why does my heart feel so bad

Today got off to a rough start because I slept poorly and awoke with v. stiff shoulders, but I somehow survived it. I slogged all day and also managed to get a new laptop (not actually new, but its left shift key isn't broken, which is great because I was going insane at work trying to type on a broken keyboard). I also went to the dentist for a cleaning, which was necessary even if it didn't feel like how I wanted to spend my time today.

I took a break this evening to have an extended happy hour with another woman named Sara...and then, as soon as I dropped her off, I had a call with someone in Tokyo. Then I came home and spent the last two hours trying to get my house in some semblance of order - I leave for California tomorrow, and while I haven't packed yet, I have at least done the hardest things (like printing out my manuscript and choosing which pens to take).

But now I should sleep since I need to wake up early to pack and do some meetings before going to the airport - goodnight!

i got all pig iron

Today was a v. long day in the pixel mines, as my friend Shedletsky would say. I woke up at 6:15, but I didn't write - instead, I started working on day job stuff as soon as I poured my coffee. I don't regret that, because spending three hours at my desk at home getting things done was incredibly helpful in terms of making me feel like a decent human later when my meetings started.

Still, it made for a long day. Eventually I took a quick shower, took a meeting from home, and then went into the office for another string of meetings. I managed to leave at 4:30, though, and met up with Katie at Blackbelly. The only advantage of the government shutdown is that she drove up to see me rather than me having to go to Denver - and I remembered the fact that she eats as much meat as I do, so I took her to a butcher-focused restaurant that I've been wanting to go to since few of my other visitors have been into that kind of scene.

It turned out to be a v. nice place for happy hour - she had a burger (which is probably what I really wanted, in retrospect), but I decided to try something new. So I went with their crispy pig ears, which the server described as 'bacon french fries', which is pretty much what they were. They came with a fried egg on top and some perfect red pepper jelly underneath, and it was surprisingly delicious (although rich and perhaps not actually filling enough). I also got the broccoli, which was tasty as well. And I caught Katie up on everything she needed to know about southern Iowa, so that was a fun way to spend a couple of hours.

Then I came home, messed around the house, tried on some stuff that I'd ordered online, and then did another hour or so of work for the day job. I'm trying to get caught up on a million things that have been lingering, and I don't know how successful I'll be since I'm about to go out of town, but we'll see what I can make happen.

But now I'm going to read for just a bit and then go to bed - goodnight!

building steam with a grain of salt

Today was the real last day of vacation - last Tuesday was just a test run, since Wednesday and Thursday were minimally productive and I was hanging out with John and Jess Friday and Saturday. However, they left early this morning, so I had one final day to get some stuff done and settle back into some semblance of order before the chaos starts again.

I was far more productive than I usually am on Sundays - I got out of bed before 8:30 of my own volition, and spent the morning making lists of things I require in possible houses + researching printers + doing some bullet journaling. I had a noon meeting with my landlord, who is also a real estate agent - I'm considering buying a house, so I wanted to see if he would be a good fit for what I'm looking for. This is a tiny baby step toward the ultimate goal, but we had a good conversation. I still need to do some more thinking about what I want - the biggest question is whether I want a single family home in line with my subconscious Iowa desires, or if I want a duplex/townhouse with more modern features and minimal maintenance in line with my conscious time availability / maintenance abilities. I really don't want to share walls with anyone, but I also can't get a house on 80 acres in the area that I want to be in, so it's not like my inner Iowan will be satisfied anywhere here. And the places where I could get 80 acres would result in a long commute, and my inner Californian would be sad.

sssanyway, I probably won't solve that problem until I start looking at some properties and really understanding what the market looks like for each type of dwelling in my price range. After our meeting, I came home, did a bit of nothing, and then ran some errands, including grabbing a late lunch and buying a new printer. The printer became necessary a few months ago when I discovered that they no longer make drivers for my old printer that match any of my current operating systems, but I'd put it off until now. But I got a great black-and-white laser printer with wifi printing capability for $89.99 on sale at Staples, which happens to be one of the top-recommended printers on a bunch of consumer websites, so I'm pretty thrilled. Yes, I'm super dorky for being super thrilled about a printer, but you should know this by now.

Then I came home, called my parents, and then spent the evening setting up my printer and using it to print some inserts for my journal. And now I'm going to read a bit and go to bed, thus hopefully getting my week off on the right foot. Goodnight!

finished symphony

I had another great day in Boulder - the new year is off to a great start if you ignore the day job, which I've successfully done so far. I woke up in time to trim my bangs, shower, and throw together a frittata before John, Jess, and Ian came over for breakfast. The frittata turned out v. tasty, as usual, and I also had a bunch of berries (which was key since that's mostly what Ian wanted, although that turned into him force feeding them to John). Ian ran around my house a bit after, disappearing upstairs for a minute and then yelling down the stairs, "Auntie Wamp, can I play with this?" Since it turned out that 'this' was my rotary cutter, which was possibly the most dangerous thing he could have found in my house with only thirty seconds of searching, we decided that he could not play with it.

But despite my cold-hearted denial of his desire to play with my rotary cutter, we had a good morning. John and Ian went to a park, and Jess and I went to do the free tour at the Celestial Seasonings plant, which is based in Boulder. I don't drink much Celestial Seasonings because almost  all of their 'teas' are herbal infusions (no tea), or tea that has been overly flavored for my tastes - I mostly likely my tea without any flavors, unless it's a nice Earl Grey. But the tour was pretty interesting - they produce something like 1.6 billion bags of 'tea' a year, so the factory was cool.

After that, Jess and I grabbed a quick lunch at Boxcar, and then she went back to their hotel and I came home, napped, and journaled/wrote in the afternoon. We were supposed to rendezvous at Pizzeria Locale at 5:30...but at five, I idly wondered why I hadn't gotten a confirmation today, and then discovered it's because I'd made the reservation for next Saturday. Extreme rookie move. So I dashed over there without much hope, since it's v. hard to get a table there on weekends. I put my name in and they said they'd probably be able to seat us at the pizza bar around the same time as my original reservation, but that a table would be a two hour wait. Resigned to fate, I got a glass of wine - but also chatted up the staff whom I've befriended there, and suddenly a table appeared. We had to vacate it by seven, but that was more than doable - and I was pretty happy that I would be able to show my friends the full Pizzeria Locale experience (although my actual Pizzeria Locale experience is usually drinking three glasses of wine and reading a book at the bar, but this was acceptable too).

John/Jess/Ian arrived just after I scored the table, and we ordered some v. tasty stuff - the pizza that I usually get (a spicy pepperoni-type pizza), along with a pear pizza that Jess chose (delicious!), and some broccolini that was insanely good. We also got the little arancini balls to start, which I loved, and the whole meal was just about perfect. After, we took Ian out to 'hit the town' (it's super cute when he says it), but he wasn't as in the mood for another bar as we were, so we went back to the hotel and hung out in their room until it was time to say our goodbyes.

And now I should sleep - it's back to the usual grind tomorrow, since they're leaving super early and I have a bunch of stuff to do in preparation for the week/month ahead. Goodnight!

deck the halls with cherry yo-yos

I'm a bit too tired to blog, so this will be brief - but I took the day off (after only two days in the office) to hang out with John and Jess and Ian. We started with breakfast at Lucile's, which I've wanted to try - I've heard that the line on weekends is absurd, so I've never gone, but now I know why it's absurd. I ate all sorts of stuff I shouldn't have eaten - it was Cajun-style food, so I had a beignet, and I had eggs on top of fried eggplant with some v. amazing breakfast potatoes.

This made me super full (we were all full), but we rallied and drove up to Nederland. We rode the carousel up there, which was pretty entertaining/impressive (it costs a dollar and has an old Wurlitzer organ from the early 1900s). Ian ran around in a park even though it was unpleasantly cold - so unpleasantly cold that I went to an alpaca store after and bought a hat. Then we drove back to Boulder, and I came home, took a nap, ate some peanut butter, and wrote for an hour (yay).

We rendezvoused again around 5:30 and walked over to Dushanbe Teahouse, which I'd been to once before - it's a teahouse constructed from imported materials from Tajikistan, and it was perfect for an early dinner since half the other customers were screaming children (Ian was not screaming). My spicy rice noodles were excellent, and I had a decent mule-type drink with peppermint tea in it.

Then we wandered around Pearl Street for a couple of hours in an attempt to wear Ian out, and then went back to the hotel and had a drink while catching the tail end of a live jazz set in the lobby - they were really excellent, and Ian befriended them to the point that the drummer gave him an old pair of sticks after. But now, after spend the last hour engaged in mindlessness on my phone, I should really sleep - goodnight!

tell the waitress i'll come back to zanzibar

I had a somewhat lazy day at work - meetings mostly straight from 9:30 to 4, but there was still time to mess around and joke about dead plants, have lunch (which turned out to be a meeting), and also participate in a very abbreviated happy hour. But I left at four and got my nails done, which was necessary since I'd been peeling the gel off my fingernails while avoiding getting anything done. Then I came home, ate, prepped my house, texted with [censored], and went out and bought groceries.

This is all necessary because John and Jess and Ian are visiting this weekend (yay!). They got in tonight and are staying at the Boulderado, so I went over there after they got checked in to say hello to them. The hotel is really cool (old Victorian with a working person-operated Otis elevator), and their room is v. nice, so we hung out in it for awhile and ate leftover chips and salsa from the Mexican food they'd picked up on the way. John put Ian down while I talked to Jess, and then eventually Jess went to bed and John and I went down into the basement to have a drink at License No. 1. This is probably my favorite bar in Boulder, since it's rather speakeasy style and has a bunch of intimate interconnected rooms. Tonight was hopping, since they had a live band that was quite good, so John and I had a drink and discussed life, and it was all quite lovely.

But now I should sleep since their child will wake them up v. early and that means we will be having breakfast earlier than one might desire (but at the same time that I usually have breakfast). Goodnight!

cherry blossom girl

As it turns out, I really didn't want to go back to work today. I spent a couple of hours this morning sitting at my desk at home, contemplating my goals for the quarter and attempting to make some sense of my to-do list before the inevitable need to talk to people actually happened. Then I went into the office, had some meetings, ate a sandwich, had some more meetings, and peaced out at 5:15 because everyone else was already gone and I felt no need to be there any longer.

So I came home, did a bit of nothing, and then did some laundry, unpacked, cleaned up my kitchen, wrote for an hour (I'm burying the lede), and took care of some requests that people had made of me. I also bought tickets for my trip to CA at the end of January (for a writing retreat, not work, although a work trip is also happening in January), sent a couple of emails to schedule stuff during those trips, etc.

And now that I've accomplished enough to feel moderately satisfied with my progress, I'm going to bed - goodnight!

when the evening shadows and the stars appear

I'm back in Colorado and I'm not particularly enthused to go back to work tomorrow, but I'm sure I'm not the only one feeling that way. Today was mostly uneventful - I had breakfast with the family, then packed, dealt with some stuff that needs to be donated out of the house, and generally got ready to go. I said my farewells to my parents at home - [censored] was on the way back to [censored] today, so I hitched a ride rather than having my parents take me. We had a good conversation on the way up, and I wasn't quite ready for it all to end...

...but that's just the way it is. So I checked in, had a salad and a drink, and boarded my flight. Everything was super smooth and on time, but it inexplicably took 80 minutes for my bag to get off my plane - they were doing 30+ United Express flights on a single luggage carousel, so it appeared that every flight was taking an hour+ for the bags to get there. Had I known this, I would have eaten something in the airport, but c'est la vie.

I had vaguely thought I would take the much more economical bus home, but the luggage debacle made me miss the one I wanted to take, and I didn't want to wait another 45mins for the next one. So I took a lyft home, came in just long enough to throw some clothes in the wash and turn up my heat, and then went to the grocery store. This required brushing a few inches of snow off my car and almost freezing to death, since it's less than ten degrees here. But I got food, ate food, unpacked just a bit, and relaxed in an effort to wind down before the day job restarts.

Now it's time for bed - goodnight!

i trace the faith to a broken down television and put on the weather

Happy New Year's! I'm writing this at 12:36am in the Central timezone, but it will likely qualify as my last post of 2018 by the timestamp on my blog. 2018 was an interesting year for me - I met some important work and personal goals, so theoretically should have #noregrets, but the accomplishment of those goals happened by abandoning most of my writing and accidentally deprioritizing a lot of relationships. I didn't intend for either of those things to happen - but things got ridiculous at the day job this spring, and it's like I blinked and discovered it was December, and have no memory of how I got here.

Of course, I do have memory - and there are some great ones from this year. I did a lot of traveling in 2018, and had some amazing times with friends and family in multiple states (and with Dom Perignon in Paris, who is almost like family). I'm happy that I moved to Colorado, which is a great state (you should all move there). And I do actually like my job a lot, which is why it's sucked up so much of my energy this year.

But for 2019, I would like to rebalance my life - more writing, more friendships, more community in Colorado, more family (and family time), more kettlebells. I would also like to write a couple of books, buy a house, and take a vacation that involves neither writing nor family (no offense to anyone involved in either of those activities, but I need to recharge occasionally). And if I can do all of that while still feeling decently fulfilled in my job, that would make for a pretty great year.

As for today - it was all pretty uneventful, although [censored] won at Ticket to Ride: Europe yet again. I watched some tv with my mom after, and then [censored] and I rang in the new year by watching a replay of Johnny Carson's 1975/76 new year's eve broadcast (weird). Yes, I'm hermity, and no, I don't care.

Now, though, I need to go to sleep, dream of the new year, and wake up relatively early so that I can pack and prepare for my return to Colorado. Happy new year to all of you, and I hope you have a great 2019!

i wanna get better

I had a pretty mellow day, all in all. I had to get ready slightly faster than planned since we forgot to take a photo of the four of us yesterday to send to some friends in Ukraine, and so we had to accomplish that while we still had other people around - and since I didn't want to look homeless, I decided I shouldn't be in my pajamas. Also, Aunt B and Uncle Brian came over this morning (after spending the night in town) so that they could pick up Drewbaby and take him north with them.

This was the perfect excuse to also send some other random stuff north, and [censored] seized the opportunity. When it was time for the family to leave, I drove [censored] into town, where we met Aunt B/Uncle B/Drew B so that we could unload some things and load some other things. [censored] has made some great progress dealing with the hoard that he has acquired, and he took advantage of Aunt B's truck and Drewbaby's destination to get rid of a 50+ year old bicycle that used to belong to Uncle Mark. It's unlikely that Uncle Mark will ride it again, but if he does, I definitely want pics.

sssanyway. After that saga (in which Aunt B rescued a small stepstool whose name was apparently 'Benchy', although Benchy has seen better days and needs serious refinishing to fit in with her current decor), my aunt, uncle, and cousin headed toward Des Moines, and I came home and was lazy most of the rest of the day. I took a nice nap, did a bit of work (personal work, not day job work), talked to my mom, ate, and generally did very little. We ended up playing Ticket to Ride: Europe tonight, which [censored] won, which was unfortunate (I mean, I'm happy, I guess).

And now I need to sleep - goodnight!

you call her jabberjaws

Merry Christmas again! Today was Wampler Family Christmas (tm), which meant that my dad's brother and sister and their families arrived at some ungodly hour to spend the day together. The hour was less ungodly than usual because every family member stayed up way too late last night watching the Iowa State / Washington State game, but they still got here between ten and eleven, which is impressive since it was a 1.5-2hr drive for everyone other than us.

We spent the day in our usual haze of eating all the random food that showed up, telling stories about all the random people we've known, and listening to Gram's same two or three questions interjected at random (but v. frequent) intervals. Gram's dementia is truly shocking; she walked into our house and asked whose it was, and kept asking that all afternoon, even though we've lived here for eleven years (and on this property for almost forty) and she's been in this house over a hundred times. Another bit of her long-term anchor has slipped; she no longer knows where things are located between the towns in our county, which used to be an immutable map in her head since she was born here and has spent eighty-eight years in and around these parts (with some time living in other towns, although she always came back to visit her parents / my granddad's parents before moving back in the sixties).

sssanyway. We had some awesome smoked turkey and ham for lunch to go with all the variety of fixings that showed up, and then we did the family white elephant, which was as ridiculous as usual. I ended up with two 20+ year old bottles of alcohol that will probably poison me, and a bongo that I can play as I'm going blind from the alcohol. Drewbaby (my cousin) chose the gift that he was destined to have - [censored] put in a book for how to cope with being the child of hoarders, which Drewbaby is (but we're all children of hoarders and destined to become hoarders ourselves, so c'est la vie). And we generally all had a v. entertaining time.

The rest of the day was spent with more eating, more merriment, and some quality time drinking Aunt Kathy's gift (she chose a bottle of margarita mix, and I was happy to supply the tequila, although I eventually switched to Bailey's on the rocks, followed by some of Aunt B's malbec). Gram went back to her assisted living facility, and the rest of us hung out until the wee hours. For Uncle Mark and Aunt Kathy, that was only eight p.m. since they drove home tonight; Aunt B and Uncle Brian stayed until ten since they have a hotel room in town; and Drewbaby is sleeping on our couch, so he stayed up with me and [censored] and our parents, talking about a lot of adult topics until it was finally time for all of us to sleep.

So I guess I should go to bed - goodnight!

brand new sounds in my mind

I've had a v. lazy couple of days in ye olde Iowa. And by that, I mean I've accomplished virtually nothing - although today I did manage to pack up a box of stuff to ship to myself, take care of some work stuff (only 30min, but v. necessary), and make some chocolate chip chewies. I've been feeling very hermity and avoidant of all things related to my social life, which has not been great for my connections with friends - but hopefully after this break I'll be ready to reengage.

sssanyway. I did leave the house yesterday - I tramped around in the muddy fields looking for some missing cats (they showed up later, totally unconcerned, of course), and I also went into town to have supper with Hannah, one of my friends / distant cousins from high school. We went to the Mexican place in town again, and while I should not have eaten the dessert due to the gluten, I couldn't help myself because it was a cheesecake chimichanga (cheesecake filling wrapped in a tortilla, deep fried, and covered in sugar/cinnamon), which was so fucking good.

Tonight was less pleasant, since I stayed up late watching the Alamo Bowl w/my mom and [censored], and Iowa State lost, which was rather unfortunate. But now I need to sleep since we have family stuff happening tomorrow - goodnight!

feeling that it's gone can change your mind

Merry Christmas! I had a very lovely day in ye olde Iowa - it started slightly later than planned because I slept through my alarm (my body apparently decided that waking up at seven a.m. was barbaric, although my parents get up at four, so this was a compromise). However, I bolted awake at 7:22, so we weren't too far behind schedule. The 'schedule' consisted of our usual opening of stockings and gifts, which was initially interrupted by Gram calling every five or ten minutes until we unplugged the phone.

After that, it was all smooth sailing. We all got our usual assortment of things that no one else was interested in - my mom mostly got garden/kitchen stuff, [censored] got a lot of tools, and my dad got train collectibles. My haul was primarily cookbooks, fountain pen/ink accoutrements, a new corkscrew and some thermos-style wine glasses, and a variety of tools that [censored] picked out for me. I also got a set of vintage copper-colored canisters that matched the set my grandma always had on her counter, which is pretty cool. [censored] got Gram's set today (which had gone out to Colorado and back courtesy of Aunt B), but they're pretty indistinguishable from each other; my set came from the secondhand shop in town. I swear that it wasn't jealousy that caused me to accidentally throw one of [censored]'s lids in the trash while picking up all the wrapping paper. Luckily, [censored] realized it was missing tonight, since my dad had already taken the trash into town and tossed it into his business dumpster; so, [censored] was able to rescue it before the dumpster gets emptied in the morning. Christmas was saved!

We spent the rest of the day hanging out, relaxing, etc - unless you were my mother, in which case you made breakfast casserole and muffins, and then later made prime rib, all of which was delicious. We also played two games of Ticket to Ride: Europe, which was pretty unsatisfying for me since my dad won the first game and [censored] won the second.

And now it's time for bed - I hope that you all had a v. merry Christmas! Goodnight!

what if i'm far from home? oh [censored], i will hear you call

Merry Christmas Eve! Today was entirely full of family stuff, which has left me a bit exhausted. I didn't get quite as much sleep as I would have liked, but I got up in time to help my mom a little (I made the corn casserole, which was a real honor to be entrusted with such an important dish; I also peeled the potatoes, which is less glamorous, and did the dishes after everyone left, which is even less glamorous than that).

My sister's family came over today for our usual Christmas Eve festivities. There are a couple of little kids on that side now - my oldest niece has two kids (a nine year old and a one year old), and my nephew married a girl who has a three year old, so they were all super fun to hang out with. We did the usual Christmas dinner (at lunch, as per midwest tradition), then opened presents, and then watched the three year old dance around until it was time for everyone to leave. All in all, it was a lovely afternoon.

After they left, I did the aforementioned dishes, and then [censored] and I wrapped presents, which is our other Christmas Eve tradition. I also DJ'd our wrapping session, which was entertaining; we discovered that we often like the same songs for different reasons, since I tend to notice the flute-like melodies and [censored] notices the bass lines (not entirely unreasonable, since I played flute and [censored] played tuba in high school). Also, I showed [censored] the totally ridiculous music video for Annie Lennox's "Walking on Broken Glass" (starring John Malkovich and Hugh Laurie), and [censored] one-upped me with the also-ridiculous "Rock Me Amadeus" video. When your family starts to get you down during the holidays, do yourself a favor and watch those videos. It's the best gift Santa could give you.

And now I should probably sleep - Christmas morning is almost here. Goodnight!

but the restlessness was handed down

The last couple of days in ye olde Iowa have been fairly uneventful, all in all - I am definitely in the mood for uneventful at the moment, so it's living up to my desires. Yesterday, I unpacked from my trip across the Great American West, spent quite a bit of time hanging out in the kitchen, and also ran into town to buy some [censored] for [censored] (and some Mountain Dew for me). And I tried to help [censored] with [censored], but he doesn't trust my sorting skills - I know nothing about anything in [censored], so while sorting through a box of the contents of my granddad's junk drawer from 20+ years ago, I tried to throw away what I thought was a fake candle and what [censored] insisted was a usable part of an old rain gauge. So, I have been banished to the safety of the house, which is fine with me since nothing in the house is covered in [censored], and the house also has heat.

sssanyway. We had supper in Seymour last night, where the prime rib was fine and the deer heads on the walls were wearing their Santa hats. Today, I got up relatively early (for vacation), had breakfast with the parents, and then did a bunch of bits of nothing. However, I wrapped half of my Christmas presents (the half that is due tomorrow), so at least that was something. We had supper in town at the Mexican restaurant that opened there a few months ago - it was super tasty, and it's also the only thing in town open on Sunday night, so that was a win all around. We also ran into my old social studies teacher, which is always entertaining.

Then we came home and tried the new Ticket to Ride: Europe game that I'd bought - it's really quite different from the America game from a strategy perspective, so it will take some getting used to. But my dad won one game and I won the other, thus ending [censored]'s dominance, so I'll take those results.

And now I really need to sleep - goodnight! 

i'm weak, and what's wrong with that

I'm typing this on my personal laptop, which I was too lazy to pull out last night, and so I can use a shift key like a normal human again. Oddly enough, this laptop has a new keyboard too - but that's because I had to get the battery replaced (laptop, thank you for saying that the battery needed serviced less than two months before AppleCare expired, since the battery replacement was free). When they replaced the battery, they noticed that I had worn away multiple keys, so they replaced that too. So, it feels like I'm typing on an all-new laptop, even though this one probably has a few more years left in it.

sssanyway. I awoke in North Platte after getting less sleep than I wanted but enough sleep to ensure that I could make it across Nebraska without falling asleep. I quickly got ready, loaded my car, and ate some so-so hotel breakfast while doing a couple of quick personal and work things. Then I spent the day driving from North Platte to my parents' house. It was entirely uneventful - I stopped in Grand Island for gas and soda, then in Lincoln for an excursion to Whole Foods to pick up some stuff for home + a late lunch, and finally in Clarinda for McDonalds coffee and fries to carry me across the finish line. I took Highway 2 from Lincoln to home this time; I think I usually take 34 or go all the way up to I-80, but 2 is technically faster although it's a two-lane road with a lower speed limit for most of it, so idk. But the drive through Iowa was pretty even if Nebraska was super boring, and I didn't get speeding tickets anywhere, so that was pretty exciting.

I pulled into my parents' house around 5:30, which meant I only drove the last bit (which I know best) in the dark. Then I spent the evening talking to them, eating supper, and hearing some truly ridiculous tales of [censored]'s current efforts to deal with [censored], which involves renting a dumpster and generally coming to grips with the despair of [censored]. I found this all vastly entertaining, which I'm sure didn't help [censored]'s mood, but I may help him with this project tomorrow, so I may be singing a different tune tomorrow night.

And now I need to sleep - goodnight!

she left a little letter said she's gonna make a stop in nebraska

most of today looked like most of my days - i had a whole bunch of meetings, without enough time to eat lunch, which means i scarfed half a sandwich and left the other half to sit on my desk drying out until i was able to eat the rest of it at three p.m. sadness.

also, my left shift key is broken on my work laptop, which is SUPREMELY IRRITATING 9i accomplished that capitalized anger with the caps lock key, but without the caps lock key i end up closing parentheses like this0.

so i spent the day in meetings, carrying around my laptop and the wireless keyboard that i had quite fortuitously bought for myself a few weeks ago when i got sick of the cheap wired keyboard that my company provided for me. but i left the office around 3;30, picked up a prescription, ran home to throw a couple of things in my car, and left boulder around 4pm to head toward iowa. i'm taking the rav4 on what is likely its final journey across the great american west - surprisingly, there hasn't been much fanfare in the towns that we've passed through, but i guess it's the holidays and people are too busy to commemorate the final passing of an old but noble steed. so, i sped across colorado as quickly as possible, then dropped to the speed limit upon entering nebraska 9the cops like to pull over people from out of state for any reason, but especially colorado plates since it's a well-known fact that we're all carrying multiple pounds of marijuana0.

i arrived in north platte, my usual stop, at 9pm central time 9eight pm mountain time0, and checked into a room in my usual hotel. then i went to my usual ruby tuesdays for a quick, somewhat late supper. yes, it's weird that i have my 'usual' places on i-80, but i've done this drive many times. i was happy to see that the guy who served me the last two times i was in north platte has either succeeded in his dream of leaving north platte, or has at least gotten to take thursdays off / maybe got a better job at applebees, because he wasn't at the restaurant while i was eating. hopefully he's being a ski bum as he dreamed of - but im biased, because of every state i've ever driven through / lived in / visited, i dislike nebraska more than any of them. and that includes oklahoma, where i spent several nights sleeping on a couch waiting for [censored] to be done with [censored].

sssanyway. now it's time for bed, since i have six more hours in the car tomorrow. goodnight1

some people got the real problems

I had a fairly hectic day - meetings as usual, and also emails, but also an illicit mid afternoon break to get my nails done before taking off for the holidays. When I left work, I had to do a bit of last-minute shopping; then, I came home, ate leftover pizza, started packing, took a packing break to call someone in Singapore, and then finished packing by ten. However, I wanted to write some more christmas cards for people at work - the Mountain View people are going to miss out until after the holidays, but I powered through a bunch for people in Boulder.

But now I should really go to bed, since I need to load up my car tomorrow (not that onerous, other than the fact that I want to haul a tv back with me) before heading to the office for one last round of meetings before vacation. Wish me luck with that. Goodnight!

tell her that I miss these little talks

Happy birthday to my mother and to the Chandlord! I surprised neither of them, although I thought about it - instead, I worked all day, left the office a little early to buy stamps, and then spent the evening at Pizzeria Locale, where I drank wine and chatted up the bartender and wrote Christmas cards for the people at work (which are more time sensitive than the cards for my friends, since I'm leaving in two days and want to put them on desks before going).

But even though it's only ten pm, I'm calling it a night - goodnight!

say no to this

I had a v. exhausting day, started off because I didn't get enough sleep last night. I had meetings straight from 9:30 to 5:00 without any break at all, which wore me out, and then I went to a coworker's birthday dinner. We went to Jill's, which is a restaurant in the St Julien Hotel - I'd been there for drinks before, but never for dinner. I had some tasty tots and then some salmon that was pretty good, but it wasn't totally enough to revive me.

I was so wrecked when I got home that I sat on the stairs for twenty minutes reading the news, then played some mindless color matching game on my phone (I never play games on my phone, but I needed something totally mindless). And now I'm going to go to sleep and hope that tomorrow is a bit more sane (although it's unlikely) - goodnight!