an adirondack chair and stared at the ocean while talking to my parents. Then I came in and wrote from 5 to 8, at which point Kathia and I were DONE and so moved to the bar, where we watched the rest of the Oscars and I somehow drank a lot of rum (a mai tai and two mojitos).

All in, though, I wrote ~50 pages this weekend, which is totally respectable (and by that I mean it's totally fucking crazy). If I get up in time in the morning, I'm going to try to write a few more pages before work - I need to wait out rush hour anyway, so I might as well eat breakfast and write before driving over the bay side of the peninsula. But now I must sleep - 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!