perfect blue buildings

I'm going to slip my earplugs in, ignore the party going on out in the living room, and go to bed - I've had an awesome retreat, but I'm more tired than I had hoped to be, and I want to get some sleep tonight so that I can make the drive to Manhattan safely and get some work done tomorrow night when I get there. But I'm v. happy that I spent the week here - I got to know a few awesome new writers, spent some quality time with some of my favorite already-known authors, and am generally feeling more relaxed and rejuvenated than I have in quite some time. Granted, I didn't write a million pages, but I'm going to forgive myself for that.

Today was a great end to it all; I wrote in the morning, had lunch with Anne and Grace at a dive bar type place down the road, and spent the afternoon napping and working. Then, Grace, Bella and I got ice cream at the ice cream place they'd all been going to all week, and then Grace and I went to the beach briefly since I hadn't spent any time there all week (yes, I'm horrible). And then we all hung out on the deck and enjoyed the sunset while eating weird combinations of leftovers and drinking whatever wine was still in the house.

So, all in all, it was great. Tomorrow it's back to the real world and the real grind, since I have to get cracking hardcore on the day job and also need to keep writing on the writing job, but everything is going to come up roses once I'm back into my routine and getting some sleep again. But for now it's time for bed - goodnight!

roll a new love over

I must go to bed at once - my writing retreat/vacation is rapidly drawing to a close, and I'm so not excited to go back to the real world. Actually, that may not be true; I am excited to sleep in my own bed and maybe not go anywhere major for a few weeks (although I do have a wedding fourth of July weekend and also will probably have to sneak away and do a writing retreat on my own at some point). But I'm feeling like I'm really getting into the story, and it's going to be a challenge to stay in it and not get sucked back into the day job, particularly since my boss will be out the two weeks after I get back and so I'm sure I'll get dragged into things to sub for him. C'est la vie, I guess.

But today was great, albeit not as productive as I would have hoped. I didn't get out of bed until 9:30ish, at which point I was going to make tea and crawl back into bed with my laptop like I did yesterday...instead, I helped Tina with something for an hour and a half, which was something I'd planned to help her with, but it didn't really help me to get words on the page. Then I showered, lured some other people into playing hooky with me, and drove to the Starbucks in East Hampton. It's only twenty minutes from here, but it felt like a much longer journey, if only because East Hampton is super posh compared to Montauk and the people watching and window shopping were delightful. We actually weren't playing hooky; we worked for a couple of hours, and I got six pages in, so that was a plus. I also bought my usual Starbucks mug for the Hamptons, which I will drink from when I want to feel extra fancy.

We had to come back so that Barbara could do a conference call, so I spent the next hour snacking and slacking. The snack was ill-advised, since we were looking for places to have dinner and ended up getting a 5:15pm reservation at an awesome place down the street...but since we made the reservation at 4:50, that was a little late to change the fact that I'd just had a bowl of chili. Oops. But the food was awesome, even if the chef is a bit of a prima donna who refuses to do any requests. And it was a great beginning to the end of our retreat; Tina is leaving in the morning, and so while the rest of us are all staying until Sunday, we wanted to do a fancy meal before she left. We were back in the house before sunset, and I spent the rest of the evening answering ridiculously old emails and taking care of business stuff since I was no longer in the mood (or required sobriety level) to write. And I had my now-traditional ridiculously entertaining late-night conversation with Anne and Bella, so I'm glad I stayed up even if my morning self will hate me for it.

But now I really must sleep; I have to take Tina to the train station in the morning, and then I want to write all day. Goodnight!

it's the heart that matters more

Today was, I have to say, pretty much perfect. I got up at a reasonably early hour (8:30ish, such an early bird), made some tea, ignored the internet and all the people in the dining room, and crawled back into bed with my laptop, where I successfully wrote four pages. YAY. Then I showered, made myself look reasonably cute (for a crazy person surrounded by other crazy people), and crawled into the back of a van to go to lunch. Luckily the van was driven by someone on my retreat, so it was safer than it sounds. We went all the way to the very end of Montauk to see the lighthouse (Montauk's motto seems to be 'the end', since it's the absolute end of Long Island, and thus the absolute end of New York - it's on every piece of clothing one can acquire here, and acquire I have done). Since it was raining, we didn't bother to get out; instead, we went to a lovely restaurant, where we had a v. leisurely late lunch. I had some chowder, which was closer to Manhattan chowder than Boston chowder, and it was delightful; then I had diver scallops, which were tasty but didn't have as many carbs as my writerly soul was craving.

However, it was all super perfect, even with (or perhaps especially with) the rain and mist and atmospheric greyness. When we got back to the house, I played around with some cover art, then realized I was squandering my hour/day/week/life, and so I panicked and fled the house for the coffee shop, where I succeeded in writing another six or eight pages. DOUBLE YAY. I'm really loving the scene I wrote today, and I'm feeling good about things in general when I forgot other things like deadlines.

But by sixish I was done, so I bought a super cute Montauk sweatshirt, bought an equally cute (but less Montauk-y) scarf, came back to the house, and sat around for a few minutes. Then, Anne, Barbara and I went out for pizza, since it was easier than cooking, and that was fun too. Then we came home, I plotted and schemed with Grace and Anne, and I drank most of a bottle of red wine and generally relaxed and enjoyed talking to other crazy writers.

Now, though, I really need to sleep so that I can repeat some of this tomorrow - I want to write in the morning before I get too caught up in other things, and some of us have hatched a grand plan to escape Montauk and go to the nearest Starbucks in East Hampton so we can a) work and b) procure a Starbucks mug to add to my depressingly bourgeois collection. And so, goodnight!

you need a girl with electrical hair

The writing retreat continues to go somewhat well; I'm not having the wildly productive retreat of my dreams, but that's perhaps not entirely possible anyway given that I tend to dream the impossible. Also, I may be way too easily distractable to be completely successful on a retreat with seven other people. But I did some great work today, even if it wasn't a ton of pages, and I'm finally feeling better about where the story is headed. I also had some v. fun conversations, got coffee with someone, made chili for everyone for dinner, and generally relaxed this evening.

So that's all good, but now I must go to sleep so that I can get up and actually work tomorrow - I think I need to seek out a coffee shop and some solitude in the morning before I squander time chatting with others. Wish me luck with that - goodnight!

there isn't any sweetness in the dreaming

I got six pages today...not the sixty pages I would have loved to have written (which would be physically impossible, since that would require writing fifteen thousand words and my all-time max is like eight thousand), but they were six hard-earned pages, and I'm feeling good about where I'm headed. However, as expected, last night's wine extravaganza didn't help my productivity today, so I abstained tonight and am going to bed at the relatively civilized hour of one a.m. I know, I'm so disciplined.

So I got up at ten this morning, made some sausage and eggs with leftover potatoes for breakfast (totally winning), and contemplated my manuscript while sitting in the kitchen. However, I realized I was never going to concentrate with other people around, so at one-ish I left the house and snuck away to a coffee shop, where I wrote for two glorious hours by myself with some New Orleans iced coffee (note: not as good as coffee in New Orleans; this is the price one pays for being a jetsetter and experiencing things in real life). It was delightful, but as I said before, it was hard-won, and so I came back to the house at four and took a break by sitting in the sun on the deck and finishing a book I'd started the other night. Then I went out with some of the other writers for pizza (there's a pizza place with a gluten free crust here, which was totally winning) before coming back, doing a bit of work for the day job (boo...I told them I'm not going to check my email again until Thursday, so screw them), messing around with the internet for a bit, and trying to get back into the story.

But there was no forcing it tonight, so I spent a couple of hours talking to some of the other writers. I was trying to convince one of them to go to India, and the end result may have been more impactful in terms of convincing me that I really just want to pack up my laptop and head off for parts unknown and find fun places to live for a couple of weeks or months at a time while writing novels and doing some awesome food blogging on the side. That sounds far better than living in the marina and commuting three hours a day, doesn't it? And given how expensive San Francisco is, it could actually be cheaper...

...but now I shall smack myself on my knuckles, remind myself that I have a book to finish and I always get crazy (er, crazier) when in the throes of the second half, and that I can't make any rash decisions when I probably want something else entirely (and was even telling someone just a couple of hours before that how much I like my job). We'll see if that memory sticks in the morning; for now, I must sleep. Goodnight!

in the evenings on long island, when the colors start to fade

Again, I must go to bed immediately; I didn't intend to stay up this late, and I may have drank at least a bottle of wine over the past seven or eight hours of nonstop socializing. So much for a writing retreat being all about the writing, right?

But I have no regrets, even if my head will in the morning. I slept until ten, thanks to my earplugs and a strong desire to overcome the effects of sunlight, and then spent several hours banging my head against Thorington's story. I took a walk with my friend Grace to clear my head, which worked wonders, and it also meant that I got to see a bit more of the lovely town of Montauk and all that it has to offer (not much, but all charming). Then we came back to the house, where I showered and considered writing again.

Instead, I joined a couple of people on the deck, overlooking Fort Pond, with a bottle of wine and a gorgeous amount of sun, and ended up talking for the last eight hours. One of the women here had a birthday today, so I was hanging out with her and her best friend, and then some of the others joined us, and then we had dinner (thanks to the efforts of someone who was cooking instead of drinking), and then we continued the conversation into the wee hours. This was probably better for me than any writing I might have eked out in those hours; I truly loved getting to know the women I was talking to, since they were the only ones I hadn't met before the retreat, and the birthday girl in particular is a total delight. And we ended up discussing the themes we keep coming back to in our work, which was fascinating; I think that one of my big themes is striving, combined with the desire to find someone with whom striving is no longer quite so necessary. What was really fascinating is that the woman I have come to really admire picked up striving as my theme even though we hadn't met before yesterday and she hasn't read my stuff - clearly she is a student of human nature (although I use that truthfully and not annoyingly).

sssanyway, now it's two a.m., I'm sure I'll have a red wine headache in the morning, and I need to sleep or else nothing will get done tomorrow. Goodnight!

in the burning heart

I stayed up way too late, especially since it's 2:15am on the east coast even if my computer only claims it's 11:15pm. But we have successfully reached Montauk for our writing retreat; I didn't get much sleep last night, but I woke up in time to shower and have breakfast before going to the car rental place to pick up a car for the week. Then I went back to the hotel, picked up Tina and Grace, and successfully navigated out of the city and onto Long Island.

We met the other members of our party in Southampton for a fancy, leisurely lunch with fancy, leisurely people. Then, we continued on to the very end of the island, where we found the house, which is incredible. It's clearly in the middle of being substantially upgraded, and so while the views are gorgeous and the main living space is lovely, it has a few quirks (like not enough sheets or towels). But the setup more than makes up for it, and I can't wait for a solid week of writing time to get me back in the game.

But I spent the rest of the afternoon/evening relaxing, chatting with my compatriots, eating, and reading (the latter thing being what has kept me up until 2am). So now I'm going to sleep, hope this weekend basically off has revived me, and hit it hard tomorrow - goodnight!

and the ones who deserve it will never understand it

I'm typing this on my phone, so I shall be - but I have safely arrived in New York! I'm only in the city for a few hours before driving out to Montauk in the morning for my writing retreat, which I'm so freaking excited about (even though I'm totally panicking about finishing this book). But my friend Grace and I made to the city, stowed our stuff, had dinner, and walked around until eleven, when we met up with Tina and talked for the last hour.

And now I must sleep - goodnight!

and the ones that i made pay were never the ones who deserved it

I'm way exhausted and didn't get through all the day job stuff that I intended to do, which means there's a good (100%) chance I'll have to work tomorrow on the plane or Monday on my retreat. Damn. It wasn't for lack of trying; I got up early and started working on day job stuff by seven a.m., and I continued to slog virtually without pause (except for 45mins to grab a late breakfast and pick up my dry cleaning) until 4:30. Then I abandoned my efforts, got some coffee to try to stave off impending death, and went downtown to get my bangs trimmed. And then I spent the last three hours packing, attempting to make some order out of the chaos around me, and contemplating whether I'm just exhausted or am actually finally succumbing to the cold that has kept trying to take me down for the past two weeks.

But in twelve hours I'll be on a plane to New York, where I will have a whole glorious week to write in focused solitude with some other writers. I have v. high aspirations for what I can do with Thorington's story in a week, so I'm going to try to be a good little soldier and get my work done on the plane tomorrow so I don't have to check my work stuff again. We shall see, we shall see. Goodnight!

you're gonna wish you could go back and fold

I should have gone to bed an hour ago, but I'm still coming down off my workaholic buzz. I woke up around six this morning and made it to the shuttle so early that I was on campus by eight a.m., which should be criminal. Once there, I ate a v. strange breakfast and slogged from eight to four (plus the hour I slogged on the bus, so that was totally respectable). Oh, and I took a break to have an Indian lunch with my coworkers, which was fun (even if some people crashed and threw our table reservation off) and boss-approved (he had told me yesterday to focus all my efforts on something, then spent today trying to convince me to go bowling after lunch, so I am tres confused).

sssanyway, I got a lot of work done, although it's never enough, and I felt perfectly happy leaving at 4:15 to drive back to the city. As soon as I got here, I dropped my stuff in my room, changed my clothes, and walked out into the late afternoon sun to meet Kathia for a writing date. We probably had about as much wine as we had words, but that was fine; she's on deadline and I'm trying to be, so we were both pretty good, but we're both clearly over the whole deadline thing. Then I came home, talked briefly to Terry, came upstairs, and did day job stuff for the last hour.

And now I must sleep; tomorrow I must make a massive push for the day job, then pack so that I can go to New York on Saturday for a week-long writing retreat, during which I must write a book. Hahahahaha. Stab me now. Goodnight!

jilted lovers and broken hearts

I need to sleep immediately; I should have gone to bed forty minutes ago, but I made the mistake of checking work email, which is always dumb. However, today was mostly good; I went to work at an absurdly early hour and wrote over coffee for an hourish, netting myself four pages and a day-long desire to take a nap. Then I left the office at five and took some people on my team out for drinks/food at Fiesta in celebration of hitting the Amazon/B&N/Apple top 100 lists last week. Then I took the shuttle home (see: two pitchers of margaritas), and now I must sleep so that I can do it all again tomorrow. Goodnight!

with my feet on the ground

Too tired to blog...I worked from home today, which ought to have rejuvenated me, but I spent the whole day thinking and writing emails and taking care of annoying tasks, compounded by not eating enough and not drinking enough water since I'm apparently incapable of taking care of myself when I'm not surrounded by the endless bounty of my place of work. But I slacked off at five and met up with someone I might hire to do some marketing/general business development stuff for my writing life, and I really liked her, so that was exciting. And then I came home and ate a chicken breast like it was going out of style, and now I must sleep so that I can repeat this whole saga tomorrow. Goodnight!

stella luna

I have returned to San Francisco, where I shall luxuriate in work (since that's all I have) for the next four days before leaving for NYC on Saturday. But seeing Katie was just what the doctor ordered; I had a lot of fun in Denver, even if I am suspicious of the chances that I will pick up some awful illness from either Katie's toddler or the people on the plane. We woke up pretty early today and had breakfast at a v. hipster-ish cafe, which made me feel like I was back in San Francisco even if the entrees were probably 15-20% cheaper than they would have been here. Also, I got to have grits, which made me happy. Then we drove around for an hour or so and saw a bit of scenery - I tend to forget that Denver has scenery when I go there, since I spend most of my time in Katie's house or at a bar or restaurant, but it turns out that Denver has mountains! Who knew?

However, all too soon it was time for me to pack up, kiss the toddler on the nose (although I couldn't find a buyer for her, unlike the Ox Cart Man), and go to the airport. Parting was such sweet sorrow since I'll probably never see Katie again (that's a dramatic way of saying it will probably be 6-12 months). But I made it into the airport and through security in time to eat lunch before boarding my flight. Once on board, I got some writing done, but I kept falling asleep thanks to a judicious application of Dramamine. Then I came home, did some work, went to eat something while writing a bit, and then spent the last three hours doing financial stuff in preparation for my quarterly tax estimates. The fact that I've gone on several big writing events and have a ton of receipts this quarter doesn't make me a happy camper, even if the fact that I'm selling books makes it all worth it.

But now I must sleep, as I must return to the man tomorrow and get some hardcore slogging done for the day job - goodnight!

she wears high heels when she exercises

I'm really sleepy, but that may be the gin and altitude talking. Today was really lovely; I woke up refreshed, hung out in the living room, and then had delish breakfast tacos (care of James, who seems to be the perfect husband, since he does everything while Katie lolls about eating bonbons). We lazed about some more before deciding to pack up the toddler and go to the mall, which was a v. entertaining, v. ridiculous experience. She ran around exhausting us all, and I bought a couple of things at J Crew, so yay for that. Then we came home and ate steak, and I talked to my parents.

And then it looked like it was going to be a quiet night, but instead James shoved me and Katie out the door and into the night, where we found a fancy hipsterish bar and talked about life for a couple of glorious hours. I had three cocktails (all delish) and Katie had two mocktails (v. fancy mocktails, as hipsters are wont to do), and I will probably regret the gin that has replaced the blood in my veins, but it was all worth it.

But now I must sleep - we must have breakfast whenever Katie's toddler overlord awakens, and then I need to shower/pack/get ready to go back to Iowa. Goodnight!

hey now, you're an all-star

After getting less than six hours of sleep last night and drinking at altitude today, I'm utterly wiped out. However, I'm having an awesome time in Denver, even if our only meals were breakfast and supper like we're medieval peasants. But if medieval peasants had survived on mimosas and Mexican food, they probably would've been a lot happier and less prone to lynching witches.

sssanyway, I was awoken this morning by infernal screeches - coming from Katie and James's cat Chewy, not from their sweet and precious daughter. Chewy and I have long-standing animosity, although he has yet to bite me on this trip; he did commandeer my lap for half an hour or so while I was watching 'House Hunters' and Katie and James were putting their child to bed, but I consider that a brief truce in our take-no-prisoners war. So I rolled out of bed and hung out in the living room for a couple of hours, at which point we all realized we were starving. So we had brunch at a cute and tasty restaurant down the street; my omelette was good, albeit not filling enough to soak up my mimosas, but Katie's pork hash was the winner. Then we came home, Katie and I took her daughter for a walk (and got a much-needed iced latte for me from some hipsters down the street, since I'm in hipster withdrawal), and then we came back, where I said I was going to shower but instead snuck a twenty-minute nap. Yes, I'm a wreck.

But I eventually pulled myself together, and we spent some quality time out on the patio listening to nineties classics while the toddler napped (marginally successfully). Then we had a v. early dinner (5pm hour of power!) at a v. delicious Mexican place; my barbacoa beef enchiladas were perfect, and the margaritas were large and in charge. Katie drove me, James, and the toddler around in an attempt to lull us all to sleep as retribution for making her the designated driver - or maybe she was trying to convince me to move here, since Denver is awesome. Then we spent the rest of the night relaxing over some fine home-buying tv shows, alternately laughing at and mourning the stupidity of humanity.

And now I must sleep if I am to be a good houseguest tomorrow and not kill the cat as soon as it starts screeching - goodnight!

rocky mountain high

Sadly this must needs be brief; I'm typing on my phone and am also sleepy, and my hosts have promised that their child will wake me up. Luckily she is adorable, and so I may not have to murder her.

But I made it to Denver in one piece, although the turbulence on the way in tried to kill me (or at least my bladder). That was after slogging excessively all day, including meetings with two different directors, followed by a coworker actually following me into the bathroom, then downstairs, then into the parking lot, continuing to talk as I said I needed to leave immediately for the airport. Tanks. Traffic sucked, but I made it just in time to eat something before boarding.

And now, after a delightful late night of conversation with Katie and James that may not feel delightful in the morning, I must sleep - goodnight!

you make me feel so alive

I meant to go to bed an hour ago, but I had a lot to do before going to be - mostly packing for the impromptu trip I'm taking to Denver tomorrow, as well as doing some work for the day job and eating some pad thai at ten p.m. when I realized I hadn't really had dinner. Oops. But I probably should have slept; while my cold isn't as bad as it was yesterday, that's because I stayed home today and got nine hours of sleep last night, while tonight I will only get seven-ish and must go in early to do the stuff I didn't finish today. Damn.

But today was good despite my illness; I ran an ad for the promotion of SCOTSMEN at $0.99 today and the book is now at #32 on Amazon, #9 on B&N, and #39 on Apple. YAY. The rankings will tail off quickly, of course, but hopefully the thousands of people who bought it today will go on to read the next books. A girl can dream. And now I must sleep - goodnight!

fall in love every time

No blog tonight - I'm desperate for sleep and have to type this on my phone since my internet is messed up, and there's nothing important enough to merit typing on my phone. Perhaps tomorrow I shall be more interesting, but until then I bid you goodnight!

faithfully

I probably should have gone to bed an hour ago, but I was enjoying a somewhat-deserved night off and didn't want to cut it short by sleeping. I woke up somewhat early this morning, wrote for an hour, and then worked from home until ten, when I drove down to the glorious south bay to see Alyssa. She wasn't as brutal as she could have been, but I haven't been feeling particularly well (I have a headache that just won't die), so I appreciated her restraint. Then I showered, grabbed some food, grabbed some more food (yay multiple cafes), and had meetings most of the afternoon. When I wasn't in meetings, I was dealing with frustrating interpersonal issues between coworkers, which drains my energy like no other. Of course, maybe it's my towering rage at some interpersonal issues that saps my energy - the poor woman who had the misfortune of having her one-on-one with me after a particularly frustrating event had the pleasure of watching me rip all the nail polish off my nails in an effort to do something with my hands and try to get my rage under control. Heh.

But that all sounds horribly dramatic when it's really just an tempest in the teapot (albeit a tempest that appears to have the staying power of a thunderstorm on Jupiter). Still, I was done done by fiveish, and so I left the office, spent altogether too much time in traffic, and got home starving and not particularly calm. So I ordered delivery and read a book for a couple of hours. The book isn't completely up my alley, but I'm enjoying it well enough, and it was better than doing email. Then my friend Grace called to ask some questions about Scottish aristocrats (as one does), and we ended up catching up about our last days in New Orleans, which was hilarious. And now I must sleep so that I can attempt to be a better person tomorrow - goodnight!

she's morphine, queen of my vaccine

First, happy birthday to Uncle Mark!

Second, nothing at all of note happened today; I went to work and promptly regretted it, since I probably would have been better off sleeping later and working from home. But I slogged from 8:30 to 3:30, then drove back to the city, ran a couple of errands, and worked over a long dinner at Des Amis. I successfully updated the back matter in HEIRESS, so that was a big win, and I think I'm ready for the promotional efforts I've got going on later this week.

But now I must go to bed so that I can recover a bit and also get up early to write - goodnight!

the piano's a melancholy soundtrack to her smile

I must go to bed immediately - I had a v. uneventful trip home, but I spent the entire plane ride + the last two hours working (on my own stuff), and I really desperately need to sleep if I'm going to make it into the day job in the morning. Today was good, though; I woke up ridiculously early and had [censored] with [censored], then went back to my hotel and slept for another hour and a half. Thus rejuvenated, I got up again, showered, packed, checked out of the hotel, and stowed my bags so I could get some lunch. I successfully procured the peanut butter bacon burger at Yo Mama's, which had been on my list of things to try - it was actually really really good, all appearances aside. Then I bought a pair of shoes and a necklace that I'd had my eye on all week at a couple of the shops near the hotel, retrieved my bags, went to the airport, called my parents, and boarded my flight.

And now I'm back in California for at least five nights - ooh la la! Goodnight!

the party's over

I'm beyond exhausted - today was a v. long day, since I left my room at 9:30am and didn't come back until after 11pm. The first half of the day was mostly an exercise in frustration; I met a friend for coffee, but then had to do the signing from 11 to 2, and it was kind of a joke. The lines were way too long and my area of the signing didn't get a lot of foot traffic. I actually didn't mind this, since I sold a couple of books and had quite a few other people come by and say they'd read all my stuff and wanted a signed postcard or something. So that was all lovely. But the two people on either side of me bitched incessantly about the lack of traffic, which was kind of wearing on my nerves.

So at two p.m., I didn't even try to take my stuff back to my room - I went down to the lobby, checked two grocery bags full of stuff with the bell desk, and immediately left the hotel for some restorative ginger juleps with some historical romance writers. I only knew them vaguely from Twitter but I took them up on their public mention of going to get drinks, and I'm so so glad I did. My friend Grace came too, but there were a couple of ladies there whom I've chatted up a lot on Twitter and had hoped to spend quality time with at this conference. And I also met another historical writer who's basically exactly my age, with my height and haircut, and we really hit it off (even if she's into Soulcycle, which I still maintain is a cult). So I had two drinks there, then got on a streetcar with two of the ladies and rode it all the way down St. Charles and back. It was great to get out of the hotel and out of the French Quarter, and I had a really great time talking to them.

But as soon as I got back to the lobby, I immediately had to go out to dinner - I had invited three people to go with me (a reader I have befriended over several different conferences + two bloggers/writers I've also befriended), but one of the bloggers showed up with an extra six people, and it was going to be impossible to get a table for ten anywhere nearby during the weekend of Tulane's graduation. So I did a v. hard thing and told them that we were abandoning them, so the three of us who were left walked down to Jackson Square and ended up having a really awesome dinner at this place called Muriel's - the wait for the dining room was two hours, but we went into the bar and I used my mad swooping skills to score a table in the patio area within fifteen minutes. I had this really perfect pork chop, and the cocktails were great, and it was all perfectly lovely.

Then I came back to the hotel and immediately left it again to have a drink with my friend Vivi. And now I'm totally wiped out and must get up at 6:30 so that I can have [censored] with [censored], so I should sleep - goodnight!

i won't fall asleep

Today was a v. long but ultimately pretty fulfilling day. I woke up at some reasonably respectable hour (not really), had breakfast, and did day job stuff until close to noon. Then I went down to the lobby and gave away a couple of books and tried to write (but failed). However, the afternoon got much better; I was part of a workshop involving a burlesque dance instructor, which was super fun, and then I went straight to another workshop on building a sticky readership (not sticky like burlesque - sticky like willing to buy your next book). I may have looked a little ridic since I was still wearing my short black dress and red feather boa, but it was all good.

But after that, I stowed my stuff in my room, switched into something a little more comfortable, and walked across the street to pick up [censored], who is in town for [censored]. It just so happens to be his [censored], so we went out for a celebratory sibling dinner - celebratory partially because it's the first time we've been together for one of our [censored]s in I don't know how long. We had dinner at Dickie Brennan's, which was super delicious - my ribeye was awesome, as were the side potatoes, and [censored]'s prime rib was to die for. I also had a Sazerac, mostly because I felt like I should. Then we walked around the French Quarter, admired the talents of some drummers, walked along the Mississippi, and ended up at Cafe du Monde, where I made [censored] eat [censored] while I drank cafe au lait and dreamed of days of past gluten glory.

However, we packed it in early since [censored] [censored] and I wanted to go to bed. But instead of going to bed, I spent the last five or six hours messing around with the epub for my second book; I'm doing a price promotion thing next week and wanted to update the files so that they have better links to my other books, and I can't really put it off much longer. I got them done and uploaded to the big three vendors, but I'm going to wait on the other two so I don't screw something up in my exhaustion. And I really need to sleep since I have to get up and sign books and do all sorts of other fun things tomorrow - goodnight!

i been losing sleep

So I woke up today convinced that I was getting sick - and it's possible that I'm still getting sick. But I dug out my emergency supply of echinacea, had a gigantic glass of orange juice for breakfast, and took a couple of naps, so I'm hoping that I staved it off. Of course, it all went sideways when I went to Bourbon Street...

But I digress. I spent the morning considering Thorington, which was probably a lost cause and I should have just gone to some workshops instead. But I had a v. tasty breakfast while I did so (oyster benedict, hold the muffin - they said the oysters were dusted in cornmeal, but upon receiving them I think it's likely they had some flour as well, so unfortunately I will probably die). Then I came back to the hotel, grabbed some coffee, went to a workshop on how to approach bloggers for reviews (something I need to get much better at), and spent some quality time having a snack in the bar and meeting another writer whom I hadn't met before. Then I went to Cafe du Monde to work out my plot issues with Thorington over a cafe au lait, but that was probably a mistake since I finally, fully succumbed to the siren's call of beignets and had a whole order of them, which, as you may know, is really not good for me.

But the coffee revived me, and the plot is getting better every time I work on it, so that's good. Then I came back, had a drink with Amber and Allyn, took an eight-minute nap, put on a dress and slathered on some fresh foundation, and met my friend Grace and her sister for the conference pub crawl. We were supposed to go to ten different bars on Bourbon Street, but instead we went straight to the one our friend Tina was hosting at, and we holed ourselves up in the corner of the bar and nursed frozen margaritas (dangerous) while gossiping and catching up.

So that was pretty much perfect, but the fun continued when I crashed their after-pubcrawl dinner at a fish place nearby, where I had yet another awesomely delicious meal. The appetizers were great (particularly the pork belly), and my entree was some sort of scallop/fish thing (they called it a 'scalibut') on top of lobster risotto. It was so rich and so crazy that I couldn't finish it, but it was tasty nonetheless, especially with a glass of wine.

Sadly, though, I must sign off; I'm going to die if I don't get some sleep, and I need to stave off both illness and hangover (a losing combination). Goodnight!

you look like you've seen a ghost

Today was great, although I think I hit my wall with socializing and so had to take a time out tonight. I woke up this morning and blew off breakfast (it was with the same people I'd hung out with last night, so I didn't feel the pressure to see them again immediately even though I love them) so that I could do a couple of hours of work for the day job while getting ready and eating room service. Then I met up with Courtney and snuck away to Cafe Du Monde for the second day in a row. This time I succumbed to the temptation of a beignet to go along with my delicious coffee, but I only ate one and it was totally survivable.

So we talked over coffee for an hour or so, and then walked back to the hotel in time for the workshop we were both on, which involved making covers for fake books while the photographer who does my covers did a photo shoot with the model she'd brought along with her. It was disorganized and made worse by the fact that the hotel didn't provide the right equipment, but it was still really fun, so hopefully the readers who attended had a good time. After that, I wandered around the hotel for a bit, wandered into the French Quarter, got a juice and flirted with the guy at the cafe (he suggested that I write a romance about a girl who falls in love with a guy at a juice place), and then went on my secret mission - which was to get a custom perfume made at a perfume shop in the Quarter. This seems like a v. Regency thing to do, no?

It turned out to be really fun, if a bit overwhelming. The scent lady discussed my favorite scents with me, tried some things on my arm, and then started mixing up different alternatives for me. She made five different perfumes in total, and they were all really interesting. But it became clear to me that I have no idea how to describe scents in any way, and so I don't know if I was actually very effective at guiding her...and that many perfumes at once was a little overwhelming. I like what I walked away with, and the cool thing is that she gave me all five samples, so if I end up liking a different one better, I can order it. They keep records of all of these until the end of time, so if I ever want to reorder (or get lotion or soap or something with the same scent), I can just call them up and they'll send it to me. How lovely, right? And if nothing else, I got some good ideas for a romance novel, which is more than worth the cost of the perfume.

So after that, I came back to the hotel and furiously scrubbed my arms so that I would stop smelling like a whore. Then I worked for a couple of hours before having dinner with my friend Amber (the writer who is also a priest) and two of her friends. We went to Sylvain, which I had originally intended to go to on Friday; I'm really glad I went there, but also really glad that I had already switched my Friday plans. I had a gulf shrimp and rice dish that was totally outstanding, but it was probably too close to risotto for my family's tastes. I also had a rum-based cocktail (any long-term or short-term reader knows my weakness for rum-based cocktails), but I limited myself to one. Then I came back, intended to write, and instead procrastinated and sent some emails.

But now I'm going to go to sleep, wake up earlyish, and write before the madness starts again - goodnight!

when the saints go marching in

Why haven't I moved to New Orleans? It probably has something to do with the heat, lack of tech jobs, general post-Katrina issues, the fact that everything has flour in it...but when I allow myself to dream, as I did over a cocktail this afternoon, the idea of living here seems glorious.

Today was v. nice, albeit v. lazy. I slept until nine (not that great, since I went to bed after one), showered, put on a dress, ate a snack, and met a couple of people to go to Cafe du Monde, where I exercised extreme restraint and ignored the beignets (which looked so fucking delicious). At least I could have the coffee, which I proceeded to drink like a teetotaler trying to avoid temptation. After I was done with the people I met up with (who were lovely, but it was for day job stuff, not writing stuff), I wandered around the French Quarter before eventually having a late lunch at a restaurant overlooking Jackson Square. I sat on the second-floor balcony and enjoyed a tasty cocktail, some absolutely delicious sausage and duck gumbo, and a salad (I'm trying to be good(ish)). At that point I thought I was done, but I got upsold on the creme brulee by a fabulously personable waitress - and it was worth it, since it was the first time I've ever seen creme brulee served on a plate, which meant that there was an extreme amount of caramelized surface area. I only ate half of it, but it was worth every bite.

Then I came back to the hotel, wished I could take a nap, and instead picked up my conference registration, checked in my books for Saturday's signing, and spent an hour on a conference call for the day job. Then I met up with some of the Rubies (the '09 GH finalists) to drink wine and stuff gift bags for the workshop we're giving on Friday. That wrapped up around eight, and then four of us (me, Vivi, Tammy, and Anne Marie) had supper at a cafe down the street. I had the pork shank, which really could shank someone if the bones were chewed clean and sharpened, and it fulfilled my need for protein even if I was eyeing Vivi's gumbo like a fucking addict.

But now I must sleep so I can do this all again tomorrow - I have a breakfast date, a lunch date + a dinner date, and I'm giving a workshop, and I have an appointment for an adventure that I shall tell you about in due time. Goodnight!

laissez les bon temps rouler

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

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

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

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

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

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!