lord i'm coming home to you

I had another v. long day, but it wasn't quite as bad as yesterday - while I had meetings straight from 8:30am to 5:30pm, with a few minutes for lunch, none of them were quite as annoying as everything yesterday. And when I left the office, I went straight to happy hour (which I was 90min late for, since my team went at 4:30) - where I stayed until almost eight, which was fun. I didn't have anything to drink due to the brewery location, which doesn't serve wine - but you'll be pleased to know that my team has now realized that this isn't an 'inclusive' happy hour location since several of us don't like / can't drink beer, so the next one will be someplace with wine. Score!

However, what Sanitas lacks in wine, it makes up for in tacos - so I had tacos there while hanging out, and they were super tasty and eliminated the need for me to cook anything. Then I came home, texted [censored] and Drewbaby for a little bit, took a nap, and then worked for the last two hours. No rest for the wicked, but I'm trying to plow through enough stuff that I can leave my laptop behind without guilt and take a real vacation, which I am DYING for.

And now it's time for bed - goodnight!

carry me home tonight

I was in a fairly terrible mood all day - I woke up not wanting to go to work, I got there not wanting to be there, and then every meeting pretty much reaffirmed my lack of desire. It didn't help that they went straight from nine to five, with two brief breaks that weren't at all restorative.

But I left the office at five, picked up my favorite greek takeout (yummy as always), came home and ate it in my kitchen, and then spent an hour and a half on my new lawn chair, sitting on the balcony outside my bedroom, reading a book about Istanbul. So that part, at least, was pretty relaxing and magical.

However, all magic ends, and so I spent an hour putting away laundry, tidying my house, etc. Then I finally did a bit of work - it started with trying to corral my calendar tomorrow (limited success) and then involved an hour putting a spreadsheet together (annoying, for real). And now I need to go to bed, sad in the knowledge that there's no way I'll get up in time to write before work tomorrow, but c'est la vie. Only two more days until vacation, so hopefully I can make it. Goodnight!

don't want no misplay, put on no display

Having days off is dangerous, because it reminds me of the best of times when I was entirely in charge of my own schedule. Of course, just as often as not, those days resulted in many hours spent on twitter and despairing, so I shouldn't idealize them too much.

But today was pretty great, all in all. I probably should have left the house, but I was feeling v. hermity - so instead, I alternated between writing, researching, taking care of house stuff/laundry, and messing around online. I've been writing this book entirely in first person, but I decided to try a new way into it with a different character - and what I wrote for her, about her childhood, which took place in a totally unexpected place/time, actually made me tear up a little bit. Yes, being a writer is super weird, thanks for the reminder.

sssanyway...that felt really good, considering how long I've been blocked for, and now I just want to do it all again tomorrow. Instead, I need to go to bed so I can get up and go to work early and do the things I probably should have done this weekend - I only have to get through three days at the office, and then I'm off Friday and all of next week, so my dreams of a vacation and freedom will have to wait another seventy-two hours.

And on that note, it's time for bed - goodnight!

we'd be so fantastical

I didn't get nearly enough sleep last night, although it was #worthit - yesterday was fun, and so I didn't feel too bad about waking up at Katie's after approximately six hours of fitful slumber. I spent some leisurely hours hanging out with Katie and James and the girls, and then I came home, picked up some iced coffee on the way, and hermited the fuck out for most of the afternoon. This involved procrastinating instead of writing, eating some eggs, taking a nap, taking a shower, and calling my parents. Yes, I'm living the dream.

But I forced myself out of the house at six and walked to Pizzeria Locale, which was packed - they didn't really want to seat me for dinner since they were so slammed, but they let me order a takeout pizza (which was kind of preferable anyway since it suddenly looked like it might storm, although it didn't end up happening). And while I waited thirty minutes for the pizza, I had a glass of wine and started reading 'Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities', which is pretty fascinating - humans have lived in Byzantium/Constantinople/Istanbul (and the settlements preceding it) for at least eight thousand years, and it's been at the crossroads of so many sweeping changes in human history.

So when my pizza was ready, I came home, ate it, and spent the evening alternating between Twitter, reading 'Istanbul', and napping. And now it's time for bed so I can be slightly more productive tomorrow - goodnight!

catch you when the current lets you go

I had a perfect day, all in all. I woke up after getting eight full hours of sleep for the first time in forever, and then I made coffee and wrote for awhile. Then I walked a couple of blocks to River and Woods to pick up my car, ran it through a car wash, ran some errands, wrote some more, made lunch, took a nap, took a shower, and wrote again...

But then I abandoned my house and came to Katie's, which is where I'm sleeping tonight. We had a very low key evening - James smoked some awesome pork, and Katie made corn on the cob and a delish German-style potato salad. So we ate supper, then took the girls for a walk around the neighborhood.

I actually stopped drinking at seven, so from an alcohol standpoint I'm good to drive home... But while James put the girls down, Katie and I sat outside and talked. James eventually joined us, as did a giant raccoon lounging on the neighboring roof, and we ended up sitting outside until almost midnight.

So now I'm holed up in the guest room, which is a very familiar place... And now it's time to sleep. Goodnight!

stolen dance

Today was mostly good, all in all - I did not want to get out of bed after getting less than six hours of sleep, but I managed to rally, shower, and go to the doctor for a checkup. This meant I didn't have time to write this morning, nor did I have time for breakfast, but at least I checked the appointment off my to-do list.

Then I went to the office, where I worked from 10:15 to 3:30 without any real breaks - but five hours isn't that onerous (although working so much last night means I felt pretty entitled to going home early today). I also spent the last bit of time putting strips of LED lights around my desk, which awed my coworkers - I had lights on my last desk in California, and I kind of missed them, so I'm happy to have them back. So now my desk is completely blinged out and ridiculous, which is as it should be.

After that, I had happy hour with Nicole - it was my third late afternoon in a row of sitting on a patio and hanging out, and it was pretty magical. I may not have as many friends here as I do in California, but when I can scrounge up friends, I'm quite enjoying the warm summer evenings. We went to River and Woods, which is becoming my fave place; the backyard was perfectly shaded, so we had some chenin blanc and split some poutine and generally gossiped/laughed/had a delightful time. I think we're actually becoming friends, which is great, so hopefully we continue to hang out in the future.

Then I came home, took a nap, talked to Katie about weekend plans, and generally did nothing the rest of the night. But even though it's not quite eleven, I really need some sleep - I have some serious deficit from the week and some serious plans to see Katie tomorrow, which means getting some sleep now is the only thing that will save me. Goodnight!

i live for the applause

Today was a v. v. long day, since I had meetings straight from 9:30 to 3:30 (one of those meetings graciously allowed me five minutes to grab food to eat in the meeting, so that was nice!), and then went out for a drink with a coworker, which meant I got home at 6:30 completely wiped out. So I ate some sushi I'd picked up at Whole Foods, did absolutely nothing for awhile, and then spent the last four hours working.

But that work was worthwhile - I got through a ton of work email, so I almost feel caught up on that (although I still have tons to do). And I actually wrote this morning before work, so it's not all bad.

But now I need to sleep - goodnight!

poker face

After several nights of not nearly enough sleep, and four hours spent hanging out with coworkers, I'm way too tired to blog. Not that the socializing was onerous; I sat out in the sun at Sanitas from 4:30-6:15, then had dinner with some people at the Depot, so it was all good. It was even all good when I had to drink kombucha at happy hour because the breweries only serve beer, no wine... But I somehow survived.

But now it's time for bed - goodnight!

tell me when it kicks in

I had a long day at work, filled with many, many annoyances. So many that I probably couldn't quantify them now, which is for the best since it's all confidential and I can't tell you anyway. Never fear, I didn't get fired, and nothing has been decided with this endless reorg that I've been living (dying) in since joining eight months ago. But still, if people could avoid causing any fires tomorrow so I can get some work done, that would be very much appreciated, tanks.

However, the good news is that it only hailed a little bit today - the quantity of hail I've seen in the last two weeks is truly astounding. And the better news is that I actually wrote both before and after work. Yes, I'm burying the lede. But I finally, in a brilliant moment of clarity, realized exactly where I went wrong with my young adult book like three years ago...five chapters ago, I took a serious wrong turn, and I never figured out that that was why all forward progress had pretty much stalled.

So I was so excited by that realization this morning that I actually managed to write for half an hour after work as well, even though I had a million work things to do and probably should have done them instead. [in fact, typing that sentence reminded me of one of the annoyances that I'd forgotten about, which I will now have to deal with in the morning, ugh]

But that's all you're getting tonight - after I wrote for half an hour, I made avocado toast for dinner, and then I had multiple calls with people from Singapore and Hyderabad, so I'm feeling a little surly (despite the fact that I like the people I talked to and got some good gossip, which is always fun). That means it's time for bed - goodnight!

i'm overzealous

I don't feel like blogging...today I paid the wages of my sins, which means it was finally time to tackle my work inbox after a couple of weeks of ignoring most of it. So I worked all day, went to the mall after work to blow off a bit of steam, came home, ate peanut butter and jelly, and worked for the last three hours.

But that's not the end of the world....although my inbox will explode again tomorrow, like an echo generation of the baby boomers, since I sent out a huge flurry of emails today that will likely come back to me tomorrow, thus continuing to multiply my workload. Oops. But this job paid for all the stuff I bought at Anthropologie, so #noregrets. Goodnight!

groove is in the hot

Sooooo tired. Staying up until 2am watching royal wedding coverage (which I'd taped and could have watched anytime) was perhaps a mistake, but #noregrets. Or at least #noregrets until now, when I accidentally stayed up until midnight and have to be at the office in eight hours.

But today was pretty good, at least until the end - I woke up, messed around on twitter reading more royal wedding stuff, and then did stuff in my office until it was time to take a hasty shower and leave the house. I had brunch plans with Christine (a friend from work), so we met at The Kitchen (yes, I adore it). Brunch was tasty, but going to the paper store a couple of blocks away was my real aim, and it was accomplished v. well.

Then I came home, procrastinated, did a bit of writing-related stuff, ate some frozen enchiladas because I was too lazy to cook, and talked to my parents for a couple of hours. Then, unfortunately, I had to do day job stuff; I have to present at an all-hands tomorrow and hadn't made the slides yet, and it took longer than anticipated.

So now I should try to get some beauty sleep so I don't look totally haggard tomorrow - goodnight!

ave maria

Today was a high holiday in my calendar, since it was the long-awaited wedding of Prince Harry (who somehow did not choose me, weird) and Meghan Markle. However, I did not get up to watch it live - I hate mornings, as you all know. Instead, I slept in, then spent most of the day trying to organize my office - it's the only messy room in the house, and I need to get it straightened up so I can focus better.

But after taking care of house stuff, doing five loads of laundry, changing the sheets on my bed, buying groceries, etc., etc. I finally decided I had done enough, and so I spent the last five hours watching the BBC wedding coverage that I'd recorded this morning. It was a super chill way to spend the evening, and a casual outside observer might have found it a wee bit creepy (I turned off the lights, lit all the candles in my fireplace, and drank a half-bottle of champagne)...but don't judge.

Anyway, the wedding was gorgeous, and I loved the vibe - as someone who is obsessed with every era of the monarchy from William the Conquerer on, it's v. interesting, and perhaps awe-inspiring, to feel like I just witnessed the start of an entirely new chapter and an incredible bit of evolution from what the monarchy has been to what it could be. It was fresh and modern in a way that previous royal weddings weren't - but that's the flexibility that a spare has, especially a spare who is getting married after the queen has lived through ninety years of scandals and sorrows caused by prioritizing state duty over love.

sssanyway. I could wax on about this for hours, but I would be better served by going to bed - goodnight!

keep waiting, keep keep waiting

No blog for you...I need to go to bed and either get up in time for the royal wedding, or sleep in and watch it when I wake up. Today was fine, though; I worked from home in the morning, had a couple of decent hours in the office this afternoon (during which it hailed, which reminded me that I probably shouldn't buy a new car when I don't have a garage but I'm sooo tempted), and then skipped out to get a pedicure. Yay me.

And now it's time for bed - goodnight!

she says i am the one

I lasted for approximately 45mins of the final morning of training today. Yes, I'm also surprised that I went back, but I thought that perhaps I should give it one more chance. However, after doing a full body scan of every part of my physical self, I realized that my fists still wanted to punch the facilitator in the face.

So, I walked straight out during the first break and didn't go back. However, I honored my commitment to myself (or, alternatively, completely avoided my inbox) by sitting out in the sun and journaling for an hour before getting back to work. Of course, all the fools who had stayed in the training (which was not many - I think they had a 50% attrition rate from day one to day three) were sent outside at some point to do a 'walking meditation' (aka walk around like zombies), so it was v. v. obvious that I was skipping, but #noregrets.

I then worked the rest of the day, grabbed dinner at Chipotle, stopped by the Apple store to drool over devices, then came home. I mostly procrastinated and looked at bridesmaids dresses for Santy Claude's wedding (spoiler: Santy Claude has found her Mr. Claude, who will reside with her in the North Pole and help her get her reindeer ready every year). But I also did a tiny bit of work...not enough to make a dent in my inbox, but c'est la vie.

And now it's time for bed - goodnight!

wake me up before you leave

So, I'm going to sound super entitled and annoying (I know, how is this different from any other day?). But today was the second day of this mindfulness training that I'm doing at work, and it was so annoying that I ended up skipping out two hours early and not going back because I just wanted to punch one of the instructors in the face. I'm sure that wasn't the intention that he was putting out into the universe, but it was the result he was going to get if I didn't leave straightaway.

sssanyway. It didn't help that I awoke this morning to two v. different but equally annoying emails at work, and also to someone cutting down a branch outside my apartment with a chainsaw at seven a.m. Needless to say, I started in a bad mood, and that was how I was destined to remain. But I recuperated enough to say a pleasant goodbye to Katrina (okay, that's a lie, I bitched the entire time that I was making coffee and getting ready to go). Still, I *tried* to say a pleasant goodbye to Katrina, so that's got to count for something, amirite?

So I worked for an hour from home from 6:45-7:45, showered, said goodbye to Katrina, went to work, had breakfast, and then sat in this training. I spent the morning sitting next to my boss, so I had to share some feelings with him, but that was all okay. However, by mid-afternoon, I was totally done - sometime around the time that one of the trainers was talking about putting your intentions into the universe, and his example was how a friend of his wanted to meet the Dalai Lama, and so 'put this intention out' to a v. rich person who has given millions of dollars to the Dalai Lama, and that guy was like, 'okay, can you get to Dharamshala next week, the Dalai Lama will be there and I'll try to hook you up', and the original dude was able to afford a last-minute flight to India and then wait around a monastery for a couple of days until the Dalai Lama was ready to see him.

This is not 'putting your intention out into the universe'. This is 'having rich friends'.

sssanyway again. I decided to take the trainers' advice of 'taking care of your needs and being kind to yourself', which means I skipped the training, came home, left my car here, walked down to Pearl Street, and grabbed a table outside at The Kitchen, where I had some sauvignon blanc and my favorite gluten free pasta in the world, and spent a couple of hours people watching and writing in my journal. This was way better than anything those trainers had to tell me, I'm pretty sure.

But now I want to go to bed. Finally, though, happy [censored] to [censored], who is in [censored] and hopefully didn't drink too many [censored] tonight. Goodnight!

then spring became the summer

So, today was pretty relaxing even though my emails are piling up - I got up, took my time getting ready while drinking some coffee, said hi/bye to Katrina, and then went to work, where I did a bit of stuff while eating breakfast. But from 10am to 5pm I was in a training - it was heavy on meditation and mindfulness, which was a good break from my usual shenanigans. It continues tomorrow and part of Thursday, so that may be too much mindfulness, but so far so good.

But at five I was done, and I spent some time talking to some people before rendezvousing with Katrina. We dropped my car off at my house, then walked to River and Woods, which is my nearby favorite. It was a magical location for dinner - they have a back patio that is way larger than I realized (I have only gone when it's cold/raining/not patio-worthy), so we sat back there and admired the venue and the food and the waitstaff. We ended up getting upsold on a bottle of fancy champagne (they were out of what we wanted to drink, but offered us a bottle of nice champagne they'd stocked for mother's day, and gave us a discount on it, so we took it and #noregrets, since it was fucking delicious). We also ended up having not one, but two orders of poutine (again, #noregrets). We also had oysters and deviled eggs, and a lot of fun conversation, and my favorite bartender was thrilled to see me, so that was all delightful.

But now, I should really go to bed since I should work tomorrow before starting the trainings again. Goodnight!

genie in a bottle

I had a long day at the office filled with many annoyances. There were some good things too - I hired Kristen, who is my friend Barbara's daughter, and her first day in the Boulder office was today, so we had breakfast and also had a 1:1, and that was great. I also had a 1:1 with my manager, who is v. entertaining (in a good way). But generally speaking, my meetings were a series of annoyances piled on top of other annoyances, and I was v. eager to leave at 5....

So I went to Whole Foods to pick up some coffee beans, yogurt, and granola (all I need to survive), and I also retrieved Katrina there. We came back to my place to stow the groceries and change, and then we walked to Pizzeria Locale, where we were v. lucky and scored one of the last tables (and a v. bicep-y, v. nice waiter). They had a delightful Neapolitan-style gluten free crust, and so we ordered two pizzas - a white pizza with burrata, among other things, and a tomato-sauced pizza with eggplant, many kinds of pepper, and pecorino. I think I still have a mild preference for the pizza I usually get there, which has salami, mozzarella, red pepper flakes, and basil, but it was great to branch out and try something different. I also had wine and Katrina had a tasty-looking spritz, and we split some sorbet for dessert, so that was delightful.

Of course, we went suuuuper deep on issues of women in tech, all of which I find rather infuriating (really, my mood today could have used some improvement). And I could go super deep now...but after we got back from dinner, I took care of a couple of things, basically fell asleep while reading my phone, but had to rally for a 10-11pm call with Hyderabad. This should be illegal. It was my own fault for not seeing it sooner - my calendar doesn't naturally extend that far down, so I didn't see it until I was in schedule view for today, which was brutal.

But after dialing in, saying hi, staying silent for an hour (while backchannel pinging jokes to someone on my team), and saying bye, it's finally time for bed. Goodnight!

hit me with your best shirt

I had an awesome day, but I need to go to bed immediately even though it's only ten p.m. and my inner night owl is crying at my self-imposed surrender to the working world. I spent too much time this morning lazing about, but I did manage to get up, get around, and scramble to finish pulling my house into some semblance of order after all my travels.

I also spent a few minutes (which wasn't nearly enough time) talking to my parents - it was earlier than I usually call them, so they weren't expecting me, but I had to call and say happy mother's day. But I couldn't talk for long, because at 2:30pm, Katrina showed up - she's in town for a conference later this week, so she's staying with me for a couple of days, which is super fun.

We hung out at my place for a few minutes so that she could get acclimated, and then we took a driving tour of my surroundings. That meant we drove immediately into the mountains - it really is incredible how quickly you can be in the mountains here, which I definitely don't take enough advantage of. We went to Nederland, which I'd been to with Drewbaby last November. The drive was gorgeous in a misty, atmospheric kind of way - it rained off and on all day, so the mountains themselves were shrouded in clouds, but the foliage is much greener than usual, so it was v. pretty.

We had a drink and some chips at a brewery in Nederland, which we entered after waiting out a downpour/small hail situation while parked outside. After that, we took the long way back to Boulder by driving through Golden - we didn't stop there, but we enjoyed the drive. We made it back to Boulder just in time for a reservation I'd made at Santo, which is a newish New Mexican restaurant owned by the same chef who owns Blackbelly (and who won a Top Chef many years ago). I have to say, I was a little disappointed; the service was too slow (we ordered three appetizers and an entree to share, and they decided to course out the appetizers so that we got a small salmon tostada by itself, then waited fifteen minutes for the soup/salad, and then waited another twenty minutes or so for the enchiladas...no bueno). The soup was pretty tasty, and the enchiladas were good, but the rice and beans with them were boring (and they initially forgot the rice). However, the servers were really friendly despite the slowness, and the prices were decent, so I'd be willing to try them again when they work out the kinks.

Then we came home, and we pretty much immediately wanted to go to bed, so that's the plan I'm pursuing. Goodnight - and happy mother's day to those of you who are celebrating!

wanna put my tender hot in a blender

I should have gone to bed ages ago - I didn't get enough sleep last night, and I appear to be on track to repeat that mistake. But today was fun, and probably way more relaxing/lazy than I deserved. I got up, pulled myself together, and drove down to Denver to see Katie. We had brunch at Revelry, which I'd been to once before (without her, shocking) - they can do their whole menu gluten free, which obviously makes me happy. I had some huevos rancheros that didn't quite do it for me; it was all tasty, but it was smothered in a red sauce that was a little too sweet and not at all spicy, and I would have preferred a chile verde or a chunkier salsa. But it was a v. nice place to have brunch, and it was v. nice to talk to Katie, so #noregrets.

Then I went to her house and hung out for a couple of hours, since I hadn't seen James in awhile and the girls had apparently been wondering if I was ever coming back (they got surprisingly accustomed to me basically living with them last summer). I will probably get sick and die after that since I stole a tater tot from Anne before Katie reminded me that Anne is sick and had sneezed all over it, but we'll see how my immune system holds up...

Then, I should have come home and done a million things around the house, but I wasn't feeling it, so I stopped at the mall on the way back. I didn't buy much after all, but I did pick up some new drinking glasses; while I have a million wine and champagne glasses, I'm down to only five remaining pint-sized tumblers (the striped glasses I bought a decade ago were lovely, but they've slowly attrited over the years). So I got a few new glasses and new placemats at Crate and Barrel, which satisfied my greed for the moment.

I also ate an early dinner at the mall, then came home, messed around online, and took a nap. But I did spend some quality time tonight cleaning my kitchen, changing my sheets, etc., etc. And now it's time for bed - goodnight!

heart town, summer in the city

I spent my day in the new building today...I had a bunch of meetings, but I also had a few hours to get work done, and being off by myself made for a v. productive day. That meant I could stop working at 5:30 and promptly shut down everything and relax...

So I went to River and Woods, where I had poutine and wine and journal time. It's apparently graduation weekend at CU, so the place was packed, but I got my favorite seat at the bar and was taken care of by my favorite bartender, so that was lovely.

Then I came home and furthered the relaxation by turning on my TV for the first time in a month. I ended up watching the first three episodes of "Wynonna Earp" - I can't remember who told me to watch this, but it's pretty batshit crazy and I kind of dig it. The basic premise is that the heirs of Wyatt Earp must try to kill a whole bunch of demons, all of whom are revenants (aka a form of zombie) come back to life from the 77 people Earp killed. Yes, cray cray. So far so good, though - but I realized that staying up late to binge any more of it would be a mistake given everything I want to accomplish this weekend.

So, it's time for bed - goodnight!