Hey. So I never really did a decent job documenting my trip. There are some reasons for that, per bottom of this entry. But first, brief recap of highlights:
- DesiLit publishing dinner in Santa Clara; a good time was had by all as we talked about the path to publication (which is apparently quite a bit longer and more tedious than some of them expected :-)
- my reading at Other Change of Hobbit was much fun -- packed (little) house, mostly with friends, and I read the first chapter of The Arrangement, which people seemed to like. Pictured right, l to r, f to b: Jed, stranger, Thida, Shannon, Liz, Charlie, Alex, Nadya (entirely hidden but I know she's there), Dan, Beth, David). It's good to have friends at your readings!
- following the reading, we went to Viks for chaat, good, and chat, also good. Sherman and Shauna showed up -- nice to see them after a long time! Plus a bunch of DesiLit folks, Alex and Ajna, other friends
- then Shannon and I hanging out with Dan and Nadya, then joined by David, Swati, Jen for dinner at Italian place down the street, stayed up late talking, finally Jed came to pick me up and we toddled off home
- quiet week at Jed's, did a lot of reading, which was v. nice
- potluck dinner at Ian and El's -- the kids are huge! I made chicken biryani, which came out yum. :-)
- lunches with Cliff, writing mornings with Thida, where I mostly chatted, but I did write the first scene of a new play, tentatively titled "Sister, Where Have You Gone?", but title exceedingly subject to change
- eventually, packed up and went up to Seattle, where many kissings of new baby Katie Rose, eating of Adrian's delectable pork and bacon pot pie (so British!), Kirsten's shrimp and pasta in a tomato cream sauce, mmm..., and staying up all night talking to her the last night, which knocked me out pretty thoroughly for the following day
So all in all, a good trip -- except that I've totally skipped over Thursday/Friday, where I ended up telling an old and beloved friend that I didn't want to hear from him again, until and unless certain things had changed. Which was hellish, one of the worst things I've ever experienced. I think it was the right decision, but god. And now I'm worrying about him, and wanting to call, or at least wanting to know how he is. But things had just gotten to a point where I couldn't cope anymore, so. I don't know if it's a failure in me, or a failure of our friendship, or what exactly, but it is what it is, and it's done now. So it goes.
