the most amazing things can come from some terrible nights

Sooooo...I'm not in Easter Island. Nor am I at the Four Seasons Bora Bora, which feels like a distant memory of perfection. Instead, I am in some strange netherworld of gloom and dismay known as Tahiti, thanks to LAN canceling our flight. But they didn't just cancel our flight....they had no announcement or signage at the Tahiti airport, and so we didn't find out until we had already sat there for three hours of our six-hour layover waiting for the checkin desk to open.

So, to recap: after being whisked by boat from the Four Seasons to the Bora Bora airport, we were dumped straight into tropical hell. The flight to Tahiti was uneventful, and we got our bags easily, and we found seats near the only open restaurant in the airport, so it seemed like things were okay (if not nearly as fancy as we were accustomed to). But after three hours we were well and truly exhausted...and then they canceled our flight, could only give us a room where we have to share a bed (but they tittered about how we're friends and it's so cute that we're traveling together, which was better than the spa at Bora Bora that tried to give us a couples massage today...but I digress), and then stuffed us in a van with the stinkiest Frenchman I've possibly ever encountered.

And now we're at the Pearl Resort, which is nice enough (and right on the ocean)...but it's so far from the Four Seasons that my mind can't comprehend how far we've fallen. Joann and I have to SHARE A SINK, which is barbaric.

Now, I must sleep, and contemplate how we're going to kill all of tomorrow, since our new flight doesn't leave until seven pm. Sadly, this costs us a day on Easter Island, but we'llcross that bridge after we cross the ocean. And on that incredibly stupid note, it's time for bed - may you not hear from me again until Easter Island. Au revoir!

service announcement

We're leaving Bora Bora in a couple of hours, and I won't have service until we get to our hotel in Easter Island many hours from now...and even then, service may be spotty (and entirely dependent on whether I want to go to the reception to use it, and whether it works...you know I'll go to reception because I'm a crazed addict, but I can't control the internet speeds when I get there).

So, I'll try my best, but I hope you can survive slightly more sporadic posting between now and Chile. Au revoir!

i could fill your cup...you know my river won't evaporate

It's my last night in Bora Bora. We may have achieved peak island today; by 'peak island' I mean that time has slowed, nearly to a stop, as all the experiences begin to blend into each other and all the drinks and meals and sunsets begin to feel the same. This is not a bad thing, obvi - it's possible that this has been the most relaxing trip I've been on in years, if not ever (although Cancun and Hawaii with Katie would give this a run for its money, and Sri Lanka will always live fondly in my heart).

But that relaxation probably stems more from within than from my surroundings...timing this break to happen the day after I left my job was perhaps the most genius thing I've done in awhile (beyond the fact that I have to pay for it without having a steady paycheck anymore). I feel completely, utterly at peace right now, as though this is a little bit of a breath before the next battle after having finally won the last one. I'm starting to write down what I need to do and how I need to focus to keep this sense of  calm/peace/grace when I'm writing full time...the hardest issue I faced the last time I did this was maintaining my sanity and forgiving myself when I felt like I should write all the time and didn't (and blamed it on procrastinating...even though it's not possible or useful to write all the time). I don't want to repeat those issues, and I think setting up some sort of rough schedule would help - a schedule that includes things like trips to museums, music/art stuff, movies, friends, etc., etc.

So I spent some time thinking about that early this morning, as the sun came up over the lagoon and I enjoyed the feeling of having nowhere in particular to be. We ate breakfast around eight, and then spent most of the morning/early afternoon lazing about on the deck. I got some sun, but not too much; I took a nap, but not too long; and I called my parents, which was unfortunately too brief and somewhat difficult technologically because of the bad wifi situation here, but at least I got to talk to them before leaving here.

Eventually, Joann and I left the bungalow and did a bit of kayaking - nothing extreme, but it was nice to get out and exert myself for a little bit. Then I took my time showering and putting myself together - I am kind of tired of being covered in sunscreen residue, and so it was nice to do some proper grooming after several days of stickiness. After that, I wrote at the bar for awhile while drinking a pina colada (journal stuff, not Rafe/Octavia - they're going to have to wait for SF, I think), and then Joann joined me and we had sushi (again) for dinner.

And now, I've packed most of my stuff, and I've downloaded some new books for this leg of the trip, and I think I'm ready for the Easter Island portion of this adventure. It's possible that I won't be able to blog as regularly for the next few days, since it sounds like the internet is going to be intermittent at best, but I will make every effort to get online and keep you informed (I know, you're so lucky). Goodnight!

so when you're near me, darling can't you hear me, sos

Today was yet another magical day in paradise, to the point that it's almost getting embarrassing to talk about how great everything is...but I'll make the sacrifice for you. I got up slightly later than usual (seven instead of six) and hung out on the balcony for an hour or so before having breakfast. Then, in an attempt to bake without frying, I laid out on the balcony for several hours...based on my skin's happiness level, I'd say I succeeded, but it was so warm and sunny that I had some fear that my sunscreen regimen might fail me.

But by two-ish, Joann and I were both ready to do something more active, so we snorkeled for an hour or so. The resort lagoon isn't quite as amazing as the stuff we saw yesterday, but it's also comfortably free of sharks, so we swam around and investigated the various coral worlds under the surface. I kind of want to try scuba diving now, although that's probably still beyond my comfort level...but maybe my funemployed self will do more swimming so that scuba becomes a real possibility.

After snorkeling, we sat on the beach and shared a snack before going back to our bungalow and showering off the salty sea so that we could have drinks and dinner at sunset. The sun sets so fast here...it's relatively equatorial, and so the sun set in the snap of a finger shortly before six pm. But we were at the sunset bar in time to see it, and we enjoyed some sushi and drinks after while discussing our favorite cosmetics, which is my idea of an awesome night.

Then we came back to our room, spent some quality time admiring the gorgeous stars of the Southern Hemisphere (and I saw the Milky Way for the first time in a long time), and then watched "Mamma Mia!" while polishing off the rest of the bottle of champagne we'd opened this afternoon. I may have sang along more than was strictly recommended, and I may have proclaimed too many favorite parts of the movie, but I think Joann forgave me.

And now I shall sleep so that I may bake again tomorrow - goodnight! And happy [censored] to [censored]!

you love these little signs of life

My swimming lessons paid off today when Joann and I went on a half-day snorkeling excursion. I had my doubts about this initially, since I've never snorkeled before, but it ended up being a totally awesome time. Our first stop was focused on sharks and sting rays, and the guide kept encouraging is to touch the sting rays he caught for us to pet (although when a stranger keeps yelling "touch it! touch it!", my mind goes strange, uncomfortable places).

The second stop was my favorite; we spent some time at a 'coral garden', where we saw tons of really cool fish. The water was so amazingly clear, and the fish do not care at all that we're hanging out. That was put to the test at the third site, where we saw much bigger sharks - I was not really into that stop, mostly because we were on the ocean instead of the lagoon and so the water was a lot choppier. But I got an underwater photo of a shark, which you can see in my Instagram if you're so inclined.

The boat trip also included a sail around the whole island, which was awesome because it confirmed that we have no need to or interest in going to the only town on the island. Then we came back to the hotel, ate a late lunch on the beach, and laid out to continue the tanning process (miraculously, I haven't burned myself year but that could change tomorrow...). We had wanted to see the sunset at the sunset bar, but a storm rolled in and obstructed the view, so we just had a drink there and reminisced about the day and all the strange people we encountered.

And now, having successfully made it to nine pm, I going to get ready for bed - goodnight!

just the sky the moon and us

Even in the rain, Bora Bora is lovely. It was overcast most of the day, but it was still great for relaxing, and I'm feeling quite at peace with the world at the moment. I woke up at six am (so weird) and sat on the deck with my journal and my phone and some bad coffee, watching the water and catching up on things back home and contemplating life. When Joann woke up, we sat on the deck some more, and then took full advantage of the complimentary breakfast buffet by stuffing our faces like crazy people.

After that was over, we mostly laid around, sat around, read, talked, and drank wine. At some point we decided to test out our snorkels; we're  doing a half day snorkeling thing tomorrow and we wanted to make sure our swimming lessons had adequately prepared us for the experience of having fish in our face. Even though it was raining and we were in the tamest part of the hotel lagoon, it was pretty freaking awesome - the fish were gorgeous, and I was v v pleased to discover that I could keep my face in the water the whole time without panicking at all. So I think tomorrow will be awesome (unless I'm eaten by a shark, in which case I hope my family is at least able to bury my arm Stonewall Jackson style even if the rest of me ends up in a watery (or stomachy) grave).

Then we cleaned ourselves up and ate dinner at the sunset bar (sans sunset), where the sushi was surprisingly good and surprisingly filling. And then, in an effort to stay awake, I finished the book I started this morning (Wallbanger, which I thought was only meh despite the rave reviews I'd heard). Now, alas, I must sleep so I can get up in time for another epic breakfast before snorkeling - goodnight!

we are a law unto ourselves

Bora Bora is perhaps the most perfect place I have been to in my entire life. You know how you see photos of hotels on websites and know that the place won't actually look like that when you get there? There was no such false advertising from the Four Seasone. Everything is perfect, from the pickup at the airport (via catamaran - the airport is only accessible by water, and the greeters very modestly pointed out that the Four Seasons had the best boat), to the check in (each couple on the catamaran - and it was only couples except for me and Joann - were greeted by their own person who drove them straight to their bungalow via golf cart, so I haven't seen reception yet), to the weather (perfect, perfect, perfect).

So today was pretty awesome despite the fact that the flight here was decidedly not awesome (old plane, uncomfortable economy seats, followed by a clusterfuck of a transfer in Tahiti for the flight to Bora Bora). We were at the hotel by 9:30, so we showered, ate breakfast, and spent the rest of the day indulging in sun (on our perfect private deck) and water (in the crystal clear lagoon, accessible from our private ladder). We had a drink at the pool bar in the afternoon, followed by more sun, followed by an intense attempt to stay awake by talking/reading despite the fact that we're three hours behind California and so I wanted to go to bed at 6:30.

But now that we've eaten room service and its reached the slightly more respectable hour of nine pm, I'm going to sleep - goodnight! (and ps, you can see a couple of pics by clicking the Instagram link above - I'm blogging from my phone, so no photos will be uploaded here (and typos may be worse than usual)).

lonely and dreaming of the west coast

I'm sitting on the plane from LA to Tahiti, so this must be brief....but suffice it to say that the spinster honeymoon is off to a great start. So is my unemployment - today was pretty much perfect for the first six hours, until I suddenly realized I was at serious risk of not having packed anything for the trip.

I woke up at 5:20 like I was still employed, but then I went back to sleep because mornings are stupid. But I woke up again at 6:45, messed around on my phone like a lazy wench, and eventually went to Philz to get an wary morning coffee and write my packing list while people watching. It was totally lovely, and I'm excited for that to become part of my routine. Then I came home and had to shower rather than running errands because a bird shat on my head for the first time ever (a fear I've always had in the city).

After that trauma, I needed some therapy, so I went to the mall and bought stuff for my trip and ate lunch. And then I realized I was running out of time, so I frantically packed (which means I overpacked, which means I have a ridiculous amount of stuff with me). But I made it to the airport in time to have dinner with Joann before boarding our flight to LAX (possibly the worst airport ever).

And now we're waiting to take off, and I'm super excited about fun in the sun (even if I'm not excited about this overnight flight). Goodnight!

i'm gonna love you like a black widow baby

The day job is over. Today was a v. bittersweet day; I thought I was an old pro at resigning, but I felt more emotional today than I expected to. Perhaps it was because I didn't sleep all that well last night; perhaps it was because I like a lot of my coworkers and will be sad to not work with them anymore; perhaps it's because my life has been completely full of change over the last couple of months as I upended everything and pushed to create the life I want out of the detritus of the past, and the latent stress of all that change is catching up to me despite the fact that I want all of it v. eagerly.

Whatever it was, I had a good day, but I felt slightly closer to tears than I expected to feel (but still far enough away to maintain my stoic demeanor). I got up early, got to campus a little before seven, and worked at the coffee place for the last time until almost nine. This was all day job stuff, since I wanted to get through a few last-minute items (success), but sitting there probably just compounded the bittersweetness, since I liked the coffee routine even if that's absurdly early for my normal night owl state.

Dave showed up at some point, so we grabbed a final breakfast (something chilequile-ish?)...and it was a sign of the end times that we ate it at the cafe rather than rushing to our desks for the 9am meeting that neither of us are required to go to anymore. Then I went to my building, had a last meeting with my boss (who asked me to set up a monthly lunch with him...clearly he has not lost hope that he can lure me back someday), did a bit more work, and packed up my desk.

Maybe the packing caused the emotions - I was going through stuff that I had the last time I worked there, some of which was now many years old, and I ended up tossing a lot of it. I remember that I took three boxes with me to work when I started two years ago, and today I only brought home one box, which would include some of the things I got in the past two years. Most of what I tossed is work-specific paraphernalia that I have no use for anywhere else (lava lamp, Mrs. Potato Head, etc.), and by giving or throwing it away, I think there was some sort of subconscious acknowledgement that this is really the end now, rather than my first resignation, which I always suspected on some level was more of a temporary hiatus.

But life is (hopefully) long, and there are many things I may do before the end, and maybe going back to work is one of them. But I'm going to do my damnedest over the next couple of years to make the writing thing work instead.

sssanyway, after packing, I grabbed a final lunch with Dave, Tomas, and Eugene. Tomas was mildly emotional, but Eugene asked if they could put me in a kayak and shoot arrows at me like a Viking funeral, which sounds great except I would be very much alive and also a sitting duck in a nonmoving kayak in a parking lot, so I declined his generous offer. And then I took care of a few more things, did my exit interview, returned my devices, said goodbye to whoever was around, turned in my badge, and left before it all became too much.

So tonight was mildly euphoric, mildly sad, and mostly an exercise in trying to keep myself occupied so I wouldn't be too sad (or too euphoric, I suppose). I took care of some things for my trip, bought tickets for a family reunion, etc., etc. And then I met up with Vidya (aka Chandlord), her former resident Steve, and his fiancée Danielle at Burma Love for a v. late (for me) dinner. I only vaguely know Steve (although I've heard a lot about him), and I've never met Danielle, but it was a really fun excursion - they're getting married in a month, and I'm going on a spinster honeymoon, so it's almost like we're the same people!! (kidding)

And now that I've caught up a bit with Chandlord, and succeeded in not dwelling over all the changes in my life (there will be ample time for that over rum in Bora Bora), I really need to sleep; I haven't started packing, and my flight's tomorrow night, so I should probably get on that. Goodnight!

in a tidal wave of mystery you'll still be standing next to me

I spent my last Sunday as an employed person reminding myself why I must soon become an unemployed person...doing dayjob-related tasks most of the day so that I can prepare to cut the cord tomorrow. I still have stuff on my to-do list, and perhaps I should have done more work today rather than taking a nap / getting a mani/pedi / talking to the family / hanging with the family time. But the end is going to come whether anyone else wants it to come or not - my boss certainly doesn't want it, and I don't think my team does either, but I'm ready to go.

And that's all there is to say about that, really; I feel completely at peace with my decision to leave, and I'm excited for everything that's to come. Of course, at the moment I'm particularly excited about imminent beach time, but the chance to focus on making my writing career into something amazing is super exciting.

Enough about me, though...let's talk more about me. The rest of my day was good; I talked to [censored] briefly, and I also talked more extensively to my parents. I felt vaguely sad/guilty that I wasn't there for my mother on Mother's Day, and that I haven't been home since Christmas. But I'm going to see them in Texas in a month (family reunion!!), so that's going to be fun even if Texas is even more likely to melt my California-weakened flesh off my bones than Iowa is.

Then I did a bit more work, and then I abandoned all pretense of productivity to have family dinner at Adit and Priyanka's. It was particularly family-ish tonight since Priyanka's parents are in town, and her mom made dinner for us - tasty rice, chickpeas, cauliflower/potato (more generically vegetables, aka subz/sabzi - the origin of Lauren's nickname), etc., with some v. excellent tamarind and cilantro chutneys. She also made chai after dinner, and it was some of the best chai I've ever had, which made me sad that I couldn't drink more since I desperately need to sleep tonight.

So it was good to catch up with some of the family (plus some randoms); Adit and Priyanka were there, obvi, as was Katrina, and Omar is in town from Canada, so we reminisced about his visit to Iowa and asked each other highly personal/inappropriate questions that I'm sure Priyanka's parents appreciated. We also listened to some deep house, discussed the SF housing market + Scandinavian design + the royal baby, and were generally ridiculous, so it was par for the course.

And now I must sleep so I can get up super early tomorrow and finish the last bit of stuff that I want to clean up before turning in my laptop/badge/steady paycheck - goodnight!

let's not be alone tonight

I was v. productive today, even if very little of it had to do with all the day-job stuff I feel like I should probably do before I say sayonara on Monday. I was also no longer feeling hungover (although I did need a nap at noon), so that was v. refreshing. The day started off early with a trip to Union Street to see my aesthetician, who managed to be quite entertaining while tearing hair out of my flesh, so that was good. Then I had brunch while chatting with the usual suspects at my favorite cafe, dropped off a dress to get altered before my trip (fingers crossed it can be done, but it seems mildly unlikely), came home, and took care of house stuff the rest of the day (except for my glorious nap in the middle of it).

So I cleaned everything I felt like cleaning today... and then Claudia came over, and we had pizza and split a bottle of wine and generally talked about everything and nothing. I could continue to wax eloquently about our friends, but I'm on the verge of falling asleep while typing this, and that's always a dangerous place...so you'll have to make do with this. Goodnight!

i'll tell you all about it when i see you again

I had a rather epic hangover today, which is what I deserved after allowing my coworkers to get me as drunk as they'd always dreamed of getting me after two years of mostly not drinking around them (Frankfurt doesn't count, since that was a limited subset of coworkers, none of whom reported to me). Their nefarious plans included six shots of tequila and a couple of ciders, but since those shots were more like doubles, it's no wonder that things got messy...

But my going-away party yesterday was super fun, and I felt v. v. loved. Today, I still felt loved, but I felt like I was loved while being run over by a truck. However, I still made it onto a 6:25am shuttle, got to campus at 7:15, and proceeded to do some work like a good (soon-to-be-done) corporate drone. This felt v. industrious of me, since I beat everyone to work despite the fact that I was the most hungover of them all.

Still, I felt slightly too dizzy to be maximally productive. But I enjoyed my coffee, and then grabbed chilequiles and scrambled eggs for breakfast, which may have saved my life. Dave filled in some of the gaps from last night's debauchery for me while I ate, which was kind (or maybe not kind) of him, since it was reported that I bit Eugene (not really that surprising, but maybe a little surprising). sssanyway, I then spent the rest of the morning working before grabbing lunch (a strange combo of tiny fried fish that I didn't eat, french fries, and korean soft tofu soup), grabbing froyo, grabbing coffee, and driving back to the city before traffic and my hangover conspired to ruin my day.

When I got here, I got a haircut and a brow wax as part of my rigorous schedule to prepare myself for Bora Bora. Then I sat on my couch, which was amazeballs. And then I put on a dress and some killer heels and met Kathia for dinner at Seven Hills. She and I had to see each other tonight because we won't see each other again until the end of June, and so we caught up over pasta (gluten free for me) at her favorite Italian place near her house. We're both looking forward to hanging out more regularly as soon as we're both back in town and I'm no longer doing the day job...all of those things can't come soon enough.

But now I really need to sleep and hope that the hangover is gone by tomorrow - I have many tings to do and relatively few hours in which to do them. Goodnight!

my heart is my armor

Sorry for misleading you yesterday...I got entirely too inebriated today at my going-away party, but you don't get to hear any of it because I just slept on my couch for the last three hours and need to go to bed immediately so I can sleep for another six more. But suffice it to say that my team made sure that I a) felt very well sent off, and b) made sure that I can't come back for fear of a lawsuit. This included some Sara Ramsey mad libs, a bunch of trivia questions, and entirely too many tequila shots (I know, sounds like a typical Thursday, but this one was epic).

So now I'm going to bed...more tomorrow. Goodnight!

one more spoon of cough syrup

Too tired to blog - I've got three days left in the office, too much work, and too many fun things planned, so I need to go to bed immediately. But today was good, even if I trained with Alyssa at seven and was busy most of the day. I did manage to have lunch with Alaska Matt, coffee with Dave, and friendship renewal dinner with Joann/Tolu/Jen/Jane, so it's not like I was antisocial...I was just vaguely overwhelmed with work and life.

And now, I must sleep - team event tomorrow means a high likelihood that you'll get a mildly (or majorly) drunken blog post tomorrow night, so at least you have that to look forward to. Goodnight!

she's the tear in my heart

Four days left at zee day job. Today was a total mixed bag of emotion; I had to run to catch my shuttle this morning, and when I got to work I only had half a glorious hour at the coffee shop before starting meetings at eight a.m. (to chat with the guy on my team who is in Paris for the quarter and so has missed all the ridiculousness of my departure). And then I had meetings most of the day - I delivered four performance reviews, had a lunch meeting, had some more meetings, and had a quick break to grab coffee with Jen and Tomas. It was almost, but not quite, enough to keep me totally awake...

...but then I skipped out of work at four to have drinks with the team. This was kind of a jhoke on my face, because we're having a team event on Thursday where I could say goodbye to everyone, but my boss felt like we should do drinks for the cross-functional team (read: people not invited to our team event) as well. So we had drinks...and only one person from the xfn books team showed up. The xfn team from the other team I've been managing outnumbers the books guy two to one, despite the xfn team being like 90% smaller than the books team, and despite me having known them only three months. Lol.

But that was exactly what I expected. The upshot was that I got to see three xfn people I like, a bunch of my own team (who I adore), and two upstanding members of my past life - Alaska Matt and Regina, both of whom were in India with me when I was still in my youth. And it was nice to drink cider in the sun, so I'll take it.

And before I go to bed, I have to say I got two of the best presents ever today. Tomas, Eugene, and Dave gave me a framed 8x10" photo of themselves, and my description of it can't do it justice, but suffice it to say that it was brilliant and will probably have to be hung on my wall. And Viviana and Yune gave me a champagne flute engraved with 'World's Okayest Ex-Manager', which I totally wasn't expecting and will totally use to drink champagne out of all the time.

So, feeling very loved and very tired, I must sleep so I can survive it all again tomorrow - goodnight!

sometimes you gotta bleed to know that you're alive and have a soul

Today was a long day, and tomorrow is going to be another one...but I think I'm going to survive the last week of work without too much drama (famous last words). Also, today could have been worse; 2.5 hours of meetings were canceled, which made for a much better situation than I was expecting. I got up super early, got to campus by 7:15, and worked for an hour and a half before grabbing breakfast and going to my building. Since my nine a.m. was canceled, I had half an hour to do more stuff before commencing meetings. Then I took a break to see Alyssa; she had me deadlift today, which means I'll probably be sore tomorrow, but it was better than being at the office.

When I got back to the office, I showered, then grabbed a salad with Dave. I thought I had a meeting at one, so I left him at the cafe with Manuela/Shannon while I went back to our building - but when I got there, the meeting had been canceled. So I rendezvoused with them again and grabbed coffee, which was delightful (and the only thing that kept me awake this afternoon). Then I had another meeting, and then I went to the onsite store to look for post-its for my parents (failure; I think they stopped making them years ago). After that, it was meetings straight until six p.m., but I drank a cider in one of the most ridiculous ones (seriously, it was like watching a train wreck), so I survived.

And then I came home, where I promptly worked for another two hours. And now I must sleep immediately; I want to catch the 6:25 shuttle so that I don't have to drive home tomorrow night, since there are plans for drinks or something, but that means I can't mess around and be late in the morning as I often am. Goodnight!

closing time

No time to blog tonight...I meant to go to bed an hour ago, but I instead wrote and sent my goodbye email for work. There were many many other things I should have done for work this afternoon, but I mostly focused on myself - it was a productive, albeit hermity, day, which was a good thing.

It started with brunch at my favorite place on Union Street, since I decided I wanted to eat huevos while talking to Tony. Then I got the gel taken off my fingernails, with a sad regular manicure to replace it (necessary to give the nails a break, but now that I've gone gel it's hard to go back, because I'm a total princess...a princess who is eminently without a paycheck and should probably stop getting gel as a result). And then I spent the afternoon unpacking the last of my boxes and organizing my stuff. The result is that I'm completely unpacked, although I have a stack of picture frames that I need to hang - but since I will likely take a lot of photos on my upcoming trip that I'll want to swap into the mix, I'm going to hold off until I'm home again.

By late afternoon, I was all done, and so I called my parents and caught up on the happenings in their lives. Then I ate some tuna salad (sorry, Katie) and spent the evening working on day job stuff.

And now, I shall sleep - there are only six days left at the office (really, more like five), and I have a lot of stuff to get done before walking through the doors a final time. Goodnight!

earned it

I achieved a good mix of socializing and productivity today, even if I wasn't feeling the idea of getting out of bed this morning. But I eventually dragged myself out of bed, made some coffee, and did a couple of hours of stuff before going downtown to meet up with Heather (aka dear respected madam). I hadn't seen her in almost three months, which is appalling; between the trip to India/Tokyo, the move, the trip to Tahoe, and the resignation from work, it's been a brutal few months, and any socializing that required dinners in the south bay or driving anywhere but within the city pretty much fell apart.

But even though it had been too long, we picked up right where we left off, and we spent almost four hours catching up. We had brunch/lunch at Town's End, where I was miraculously able to park right outside despite the Giants game at AT&T park. Then we went to the mall, where I returned a whole bunch of stuff to Nordstrom, and where we promptly bought shoes to celebrate my successful returning of other shoes. All in all, it was a v. successful catch-up and a v. successful Nordstrom excursion, and I'm glad we were able to spend some serious quality time together before I go out of the country.

The other fortuitous thing was that I mentioned that I wanted to rearrange some of my furniture, and Heather texted Salim and got him to come over to my place and take care of it for me. That meant I had to furiously rearrange everything before he got there and move hundreds of pounds of books/alcohol/glassware, but it took him five minutes to move the stuff, and the effort on my end was v. well worth it. Now I can actually use my dining table, and I feel like I can unpack the last couple of boxes of decorative stuff since it's more clear to me where I can put it.

So I chatted with Salim for a little bit, and then I spent a couple of hours putting everything back onto shelves. Eventually, though, I was done being productive, so Chandlord came over and we split most of a bottle of wine while I ate scrambled eggs and tortillas (dinner of champions!). After we'd properly caught up, she successfully dragged me to Lucky 13 (a dive bar near where I lived with Adit)...but I didn't know anyone there but her (and the person whose going-away party it was, vaguely), so I didn't last very long.

And now I want to sleep as much as possible - tomorrow's going to come too early, and I have to do several hours of work for the day job, but I also want to mess around the apartment and make it perfect (dream the impossible dream), and also possibly see some friends. We shall see, we shall see. Goodnight!

i got sinning on my mind, sipping on red wine

Today was awesome, as most days that end in hangovers at ten p.m. are. Of course, it started far too early; I got up at 5:30 and was out the door by 6:15 to catch a shuttle. The ride was blissfully fast, since there was no traffic that early on a Friday morning, and it dropped me off right outside the coffee shop on campus. It was, in fact, so fast and smooth that I was able to work most of the way in, which is odd for me - or maybe it was the adrenaline of knowing I needed almost every minute of the morning to finish my slides that kept me from getting motion sickness.

Anyway, I worked at the coffee shop from 7ish to 9ish, grabbed breakfast on the way to my building, and continued to monkey around with my slides until 10:30. Then I delivered the presentation, and while there were no standing ovations (which would have been super awkward from twelve people crammed into an eight-person room), it was all pretty well-received, and my boss seemed to get a bit emotional at the end. This is likely because he has to take on all my work when I leave and not because I'm awesome, but we'll pretend it's the latter.

After that, though, I had no intention of doing any more work, so I didn't. Instead, Dave, Tomas, Eugene, and I all fled (somewhat secretly, but not secretly enough, probably) the office for a long afternoon lunch/drinking activity to celebrate/mourn my departure. We went to Joya in Palo Alto, which I hadn't been to in awhile, and it was perfectly blissful. It takes virtually no alcohol to get that group to discuss wildly inappropriate things, but by the time we had a pitcher of sangria and then proceeded on to beer/wine (for the dudes) and mojitos (for me), things all got totally ridiculous. We then proceeded on to the Patio, where we had more beer/cider, and where I was coerced into taking an entirely unnecessary tequila shot.

At this point, I already feel well-fêted for my departure after spending four hours drinking with some of my favorite people while gossiping, discussing foot fetishes, and playing the fun parlor game of 'we'll read your own sex scenes to you and you have to guess which book they came from' (all of which is the tip of the inappropriate iceberg for the afternoon's festivities). But I think there's more fun to come next week, so hopefully this was a good warm-up for my liver.

Anyway, by 5:30 we were all done and Eugene and Tomas had to get home to their kids (what are those??), so Dave gave me a ride back to the city. This took quite a bit of time since traffic was horrible, and we had to stop at Starbucks to get caffeine, and we also had to stop at Costco...but eventually I made it to my home, where I fielded a couple of texts from Priyanka about possible dinner plans. As I was waiting to see what materialized, I instead passed out on my bed and slept until nine p.m. I awoke mildly hungover, ate some soup, abandoned the soup in favor of water, and generally messed around on the internet and stared off into space until now.

And now, after a perfectly lovely day, I shall sleep the sleep of the just (or the crazy) so that I can get some working and socializing done tomorrow - goodnight!

i feel the chemicals burn in my bloodstream

This should be one of the last nights when I have to stay up making slides...and while I should stay up even later to make sure they're in good order, I'm going to go to bed and hope that tomorrow is kind enough to me that I can fix what's still broken. Today was mostly good, but I definitely have too much that I want to do before I go, and only so much of it is going to get done. I trained with Alyssa first, which was good, and then I slogged all day without any real breaks (other than to get a salad, which I dropped on the stairs on the way to my next meeting, and a quick drive to the coffee place to get a latte to prevent my demise).

But I slacked off around four to meet with Jess (not the Jess I'll reference later - this one lives in Seattle), and then I had drinks with the other woman named Sara who joined the broader books group a few months ago. This turned into me eating enchiladas and gossiping wildly, as I'm wont to do when there are no consequences, but I think she enjoyed it.

And then I drove back to the city of sin, where I hung out with Katrina a bit (outdoors after seven p.m.! it's one of those rare SF days where it stayed warm at night!), and then went to John and Jess's to say happy (slightly early) birthday to John. I couldn't stay very long since I absolutely had to work tonight, but I'm glad I went over and helped him get ready for his old age.

Now, I must sleep; I'm only going to get six hours, which isn't enough, but I'm taking the shuttle in the morning so that I can drink in the afternoon, so don't cry too hard for me. Goodnight!