a tournament, a tournament, a tournament of lies

I'm super tired and should have gone to bed an hour ago, but I've been dozing in my living room (yay Saturday night). Today was lovely, though - I slept in, thanks in large part to my new mostly-blackout blind in my bedroom, which was an excellent investment. Then I messed around, made coffee, talked to Katie, ate some leftover pizza, and spent a few hours doing stuff in my basement. I'd been letting the stockpile get a little unruly down there, since it's pretty easy to just take groceries down there and never put them away. So I reorganized, put everything on my shelves, made a list of things I need to stock up on (I am down to one can of coconut milk, which just won't cut it in the apocalypse).

Then, I took a shower. And then I unpacked my gorgeous new kitchenaid mixer - I got it in a lovely creamy yellow, which looks great in my kitchen. I made a test run of chocolate chip chewies, which turned out perfectly - I'm really not sure why I waited this long to get one, but thanks Aunt B for the gift!

As soon as my cookies were done, I took them + a bag with ingredients for moscow mules over to Katie's house. We had a proper backyard hangout/dinner - she made roast beef, mashed potatoes, and roasted carrots, all of which were perfect, and we had moscow mules and many many chocolate chip chewies while the kids ran around and watched a movie. Chocolate chip chewies are delightful in part because you can cut whatever size you want, which often results in fun 'fooling yourself' moments in which you cut a thin sliver all the way across the pan to pretend that you didn't really have a cookie.

Eventually, though, we were all tired, so I came home and exhibited commendable restraint by freezing some of the chewies immediately rather than leaving them out to gorge on tomorrow. And now I need to sleep - goodnight!

this means no fear, cavalier, renegade and steering clear

I had a long day of video conferences, starting with having to film the closing talk for the virtual event that is replacing the big events my team usually plans every fall. That made me a little sad, since I didn't get to go anywhere or bond with anyone and instead just had to sit at my laptop and stare into the camera. But I guess it could be worse.

Then I had many meetings, and my last one got hijacked by my coworker's wife (they had clearly been drinking, and I'd opened wine to have a glass with him since the meeting was half gossip, but her hijacking was hilarious). Then I talked to Terry for a long time. Then I talked to Katie, since we also needed to debrief on the year that was today. Then I ate delivery pizza and talked to [censored]. And now, after too much time on screens tonight, it's time for bed - goodnight!

bid my blood to run before i come undone

Long day....many meetings, more time spent trying to craft one single perfect email, and a delicious salmon and spicy tuna poke bowl for lunch (delivered, of course). I took a break at 4:30 to hang out with Caroline, who brought snacks to go with a bottle of rose from my fridge, which we enjoyed on my back patio. 'Enjoyed' may have been too strong - it was chilly, hazy, smoky, and my couches had visible ash on them, but it was still great to see Caroline and discuss many tings from a distance of 6-8 feet rather than over our screens.

Then she left, I talked to [censored] for awhile, went way too deep on Twitter (wear a mask, kids!), and then pulled out of Twitter and worked on day job stuff for the last two hours. And now I really need to sleep since I have tings to do tomorrow - goodnight!

players only love you when they're playing

No blog tonight - I didn't sleep well last night, and I woke up groggy and tired. But I wrote for thirty minutes before work, which is better than nothing. Then I slogged all day, with a short break around three to take a nap and a walk; that move was enough to keep me going until 6:15, when I was finally able to stop. I then spent the evening making chickpea stew, chatting with Katie, cleaning, examining some plants that I'd ordered, reading a design magazine, etc.

And now I need to sleep - goodnight!

you vitriolic, patriotic, slam fight, bright light, feeling pretty psyched

Today was something. I woke up and was luxuriating in bed when I got an automated phone call that the guy who was going to install my new bedroom blind was going to be here at 8am, which was 30min earlier than the 2hr window in which he was supposed to arrive. So I sped through the shower and got my coffee going just in time for his arrival. I'm pretty excited about this new blind - as I think I've said before, the previous owner was a masochist who liked to wake up at dawn, while I prefer much more civilized hours (like ten a.m., when I'm not being a corporate whore). So I replaced his spendy mesh shade with an equally-spendy blackout shade, and now all is right with the world (or at least all is right with my bedroom).

I managed to do a bit of writing this morning before the chaos started in earnest, which was great. Work was a bit crazy, but nothing totally unusual - as I said to someone today, my whole job is putting out fires, and in my spare time I coach people to try to keep fires from starting. I was able to knock off around five, and then I made a somewhat elaborate dinner - I made a garlic chile shrimp + coconut rice from the Burma Superstar cookbook. I didn't instagram it yet because I didn't feel like doing it tonight, but it was pretty tasty - and it was only elaborate because it involved peeling two whole heads of garlic for the shrimp sauce. If I make this or the beef/potato curry again, I would be tempted to buy the pre-peeled garlic cloves from Whole Foods, because the garlic prep was the most involved part of both dishes.

Anyway, the shrimp turned out great (and really fast if you already have the garlic paste - which I do now, because the recipe for the paste is a double batch, so I have enough for another batch in my fridge). And the coconut rice is one of the best things ever. I then drank most of a bottle of v. expensive wine and watched the debate, which went about how I expected it to, but I will spare the sensitive feelings of some of my readers and not share my thoughts. Then I read a kitchen remodel magazine to decompress, and now I'm going to bed - goodnight!

the cloud is moving nearer still, aurora borealis comes in view

I worked a lot today, so I have nothing interesting to share with you. I did meditate this morning, and I spent some quality time planning out my week, so I guess that's good. I made a v. tasty tuna sandwich for lunch, and I took a walk sometime this afternoon (and talked to Terry while walking, which is the benefit of different time zones). When I was done with work, I chatted with [censored] for quite awhile, since we hadn't caught up in a week or so.

Then I reheated the curry that I made last night, and it was even better tonight - it's really insanely good (basically just a beef and potato stew with a different flavor profile). I took care of a few tings around the house, tidied up my 'office' (aka dining room), etc. And I took a nap, because why not. But then I had procrastinated long enough on something I've been trying to do for work for awhile, so I finally buckled down and worked for two hours and pushed through it.

And now, I need to sleep - goodnight!

with auburn hair and tawny eyes, the kind of eyes that hypnotize me through

I had a pretty lazy day....or rather, I got quite a bit done, but it was all in service of the goal of making a curry, which took hours of effort. Luckily it was one of the tastiest things I've made in quarantine, and I would actually 100% make it again, so no regrets there.

I got up slightly later than planned this morning, and I bummed around the kitchen making coffee and cleaning up and meditating. I also made a grocery list - while I'd gotten most of what I needed at the Korean grocery store the other night, their dairy section wasn't up to the task for what I required, and I had also forgotten to get lemongrass for the thing I wanted to make today. So I cut up the beef for tonight's curry and covered it in paprika/turmeric/salt to marinate, and then I showered, took care of some tings, ate some leftover frittata, and ran to the grocery store (with a stop at the carwash, and an abortive attempt to return something to Nordstrom Rack before I realized that I had no desire to stand in any sort of line that wasn't distancing).

After the grocery store, I came home, put tings away, and then made a beef and potato curry. You can see it on zee romance blog - it wasn't hard at all, but it involved dicing a lot of onion and mincing almost two full heads of garlic, which is time consuming. It also needed to simmer for at least ninety minutes, and then another thirty after adding the potatoes, so it really took quite a long time.

But I got to talk to my parents for quite awhile while I was occasionally stirring the curry. And the end result, as i said, was excellent - would definitely make again.

And now, it's time to head toward bed so that I can write in the morning before work. Goodnight!

heat waves been faking me out

Today was more social interaction than I feel like I've had in ages, even though it was probably less when compared to the endless time I spend in meetings. I got up around eight, puttered around my kitchen, and made a v. tasty frittata for breakfast for the next few days. Then I showered and sped (or crawled - construction was terrible) down to my friend Barbara's house. I hadn't seen her in a few weeks, so it was indescribably delightful to get together with a writer friend. We socially distanced in her backyard and eventually ordered lunch, all while talking about a wide variety of topics, and I could have stayed twice as long. And I left with some irises she'd dug up for me to plant, so I need to block out some time to indulge my green thumb soon.

Then I drove home, and as soon as I got here I had a video call with the friendship renewal crew (Joann, Jen, and Jane). I was 30min late due to traffic, which then made it awkward that I had to drop off early - we were going deep on a variety of topics, but Katie came over and I had to bounce.

So, Katie and I hung out in my backyard for a few yours, and it was perfect. There's something v. lucky about having a close adult friend who knew you throughout childhood, and we def went deep on Iowa tonight. We also ordered Indian takout, drank boulevardiers, and daydreamed about the fire pit I plan to install in my back yard.

But now, I'm falling asleep (and have been for awhile), so it's time for bed - goodnight!

only got bad things on my mind when i'm with you

Work was surprisingly stressful today; Fridays are usually pretty chill, but I had meetings all day and was trying to prep stuff for more meetings, and I had to present to a couple of VPs, etc., etc. So, it was not exactly the calm end of the week that I wanted...but the presentation went well, so I guess it could be worse.

As soon as I was done with meetings, I made a run to H Mart up in Westminster. I'm feeling eager to get back into cooking ridiculously elaborate meals that are too much for one person (but perfect for instagram), and I want to go deeper into the Burma Superstar cookbook (among others). H Mart is a Korean grocery chain and I didn't realize they were in Colorado, but I'm glad I found them. It was kind of a trick to find everything on my list because I didn't know the store layout, I didn't know what some of the jars and bottles and things would look like or what section they might be in, and many things were imported and so occasionally not in English. But it was pretty fun to explore, they had a ton of produce for way cheaper than Whole Foods, I did finally find pickled green mango, I saw more variants of rice noodle than I realized were possible, and all in all it was delightful. And now I know where I can get gallon jugs of beef blood if I ever need it (I don't). It also wasn't very crowded at 5pm on a Friday, which is good to know.

Of course, by the time I got home, I didn't have time to start an elaborate recipe. So I put my groceries away and ate leftover chicken and wild rice soup instead. Then I played with my new gel manicure light -- I haven't had my fingernails done since the apocalypse started, and I was really missing that little bit of fanciness, and then a coworker friend gave me a light and the top/base coat for gel manicures for my birthday. So I did my nails, and I took the time to file my nails, soak my cuticles, etc. While I was doing my nails, I watched a couple of episodes of TASTE THE NATION (Padma Lakshmi's culinary show), which I adore. And my nails turned out pretty well, so we'll see how the polish holds up.

Then I picked up the book I started last night (BIG SUMMER) and read later than I planned, but managed to put it down and not finish the rest of it. There are still superficial similarities to some of what I'm writing, but the twist in the middle is definitely not what I plan for my book, so that's a relief. And now I need to go to bed, because I have a big day planned tomorrow - goodnight!

and so it goes, we found our sweet disaster

I have nothing to report today. I did the usual coffee/meditation/journal thing this morning, then worked all day. Lunch was a salad from sweetgreen (aka my old life, since it's a San Francisco salad chain), and I took some meetings outside to soak up some sun before winter comes. I also had a funfetti cupcake from my freezer, and that bag of cupcakes is one of my favorite things right now.

By 5:30ish I was done, although I perhaps should not have been. I spent some quality time reading a couple of cookbooks and making some grocery lists - I want to get back into making elaborate meals and this weekend seems like a good time for it. I also made some rice to go with a package of chicken chile verde that I'd pulled from the freezer - I'd made it in August and it freezes well, so it tasted extravagant even though it took no effort tonight.

Then I doomscrolled for way too long, but I finally pulled myself out of it and journaled again, then started reading a book. It's BIG SUMMER by Jennifer Weiner, and I'm not really into it yet (the main character is a plus-sized instagram influencer and I am not sure I like her inner monologue).... But I felt like I have to read it because it has a lot of superficial similarities with the book I'm writing (friends reuniting long after a falling out for a wedding, the influencer lifestyle, New York, etc). They're not the same book at all, but I feel like I need to at least be aware of this one.

But now I'm going to bed - goodnight!

we're cut from a stained glass mountain

Today was lovely, all in all, but I need to get off my laptop immediately. I slept just late enough that I wasn't able to write this morning, but I did meditate and journal and make some perfect coffee (and wash my hair), so it could have been worse. Then I had meetings most of the day - some of them were more important than others, but I got through all of them. I also had some time to do some actual work, and I was pretty productive with that time (unlike some days, when I squander it)....and I did that work while sitting on my patio, since I want to take advantage of the still-warm days before autumn hits in earnest.

So, work was decent. But it bled straight into a 90-minute class (literally no break between my meeting that ended at five and my class that started at five). I can't remember if I mentioned that I reconnected with Alyssa, my old trainer, whom I have always adored? She's moved most of her business online and is doing a six-month group coaching class around neurology, fitness, nutrition, etc., and I decided to #treatyoself to some coursework instead of another bottle of wine (jk, my quarterly bottles from Grgich showed up today too).

Tonight was the first class, and so far so good - we'll see how it goes, but it was kind of nice to force myself out of work mode (although the lack of break in between meant it was hard to concentrate - I'm going to have to put in a buffer going forward). After class, I reheated some leftover chicken and wild rice soup (yum), messed around on my phone, painted my toenails, and finally ordered a Kitchenaid mixer approximately fifteen years after y'all would have expected me to have one (thanks for the gift and the nudge to get it, Aunt B!). So I predict a lot of gluten free baking experiments with #quarantinechef...and if the gluten free baking goes nowhere, I also ordered the meat grinder attachment, so there might be sausage in my future (that's what she said).

And now, on that weird note, I'll see myself out and go to bed. Goodnight!

everyone's so intimately rearranged

I meant to be in bed thirty minutes ago, but I spent way too much time not working tonight, and then when I finally opened my laptop (around 9:45) the task I needed to do took longer than anticipated. Today was fine, all in all - I woke up, drank coffee, meditated, and didn't really write because I had an 8:30 meeting (although I did reread what I wrote yesterday to keep it fresh). I slogged pretty much straight through until five, although I ordered a poke bowl for lunch (#treatyoself) and also took a walk sometime in the afternoon.

When I was done around 5:15, I threw together some chicken and wild rice soup in the instantpot (it's very tasty and perfect for the first day of fall, even though I'm in denial about that date). I also cleaned up my back patio, did a couple of loads of laundry, talked to my parents, talked to [censored], and talked to Katie. And then I worked, which was not exciting but was necessary. And now I'm going to bed - goodnight!

write a song, make a note

I need to go to bed immediately, but today was good (albeit busy). I got up in time to meditate, journal, and write before work, which I count as a victory. Then I slogged all day, with a quick break for lunch and a break around five to make some oatmeal for the rest of the week + take care of tings around the house + eat a funfetti cupcake from my freezer (it was practically as good as fresh, especially since I had frosting in the fridge). Then I did a bit more work because I had to.

But I stopped around 7:30 for a most unusual reason - Lisa, who reported to me years ago, happened to be in Denver with her fiance, so they came over with their dog and some takeout so we could enjoy some backyard time. It was awesome to see her, and we went deep on life, politics, blockchain, venture capital, chance meetings at Barnes and Noble, etc. We had a really fun night in the middle of the apocalypse, and it was over too soon....

But now I must sleep - goodnight!

although this wave is stringing us along

I'm back in Denver after a v. smooth travel day (unless I got coronavirus, in which case it was not smooth at all). I woke up this morning with plenty of time to hang out, pack, eat some leftover bratwurst and potato salad, and generally relax through the morning. I eventually had to say goodbye to my parents, and then to [censored], before driving to Des Moines to catch my flight. That was all v. smooth - Des Moines is always a delight to fly out of, even when dropping off a rental car, so I had time to grab a salad while I waited.

The flight was entirely uneventful and I slept for part of it. When I got to Denver, my bag took awhile, but I blame the fact that I was at the wrong baggage carousel (I swear the announcement on the plane was for a different carousel than where they actually ended up). But getting home was super smooth - no traffic, and I was able to stop at the grocery store and grab a couple of things to make the next couple of days easier.

Then I got home, ordered some takeout Thai food, messed around online, and generally didn't do the work that I had intended to do. So I'm going to make the typical mistake of trying to go to bed early so that I can get up early and work - let's see how this goes. Goodnight!

we got a fine crustacean band

It's my last day in ye olde Iowa, so I tried to make the most of it by being pretty lazy. I ran a couple of errands this morning, then ate leftover Mexican food, then spent the early afternoon continuing to be lazy. But I did eventually rally, run into the lumber yard to buy a brush, and finish painting the door for the cave - I'd put a coat on two weeks ago but wasn't able to finish due to wind conditions over labor day, but since I came home this weekend I decided to finish it. It turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself, and hopefully I won't wake up covered in chigger bites.

Then we ate a delicious supper (brats, potato salad, baked beans, deviled eggs, and hot dogs for good measure), and then I was lazy for the rest of the night. And now I need to sleep - goodnight!

the seaweed is always greener in somebody else's lake

I'm still in ye olde Iowa. Yesterday was brutal, only because I barely slept after my excursion with Adit - I was back in my room and attempting to sleep by midnight, but drinking coke zero and fireball at eleven was not a good idea for sleep quality. So I woke up groggy yesterday morning, rallied, dropped Adit off at the airport (we wore masks in the car; someone in my county died of covid after driving people around, so I tried to limit my chances), and then drove home. That meant I made it in time to get settled in before my meetings started, and the coffee / hashbrowns / sausage that I grabbed at McDonald's on the way out of the city went a long way toward helping me recover.

Then I slogged all day, ate with my parents (porkchops and tater tots, which were delish, plus I roasted some broccoli to go with it), and then slogged until [censored] showed up. Today was more of the same - I had a ton of meetings, so there were no breaks and no real work done. But I stopped a little after five to hang out with my mom, which was nice. And then we had takeout Mexican food for supper, which was particularly delicious. And now, after drinking slightly too much wine discussing RBG's death with my friends, it's time for bed - goodnight!

baby i'm faded, all i wanna do is take you downtown

I had one of the weirdest nights of the year, not gonna lie. The day was normalish - I woke up, said hi to my parents, and then slogged.

Oh, I buried the lede - I'm in Iowa. Long story, only here until Sunday. I had intended to fly in today, but came in yesterday for reasons.

 

But I left home at 3:30, drove to Des Moines, checked into the Savery (which has Aveda products and caters to millennials), and took a six o'clock meeting from here. Then I met up with Adit (some people call him the cat)... This is what made the night so strange. I haven't seen a friend other than Katie, Barbara, and some work people since February, and my social skills are completely rusty, and even when I did regularly see Adit it was not in Iowa (although he's the only friend who has been to my home town). Adit was in Iowa for one night only, and I happened to make a trip, so we met up.

We had dinner at Court Avenue Brewing C, which made me a v tasty salad to enjoy while we watched an endless procession of the same three cars going around and around the block. The waitress also comped us shots, which tells me we may get out of the apocalypse after all. Then we walked past a liquor store on the way to the hotel and bought some fireball, which we put in coke zeroes to drink in the lobby. Both our waitress and the hotel receptionist told us with great jubilation that the bars had opened earlier than expected tonight, but drinking illicit fireball in the lobby felt more our speed.

And now I need to sleep so I can get back to my parents' and work tomorrow - goodnight!

after all that you put me through

I had a pretty good day all in all - some long meetings and not nearly enough actual work done, but that's the way it goes. And I had a takeout burrito bowl for lunch + tasty grilled meats and veggies for dinner, so at least that provided some enjoyment. But I'm falling asleep over my laptop, so that's all you're getting tonight - goodnight!

baby we're a dying breed

The less said about today, the better...Mondays in the apocalypse are particularly bleak and brutal. But I got up and journaled before work, and my coffee was good, so at least there was that. I had a relatively light day today, so I snuck out in the late morning to run to Boulder to pick up my contacts...I had ordered them three weeks ago and kept waiting to see if my glasses would show up too, but today I finally gave up and needed the contacts. So of course, after driving forty minutes each way, I got a call two hours later saying that my glasses are in :( They may have to keep them, because I may never go to Boulder again.

After that errand, I picked up lunch at Garbanzos (a Mediterranean fast casual place that is v similar to Chipotle, but with yellow rice instead of cilantro rice, and hummus instead of guac, and feta instead of jack, and tzatziki instead of sour cream). on the way home and ate it on my patio. Then I slogged the rest of the afternoon/early evening before talking to Katie and also talking to my mom (and also talking to Jessica because I accidentally called her, but it was a delightful accident). And I exchanged texts with Ritu about someone who looks like Brad Pitt wearing a fake fur jacket, which is my favorite kind of text. And I ordered fancy takeout pasta from Bar Dough because I didn't feel like cooking (see: Monday).

But now, all of that is behind me and it's time for bed - goodnight!

summertime, and the living's [quarantined]

I'm falling asleep in my living room, so I need to take myself off to bed. Today was decent, all in all - I slept in a bit, then took care of a bunch of tidying-type projects around the house. My kitchen and laundry room are now tidier than they've been in quite some time, so that's a win.

I also talked to Chandlord briefly, and at some point I talked to my parents, and later I talked to my brother. I made myself a perfect BLT(+ A for avocado) for dinner, did some outdoor stuff, and then ended my night with a family dinner call with Chandlord, Adit, John and Jess, and Claude and Sam. Everyone is in a bit of a local minima, mostly due to fires...but otherwise people seem to be okay-ish, and it was good to hear people's voices.

And now I need to sleep - goodnight!

you know i love the past 'cause i hate suspense

I had a pretty decent day, mostly because I indulged my desire to completely geek out over reorganizing my pantry. This was perhaps not the most important thing that I needed to accomplish, but it felt good to do it. When I got up this morning, I messed around the house for awhile, trimmed my bangs, showered, etc., and then made some spaghetti bolognese for lunch. Then I drove to Staples to pick up a label maker that I ordered this morning - it's probably kind of shocking that I didn't already own a label maker, given my tendencies. I do label things quite a bit, but I usually use washi tape and a sharpie. However, I decided to give in to my genetics and get a label maker, which was quite exciting.

So I came home and tore my pantry apart just in time to take a break and talk to Lauren (aka Subz) and Terry. We had much to catch up on, so it was great to talk to them. Then I paused the pantry project to make dinner - I tried a sesame chicken stir-fry from my Burma Superstar cookbook, along with some brussels sprouts that were patiently waiting to rot in my fridge. The chicken turned out pretty well - it really just made me want the orange chicken from Panda Express, but it was really tasty nonetheless.

Then I spent the rest of the evening messing around with my pantry; everything that belongs in the pantry is now put away, but I have to tidy up some stuff that needs tossed / put in the basement / put somewhere else. That, however, is a problem for tomorrow - right now I need to sleep. Goodnight!

i've got my orange crush

Happy birthday to me! Luckily I have a lot of experience with celebrating birthdays in the midst of national tragedy, so it was a pretty good day all in all. I got up in time to meditate and talk to my parents before work, and then I slogged from 9 to 4 (with a break for some leftover chili and a cupcake). I didn't have many meetings, so I was able to get actual work done, which was nice. And while I was working I got many texts/emails from various friends and family, which certainly brightened the day.

Then, around 5:30, Katie came over and we had a lovely few hours on my back patio. I opened a v fancy bottle of wine that I'd bought a lifetime ago (okay, eighteen months ago, on my wine weekend with the shedletskys), and we ordered food from the Mexican restaurant down the street, and it was a perfect evening. Fall is definitely in the air, but my outdoor blankets were up for their first job of the season, so Katie and I were able to hang out in comfort.

And now, I think I shall go to bed and see what tomorrow brings - goodnight!

i been sippin', that's the only thing that's keepin' me on fire

I need to go to bed before it's my birthday. Today was okay, all in all; I woke up too early and didn't feel great, but I realized pretty quickly that it was anxiety/panic (for no reason other than everything globally is awful, + some small day job stresses that compounded the anxiety). So I got out of bed, made some tea, meditated, and journaled, and that all really helped.

So, I was able to tackle the day without much drama; I had a bunch of meetings from nine to five, but I had a little time to take a walk around the block, and I v. much enjoyed my leftover chili for lunch. After work, I went to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription, and then I went to the grocery store to pick up a gluten free funfetti cake (they do not sell that at Whole Foods, fyi). Then I came home, ate some takeout sushi for supper, and made myself some funfetti cupcakes. The mix is slightly drier than the standard mix - if I make them again, I would consider adding a package of vanilla pudding, which was an old trick before cakes started putting 'pudding in the mix'. But they turned out well, and I frosted some while freezing the rest, so I will have tasty funfetti snacks for awhile.

While they were baking, I did a bit of day job work, and then I got sucked into instagram and then the internet. But now it's time for bed - goodnight!

they couldn't go back to the greasers, the best they could do was pick up the pieces

I had a headache literally all day today; my face feels like my jaw is trying to clench, but since I paralyzed my jaw with botox (I regret nothing, it was intentional to stop the clenching) the rest of my face was trying to clench to make up for it. Or maybe it was just the massive weather change, the fact that all my San Francisco friends are posting apocalyptic nightmare photos of orange/red skies, too much work, and not enough good news.

sssanyway, I probably started off less than enthused because my first meeting was at 8:30 (but the person I met with was visibly exhausted bc her kids only let her sleep two hours last night, so I was doing better than her) and I slogged pretty much straight until six. I did take a pause to check my turnip prices in Animal Crossing (#priorities) and eat some chili, and I also took a quick walk to get some fresh air -- all the snow melted off the trees today, so even though it wasn't snowing I had to keep my hood up to ward against the massive amounts of melting snow showering onto the sidewalk.

After work, I boiled some water, cooked a single serving of spaghetti, and reheated some of the bolognese sauce that I made (but didn't eat) last night. It was pretty much perfect - if I weren't a member of the gluten free mafia, I probably would spend quarantine perfecting making fresh pasta, but that's not in my future. And this particular bolognese is delish even with gluten free spaghetti (which it should be, since it takes 5+ hours to make). Then I doomscrolled twitter before finally logging off, taking care of some tings, looking at desk chairs, etc.

And now, I should contemplate going to bed - goodnight!

they lived for a while in a very nice style but it's always the same in the end

For my first day back at work after a four-day weekend, I had surprisingly few meetings. It turns out that when I block off significant chunks of my calendar, people actually respect it - and I had blocked off this morning to recover from driving back. So, I had time to get some actual work done, which was amazing. And I made a batch of oatmeal to get me through the week, ate some leftover Indian food for lunch, had a couple of not-too-onerous meetings, and then started prepping supper while catching up on some video trainings that I needed to watch.

Tonight I made bolognese sauce, which takes approximately five hours. I was going to potentially make chicken and wild rice soup too, but I forgot to buy mushrooms, so I made black bean chili (my original plan) instead. The chili and the sauce both turned out great, and now I have food for the rest of the week without having to cook (other than boiling water for pasta to eat with the bolognese sauce).

And now I really need to go to sleep - I unfortunately have an earlyish meeting tomorrow and I want to meditate and possibly write before then. Goodnight!

it's been a long december

No blog tonight - I'm typing this on my phone because I don't want to get my laptop out, so I don't have the patience for something longer. Today was pretty smooth, all in all - I had a somewhat leisurely morning in Iowa before loading my car and saying goodbye to my parents and [censored]. The drive was entirely uneventful, although it took slightly longer than expected due to holiday congestion. And the smoke from Colorado was v visible by the time I hit ogallala, which made for a v apocalyptic filter for the last three hours of the drive.

But I got home, unloaded my car, ordered Indian takeout, got groceries delivered, and also wrapped up my irrigation backflow preventer in preparation for a bunch of snow tomorrow. And now I must sleep - goodnight!

second third and hundredth chances

 I'm falling asleep in my chair, so I need to go to sleep immediately. I had a nice day today, though - I spent some quality time this morning baking an early birthday cake for myself. I made the traditional lemon cake that I usually made back in the day, although I've now mostly figured out how to make it gluten free.

Then I hung out outside most of the afternoon, which was as delightful as always. At some point I took a nap, which was enough to rally for the rest of the day. My dad smoked a pork butt today, and my mom made fried potatoes and layered lettuce, and so I preemptively declared that I was celebrating my birthday tonight because it was one of my favorite meals. Then, after cake, I hung out with my parents for awhile before coming downstairs to think about my book and instead play Animal Crossing.

And now I need to sleep - goodnight!

like he's just your understudy

Today was decent; I had a better day than [censored], who startled a buzzard out in the yard and then found and had to dispose of [censored]. Still, I had to work all day - it was a lot of meetings, which always leave me feeling a little fried.

But I have tomorrow and Monday off, so at least I have a couple of days to chill and recover. After I was done working for the day, I hung out with the fam; we ate takeout from the Mexican restaurant in town, which was delish. Then, [censored] and I watched 'Palm Springs', which is sort of a new 'Groundhog Day' and was v. funny and delightful.

And now, I need to sleep - goodnight!

laughing but the joke's not funny at all

I need to go to bed immediately - I worked all day (some inside, some out on the back porch), and just stopped for a break for dinner. That break was delicious - my mom made steak, baked potatoes, and green beans, and it was exactly what I needed.

Then I tried to do some performance review stuff (over wine, which is the drink of choice for most of my friends while writing peer reviews). Then [censored] showed up, and we talked for awhile. And now I need to sleep, since I have another day completely full of meetings tomorrow - wish me luck. Goodnight!

it's calling out your name

I have worked too many hours today, and I'm going to work too many hours tomorrow, so I think I need to shut my laptop and close my eyes even if I'm not feeling quite ready to sleep. Today was fine, though - I had a leisurely breakfast and hung out with my parents, and then showered before my first meeting (with my boss, hence deciding that a shower was a good idea). I then had meetings off and on the rest of the day and wasn't done until six. Then I had supper - my mom made some excellent pork chops with sweet potatoes and creamed peas, so it was a v. tasty break.

My parents started to watch a western after that that looked vaguely interesting, but I decided to be a good corporate cog and come back downstairs to do some more work. I wasn't maximally productive, but I got through some stuff that I needed to do, so the rest of the week might not be quite so bad. I'm trying to avoid having to work this weekend, but since this week and next are both short weeks and we're in the middle of performance review season, I'm honestly not sure I can get enough done tomorrow and Thursday to save myself. But we shall see, and tomorrow I shall make a valiant effort. But for now it's time for bed - goodnight!

it's either hell or high water, let's get outta this place

I had a pretty good day, all in all. I got up in time to write before I had to start working, so I'll definitely take that. And my day was fairly chill, at least compared to most days - I had a couple of meetings, but nothing too onerous, and I was able to get quite a bit of actual work done. Sadly I'll probably need to do some evening work this week so that I can take the weekend fully off - it's performance review season, which always means more evening work. But it could be worse (which feels like a v. dangerous, fate-tempting thing to say in 2020, so I'll end it there).

sssanyway I worked all day, with a quick break to have lunch (bologna sandwich and potato chips, lunch of small-town champions). I was done a little before six, and then I hung out upstairs with my parents. My mom made cheeseburgers to go with the rest of the sweet corn Dad picked up yesterday + the veggies I'd grilled, and the cheeseburgers were pretty much perfect. After that, Dad was dealing with some political stuff, but Mom and I hung out in the kitchen and talked for awhile (while also watching some budding drama on the patio between a raccoon and a kitten that both wanted to eat the cat food).

Unfortunately, I had to end our convo slightly prematurely - I had a call with some writer friends at nine, so I had to come downstairs and take that. And now I really need to sleep - I have once again stayed up too late, and if I have any hope of writing (or even just getting normal work done) before my meetings start in the morning, I should be asleep immediately. Goodnight!

my heart's like a gun, boy you better run

I had a lovely, lazy day in ye olde Iowa. I slept in, which is always a delight, and then I spent the day mostly hanging out in the kitchen and on the back patio. My mom was attempting to assert control over her garden, so I hung out and talked to her while she pulled weeds.

When it was time to think about supper, I made the grilled vegetable and halloumi salad that I'd made in Denver a few weeks ago - I'd bought the vegetables last week and didn't get around to making it because it was storming when I wanted to grill (and also I was too cranky to cook last week). So I brought all the veg home with me, and it really needed to be cooked tonight if I was going to do it. My dad fired up his grill for me (which is about twice as large as mine), and cooking the veggies and halloumi was v. easy. We also had leftover smoked beef from yesterday, and my dad picked up some sweet corn from an honor-system roadside stand, so we had a v. nice late-summer feast.

After supper, I came downstairs and thought about doing day job stuff, but instead read some twitter and then wrote quite a bit in my journal (almost all notes for the book I'm working on - and I also tweaked some of the manuscript tonight). And now I need to sleep - I do have to do day job stuff tomorrow (since, you know, it's a day and I have a job), so I should probably go to bed if I want to start tomorrow right. Goodnight!

born in a diamond mine, it's all around you but you can't see it

I have returned to ye olde Iowa for a week of family and working from home. Today was as painless as a drive across Nebraska can be (aka not painless). But I got adequate sleep, which means I was in bed until almost nine, and since I dallied and ate some yogurt and granola (from my stash of road snacks, with a bowl and spoon I'd brought with me) and made a couple of iced coffees, etc., it was eleven-ish when I finally left. That's way too long to spend in a roadside hotel in Kearney, but it was a relaxing morning, which is what I needed.

The drive was extremely uneventful and boring in the extreme. But I listened to a bunch of music, and I also listened to two episodes of Dax Shepherd's podcast -  one was John Legend, and the other was Leslie Odom Jr (aka Aaron Burr (Sir) from Hamilton). The second one was particularly good - he talked a little about negotiating the payment for the movie version of Hamilton that is on Disney+. I remember at the time that it was filmed that there were some articles implying that he was a bit of a diva, but hearing his side of the story reminded me of a couple of times I've gotten totally screwed at work and how I am still pretty confident that I'm getting paid less than some of my fairly incompetent male coworkers, and I had a lot more sympathy for the fact that he just asked to get paid the same amount as someone else who had filmed a similar musical for later livestreaming.

sssanyway. I rolled into home around 4:45pm, and I spent the rest of the evening hanging out with my parents and relaxing. My dad smoked some delicious beef for supper, and my mom made potatoes and carrots, and there were fresh tomatoes from the garden; it was all delicious. And I'm v. much looking forward to some porch time tomorrow, but I should probably go to bed so that I can get up and make the most of it. Goodnight!

i think i've seen this film before and i didn't like the ending

I'm sitting in a hotel in Kearney, Nebraska, and I should have gone to bed an hour ago, but my soul is still on Mountain time even if my body is physically located in Central time. Today was about as good as it could have been, given that prepping for a road trip in the apocalypse feels a bit Mad Max: Fury Road-ish (but without the weird lactation subplot) (but also, now that I think about it, spraying chrome on my face while saying 'I live, I die, I live again' would not be the weirdest thing to do in 2020) (if you didn't see Fury Road, apologies for the last two parenthetical remarks).

sssanyway. I got up in time to do some stuff around the house, and then I had a quick writing date with V, which was delightful. Then I worked for awhile - I needed to get some stuff done before taking off, of course, and so I slogged for several hours and wrapped up the stuff that absolutely had to get done. At some point, though, I threw in the towel - I needed to take my petunias + my peace lily over to Katie's. Since I will be gone approx ten days, most of my indoor plants can survive a short drought, but the peace lily is v. thirsty all the time, and the outdoor containers can't go that long without water either. Hopefully the peace lily survives going back and forth to Katie's house - but it seems fitting, since it was a gift from her when my gram died anyway. Although I guess most gifts aren't taken care of part-time in perpetuity by the gift-giver, so idk what the etiquette is here.

sssanyway again. After Katie and I spent ten minutes having a depressing conversation on her porch (side note: every friend or coworker I've talked to this week has hit a wall with how awful everything feels), I quickly ran to the grocery store to get ice and bread for the cooler, and then went home and finished loading my car, taking out the trash, etc. By the time I got out of Denver, it was a little after four and was most certainly rush hour. This was the first time I've driven in anything approaching real traffic in like six months, so it was a bit of a shock.

But the rest of the drive was smooth; I only stopped in Ogallala for gas/bathroom/one of those disgusting 'mocha cappuccinos' that is a powder dispensed from a machine and is like a thousand calories. So I made it to Kearney in five hours, and when I got here I felt like I maybe could have gone farther, but I'd already made a reservation. So I stopped here, checked in, and made a tasty picnic dinner using the jar of cobb salad I'd brought with me (along with a plate, silverware, and even a spatula to get the last of the dressing out of the jar) + the remainder of a bottle of wine that had been sitting in my fridge, which I brought with me rather than letting it go to waste. I also wrote a bit tonight - the book might be shaping up into something great, but we'll see how I feel about that in the morning.

And now I need to go to bed - I have no plans to get out of here super early tomorrow given that it's one a.m., but we'll see. Goodnight!

derelict days and the stereo plays for the all night crowd

I *think* I'm leaving for Iowa tomorrow - it really depends on how much I get done in the morning and whether getting out in the mid/late afternoon is feasible or if I should just wait and take off first thing Saturday. Oddly, I'm mostly packed - I've packed all my clothes and paper goods and dry foods, and so just need to pack my cooler and my electronics and load the car. However, I have a ton of other stuff to do tomorrow - plant maintenance, trash disposal, gas and car wash and snack procurement, and likely more day job stuff than I would like. So we'll see how all that goes - but either way, Saturday I'll be in Iowa for a week in the heartland.

Beyond that prep work, today was meh; I didn't get enough sleep, but I roused myself in time to shower before my first meeting. My 'no meeting week' today included 4.5hrs of meetings, but 3.5 of those were a training that I needed to take, so I guess it was fine. I slogged all day (with a break to eat a v. tasty cobb salad out on my patio), but I wasn't really feeling in it to win it - I was feeling cranky, and I was annoyed with people, and it all was a recipe for having a not-good time.

However, that encouraged me to sign off by 5:30, which is what gave me time to pack. I then reheated pizza from last night, drank some wine, and watched the last night of the RNC. I'm really glad the political conventions are over; I'm glad I watched both, but I'm really really done and ready to just vote and get it over with (but we have a shit-ton of natural disasters and coronavirus deaths and October surprises to get through before then). Then I finished doing some stuff around the house. And now I need to go to bed if I want to be able to drive east tomorrow - goodnight!

skies ripped open by the sun, daylight comes but not soon enough

It's 12:37am and I should almost certainly be in bed, but my schedule is weirdly fucked up and I had to work a couple of hours tonight. When I got up this morning I took care of a bunch of tings around the house rather than writing, and then I slogged pretty much straight from nine to four. I did some of that slogging outside on my patio, which was delightful - there is probably still smoke in the air, but it's so much better than it was that I ignored it.

Also this morning, a couple of guys came over to give me a quote on what it would take to lay some pipe (heh). More specifically, I'm going to put a fire pit in the backyard, and they were quoting what it would take to make the fire pit natural gas instead of propane. It sounded dicey at first, but then they took a look at my basement and said it would be super easy to connect in the basement and run a pipe + a shutoff out through the east wall of the basement (rather than the north wall, where my gas grill is, which is way too far away). They also said Denver permitting is pretty fast, so that's good to know. I still need to figure out the concrete plan outside (i.e. whether/how they'll cut the concrete - but luckily there are seams that they can maybe cut along, so idk), but a gas fire pit would make me super happy, so I think I'll make it happen.

Sometime around four, I paused the endless slog to talk to Tomas, whom I hadn't talked to in ages. We exchanged notes on our boredom and crankiness at the end of the world, which is pretty much all conversations right now. Then I unfortunately needed to do a bit more work, but I did it while waiting for fancy pasta from Bar Dough - I was going to grill tonight, but there was a sudden downpour, so fancy pasta was the way to go.

Then I watched the RNC, which was a bit bizarre because almost all the speeches were pretaped (but made to appear live) and so didn't reference anything about hurricanes or Kenosha or anything else of a more urgent matter. And then I took care of some laundry, took out my contacts, and slogged a couple of hours.

But now I've survived another day, which is always a feat in this day and age, so it's time for bed. Goodnight!

never mind, these are horrid times

I had a ridiculously busy day, especially considering that today was technically a no-meeting-day. Part of it was self-inflicted - I got up and wrote a few pages before work, and so I didn't get to my day job desk until 9:30. Then I slogged v. much nonstop until 1:30 (well, I guess I stopped for lunch), including three meetings (thanks, no-meeting-day!).

At that point, I had to vacate my house - I had an appointment with my eye doctor, which means I had to drive to Boulder for the first time since April (!). My eye doctor was conveniently located five minutes from my office, which is no longer convenient in the current environment. But the appointment was good, even if masks make you fog up the optometry equipment. And then I took the opportunity to go to Target in the late afternoon, trying to avoid the swarms of people on the weekends - my buying habits have changed, and so I felt like I needed to get laundry detergent, soap, cleaning supplies, etc., before any of it runs out. They were basically out of hand soap and mostly out of dish soap, but I was able to get most of the stuff on my list (and some impulse buying in the office/school section, + a container of disinfecting wipes that are the first ones I've seen since quarantine began).

Then I stopped at Home Depot to pick up something for [censored], and I got a couple of things for my garden + a cover for my grill for the winter. Then I came home, ate some leftover Indian food, and watched the RNC while prepping food - I made cobb salads for the next three days, stored in careful layers inside mason jars to keep them from getting soggy.

And then, I worked for the last two hours, which is sad but necessary (and not that onerous since I clearly skipped out for part of the afternoon). And now I must sleep - goodnight!

it's all heat in this day and age, i'll raid your grave, anything it takes to save the day

I was slightly less cranky today than I was yesterday, but it still wasn't perfect. I had an 8:30 meeting, so I didn't get up in time to write. However, I only had three hours of meetings today, which felt like a miracle. I would have gotten a lot done, but unfortunately I had to deal with some firedrills at work; I probably should be working right now, but I think my destiny is bed instead.

But I got to do some of my work outside, until it was too hot to be out there. I also took a walk for an afternoon break. I spent a couple of hours talking to [censored], who was [censored]. I ordered Indian food instead of eating leftovers, and I'm pleased with my little rebellion. I also drank most of a bottle of wine while watching a couple of hours of the RNC - I have always watched both conventions and I have no intention of stopping now, but I have a lot of thoughts and feelings that are best drowned in a bottle of wine and left for dead.

And now I think I might try to go to bed early and try to reset myself for getting something done tomorrow morning. Goodnight!

i'm a little bit rusty and i think my head is caving in

Happy Sunday and happy day one million in quarantine. I am sure that I will be back in it to win it on my #quarantinechef antics since I generally enjoy cooking...but right now, I want to be writing a book, and so cooking is really not what I should be spending my time on. I may need to reconfigure my cooking / eating so that I make more things that are fast instead of elaborate, even if that knocks a few points off the flavor scale.

But really, I was just a little cranky all day. I woke up relatively early but doomscrolled on twitter before I got out of bed - I'd successfully stayed off twitter before noon for almost two weeks, which has been v. helpful, but today it didn't happen. Then I put on yoga pants and walked down to the farmer's market, which was the highlight of the day - I got some perfect tomatoes, and some squash and zucchini and lettuce, and that was all great.

Then I came home and did some more nothing before making lunch - I baked some bacon (for salads this week) and also cooked some bacon along with potatoes, onions, red pepper, and garlic to make a v. delicious hash. That will get me through a few days of meals. Then I had to clean up the kitchen, and I ended up cleaning out my fridge - necessary, but not entertaining. All of this is compounded by the fact that my arm still really hurts from falling on my face yesterday (well, I didn't fall on my face, but only because my arm broke my fall) and so I can't lift my arm above my head and have to be careful while doing basic tasks. Grr.

Eventually I called my parents, who were in good form. I also prepped dinner - I grilled some chicken for upcoming salads, grilled some breakfast sausage because it needed used and I figured I could throw it on the grill, and also grilled a flank steak to go with the tomatoes and burrata that I'd already acquired. This whole mess was a bit hit or miss - I think I overcooked the chicken based on the bite I had, and the steak didn't turn out particularly well either. However, I'm blaming the steak on the meat itself - it was perfectly medium rare from a temperature and color standpoint, and I'm pretty sure I sliced it properly, so it was either the steak itself or the marinade wasn't a winner. But the breakfast sausage was tasty, and any the real star of the meal was the tomato and burrata salad, so whatever.

Then I cleaned up my kitchen again, and eventually I wrote for thirty minutes - it maybe saved the overall outcome of the day that I actually got a few hundred words on the page despite my crankiness. And then I had an impromptu family call with Aditya, John and Jess; it was arranged pretty late and so most people couldn't make it, but it was good to hang out with them and catch up on their local minima. Everything that was wrong before seems to be getting better, but of course it's now getting worse because of the omnipresent wildfires [the air quality in Berkeley is horrendous, the fires are still blazing everywhere, and they're about to get another round of intense lightning storms that will light things up again]. And I told them about the derecho, which has been dramatically underreported - and, as is my common refrain these days, makes it feel vaguely apocalyptic.

But family time is always a good time, so I'm glad we caught up (and I evangelized bug out bags to them, although I really need to create mine rather than spending my time evangelizing them to others). And now I need to go to bed - goodnight!

i needed to lose you to love me

Today marked an important milestone - I got my hair cut for the first time in a year. In fact, I just looked it up, and my last hair cut was on August 17. I'd tried a new salon then, was only marginally sold on it....and then went to Australia, Tahoe, Berlin, Gram's funeral, Thanksgiving, Christmas, LA/Oceanside, and Disney World. Granted, there were breaks in between, but I was still settling into my new house, dealing with work stuff, etc., and so I kept putting a hair cut off. And then quarantine happened. And so my hair was hitting the waistband of my jeans and had become impossible to dry in any reasonable amount of time, and it was all feeling just a bit too wild.

So I went to the Aveda salon on 32nd, and it was great. They only had 2-3 stylists there (in a salon with 12 chairs), and everyone wore masks and they took my temperature when I walked in, so it felt about as safe as it could. And my hair now feels bizarrely short, even though it's still below my shoulder blades. I never thought I would be this excited to get a hair cut, but desperate times.

Amusingly (not amusingly), I also discovered that I'm now incapable of walking in heels. I wore some platform sandals for like the second time since March, and while I was walking to the salon I completely ate it on the sidewalk - like, full on sprawl on the ground, skinned my elbow (it's hard to skin an elbow on a sidewalk), skinned a finger, and maybe pulled something in my left arm since I can't lift it above my head. So, my natural grace hasn't improved in quarantine, and my inability to wear shoes may become a problem in the after-times....but those times aren't here yet, so I'll go back to wearing slippers and sneakers and hope for the best.

Then I came home, threw some laundry in, and went back out to pick up lunch at Garbanzo's (I'm in a bit of a cooking strike, probably because it's been 95+ for weeks and everything is burning). I spent several hours this afternoon doing a variety of tings around the house. Then I talked to Joann and Jen (aka the friendship renewal group) - the fire situation in California sounds awful, so hopefully everyone stays safe.

After that, I packed up my cooler full of magic and went over to hang out with Katie and James in their back yard. I took stuff for Aperol spritzes, as well as a bunch of cheese and salami and snacks, and we had a delightful late afternoon the stretched on until ten p.m. They made burgers and sweet corn, and it was about as happy as it could be considering that our conversation kept turning to a variety of apocalyptic scenarios.

And now, I need to sleep - goodnight!

hey there delilah

 I'm super tired but in a v. good mood, so hopefully sleep will balance out the tiredness without altering my general emotional state. I got up this morning and unfortunately had to start slogging almost immediately, and then I worked until six (v. unusual for a Friday).

So, that was all a long day, but as soon as I was done, I preheated my grill and made bratwurst to go with my leftover veg and halloumi salad. The brats were perfectly cooked, if I do say so myself, but I didn't totally love the seasoning mix - I'm on the hunt for the best brats in Colorado, so I'm going to have to keep trying. While I was eating, I got an unexpected catch-up call from John and Jess, because they were playing 'Everything Zen' by the world's greatest band (Bush) and thought of me.

So we talked for nearly forty minutes, which was great for me and also possibly great for Ian because he conned Jess into more tv. Then I cleaned up my kitchen and talked to Katrina for a v. long time - it was her birthday last week (Happy birthday, Katrina!) and we had a lot to catch up on.

But now I'm falling asleep and I need to get up and be moderately productive tomorrow, so it's time to go focus on that. Goodnight!

crazy's my new best friend

I had a pretty lovely day, all in all - much better than I deserved, perhaps. I woke up this morning after slightly too little sleep (I stayed up an extra fifteen minutes last night texting with the friendship renewal crew, some of whom may have to evacuate from the wildfires that are spreading in the south bay (!)), and so I didn't get to write this morning (although I did journal for ten minutes). My meetings started at 8:30 and went straight through until 2, which was a bummer. But I ordered a spicy tuna poke bowl for lunch - I'm considering ordering lunch once a week while I'm working from home, since lunch by the end of the week is usually some weird mix of leftovers. Today's lunch was a success - even if a tuna poke bowl is, in some ways, not that dissimilar from the fact that I would have opened a can of tuna for lunch today. Of course, in almost all important ways, it's totally different (like, tuna that is high enough quality to eat raw is usually not what ends up in a can full of olive oil)...but regardless, lunch was tasty.

Then I slogged most of the afternoon, although I took a quick break to go to my favorite cheese shop down the street and grab some cheeses. I'd had a work videoconference with Alice (the other Alice that lives in Colorado, not the one who lives in London), and I discovered that she had just moved to Denver, and that her new roommate was a girl named Emily who worked with us both alllll the way back in 2008. So I invited them over for an impromptu happy hour, and it was wonderful - I hadn't seen Emily more than once or twice in the last twelve years, and so it was great to catch up with her. She just up and moved here from San Francisco....and apparently the housing market here is red hot, because Alice and Emily had trouble finding a place to rent and Alice's house in a different CO town went under contract in three days. Craziness.

So we had a great time hanging out and eating fancy cheese and drinking the prosecco that Alice brought. The prosecco was necessary because I had had to deal with a late afternoon work drama (nothing bad, just requiring some delicate work that I probably wasn't very delicate with)....and by the time Alice and Emily left, I didn't care anymore, which was nice. I cleaned up my house, put away dishes, watched some of the DNC, and read up on Twitter. And now, I think I'm going to actually try to go to bed early (yay) - goodnight!

jumping off your sinking ship instead of going down with it

I had another good day...maybe abnormally excessive heat and wildfires are good for me? I got up in time to write for a bit before work, which felt great. Then I sat in meetings pretty much straight through the day, but in one of them I got to tell some people about [censored]'s quarter trick and also eat bacon straight out of a ziploc bag, so it could be worse.

My last meeting of the day was unexpectedly canceled, so I snuck out (which is pretty easy to do when it's my house) and ran a couple of errands. I've been a fiend for the Nordstrom anniversary sale, and so I had a couple of returns to make + an order to pick up at the store, so I braved the Cherry Creek mall. The returns and pickups are practically contactless, so that was all easy. I also browsed the clothing section a bit and ended up buying a couple of things - the saleswoman who helped me said it's been awful for them (i.e. slow and no customers), although the people doing the online orders are slammed. So, since I felt bad for her and also like throwing money at my emotions, I now own a couple of sweaters that will not get worn until Denver stops setting records for 90+-degree days. But I'm sure I'll be happy to have them when the snow returns in like three weeks.

Then I stopped at the pharmacy to pick up some photos I'd ordered, and then I came home, tidied up some tings, and ate dinner (leftover grilled salad and chicken burger + some potato salad that Aunt B had sent home with me). Then I did my usual political season roundup of news (fox, abc, the hill, politico, etc) and came across this Politico interview with a major Republican operative who pretty much sums up my exact viewpoint on why and how conservativism has been replaced with Trumpism, despite little ideological connective tissue between standard conservative values (free trade, low deficits, serving as a voice of democracy around the world and standing in opposition to dictators, upholding the constitution for all) and how the current administration is turning all those conservative values on their head. And then I was sad.

But now I'm going to stop being sad and go to bed - goodnight!

my fortune told me i'm on the wrong road

I had a lovely day, and I suppose I should consider going to bed soon but I don't wanna. My day started earlier than I would have liked - I had an 8:30am meeting, but I was able to make tea and meditate before it, so it could be worse. Then I slogged all day, with a quick break for lunch (that leftover grilled vegetable and halloumi salad was even better today; the chicken burger was still dry, but c'est la vie). I also had a meeting with the big boss, which is always fun, and it left me in a good mood.

Then I transitioned immediately into socializing - Caroline came over, and we spent a lovely couple of hours drink aperol spritzes on my patio. She brought some cheese (including a perfect blue cheese that is made in her village in France), and then we ordered salads for dinner, and it was pretty great. My patio is pretty much the best thing that has happened to me this year, and I'm super grateful that I have it - hopefully the addition of a firepit will make it even more wonderful and perhaps carry me through the quarantine times ahead.

Then Caroline left, and I did a bit of cleanup before watching the end of tonight's DNC coverage so that I could send taunting texts to Terry about her anchor's choice in suits. And then, I perhaps should have worked, but instead I watched two episodes of Padma Lakshmi's TASTE THE NATION (on the Hulu account that I'm liberating from [censored]). I'm calling this research for the book I'm working on, so I guess it counts as productivity? But really it was just delightful - the first episode was about Mexican food in El Paso and the second was about Indian food in New York, and it made me hungry, desperate to travel, and so so eager to keep cooking my way through the months ahead.

And now, I suppose I should consider sleep - goodnight!

it’s gonna be another weird month i guess according to my horoscope

Today involved far too much slogging for my liking. That's not entirely fair; part of why it felt like too much was because I didn't write this morning (although I did meditate). I also spent some quality time cooking tonight, which could have perhaps been devoted to writing or other endeavors. But all in all, it was a good day. Like I said, I meditated this morning; I also watered flowers in my backyard and generally relaxed a bit before hitting the day.

Then I slogged all day; I didn't have a ton of meetings, but I had a lot of actual work to do, and luckily I had some time in which to do it. I ate some leftover bacon frittata for lunch (it's almost even better the next day), and I thought I might be done by 5 or 5:30, but instead I worked until after six. At that point, I was supremely glad that I'd ordered groceries in the middle of the day, although supremely hungry and not really wanting to cook them.

But I persevered, and I'm really glad I did. I tried a new recipe for a grilled vegetable salad, and it was the absolute bomb. The original recipe called for eggplant, zucchini, radicchio, and halloumi; I didn't have eggplant, so I substituted summer squash and a yellow bell pepper, and it turned out great. I don't know how it would be without the radicchio, which adds some bitterness. It would also require a bit more salt, perhaps, if you did it without the halloumi - halloumi is this brined cheese that is really salty (and squeaky, like cheese curds), which I ate a lot of when I was staying in London a lifetime ago. It has a high melting point, so it can be grilled right on the grill, and so it's perfect with the grilled vegetables. I grilled it all for 3min (radicchio) to 10min (everything else), chopped it up, tossed it with some lemon juice / olive oil / honey, and it was absolutely excellent.

The chicken burger I made to go with it was less excellent - it tasted good, but it was a little dry, so I had to slather it in tzatziki to make it better. But that salad with a steak would have been the perfect summer meal. Needless to say, I'm glad I got my grill even if it is 95 degrees out, the air is still full of smoke and dumping ash on my patio furniture, and winter is coming.

Speaking of winter coming, I also got some quotes for a fire pit and I talked to one of the companies today; hopefully we can move forward so that I can extend the functionality of my backyard. And I spent the rest of the night watching the DNC (mostly so I could tell Terrence that she needs to intervene with her network anchor's hair gel situation), messing around online, trying on things that are trickling in from my aggressive pillaging of the Nordstrom anniversary sale, etc.

And now I really need to sleep - goodnight!

i brought a lemon to a knife fight

I felt like doing nothing today, but I did slightly less nothing than yesterday, so I think I'll call it a win. I woke up slightly late due to the fact that I didn't get home until after midnight last night, and I decided to skip my usual Sunday morning walk to the farmer's market because it's still smoky outside. But I did journal and do a load of laundry this morning, so I'll take it.

Then I showered and drove down to Castle Rock, where Aunt Becky made me a v. tasty cobb salad for lunch. I love cobb salads and am often too lazy to cook/chop everything necessary for them, so this was great. I hung out with her for a couple of hours and only walked out with a container of potato salad, a bag of other random stuff, and three cookbooks, so as these things go I would call it a success!

Then I drove back to Denver; when I got here, I called my parents and ended up talking for over an hour and a half. While we were talking, I baked a package of bacon, which I'm v. much looking forward to eating. When we were off the phone, I used part of that bacon to make a frittata with onion, potatoes (well, frozen hash browns), bacon, and cheese - and it was pretty fucking delicious if I do say so myself.

I ate that frittata (and drank an aperol spritz) while having a long overdue catch-up with Drewbaby - he and [censored] had apparently talked for quite awhile this afternoon, and I was feeling jealous, so we had a chat. It was great to hear from him, even though I can't quite believe that I am now the kind of person who has a relative in Fargo.

Then I took care of some tings around the house, made my bed with fresh sheets, etc. And now I think I'll contemplate crawling into those fresh sheets and going to bed - goodnight!

the songs on the radio are okay, but my taste in music is your face

I'm already falling asleep so I'll keep this brief. Today could have sunk into a black pit kind of day - but not for any good reason other than I was feeling supremely lazy, and so really didn't get much accomplished. However, I did get my new chaise lounge delivered - it's for what should be a dining area / nook in my kitchen, and is now a lounge and a bar cabinet. I'm siting on it right now and it's awesome - I'm looking forward to journaling here with my morning coffee in the future.

I also talked to [censored], and at some point I went to the grocery store to pick up some tings. I made some quinoa tabbouleh this afternoon, which turned out delightfully. And then in the evening I went to Katie's house - Hannah, our friend from high school (and my distant cousin), is in town briefly, and so Katie hosted a backyard gathering. Hannah was traveling with a former coworker, who probably got entirely sick of hearing our gossip from high school. But it was a delightful evening - I contributed the quinoa + a cooler with ingredients for aperol spritzes, and Katie and James made some delish veggie and chicken kebabs, and it was all great.

But now, since I've already fallen asleep once, I should go to bed - goodnight!

she grew up tall and she grew up right

Today was beautiful, despite the smoke from a massive wildfire up in the mountains that added an even-more-apocalyptic cast to the current apocalypse. I had to wake up earlier than I preferred since I had a plumber coming at eight to fix my bathtub - he actually showed up at 7:45 and was done in less than 20min, so that was efficient and I would def hire him again.

So, since I was showered and dressed at that point, I did about an hour of work. Then I did a quick writing date with Veronica and got a couple of pages in 30ish minutes of writing, which was great. And then I slogged straight from ten to six, and I got a lot done, so I guess the slog was worth it.

I stopped typing mid email when Katie showed up - she came bearing bottles of cocktails, and we ordered sushi and sat on my patio for four hours to belatedly celebrate her birthday and catch up on life. It was a lovely, hilarious evening despite the smoke and the state of the world, and I enjoyed it immensely.

And now I must sleep - goodnight!

kiss you too hard and follow you west

I had a pretty good day, all things considered. I got up in time to make tea and write before work, so anything that came after that was going to be a bonus regardless. Then I slogged all day, with a small break to reheat some leftover enchiladas, which I ate outside on my back patio while pretending that my break was longer than it was.

But I ended at 4:30, which wasn't exactly onerous, so that I could talk to Heather (aka dear respected madam). We had a long chat about a wide variety of topics and it was delightful to see her on my screen. Then I did some stuff around the house, heated up some leftover lemon chicken and potatoes, and ate those while answering texts from people who were texting me. Then I was pretty lazy the rest of the night - I should have worked, most likely, but instead I basically did nothing.

And now I'm going to go to bed so that I can repeat at least some of these feats tomorrow - goodnight!

i want to know when i can go back and get drunk with my friends

I had a great day, but it started badly - I woke up at 2:30am with one of those acid stomachaches that used to plague me, and it made me feel a little vomity. So I grabbed a Sprite from the fridge and sipped it while sitting up in bed, which was not how I had intended to spend an hour of my evening. Between that and the fact that I had an 8:30am meeting, I didn't have time to write this morning, but I at least was able to go back to sleep and not feel totally like death today.

So, today was a v. meeting heavy day - I basically was in meetings straight from 8:30 to 5, although I think I had 30min free somewhere in there. One of my meetings was slightly illicit, since Sarah-Frances came over to meet in my backyard (her idea, not mine, and mostly because she'd left her sunglasses here last week) - but it was nice to talk about work face to face (albeit eight feet apart) for the first time in months, and also nice to be outside instead of chained to my desk.

When the meetings were finally over, I played with my new grill - I made the fajitas I had planned to make last night, and they turned out super well. The marinade on the chicken was perfect for keeping it juicy despite grilling, and the peppers turned out well (although I want to get a bit more char on them in the future). I also tried a new recipe for Spanish rice and it was delish as well. So, the grill seems to work like a charm, and it was nice that I basically had nothing to clean in the kitchen (other than the rice pan) - so I predict more grill experimentation in my future.

Then I took a quick walk, came home, tried to write, but mostly procrastinated because I'm too tired to focus. So I think it's time for bed - goodnight!

little by little we meet in the middle

I need to go to bed immediately, but today was a great day. I got up in time to make tea, meditate, and write before work; the writing came easy and I got a thousand words, which I will v. happily take. Then I slogged all day. I was all geared up to take a break and make fajitas on my new grill, and I'd even marinated the chicken....but then the wind picked up and it looked like it might storm. The risk seemed low (low enough that I walked to pick something up instead), but not so low that I felt comfortable pulling my grill out into the wind tunnel that forms between my front and back gates.

But I'd had my heart set on Mexican-ish food, so when I was done working a little after six, I ordered takeout chips and guac and enchiladas from El Camino. I ended up mostly just eating the guac, since I hadn't had copious amounts of guacamole in forever; I ate one of the three enchiladas, so now I have something easy for lunch tomorrow. So I sat on my patio and ate chips and guac and generally enjoyed life. Then I did a tiny bit more day job work and messed around the rest of the evening.

And now I must sleep - goodnight!

kick my shoes off and run

No blog tonight - I had a lovely first day back in the office (and by office I mean my dining room), and I had time to make salad for lunch + chicken and roasted potatoes for dinner. But I'm trying to go to bed earlier - I actually got up and wrote almost a thousand words before work, and I'm not sure I can repeat that feat every day this week, but earlier bedtimes make that feat slightly more likely.

And so even though it's only 10:40pm, I'm going to log off and go to bed. But lastly and not leastly, happiest of happy birthdays to Katie, who is almost exactly a month older than I am. Goodnight!

and i'm backsliding into this just one more time

Today was my last day of vacation - which meant that the usual Sunday Scaries were approximately four weeks of Sunday Scaries, simmered and reduced and enriched into a super-powerful version of my usual Sunday afternoon malaise. It wasn't really quite as bad as I made it sound, and I pulled myself out of it in the end. But I had such a good break, and while there are some things I'm excited about when it comes to going back to work ('back' being figurative), I'm not quite ready to end my delightful summer slacking.

However, all vacations end. I spent today trying to prep for it, but I didn't sleep well last night, so I was a bit low-energy all day. I got up and had some iced coffee and made some lists, etc., and then walked down to the farmer's market to pick up some tings. Unfortunately by the time I got there it was 10:30 and I think it was already ninety degrees, so I very nearly overheated walking home - especially as I was overburdened by tings I bought at the farmer's market. This mostly involved too many veggies, most of which I may or may not get around to eating; one of the veg stalls usually offers a 'fill a bag for $15' deal, and then they threw in a second bag for free because it was so hot that they were trying to sell out so they could go home. So, I ended up with a second bag full of stuff that I didn't totally need (including three ears of corn, because why not). That meant that, after I got home and put cold water on my face and took off my pants, I had to redo my meal plan for the week to accommodate the changes wrought by my veggie surplus.

After that, I ate some lunch (leftover quinoa salad). Then I drove down to Cherry Creek to pick up a grill basket and a grill brush from Crate and Barrel - perhaps not the most economical place to get those items, but they offer curbside pickup and the basket looks awesome, so I'm v. excited to test it out. I was going to go to Whole Foods to supplement the farmer's market haul, but there was a line out the door, and as it was 100 degrees and we're in a pandemic, I skipped it.

Instead, I stopped at the cheese shop in my neighborhood and bought some burrata to go with the heirloom tomatoes I bought this morning. Then I came home, took care of some house tings, started to freak out about the Sunday Scaries, and instead forced myself to put together my new office. I'm moving my day job office to my dining room, thus preserving the whole upstairs of my house for me-time (and writing time). So I carried my ergonomic desk chair downstairs, gathered a bunch of pens and paper and other day job accoutrements, organized cords and chargers, etc. That made me feel weirdly better about the Sunday Scaries, and I feel pretty well set up for tomorrow, so that's all good.

Then I called my parents, who sounded like they were doing well. I also made dinner - pretty easy, since I just chopped up some tomatoes, added half the ball of burrata, and drizzled oil and balsamic over it. But I also made garlic bread to accompany it, which was not at all gourmet - I mashed up some butter with garlic salt, buttered both sides of some gluten free bread, and toasted it in a skillet like Texas toast. It's not a traditional accompaniment to burrata, but it was pretty delicious, so yay me.

Then I talked to [censored], since he was [censored] and had an hour left to go. And then I folded laundry, tidied some more, etc. And now I need to go to bed so I can write before work (and hopefully find the courage to overcome the first-day-in-a-month email inbox). Goodnight!

i just wanted to get back to where you are

Second to last day of freedom - but is it freedom if you don't leave your house? I'm going to say it is. I spent the whole day hanging out at home; I didn't write, but I did spend several hours taking care of v. necessary tasks in my backyard. My trees were shooting up suckers, and I'm in a doomed war with the tree of heaven that is coming up on the other side of my fence (but may, in fact, be on my property - I can't tell, as it's coming up between my fence and the neighbor's fence). So I cleaned up my backyard, cut down all suckers, trimmed some tree areas that were starting to grow into the path to my garage, and weeded my rocky areas.

Then I did some illicit cutting on the tree of heaven from my side of the fence; I can't get rid of the whole thing, but I did clean up what I could. It was quite gratifying, even if it will now send out runners to take over my whole yard (which is already happening), and even if the foliage really stinks when you cut it.

I also tested out my new grill - I am still missing a knob for it and I kind of doubt that Lowes will actually figure it out, but we'll see. However, it lit up immediately, and I did the suggested twenty-minute preburn; it appears that everything is working as intended, so I'm looking forward to experimenting with it.

I had to take semi-frequent breaks while doing this since it was approx 95 degrees, but I filled my entire compost cart and my backyard looks great. I want to plant my pansies tomorrow, but for today I was satisfied. Then I took a quick nap and a shower before joining a call with Jen, Joann, and Jane (the friendship renewal group). We talked for almost two and a half hours - they'd caught up a couple of times more recently, but since I was in Iowa and on vacation, I was six weeks behind on news. It was great to talk to them, and it made me nostalgic for when it was possible to renew our friendship in person.

Then I was pretty lazy the rest of the night - I did some planning and some journaling, then sat around and read twitter, and then attempted to plan out my meals for the week so that I know what to get at the farmer's market tomorrow. And now I need to go to bed - goodnight!

what kind of words would cut through the clutter of the whirlwind of these days?

Today was great, even if I did wake up too tired and mildly hungover. I drank a bunch of water and swapped my morning iced coffee for a coke zero, since carbonation is preferred in hangover land. Then I took a quick shower and had a quick writing date with Veronica - I was not feeling particularly in it to win it, and the words were molasses-y, but I plotted out the next scene and was happy with that. And, of course, I'm always happy to see Veronica, even if it did result in me reading up on the history of Roman Britain (which is most definitely research for her book and not mine).

After we were done, I swapped the sweats for a sundress and then threw some chicken in a pot to poach (note: I did not poach the chickens from my neighbors, although I'm tempted). Barbara came up from the Springs for a socially distanced afternoon, and so we sat on my back patio for over three delightful hours and discussed life, writing, more life, the world, how much coronavirus sucks, etc. We also had lunch - I made some quinoa tabbouleh yesterday for today's lunch, and it was pretty perfect (esp with chicken and tzatziki on top). And we moved around the patio as the sun shifted - after this summer I'm more tan than I think I've ever been (at least my arms; my legs still look like stunted trees in a blizzard).

There was a bit of an interruption in our lunch because I'd hired a guy to come and mount my TV, which I hadn't done because I didn't really want to mount my TV. But the previous owner had cut a hole through the wall for an electrical outlet behind where the TV should be mounted, which would always be visible if I didn't mount the TV, so I finally bit the bullet and did it. I think it's a little higher than I would have mounted it personally, but it was preferable to use the previous owner's mount rather than redoing everything. And now my wall looks nice and all the cords are hidden, so that's a good outcome.

sssanyway, it was great to see Barbara - it almost felt like a normal non-coronavirus afternoon, even if she arrived and departed with the ghost of a hug. I don't know what winter will feel like when socially distanced afternoons on the patio are no longer comfortable, but I'm trying not to get anxious before it actually happens (and then, I promise, I will be really fucking anxious).

After Barbara left, I tidied up the kitchen and then spent a couple of hours talking to Sara (a coworker who is mostly just a friend at this point). Then I ate supper (leftover chicken chile verde) and took a walk around the neighborhood while listening to a writing podcast. And then I sat on my couch and did absolutely nothing, which I suppose I will take.

And now I'm going to sign off and either journal, read, or watch TV - goodnight!

sing with me, sing for the year, sing for the laughter, sing for the tear

 It is 1:12am, which means my goal of smoothly transitioning back into work bedtimes is behind schedule. Today was v. lovely, though. I woke up this morning in time to write for a bit, which went decently well. Then I took a previously-scheduled hiatus to meet with someone from work - he's the person who I delegated most of my stuff to, and he's out next week when I come back, so we decided to sync up today just to make sure I'm aware of what's happening. Sounds like everything went decently smoothly, and so while I'm sure there are surprises lurking in my inbox, hopefully I shall survive them.

Then I had two house things scheduled - a plumber to check the leak in my bathtub (which I've ignored for months because it doesn't always drip if I turn the handle just right) + hook up my new gas grill, and someone to measure my master bedroom shades so I can replace them with something that is actually a shade instead of a thin piece of mesh. They were both surprisingly early - the plumber was an hour early (so I had to pause my work meeting), and the shade guy showed up before his two-hour slot. The plumber is coming back Monday to fix the tub, but he was able to hook up the gas grill v. v. quickly; the shade guy was quick and efficient, so hopefully I can figure that out in the next couple of weeks as well.

Since that was all over before noon, I had some unexpected time on my hands. So I ate lunch, then went to a local cheese shop and bought some v. delicious cheeses; I also stopped in at my liquor store and bought Fernet, which is the official drink of San Francisco. I don't like it, but I guess I was homesick. I also bought another half-bottle of champagne and some more Aperol for future Aperol spritzes, because why not. Then I came home, put tings away, and prepped some food for tomorrow.

I then spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning, tidying, throwing things away, etc. And then around 5:30, Sarah-Frances came over - we're coworkers, but we had a potential friendship before we became coworkers, so I feel like it's fair game. She came back from maternity leave exactly two days before I went on vacation, so we were overdue for a catch-up, and my patio is ideally situated for social distancing. We ate cheese, drank bourbon cocktails (with Fernet - the other reason I bought Fernet is because I remember she likes it, but she discovered it in Argentina instead of SF), ordered v. delicious Thai food, and drank wine with dinner. It was delightful to hang out, and she stayed until after dark, and it all almost, kind of, not quite felt normal.

After she left, I texted a photo of the Fernet bottle to the family and suggested doing shots, which turned into a zoom call to check in on each others' local minima. For a zoom call at 10pm MDT / 9pm PDT with 20min notice, turnout was steller; Adit and Priyanka joined (Adit for local minima reasons, Priyanka to talk to me about nap dresses), as did John and Jess (whose local minima was the worst of the night), Chandlord, Ritu Rani, and Ritu Rani's naked baby. We discussed a wide variety of topics over the course of two hours, including local minima, nap dresses, the British royal family, the San Francisco housing market, politics and truth and how screwed we all are, sandwiches, the ability of toddlers to button clothes, and a variety of other tings.

So, that was all v. restorative (or at least as restorative as a late-night zoom call can be). And now I really need to sleep - goodnight!

you could show a little grace, but maybe things just went a bit too far

I need to aim for bed earlier tonight....I go back to work on Monday, which means I need to start training myself for the apocalypse getting up earlier. Today was pretty decent, all in all - I journaled and wrote most of the morning, which was great. Then I made a BLT (technically a BLTA, since I added avocado like the former Californian that I am) and it was pretty much perfect - I tried baking the bacon instead of frying it, and it turned out so well (and so much less messily) that I may never go back to frying it. Also, BLTs are one thing that I've missed as a gluten-free person, but with the better-than-Udis sandwich bread I've found in Colorado, plus the fact that tomatoes and lettuce are in season, this BLT was particularly winning.

After that, I really just wanted to take a nap, but instead I went to the grocery store. Then I came home and put everything away, and then I went to a garden center to get some fertilizer and check out the plants. I'd intended to buy some more petunias, but they were out; instead I bought some pansies, but now I'm concerned that it's too hot for them. Still, it was a fun excursion, even if it's possible that I should either stop gardening or hire someone to do it for me since I have too many higher priorities than gardening and so will never have as nice a garden as I'd like to imagine in my head.

sssanyway. Then I came home and made chicken chile verde in my instant pot - I was in the mood for something different than what I've been making, and this delivered. It turned out perfectly - just a bit on the spicy side, excellent for leftovers and also excellent to throw in the freezer for a future rainy day. After that, I cleaned my kitchen, and then I should have done something productive - but I got sucked into the twitter vortex and have only just emerged now.

So, I'm going to sign off and try to read or journal or do anything but twitter before bed - goodnight!

for the lump that sits inside your throat

Today was slightly less magical - the writing was a bit molasses-y [that's the best word I've come up with today] this morning, which is always frustrating after several days of non-molasses-y writing. But I meditated and journaled before, so that's a plus. Then I trimmed my bangs (thus enabling myself to see better, which may help with the writing), showered, made a sandwich, and ate it outside. I also tried to do a bit of planning and failed; then I took a nap, which felt rather decadent and unnecessary.

The day could have easily descended into despair at that point, but I managed to rally. I was going to go to the garden center, but at the last minute I swerved and took a walk instead (unfortunately after I'd switched out of shorts and into jeans, and it was hot as balls out, so shorts would have been preferable). I listened to a writing podcast while I walked, which helped. Then I tidied up my kitchen, made an aperol spritz, and wrote for another 20-ish minutes - not an amazing feat, but it made me feel slightly better and more like making progress tomorrow.

Then I threw in the towel and talked to Terry and Lauren (aka Subz) for a long overdue catch-up. And then I ate some leftover steak and broccoli rabe, read a bit more of the book I'm reading, and then sat on the couch and ended up watching four episodes of 'Episodes'. I'd found it while doing some research this morning, since I feel like I need some flavor of tv production in my current story (don't ask), and it turns out that it's hilarious and I should have watched it when it came out nine years ago. Matt LeBlanc plays a version of himself, and the other two main actors are v British and v appalled by him, and somehow it works.

So, I quite enjoyed that. Then I did a bit of organizing some tasks for the rest of the week. And now I'm going to go to bed - goodnight!

take a picture you could never recreate

I had a nice day today, and I'm getting dangerously accustomed to not doing day job stuff....which will be interesting to navigate when I go 'back' a week from today. And by 'back' I mean 'here', but with my work laptop instead of my personal one. That reminds me that the top priority for the rest of the week is to set up my dining room as my work office - it's been really nice to use my writing office as a writing office again, but doing day job work from here means that I don't ever want to use my writing office on the weekends. Yes, two offices for one person is ridiculous....but coronavirus is ridiculous and we're living in strange times.

sssanyway. I got up this morning in time to make coffee and meditate (and journal for approx three minutes) before meeting up with Veronica for a morning writing date. It was good to have a reason to force myself to log in at an early-ish hour, and that time was super productive - we only talked for a few minutes, and I ended up writing almost six pages. Yay. Thus feeling smugly accomplished for the day, I took a quick nap, showered, had some lunch, and ran a couple of errands (coffee, wine, and groceries - the trifecta of necessities). Then I came home and spent a couple of hours attempting to organize my basement - it's not in bad shape and I could have just shoved stuff into a corner anyway, but I'm trying to make it an appealing place in which to work out since I'm going to be stuck in my house forever. I still need to haul up a bunch of trash and boxes, and then set up my workout space, but I definitely made progress.

Then I made a somewhat elaborate dinner (not really, but I tested a new recipe for broccoli rabe that took longer than expected, and made a ribeye + reheated a frozen twice baked potato to go along with it). And then I read on my back patio for a couple of hours, which was delightful, before folding laundry and doing other responsible adult human tasks. And now I'm going to go to bed - goodnight!

and sometimes, the light's no consolation

I was pretty lazy today, but I'm okay with it. I slept late since I have been staying up late, and I need to get a bit closer to a normal bedtime - so it's 10:20pm and I'm hoping to go to bed as soon as I type this (even though I'm tempted to stay up and read until two). Because I woke up late, I didn't make it to the farmer's market - instead, I showered, ate some strawberry galette for breakfast/lunch, took care of some tings, and then wrote for an hour or so.

Writing was really the only thing I'd told myself I had to do today, so in that sense it was a success. I also meditated at some point this afternoon. Then I spent several hours talking to family - one of my nieces called me, and then I called my parents, and then I talked to [censored]. At that point it was suddenly too late to make the elaborate meal that I had planned to prep, so I instead ordered a pizza and walked down the street to pick it up.

And now, I'm going to take myself to bed so that I can get up and cracking earlier tomorrow - goodnight!

on both sides a vow was broken

It's amazing what I can get done if I don't spend all day on Twitter. It's also amazing what I can get done when I'm not at the day job, although that's coming soon. But today was a good day - I woke up a little groggy since I stayed up so late reading last night, and since it's now 12:25am I'm probably not setting myself up for success tomorrow either. But I dragged myself out of bed, meditated, journaled, made some eggs with avocado and salsa, drank some iced coffee, and eventually wrote.

When I was done with that, I ate some leftovers from last night, and then I made a gluten-free strawberry galette - it's basically a free-form tart. The crust was actually surprisingly good and held together well - I've had disasters trying to make gluten free pie crust in the past, but this one was good enough that I want to keep experimenting. The galette came together pretty well and I have a second crust chilling in the fridge, so if I find some good-looking fruit at the farmer's market tomorrow, I may make another. There's no harm in living off pie when it's the end of the world, right?

While I was meditatively rolling out pie dough, I had a breakthrough on a potential plot point, so I wrote for another twenty minutes while the galette cooled. At some point, I also took a nap. Then I called Lowes to harass them about my grill - when they delivered it, one of the burner knobs was missing, and the guy said they'd bring it to me the next day, but that was clearly a lie. Luckily I found a helpful guy via phone, and they're supposedly mailing me a knob. That means I haven't gotten to play with my grill yet, which means I may need to use pliers or vise grips (or move knobs back and forth) if I want to test it out this week....we shall see.

Then I took a walk, and then I sat on my back patio and read for awhile. And then, I maybe should have wound down and gone to sleep early, but instead I watched three episodes of the second season of the Umbrella Academy, which just came out. I'm trying to savor, since there are only ten episodes, but I'm sure I'll glom them all in the next few days.

And now I need to sleep - goodnight!

this city's kind of evil and i need to find caffeine

For all that yesterday was bad, today was the exact opposite. I did a lot of good/fun/nourishing stuff today, and spent very little time on twitter, so it was pretty delightful. I got up and made coffee / meditated / journaled / made more coffee / cleaned some stuff out of my fridge so I could take out my trash, and then I sat down to write. I got almost a thousand words, which felt great... it's been a long time since I've felt good about writing, so it's too early to claim that I'm fully back in it, but early omens feel good.

Then I ate lunch outside (leftover salad from last night), and then I had to take care of an annoying errand - I had to pick up a FedEx package that I'd paid extra to have delivered at a specific time on Wednesday, and instead they'd held it at the delivery center on the other side of Denver. Annoying. But I didn't have to wait in line and I did it before rush hour, so I guess it could have been worse.

Then I cooked a bunch - I tested a recipe for a gluten free pie crust, and while it's too soon to tell because I didn't end up making the pie, the steps up to the point where it chills in the fridge look promising. Then I made supper - some lentil dish + some salmon in the oven, and it was delicious (and completely not something I ever would have eaten in Iowa). While I did all that I listened to a really good Dax Shepherd podcast with Angela Duckworth on grit and talent vs productivity - Duckworth has researched grit for a long time and I was actually on a panel at work about grit without having read her book, so it was v informative to hear her talk.

I ended the night by binging a book - I read BEACH READ in one sitting, and it was fantastic. So now I'm hungover from reading and don't want to sleep, but know I need to if I want to accomplish similar feats tomorrow. Goodnight!