Hot Times in the City

Last Sunday, I ended up going on a 3.1 mile run on the treadmills. It was okay - I was really slow as I'm still trying to break my new running shoes in. I was mostly just so glad to have it over - never felt like I got into a groove.

Afterwards, I did some work for a bit, but then Blondie and I finally got off our asses and head up towards Central Park. We stopped to get sandwiches and snacks, and then headed into the park and crashed out in the shade. After we refueled and rested, we tooled around in the park for awhile - we hit up the boat pond and saw the Alice in Wonderland statue (very cool). Afterwards, we just headed back home and crashed for the rest of the day.

The work week went so fast - we're coming into crunch for my project and I had to work late every night. I literally would feel like I went into work each morning, and then it would be 4:49 pm and I still would have 3 hours of work left (with no idea of how it got to be to 4:49 pm already).

On Tuesday, Blondie and I went out to our bar for dinner and drinks. Our bartender is back from his vacation, so it was really good getting caught up with him. We hung out for a bit, watched the Yankees (lose), and enjoyed our evening.

The heat started rolling in on Wednesday. The thing about living in the city is that when it gets really hot, it feels even hotter because the buildings trap the heat in. And it's been awful humidity with no wind whatsoever. I can't walk 3 feet out the front door of my building without breaking a sweat.

We headed back to the bar on Thurs also, just a for an hour this time. It was so hot we didn't know what to do with ourselves. Being outside was like being in a sauna.

And then Friday, oh Friday - the temps hit 103 degrees before the heat index. I got out of work around 3 pm, and met Blondie for some beers at another bar of ours. We moaned about the heat for awhile, all the time drinking shots with our waiter. We finally worked up the energy to go do some grocery shopping, and then headed home to relax (i.e. plant ourselves directly in front of the a/c).

Yesterday I had to work in the morning, but then Blondie and I headed out to the East Village to meet some friends for brunch and unlimited bloodies. After our brunch, we headed back home so I could work again. Around 6 pm, we went up to the Upper West Side to meet the same group of friends for Harry Potter - we hit up an IMAX 3D theater and Blondie loved it. I'm not into Harry Potter at all, so it was just kind of blah for me.

After our movie, we headed out for Turkish food with everyone before calling it an evening. The food was rock star good, and the beers and company just made it that much better.

Today I don't know what I'm going to do - I've been working out daily for about 5 weeks now, and I need a break. But I hate to give up my running day. So I have to decide on this. I also need a pedicure, and I have to work again today.

This was week 8 of Insanity - 1 more week to go! I really do love this program. I sweat so much I can ring out my t-shirt daily in addition to my jog bra (that's a lot of sweat). I feel so good when I'm done daily with the program - that's what motivates me to get up and do it every morning. I'm definitely going through this program again when I'm done - but maybe with a break a day or so to run. I don't want to lose my running ability, which for me, can happen super fast.

--K

Another boring week

This past week involved a lot of OT for me - but it's been worth it. We finally are able to do full-out testing for my project, and seeing things getting signed off is turning out to be a whole lot of fun.

Outside of work, on Tues, Blondie was on my side of town, so he met me for lunch. We did Outback, which tasted awesome. When we left TX, we swore we wouldn't eat at chain restaurants again. But then, when we were places where there were no chain restaurants, that's all we wanted. So Outback it was. OMG - their bread? Deliciousness.

I also got out of work early (my only day) on Tuesday, so Blondie and I got to enjoy hanging out some - we hit up our bar for some drinks, before heading out to dinner on a date. We went to our Peruvian chicken place - Pio Pio - and I enjoyed a glass of sangria and some fish and rice (yes, I ordered seafood in our chicken place) and Blondie had a tamale and the chicken. Afterwards, I tried my hardest to convince Blondie that Dunkin Donuts was a valid choice for desert, but he wasn't buying it.

Friday was my official early day, but still ended up working up until 3 pm. And Monday, Wed, Thurs were all definitely OT days.

Yesterday I got up way early, work stress again has jacked my sleeping schedule. I had to work on and off throughout the day, so we stayed in all day. We ended up watching movies last night, and I finished off the bottle of scotch. So now we have to go out today to get another one. I also want to head up to Central Park today - there is a statue I've been wanting to see (Alice in Wonderland), so I think we are going to try and go do that. But first, some more work awaits me.

This was week 7 of Insanity, and it still hurts so bad sometimes I think I'm going to puke a lung up. I hurt my neck on Wednesday b/c of pushups, but I'm so much stronger now, that it mostly is achey, and not putting me flat on my back for a few days. So that was nice. Not the hurting the neck part, but the recovering super fast part. Today I might go for a run, or I might take another nap before we head out. I'm exhausted all the time right now, and can't figure it out. Maybe it's the heat as we are coming into the "sweltering" part of summer in NYC.

--K

Attack of the mosquitos

The 4th turned out to be pretty awesome. I made the decision to start Insanity month 2, instead of doing month 1 again. So last Monday morning, I did my first day of month 2. And about threw up. I was literally so soaked with sweat, that when I was holding myself in plank, not only was sweat running off my face, it was also dripping off my t-shirt where it had pulled away from my body.

After Insanity, I decided I could drink a beer (at 10:30 am). It was the most relaxing thing I've done. Blondie got his workout in, and then we decided to take off to our bar for lunch and beers. I think our waiter was bored, because between him and the bartender, they decided they didn't want us to leave. We had a lot of rounds bought for us, including shots. And naturally, we had to buy them a shot too.

We finally got out of the bar (4 hours after we showed up) and headed him to pass out for awhile. A 3 hour nap later and I felt pretty good and it was time to watch the show. We headed out onto our patio, split some margaritas, and had the best view of the fireworks. They truly are amazing. I got the chills from watching them, and then told Blondie "New York is the best city in the world!"

The important thing to note is that while we were watching the fireworks on the patio we left our patio door cracked slightly.

So Tuesday morning I woke up and had 2 mosquito bites down the back of my arm. I react very weirdly to mosquito bites and knew I was headed for an arm that looked like I had gotten beaten up (for a radius of 3 times the size of the bite, the skin puffs up bright red, and then it goes to a dark bruise). But the worst was on Tuesday night, I was sleeping and something woke me up. As I was lying there trying to figure it out, I realized that everytime I blinked I could feel my eyes getting puffy. So I ran into the bathroom, and my left eye looked like I'd been punched and my right cheek was swelling up monstrously big. I ran back into the bedroom and shook Blondie awake and just kept saying "something's wrong with my face!!!!" (hahahahah - too true). Blondie went with me back to the mirror and he was finally able to find the bites - all down the side of my face. It was also when I realized my arms had been attacked and my thighs had been attacked too. I have about 20 mosquito bites right now that are slowly going away. We've killed 3 mosquitos in the house since Tuesday and I'm hoping that we finally got them all. And my face has finally started to go back to normal.

The work week itself was some suckage. The A/C went out at work on Tuesday but we all still had to stay in the office. It was back on for Wednesday at least. And my program finally got ourselves a "real" testing environment - we're trying to work out the kinks in it so that we can finally start using it. Yay - only 6 months late (seriously).

Friday I got off earlier and I went and met Blondie for some BBQ at JT's restaurant. Afterwards, we headed up towards Central Park before stopping at a bar and sitting in the front windows and people watching the day away. Yesterday we did NOTHING. I've been exhausted - Insanity month 2 is killing me, and I have a sleep pattern that is easily disturbed for any reason and work stress this week has done it in for me.

So this was week 1 of month 2 of Insanity. And it's fucking ridiculous. Pardon the language, but no other adjective can possibly be put in front of "ridiculous" to describe this program. I can tell you this though - I'm doing guy push-ups for the first time in my life. And they are okay to do. And my batwings (underarm flab) has decreased like crazy.

Today I might go run, or I might give myself a rest day. My body is tired. But I like keeping 1 day a week for running. I'll decide sometime, or I won't, and the day will be over and my decision will be made by default.

Hope everyone is doing well.

--K

Long Weekends

I love a long weekend. I get Sunday dread real bad, and I HATE it. So it's super nice to have a weekend where there is no Sunday dread whatsoever.

This past week will be classified as "ok". It's better than the week before which was classified as "shitty". My project finally went live, and in a completely ironic moment, I realized I didn't care. Not "I don't care" meaning I give up, but "I don't care" meaning I've seen this project every day since February (when we went complete on it) and now finally others can see it but I'm kind of over it. Blah. Who wouldn't love to be working with me??? ;)

On Wednesday Blondie came to my work-side of the island for lunch. We first went and got new running shoes, and then headed out for some food. It was fun having lunch with Blondie and it made my day go really fast too. And I desperately needed new shoes. I've been in the same ones for about 4 years now and they are completely broken down. He got to meet one of my cool coworkers for the first time, and Blondie really liked him so it was an all-around good day.

Thursday was another "ok" day - nothing great, nothing bad. Blondie and I decided to do dinner so we met for Argentinean food, where I chugged a carafe of sangria by myself. So very wrong but so very tasty.

And Friday officially started summer Fridays. I now get to leave at 1 pm every Friday, not making up the 4 hours I miss. YAY YAY YAY. It's a sigh of relief.

Our weekend has been pretty good also. I did a good workout on Saturday before deciding I was craving buffalo chicken dip too much to function properly - a quick trip to the grocery store fixed that. I ended up napping throughout the day on Saturday, and we watched some movies that night.

Yesterday, it was pouring rain, so I took my new shoes down to the treadmill and did a 3.1 mile run in them - I won't lie - it didn't feel good. My left leg, from my lower back down to my ankle, felt really funny, and I rubbed my right pinky toe a little bit. I know I have to break these things in, but OMG, I hate the process of doing that. I went a little slower on the treadmill due to these issues, but still came through in a pretty good time (34:15).

Then yesterday afternoon, Blondie and I walked up and saw "Avenue Q", an off-Broadway play that's actually kind of filthy. I've not laughed so hard in my life at a play as I did yesterday. They had songs ranging from "Internet is for porn" (sample line - "So grab your dick and double click") to "We're all just a little bit racist" (sample line - not about to be posted on this blog). At one point, Blondie was laughing so hard I thought he was going to pee himself. To make it even better, their bar had super cheap ass drinks, and they had bar service that took your order and brought you your drink to your seat. And the space was incredible. It was built underground, and it was very industrial looking.

After our play, we headed out for some cajun food and Abita beers, before trucking back to our apartment. We stopped on the way to buy some beer for tonight, and plan to take it easy today (still crappy outside) before watching the fireworks from our balcony. I'm not sure what they do about fireworks if the weather is very cloudy/overcast, but will find out tonight!

So I just finished week 5 of Insanity (a recovery week, that still left me pouring sweat everyday). I now need to figure out what to do next - do I head into month 2, or do I run month 1 again? I like my schedule so far, which is 6 days of Insanity with 1 day of running, but just need to figure out where I need to land with Insanity.

Happy 4th of July everyone, and enjoy your 3 day weekend!

--K