drive out of the city, away from the crowds

Happy release day to me! But I think I hit the wall this afternoon - I finished and uploaded the book a little over a week ago, and then I flew to Iowa, and I've split the last week alternating between family stuff and prepping promo stuff, and today I suddenly ran out of energy. I managed to get my newsletter sent out, which was the key task for today (fan newsletter, not friends and family newsletter - that's going to have to wait for tomorrow), but by the time I hit send on it, it was 12:30pm and I hadn't eaten anything at all, and had been working since 9am with only a cup of coffee to sustain me. Oops.

But I got some more stuff done in the afternoon, and then at four p.m. I stopped working and opened a bottle of rosé and sat on the back patio with my mom and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon. And I'm happy with how the release has done so far - it's in the top 200 overall on both B&N and iBooks, and it's cracked the top fifty historicals on Amazon, which is all pretty good. I need to keep pushing it, but this is off to a great start.

So I spent the rest of the afternoon drinking and staring at the fields and talking to my parents, and I ate supper (steak and baked potato, yum), and then I was basically falling asleep in my chair by 7:30. I've tried to stay awake until now, but I think I need to go to bed and try to get eight hours before the sun wakes me up, and then another two or three of dozing before actually getting up and getting stuff done.

Thanks to all of you who messaged me today - I appreciate it! Goodnight!

always on the run from captain hook

I have a million things to do, but I'm going to go to bed and start cracking on them in the morning. Rafe and Octavia's book finally releases tomorrow, but people who preordered it have started receiving the content tonight, so it's fully out in the wild and ready to be read by all and sundry. This is exciting, even though it's my sixth release and so I should, at some point, get used to it. But I'd rather stay enthused and excited and happy for release days, rather than getting jaded - so I intend to work tomorrow, but I also intend to drink rosé on the patio and enjoy the sunshine.

Today, however, was not a rosé kind of day. I spent the morning talking to my mom and doing some work, and the end result was that I left half an hour later than I should have for my afternoon activities (which were entirely sibling related). My first stop was my sister's house - I only had an hour, and we didn't really talk much because her mother-in-law and friend were there for the first forty minutes I was, and then I felt bad when I had to disappear shortly after they left. However, the friend told a story about breaking both bones in her leg and then having to get over a five foot fence to go to the hospital (she broke it by going over the fence in the first place), which was gruesome and worth the price of admission.

But I had to leave because my second errand was one I couldn't be too late for - I went up to see [censored], and he wanted to introduce me to [censored] before [censored]. After we accomplished that, we checked out [censored], which makes me incredibly bitter that he only [censored] for [censored], which isn't even a decent [censored] in San Francisco. But it was a great move for him and well worth the [censored], especially since he can [censored] himself over the next few months.

Then we had [censored], where I ate my weight in [censored]. And then, after seeing [censored], he dropped me off at my car, and I drove home (an hour and twenty minutes, but I grabbed an iced coffee from the Starbucks in the Hy-Vee grocery store in [censored]'s town, so I survived), and then I did some work (mostly stalking my sales pages) while trying not to watch "Zoo" on CBS.

And now, I need to sleep so that I can promote the hell out of this book tomorrow - you can get me off to a head start by buying a copy if you feel so inclined (ebook is available everywhere; paperbacks should be available by early next week). Goodnight!

you might think i'm crazy, but all i want is you

I'm exhausted and meant to be in bed two hours ago (story of my life) - today was a decent day that ended in a raging headache, and I think sleep is the only thing that will cure me. I got up and had breakfast with the parents, and then I did a couple of online things, and then I drove to Des Moines to run a few errands and have some hermit time.

The errands involved getting some of my jewelry cleaned - my aunt has bought me several lovely things over the years from a local jeweler, and since I was home for two weeks, I thought ahead and brought most of it with me to have cleaned. I decided to go up today even though I wasn't ready to, mostly because I figured there would be time to go back if I needed to pick stuff up - but I was pleasantly surprised that they did it while I waited (including fixing a chain that had a kink in it). Of course, giving me time to browse was dangerous, and I ended up buying a gorgeous chunky ring as a present for finishing Rafe and Octavia's book - yes, so necessary.

Then I checked out Nordstrom Rack (verdict: I hate digging through remnants, although I found a purse that I liked), and then I went to Whole Foods to stock up on the foodstuffs of my San Francisco life (mostly protein powder and almond milk, since I ordered a blender that will be here tomorrow), and I also went to a wine shop to stock up on nice wines rather than the less exciting varieties that are available in my local grocery store. And I stopped at Starbucks, thus completing my temporary reimmersion into insufferable yuppie land.

After that, I drove home, and I got here in time to have supper (tenderloins and tater tots! yum!). Then I watched some tv while attempting to work, but my head started to hurt, and I should have thrown in the towel way earlier. And when I came downstairs, I also should have thrown in the towel, but the lure of the screen is strong. So I'm going to put it away and go to bed - goodnight!

calling in the name of love

I had a quiet day in the wilderness. My first priority was trying to catch up on sleep, which sort of happened - but I went to bed so late last night that sleeping in wasn't really enough. However, I slept until after ten, and then I spent the rest of the morning drinking coffee and contemplating my to-do list.

That turned in to working on the patio for a few hours, although I abandoned it earlier than I wanted to because there were flies bothering me (and the cats were probably happy to see me go). Then, I ended up going to Lineville with my dad - I was just along for the ride, and I also wanted a Mountain Dew as desperately as I've wanted anything recently (addictions are serious, man), and I knew I could get one in Missouri (I could have also gotten one here - and fwiw, the Mountain Dews here are never close to being expired, unlike the ones I dig from the depths of coolers in San Francisco).

So the drive was nice, and the fields are still beautiful despite the gradual browning occurring as the county slips into drought. We stopped in town on the way back and saw [censored], who [censored] so well that he should teach a class on [censored]. I was impressed by [censored], and you would be too if you needed [censored].

Eventually we all had supper, and then [censored] left, and I spent the last five hours working - answering old emails, updating my website (just the stuff that needs to be updated for Wednesday - I want to redesign the whole thing and have been playing with that, but realized I didn't want to break everything before Wednesday, so that's a project that will have to launch later), and taking care of a variety of other to-dos. Yes, I'm exciting!

And now I need to sleep - I have errands to run and things to do tomorrow, so sleep is imperative. Goodnight!

we were caught up and lost in all our vices

I haven't been getting nearly enough sleep, and I hope to rectify some of that tomorrow - and tonight, by going to bed 1-2hrs earlier than I have been. But today was worth getting out of bed for. I got up around 8:30 (too early), showered, and then spent an hour or so doing promo-type stuff before putting the laptop away so that the fun times could begin.

Today was loaded with a full day of Wampler family fun. Mark, Kathy, and Andrew (you may know him as Drewbaby) got here around 10:30, just as I was taking my coffee outside to sit on the patio. So, we hung out out there, and I heard all about Uncle Mark's recent trip to visit ancestral haunts in Highland County, VA, which sounds like my kind of place (remote, strange, with history + an urban edge thanks to tourists). At some point, Aunt Becky and Uncle Brian also showed up, and my dad retrieved my grandmother from town, and so we had a full quorum for lunch.

Lunch consisted of bratwurst and potato salad and baked beans and coleslaw, all of which were perfect. We then proceeded to hang out the rest of the afternoon; Becky and Brian eventually went back to Des Moines, and my dad took Gram back to town, and I had a few quiet moments on the back patio before Andrew, and then later most everybody else, came out and took over (which was still v. lovely, just not quite as quiet and perhaps more focused on politics than my internal monologue would have been).

We had supper (grilled chicken, etc.) and hung out some more before Mark/Kathy/Andrew left, so that was all good. And then I did a couple of hours of work/social media/procrastination, and now I need to call it a night.

But one other good non-family happened - I got my first review on Rafe and Octavia (from a reviewer whom I sent a copy to yesterday), and it was fabulous, so apparently at least one person thinks this book is worth reading. That is obviously a relief, since I spent so long hating this book (although I ended up happy with it, but that only happened in the last couple of weeks). You can read the review here - and now it's time for bed. Goodnight!

i feel summer creeping in

I probably should have gone to bed two hours ago, since I have to get up in time to shower before a day of family activities. But today was a pretty lovely one, despite waking up to my apocalyptic brexit twitter feed. I spent the morning sleeping/hanging out, and then I showered and made coffee and ate lunch and help my mom get ready for her garden club. She cut her finger while prepping some fruit, and it's clearly a good thing that I gave up on my dreams of being a doctor when I was approximately seven, since I felt a little sick when I saw the blood. Yes, I will do horribly if we actually end up in an apocalypse.

When her garden club ladies came over, I spent an hour out on the patio doing my own work before joining them for the snack portion of the afternoon. After they all left, I worked on the patio some more. Then, we went to supper in Chariton, where we met [censored], who had [censored]. The restaurant is owned by the main Iowa grocery store chain, but it's an actual restaurant concept rather than a deli, and it was surprisingly good - I had a cheeseburger with a gluten free bun, and it was super tasty. We also ran into our old high school ag instructor, who knew [censored] better than me, but I remembered the gestation period of a pig, so I guess that was impressive.

sssanyway. Then we came home, and I spent the last four hours working - I wanted to send out some emails to potential book reviewers, and I have been playing around all afternoon with redoing my website, so we'll see if I go down that road. But now I really need to sleep - goodnight!

london calling

After many hours of working on book stuff + following the brexit news on twitter, I think I need to go to bed immediately. Today was pretty delightful despite the work and chaos, though. I slept until ten, and then I spent the morning talking to my dad about websites and graphics and other fun topics. In the early afternoon, I was going to shower and work, but then [censored] showed up unexpectedly, so I hung out in the kitchen and talked to him for quite awhile.

But eventually, I did go out onto the patio and play around with my planner and take care of some marketing activities. I stopped in time for dinner (beef stroganoff, which was yummy). But then, I had no desire to watch any fine CBS programming, so I spent a few hours formatting the Rafe and Octavia's print book. There's a chance it can come out on the same day as the ebook, although I'm cutting it close - but I managed to get it formatted and uploaded tonight, so now I have to wait for a proof copy so I can approve it before the day.

So, that task was v. necessary, but now my eyes are tired and I should give my hands a break from the keyboard. Goodnight!

we're not reaching peaks enough

I have v. little of interest to report tonight - I woke up in SF at five a.m. (although I really woke up at 3:45, then went back to sleep and had a fairly intense Nazi nightmare, and I don't know where it came from since I only dream about Nazis when I'm stressed...maybe I subsumed all the stress into the writing the last couple of weeks and my subconscious was paying me back?). Then I showered and went to the airport, driven by a v. entertaining Cuban man, and I arrived in time to grab tea and breakfast before boarding the plane to Denver.

The first flight was both uneventful and early, so I had extra time in Denver, which I put to good use eating burrata and drinking rosé in preparation for the deprivation of all yuppie-type things while I'm in Iowa. I also did some actual work, so yay. Then I flew to Iowa, where my parents picked me up. I flew in at the wrong time of day for us to have our usual meal at our usual restaurant, which led to several disgruntled family members, but when we got home my dad grilled steak and my mom made fried potatoes, so #noregrets. Then we watched some fine CBS programming, as expected.

And now, I need to go to sleep (approximately two hours after I intended to go to sleep) - I have a ton of stuff I want to do to prep to release this book next week, and I've been running on not enough sleep for several days, so I want to rectify that sooner rather than later. Goodnight!

with my eyes closed i see the door open wide

I am in some sort of post-book-finishing stupor, where it hasn't really sunk in yet that I'm actually done. I woke up this morning at six a.m. and knew I wasn't going to fall back asleep easily, so I messed around the apartment, got dressed, and was at Philz by eight a.m., where I worked on admin/promo stuff for three hours. I want to make this book launch a success, which means I can't just drop the mic and walk away now that the manuscript is done - I have to do all sorts of other auxiliary business-type stuff over the next few weeks. Happily, I kind of like that stuff, so it could be worse.

So I did three hours of work there, and then I came home, showered, and drove to San Mateo. I was all jittery and hyped up on caffeine, and I haven't slept enough recently, and I probably should have just stayed home and napped. But I went down to meet Anne and Barbara (and Deb, who they've replaced me with), and we had lunch and talked for quite awhile, and then I was going to do promo stuff there, but the wifi was way too slow for what I needed to work on. So I said my goodbyes to them earlier than usual, but I'm glad I went down - I won't see Anne for up to a month since I'm in Iowa for two weeks and then turn around almost immediately to go to a conference, so I'm glad I was able to make the time.

Then I came home, did some more work, took a v. brief nap, and then packed. It's unclear whether I packed the right stuff, but I can do laundry there and no one particularly cares what I look like, so whatever.

Then, I got social again - I walked down to Hayes Valley and had dinner with Lauren (aka Subz) at Jardiniere. It's possible that this was more fancy than is strictly necessary for a Tuesday night, but I loved it - we split some broccoli rabe with anchovies to start (that was way better than it may sound to some of you), and we had some cheese, and then I had the shortrib, which was delish. We ended with some sorbet, which was just the right palate cleanser. And we had a wonderful, long, meandering conversation - about books and writing, and about passions and callings, and about relationships and romance and houses and motherhood.

That was just what I needed before leaving the bay for a couple of weeks - oddly, I had dinner with her the night before I flew to Iowa last time, so maybe she's the vaccine I take to inoculate myself against the desire to move away and never come back that I always seem to have when I go to Iowa. But speaking of Iowa, I need to get up in six hours so I can shower and go to the airport and grab something to eat, and that seems way way too soon - so bed is imperative. Goodnight!

i had a one-way ticket to a place where all the demons go

So I'm kind of mostly done with this book, but it hasn't really sunk in yet (and there are a million tasks I need to complete before it launches, which probably plays into it). But I got up this morning, showered (unlike the last couple of mornings...), and then worked pretty much nonstop until three p.m. That involved a final proof of the final chapters, cleaning up some random stuff that I realized needed cleaning up, and speed-teaching myself a new epub formatting software (which made a v. beautiful epub with a pretty clean stylesheet, from what I saw when I peaked into it using my old hacker-ish software, and it built perfectly the first time when I used some other tools to validate it).

I uploaded it to Apple at 3:15pm, and then went straight to my 3:30 mani/pedi appointment. I went for Apple first because they require uploading ten business days before the preorder date, which I had already missed, but I had guessed that this was longer than was actually necessary (and I have a contact there). As it turns out, any concern about uploading too late was for naught - by the time I got home from getting my nails done, it was already processed and approved. So now I need to spend tomorrow morning making the files for the other retailers (each retailer needs their own file with their own specific formatting tweaks + back-of-book links to other books I've written, which is a moderate annoyance and major time suck) and uploading, but I'm in a good place for next week....

But since I basically worked in a nonstop haze today (I ate leftover pizza standing up, which was #winning), and then went straight to get my nails done, and then came home and changed and dashed down to the mission/castro, I really didn't have any time to think about my accomplishment. I'll do that later, I guess. Tonight was lovely, though - I went to Blackbird (one of my favorite bars in the neighborhood where I used to live with Adit) for a drink with Jen Lui. My 'give me free alcohol' face somehow worked there, but it was accidental, I think. Then we went to Mission Beach Cafe for dinner - she had the rabbit pot pie, which made me exceedingly jealous since it was my favorite thing on their menu before I stopped eating gluten. We also caught up on many work and life events, and we spent the last ten minutes trying to figure out how to use snapchat, but we're clearly too old.

Then I walked her halfway to the bart station and abandoned her on a corner, hoping that she wouldn't get stabbed on the way to the station but also having no desire to walk that much farther. Then I went back up to Market and met Katrina for a drink at Aatxe, which is not a word (although a Google search reveals that Aatxe is a "spirit in the folklore of the Basque people", which is of course something a bar in SF would be named after). I was trying to squeeze in social activities before two weeks in the wilderness of ye olde Iowa, so we had a drink and talked about weddings and books and generally had a lovely time.

Then I came home, and I fell asleep on my couch because I couldn't handle the thought of blogging. And now I need to sleep - I have a million things to do tomorrow, and several people to see, and a suitcase to pack before my trip to Iowa on Wednesday. Goodnight!

i'm still breathing

soooooo close...but I'm out of words, and I'm out of brain cells, as evidenced by the fact that I started to type this in gmail instead of blogger. I'm on the verge of being able to upload, but I can't format an epub in this condition and feel confident that it's right, and I want to take another pass through the manuscript tomorrow and check for anything I might have missed.

So I'm going to go to bed, get up early, possibly shower tomorrow (it's been awhile...) and get it done. Hopefully before 3:30, since I'm getting a mani/pedi then - would be even better to be done before 11 so I don't have to cancel my lunch plans, but that's looking a little unlikely. We shall see, we shall see. Goodnight! And happy father's day to all who celebrate (but especially to my dad, of course, because he's great).

[random spa-like pan flutes and bird calls]

I cannot come up with a lyric, which is how out of words I am. Today was highly productive, but also fairly painful - despite working fairly aggressively all day (my tracking software says I spent 6.5hrs actively typing in my manuscript, which is a lot considering I also spent several hours on Wikipedia and the Oxford English Dictionary and other sources to verify historical facts, check word usage and whether words existed in 1813, etc.), I am really not done. Maybe I'll be done tomorrow, but my heart has doubts. But we'll see!

sssanyway. I worked all day, but I did take a much-needed break to get a very-much-needed massage. I found a place a block away from me that has a nice ambiance (despite the crackheads outside) and nice prices (possibly because of the crackheads outside - crackheads giveth and crackheads taketh away), and the massage therapist was one of the best I've had in a long time. So he worked out some of the Quasimodo issues I've been developing because of my laptop usage, and my neck and shoulders felt way better after I walked out than they have in some time.

Then I continued my bliss by walking down to Philz and getting an iced mint mojito coffee, and then coming home and ordering a gluten free pizza. But the bliss promptly died after that - I worked for the last five hours straight, which was necessary but also not exactly good for continuing my post-massage healthy feelings.

Whatever. It's almost over, and I like this book better than I thought I would, and I will like it even better when it's fucking finished and I can move on with my life. So I'm going to do everything in my power to make that happen tomorrow. Goodnight!

she grinds from monday to friday, works from friday to sunday

Another brutal slog, which you're probably getting sick of reading about. But I did have a lovely excursion today - I'm trying to make time for one non-writing thing every day despite the deadline, which seems to be good for me (who knew taking breaks was a good thing?! did anyone else know this?!). This break was a little longer than usual - I drove over to Berkeley and met John and Jess (and Ian, who seemed to have no choice in the matter) for lunch at Saul's. This was Ian's first outing to Saul's, and while he slept through the entire thing, I was happy that Auntie Wamp was part of his experience.

Of course, I had to have the corned beef hash, which is worth the drive. I also guzzled coffee in front of them, not knowing that John had somehow given up caffeine and sugar and alcohol for June, which sounds like a cry for help / slow form of suicide. But despite that, they seemed to be doing quite well - Jess is getting ready to go back to work (Ian is already ten weeks old!), and we talked about life and books and the Olympics, and it was all delightful.

After that, we ran a couple of quick errands on that block, and then I left them so I could come back before rush hour and get some work done. I'd written this morning before going to see them, even though I was still tired when I woke up, but this afternoon, my eyes kind of weren't having it. So I wrote for a little bit, and I also procrastinated for a little bit, and I also napped for a little bit. Then, I ran some errands of my own - it's clear what my priorities are, since I went to BevMo for wine, and then to the dry cleaner's to pick up the pants I had altered (which are the same style that the Duchess of Cambridge wore on her hike in Bhutan, which I had to have), and then to Philz to get some brewed coffee for immediate consumption + some ground coffee for Iowa next week.

The necessities of life thus taken care of, I came home and spent the evening working pretty diligently (with a break to eat leftover tomato soup + fresh grilled cheese). And now I should probably keep working, but I'm going to sleep; I don't think I have any words left in me at the moment, and I need to dream about how to spiffy up the ending (some of which isn't actually written yet, since I was waiting until I knew exactly how all the threads were going to come together so I wouldn't waste time writing an ending I would have to scrap). Writing is a stupid profession, so I recommend you not do it - but it's also the best profession, so #noregrets. Goodnight!

i might get your song played on the radio station

I'm totally fucking out of words tonight, to the point that I have one more sentence to write to close out a scene I added and I can't come up with the words for it. Today was highly productive, but it wasn't enough to finish the book. I'm hoping to finish this weekend (although based on what happened today, where an edit turned into writing twenty new pages from scratch), I'm starting to doubt whether that's possible. But if it is, I need to make it happen so I don't have to change anything related to my release date. That means slogging incessantly for the next three days - sounds fun, right?

But for all that I'm out of words, today was pretty good. I got up around eight, messed around, drank a smoothie, and then worked pretty solidly from 9:30ish to noon. I took a break for lunch, then wrote, then took another break to shower, then wrote, and then drove down to the Mission to get my bangs trimmed. Then I bought a dress on Valencia and wrote at Ritual, which was a delightful interlude out of the house.

When I got back, I took a couple of hours off and messed around and ordered food from Sprig. But then I worked straight from eight-ish until midnight, which is why my eyes feel like they're bleeding and my back is wrecked from writing on the couch that long rather than sitting at my table.

But this is getting super boring and I have nothing else of interest to add, so I'm going to spare my typing fingers and your reading time and go to bed. Goodnight!

what a wicked way to treat the girl that loves you

Sleep is descending upon me and I'm going to give in and go to bed....but today was great. I spent the morning working from my couch, where I got some good stuff done before driving to the Marina and seeing my aesthetician (I must groom even when at my busiest, because I'm a lady). Then I went to Caffe Union for lunch, where I caught up with Tony and made random conversation with the guys who sat at the counter with me (who were nice, but not as great as the random guys I befriended at Nectar last week, as evidenced by the fact that the random Nectar dude and I are going to have lunch when I get back from ye olde Iowa - yay for serendipitous new friends).

Then I drove to San Bruno for a writing date with Anne and Barbara. Deborah was also there - she's this other writer who they picked up while I was gone, and she is slowly replacing me in their affections. Okay, maybe that's not true. Barbara introduced me as Sara, and then Anne told her she can call me 'wampface', which she found extremely confusing - perhaps she should not be friends with Adit like Anne and I are.

sssanyway. I probably shouldn't have gone down, since I only really got ninety minutes of work in to a 3.5hr excursion, but it was good to see them and it's important for my process, so whatever. Poppy also showed up at some point, and we took a break for snacks at some point, and it was all good. But I left at four because I didn't want to get stuck in traffic like I was the other night - and meeting in San Bruno instead of San Mateo was great for my commute, so I made it home in 35mins.

Once I got here, I sent some emails, and then I cooked rather than working - I made creamy tomato soup (super delish) and a grilled cheese sandwich (on gluten free bread with organic cheese slices, which is similar and yet not similar to the grilled cheeses of my youth). The tomato soup was easy, although it took awhile, and I used the time in my kitchen to chop up a bunch of oranges and bananas to freeze for smoothies, and to clean some stuff, etc. The soup turned out perfectly, and I have leftovers for the next couple of days, and cooking always soothes me, so that was all great.

Then I settled in to write and instead lost an hour reading about animals killing humans, as one does. But I got some more work done eventually, so I'll take what I can get. And now I should probably stay up all night and write, but I think I'll do better if I start fresh tomorrow, so that's the plan - goodnight!

i'm so reckless when i rock my givenchy dress

I'm at that point where I'm suddenly falling asleep typing, which is very much no bueno when I'm editing the final draft of the manuscript, so I'm going to bed. Today was pretty good, all in all -- I still have a shit ton of writing to do (yes, that's an official measurement), but I was fairly productive, and fairly happy with where things are headed. So I guess that's something?

I spent the morning working from home, and right around the time I was contemplating whether to shower and what to feed myself for lunch, I got a text from Julie asking if I was around and wanting lunch. She was working from home today, so we dashed down Polk and met in the middle - we went to Miller's East Coast Delicatessen, where I had a turkey sandwich on gluten-free bread that made me much happier than whatever I might have dredged up from the back of my fridge. It was also lovely to see Julie, of course - now that I know she's occasionally nearby for lunch, I need to make this happen more often.

Then I went to Contraband and worked for a couple of hours, with some success (would have been more success if their country music playlist wasn't unexpected and intensely grating early on, but that was probably why I was able to get a table there - once the playlist mellowed out, the place filled up). Getting out of the house also gave me a chance to run errands (dry cleaning, groceries, etc). Then I came home and bailed on the friendship renewal dinner plans I was supposed to have tonight (they would have involved driving to the south bay, and probably would have taken five hours all-in, which I couldn't afford even though I really wanted to see the people involved).

After I did some laundry and ate some supper (an Amy's enchilada, because I am so glamorous when I'm on deadline), I spent the rest of the evening writing on my couch and got a couple more solid hours in. And now I need to sleep - tomorrow needs to be at least as productive as today, but I hope I can up it even more. Goodnight!

when you play me, you play yourself

Today was a decent slog in the word mines, but I need to keep amping up my focus and keep my eyes on the prize for the next few days (and then the next few years beyond that, but baby steps first). I had intended to go to Philz this morning, but I happened to check twitter (which made me glad that I broke my vow to leave my phone off this morning) and saw that Apple's WWDC was going on at an event space near there, so I decided to spare myself the possible crazy line and stay home instead.

As it turns out, I was productive at home, which was a good thing, and I enjoyed a smoothie, and some tea, and some avocado toast and scrambled eggs for lunch, so that was all worthwhile. I also took a break over lunch and watched the stuff I'd missed from the beginning of the Tonys last night - mostly the Hamilton intro + James Corden's opener, both of which were great. I thought Corden's intro was more inspiring than such openers usually are, since it was all about how a kid can dream of the theatre and potentially make it, and he's a great performer.

After my break was over, I drove down to San Mateo for a writing date with Anne and Barbara. I was supposed to have dinner plans in the south bay tonight and so had scheduled this writing date last week, but my dinner got moved to tomorrow, which I'm now on the fence about because I'm not sure I have time to drive south for the second day in a row. But I needed to see Anne and Barbara before they disavowed me - since I haven't seen them in nearly three weeks, we had a lot to catch up on, including the fact that they have now made a new writer friend who lives in San Francisco, who seems to be on the shortlist to replace me if they cut me from the program or if I move away from SF like I occasionally threaten to do. That's all mostly a joke, but clearly I need to maintain my presence with some regularity if I want to keep my seat at Starbucks.

So we caught up for a bit, and then I got some serious writing done, and we also talked about some ads stuff, all of which was useful. But by 5pm, they were ready to leave, and I decided I would rather come home than kill time down there...so I drove home, but the drive took an hour, which was unfortunate. When I got here, I ate a weird combo of leftover takeout (some teriyaki beef and some saag paneer, which do not typically go together), and I did some journalling, and I contemplated my manuscript, but I mostly just vegged/procrastinated until now.

And now I'm going to sleep and try to get up early, but we'll see how that goes. Goodnight!

the world turned upside down

Today was quiet, hermity, and less productive than it probably should have been. I didn't get enough sleep last night, on top of not getting enough sleep the night before, so I was lethargic this morning.

But I had a call with my old friend Durand this morning - I hadn't talked to him in far too long (possibly two years), although we used to hang out fairly frequently (including a memorable trip to South Africa waaaaay back in the day). He wanted some advice on some job stuff, but it was mostly a delightful and entertaining way to spend an hour. And I seem to have effortlessly slipped into corporate-meeting mode, since my internal body clock cut the call off perfectly at exactly one hour, just like the old days.

Then I spent the afternoon considering my storylines and thinking through some stuff I'm still mulling over. I took a break to call my parents, as per usual, and I continued to talk politics for the second day in a row, which is unusual for me. Then I ran down the street to grab some snacks for the writing tasks ahead, and I ordered takeout, and I took a shower (rather late in the day for a shower), and I took care of the edits I'd been contemplating this afternoon.

I should have kept working all night, but instead I took a break to watch most of the Tonys - seeing other artists succeed is fairly inspiring, and this particular show was pretty well done. And 'Hamilton' is, obviously, a phenomenon. I'm already guaranteed tickets in SF next year (thanks to my pricey season pass to the Orpheum), but they recently announced that it's also going to be in Des Moines (what?!) during the 2017-2018 season, well before it gets to other major cities. So maybe I'll have to go see it in Iowa then, if I can get tickets.

So. Now the Tonys are over, and I really need to sleep - I must get cracking faster tomorrow than I did today. And I want to take a walk tomorrow morning and gawk at whatever happened on my block tonight - I heard a pretty major crash, but couldn't see anything from my window, and so far haven't found any news reports, but I found one person on Twitter indicate that they'd seen a car crash into a restaurant at an intersection half a block from my building, so that sounds fun! Or terrifying, take your pick. But if that's true, they cleaned it up in less than two hours (or, at least, the police are no longer blocking off traffic), so I don't know what to believe. I'll scout it out tomorrow and report back - goodnight!

imma rain, imma rain on this bitter love

Vidya ended up staying over last night, which was delightful, but I didn't get nearly enough sleep. However, this meant we were able to enjoy tea and company before she left at eight...probably not as beneficial as actual sleep, but still better than a lot of Saturday mornings.

Then I did a whole lot of nothing (other than looking a pictures of Princess Charlotte at Trooping the Colour), and then I showered, and then I walked down to the Marina to have brunch with Tom. Tom was running late, but this all worked out perfectly because I was able to grab the outdoor table (which I never get), and I also got to say hi to Tony, who seemed to be doing well. Tom and I talked writing shop for a couple of hours, and it was good to see him; I think we might try to make a more standing/long-term writing date going forward, so we'll see.

Eventually, we parted ways, and I went to Rapha (in my old 'hood) to write for a couple of hours. Then I walked down to Chestnut and ensconced myself in Starbucks, where I worked for another hour or so. And then I should have kept writing, but I went to Nectar instead - I hadn't seen Chris and Leah in awhile, so I had a glass of rosé and some company.

As it turns out, the company was excellent - I met a graphic designer (Angel) and his partner (name forgotten, but he was cool too), who is the same age as me and spent many years working for the Freemasons, which is fascinating. We had a long, meandering, unexpected conversation, covering politics and sex and a variety of other issues despite having just met each other - and Angel and I found some kindred spirits in the fact that we were heavily involved in Republican issues as teens (he started both the young republicans club and the queer issues club at his high school in California, which is kind of a sign of how much the party has changed in the last twenty years, but I digress).

So I wasn't really quite ready to leave them, but all good things must end - so I called a lyft and went to the mission for family dinner. We tried for Burma Love, but the line was unfortunate, so we went across the street to some pasta place that I really liked despite its overcrowded nature. There were seven of us, which was pretty good for an impromptu Saturday dinner - Adit was there (of course - it wouldn't be family time otherwise), as were Chandlord, Katrina, Akash, Sejal, and Raja. We vetoed doing the usual 'recap your day' round-table discussion, but the conversation was pretty sparkling despite that.

After dinner, the other women in the group parted ways, and I went with Adit, Akash, and Raja in search of another drink and more conversation. The drink was a fiasco at first due to some weird seating policies at Locanda, but we went down the street and had v. tasty margaritas while have a v. deep, wide-ranging conversation about this election cycle (which is obviously on everyone's minds).

But by midnight, I was done and v. sleepy, and my phone was dead, so I took a cab home and took a nap on the couch until now. And now I must sleep and be productive tomorrow, but I'm glad tonight happened - family time is always good for the soul. Goodnight!

oh, my daddy said shoot

So, today was supposed to be detox, but it's 1:30am and Vidya is asleep on my couch, so you know how this story ends. I woke up this morning and spent more time than I should have vegging on the couch with a smoothie. But I eventually got quite a bit done - I did some research that I wish I would have done months ago, since I stumbled across the life story of some random spy in Spain that would have fixed about a million and one issues with this book if I'd known about it before. So now I need to decide whether to incorporate that shit, or whether I should just give up and move on with my life.

Sssanyway. I also did laundry and unpacked, so that was all worthwhile. And I probably should have written all night, but I was lured out of the house by a text from Vidya and another text from Naureen to pursue a girls' night out at Benjamin Cooper. Girls' night out was a misnomer, since there were some guys there - but of the guys, I mostly hung out with Saurang (whom I'd met once before at an epic karaoke night with Ritu/Chandlord/et al) and his friend Carl, both of whom were utterly delightful (and extremely gay, so don't get any ideas if you're following along from home). I should have written my drinks off on my taxes since I sold some books to the adoring masses, but I didn't - fame is hard.

Sssanyway again. I ended up having two drinks, which was one more than I intended (and I have some prolonged conversation with the bartender about this, since he made fun of me for doing exactly what I had said I was going to do, which was to have one drink, close my tab, and then make him run the card again for the second drink). But my drinks were their twist on a boulevardier, which meant it was ideal for sipping slowly (I can't down bourbon cocktails quite as quickly as I can some of the others). I also inadvertently struck up a conversation with some guy who was in town for a wedding, but when Saurang asked me later if I was interested in him, I pointed out that the guy already had four daughters and I didn't need to accidentally complete his basketball team for him. So I would say that Saurang might be the best or worst wingman ever, depending upon what one wants.

Sssanyway for the final time. We eventually closed out, and Vidya and I parted ways from everyone and went across the street to a diner, where she had mozzarella sticks and I had scrambled eggs and hashbrowns (my late-night dinner of champions, although it wasn't as good as Grubstake). Then we came back here with the intention of watching a movie, but while I was washing my face, she fell asleep on my couch. So now I need to decide whether to wake her up so she can take care of her face (or take a cab home), or whether to let her sleep in an incredibly uncomfortable position. But this is a decision I shall make after signing off, thus leaving you in suspense - goodnight!