Areas of Unrest

31 October 1999 - In Praise of Nothing

QOTD: "The physical universe is orderly, but not because there is a central government, but because everybody minds its own business." - Bertrand Russell, The ABCs of Relativity

Reading: J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Listening to: the original cast album of Ben Franklin in Paris

My blisters are pretty much healed now, though it took until about Thursday until I could walk without pain. Which made it rather interesting to travel on Monday night. I had to relace my shoes, starting the laces in the pair of holes further from the toes, in order to be able to wear them at all.

At least the trip was a productive one. It's more annoying when I just go to meetings and don't feel like I'm doing anything useful.

As for the semi-obligatory Boulder restaurant report, I felt a bit pressured because Milo (my boss) kept relying on me to choose places. Tuesday night was the Boulder Dushanbe Tea House, largely on the grounds that there were two people from Sunnyvale who should at least see it for the architecture. And they had rooibos tea in stock this time! Everyone else had to taste it to see why I was so excited. It isn't really that exciting, except that I had gotten so used to it in Africa and I hadn't had it since last July. As far as food went, I had Indonesian noodles and veggies with peanut sauce, which proved to be nicely spicy. We went up to Chatauqua on Wednesday night. The food there is always reliable (I had a venison special, which prompted everyone else to tease me about risking mad deer disease) but the service was slow, since the place was packed. Thursday night ended up being a large group excursion to Rudi's. I was hesitant choosing it since I'd only been there twice before, but their menu is fairly diverse and they take reservations, making it easier with 9 people. Fortunately, everyone seemed pleased with the food. I had one of their Indian combinations (samosa, mattar paneer, vegetable curry, dal, rice and puri), which was not as good as it would be at a real Indian restaurant, but was certainly acceptable.

I got back Friday afternoon, which meant I was in the office long enough to go through email and voicemail, do my expense report, and put in my travel request for the week after next. I'm actually going to be home for 9 solid days - which is pretty much a record lately.

Even better, I had absolutely nothing scheduled this weekend. Oh, there were things I could have done if I'd wanted to (Halloween storytelling concert in Claremont, book fair in Burbank) but I needed a weekend of sheer laziness. I went out of my apartment only to take out the trash, take in the mail on Saturday and buy groceries this morning. Mostly I lazed around, reading and napping, though I did do a little housework.

And I obviously needed the break. Usually I run around madly, doing a million things at once - and, to be honest, this coming month is pretty much scheduled that way. I know I do this to myself, so there's no point in complaining. But it still felt good to have a weekend without all the activity.