Barbados

The alarm went off last Monday at 5 am - I hopped out of bed, into the shower, and was just giddy. I woke Blondie up around 5:30 am, and we headed out at 6 am to catch our cab to JFK. To go to Barbados (in case I haven't said it enough). I had upgraded our tickets to premium seating because it had more room and Blondie was (is) still feeling like complete shit due to his pinched nerve. When we got to JFK, it turned out the upgrade also included "Fast Pass" which basically expressed us in front of everyone waiting in line to go through security.

Our flight took off right on time, and I slept most of the way - waking up to the most beautiful words in the world: "If you look out the windows to the left, you'll see Barbados".

Beautiful. Simply beautiful. Barbados is gorgeous. The water is incredible - crystal clear, bright blue - I've never seen anything like it. It looked like a painting. Our hotel was pretty nice - as soon as we walked in, rum punches were in our hands, and we sat overlooking the carribean while they got us checked in.

The hotel had 2 buildings - one was the spa building and one was the ocean building. The spa building was across the road from the ocean building, and it's where we ended up being. The spa building had the spa (duh), and the pool, and a bar. It was also only like 20 seconds from the ocean building, but it was weird having to cross a road everytime we wanted to go to the beach.

Our first day we just hung out at the pool - we literally changed immediately and booked it on down and into the pool. Tues and Thurs, we started the day off at the ocean in the morning, and then the pool in the afternoon. And on Wed, we took advantage of our complimentary spa passes and got a massage (Blondie) and facial (me) in the morning, before hanging out at the pool in the afternoon. We didn't do anything else - no touring, no snorkeling, no nothing. We ate almost exclusively seafood, drank a ton of booze, lazed on the beach/pool area, slept. That was it.

What I liked about our hotel: the complimentary booze in your room (you didn't even have to go to a bar to get a drink), the pool area was beautiful, the patio in the ocean building was incredible, they had drink service on the beach.
What I didn't like about our hotel: the 2 building setup, it was all-inclusive but with weird hours for dining, the bars weren't 24 hours, the beach vendors were invasive.

The water: I can't stress this enough - the water at Barbados is unlike any I've seen. You could see everything - it was like looking through glass. I would be in water to my neck and look down and still be able to see my toes. It was honestly my favorite part.

We headed back to NYC on Friday (after hitting up duty free for Barbados rum), left the 85 degree tropical weather and hit down at JFK to mid 40's. And woke up Saturday morning to a snowstorm. Yep, a raging snowstorm. In October. Less than 24 hours after we left Barbados. I drug Blondie to the grocery store where the checker asked me if I had fallen and hurt my face (because of how bad I'm burned). We spent Saturday just recuperating, watching a ton of TV, drinking some beer and rum, and taking it easy.

Today the sun is back, but it's still chilly. We did leave around noon to go buy some more beer, and then started to watch the Godfather trilogy. Around 4 pm, we decided we had to have pasta for dinner, which meant we had to have red wine for dinner. So I took advantage of our neighborhood and had our local wine store deliver 9 bottles of wine. We're stocked for awhile.

Plans for the week: work (BOO), Halloween, a friend from Texas lands on Thurs for the weekend.

Workout plans for the week: tomorrow starts my training for the half next March. I'm thinking also about buying some goggles and starting to use our pool 1-2 days a week for laps. I think that cardio would totally help my running, and would give my knees/legs a break.

Mostly right now, I want to get back into my eating right, working out plan so bad I can't stand it - I feel miserable, bloated and full all the time. I want to feel some hunger pains again. I want to feel my heart beating fast from a good run. It's time folks.

--K

Barbados biznitches!

So f'ing excited! This literally was the longest week ever (literally, seriously, literally). It felt like it took 3000000 years to complete. But complete it did. And tomorrow, finally, we are off for our first vacation in ages.

The week outside of work was good. Last Sunday, Blondie and I headed up to a local bar and met our friends for some drinks. The bar is under new management, and the new owner came through the bar with a free drink for everyone in there - it was called "hot apple pie", which made us laugh like crazy. It was complete liquor, no mixers. And it tasted like hot apple pie. And it fucked you right on up. We had several beers there along with the "hot apple pie", and then headed down to West Village area to eat some burgers.

The burger place was pretty nice. I think whoever first came up with the idea of putting a fried egg on your burger should be considered a genius. Also, this burger place had alcoholic milkshakes. OMG people - so good! I had a Jack Daniel / pumpkin, and it was soooo good.

On Tuesday, I woke up to Blondie - he has been having on and off arm pain for about 2 months, and had not gotten it checked out. It was feeling a little worse on Monday so he decided to lift weights because sometimes that's just enough to stretch the muscle a little and provide some relief. But whatever he did on Monday made everything 3 billion times worse. He woke me on Tuesday in considerable pain, and we debated going to the ER. We got ahold of his doctor who fit him into the schedule, and it turns out Blondie has pinched a nerve in his neck. No cure, just rest. He's been miserable all week.

On Tuesday night, I headed out without Blondie to see my friend from the bar in her cabaret / burlesque show. I tagged along with her husband, and we stopped at our normal bar first for drinks before heading down to Chelsea. The show was incredible! My friend is such a good singer, it blew me away. They did a Halloween themed cabaret, and had music from Rocky Horror and Sweeney Todd. The hubby and I stayed for their after party, and a drunk me rolled on home around 1 am.

Wednesday was disgusting. I went into the office still feeling miiiiiiiiiighty fine, and when I started down, the headache kicked in. Awful.

Thurs night, I was feeling beat - just tired, and worn out from the week. And I had a shitty day at work. So I skipped the going away party, and went home and had a good cry in front of Blondie. I was slugging down a scotch, and just feeling drained from the after effects of crying, when my friends from the bar texted again. They were headed out for trivia, and I went and joined them. We placed 5th out of 10, and just had a great night.

Friday I got stuck on a 5 hour emergency call for work - from 11 am to 4 pm, I was tied to my desk trying to get an issue on the site resolved. It sucked. But when that call ended, it was a happy happy dance as I realized, I don't have to be anywhere near that place for another 1.5 weeks! WOOT!

Yesterday and today were spent doing prep work for Barbados - pedicure and waxing were completed, so I can go and not feel awful while I'm there. Blondie has spent his days this past week flat on his back on the floor - if he's moving around he's fine, if he's lying flat he's fine. If he's sitting up, he's not fine - how in the world are we going to fly? We're not sure but he refuses to talk about cancelling the trip.

Plans for Barbados are as follows: drink, beach, sleep, repeat. Oh, and tour a rum distillery.

--K

The Real-versary

This past Monday was our official 8 year anniversary. Yay!!! We hadn't planned on doing anything as we're off to Barbados in a week, and we had celebrated our non-official anniversary 2 weeks prior. But towards the end of my work day on Monday, Blondie texted and suggested doing dinner. We headed to our favorite turkish restaurant, and split some spicy hummus and falafel. I had manti and Blondie had chicken and spinach. And then we stopped on the way home for gummy bears for yours truly. It was a really nice dinner, and glad I got to do a night with the Blonde One.

Work this week has been tiring. More than ever, I'm so exhausted from having to lead daily meetings - I never have a break (boo hoo). I just wake up every morning, and then immediately start thinking of the 5-8 daily mtgs I have to lead and it makes me weary; and then I'm done in before my day even starts. So pretty much every day this week was like that. I'm so much fun to be around, aren't I?

We also got our notice for our new rent - our lease is up in January, and they are jacking our rent $300/month and now we also have to pay to use the gym in our bldg (it was free the first 2 years). We're debating about what do - move to Brooklyn? Stay in the city but look for something cheaper? Renew our lease? Bite the bullet and buy a tiny ass studio just so we can finally have something again that's our own? We have until end of November to decide as that's when we would have to give our notice to move out.

Friday I met Blondie at our bar to relax and forget the week had happened. It was a good time seeing everyone. When they got wind of our plans to potentially leave the hood, it was non-stop "talk-us-out-of-leaving". It was uber cute, but it was also sad, because I would miss these guys like crazy. The bar, as weird as this sounds, has turned into another family for us. The regulars and our bartender are literally some of the nicest people we know, and I don't know how I would get through my weeks without seeing this group at some point.

Yesterday we put phase 1 of our "where do we live" plan in motion. Blondie and I caught the subway over to Prospect Heights, and met up with a coworker of mine. She took us all around her neighborhood and the surrounding neighborhoods so we could see what it was like, and if we would potentially like living there. We had brunch, and then walked the parks for awhile, before hitting up Target (restroom break. Also, TARGET!) After that, we hit up a beer garden and then a last bar for the night. We got back to the city around 10:30 pm, having been out all day long. It was a great time, and we had a blast, but we're just not sure Brooklyn is where we are supposed to be.

I know I'm harping on this moving / not moving thing, but I'm torn. I hate the thought of paying the kind of money we're about to have to pay for this tiny ass apartment of ours. But I hate the thought of leaving Manhattan. I feel like we've gotten this incredible opportunity to live here in Manhattan, and we've only taken advantage of it for 2 years. We shouldn't have to leave yet. But staying anywhere else in the city is going to cost about the same - so I have to pay the kind of money we're about to pay for rent.

We're finally in a city where it feels like home to both of us, and I don't want to give that up. (TX felt like home to Blondie but not me, and SF felt like home to me but not Blondie). What to do? It's eating at me.

This week I did pretty good about working out. I ran Tues and Thurs, and did an Insanity disc on Wed. I took Friday off, and then we walked all over Brooklyn on Saturday. I'm taking today off too as I have some errands I have to run. I'll work out this week 3-4 days, and then B.A.R.B.A.D.O.S! When we're back from that vacation, it's hard core back into running as I attempt to break a 2:30 half marathon in March 2012.

Plans for this week include meeting our friends from the bar for dinner tonight, and then we're off on Tues night to West Village to see my same friend perform her Cabaret/Burlesque show. A coworker of mine has quit, so her going away party is on Thurs. And then when Friday comes, a happy dance. As work is over for 1.5 weeks. And vacation on the beach is on.

--K

Hodepodge o' stuff

Let me get it out of the way - today was my first day working out since last Sunday. Yes, yes, yes - even though I swore up and down in my last blog post that I was back on track, and I had my shout out to Mr Pooh for motivating me, I took a week off. I have excuses, not good ones. But I have them. So there's that.

This past Monday I slept in b/c I knew I had a travel day ahead of me. This was lame excuse #1, as my flight was only 1.5 hours. I went to work for a half day, and then caught a combo of train and bus out to LaGuardia. Our flight boarded on time, but then we sat for 45 minutes while they injected air into the strut (???) on the right side of the plane. Amazingly enough, we still landed on time in Atlanta - I don't know if we got an excellent tail-wind, or if they had counted taxi time in LGA and circling time in ATL into the original estimate, but we landed exactly right.

I met my coworkers at their gate - they got in about 45 minutes after me - and then we took off for our hotel. On our way through Atlanta, I got to see the giant statue of the Olympic flame, so that was pretty cool. We did dinner and drinks that night, before I crashed out watching TV from my bed. I usually don't mind travelling - the thing I like the most is having a TV in the bedroom and being able to fall asleep with the timer on (Blondie and I ditched the TV in the bedroom about 5 years ago, and even before that, he hated when I would leave the TV on until the sleep timer went off).

Tuesday I woke up feeling like shit - completely drugged and out of it. I've been fighting some kind of allergy / cold for about 3 weeks and it's taking a lot of me. It was all I could do to get showered and down to the lobby to meet the guys for our trip out to work. I slugged down a monster sized coffee to no affect.

Work was okay that day - we were in all-day meetings, but it was good getting to put faces to names. I didn't have much to contribute, so got to keep quiet, and take notes. Also, my laptop refused to connect to the internet even though I plugged directly in, so I pretty much had the day off.

At one point I headed over buildings and met up with 1 of my good friends from the Atlanta office. We had a blast ragging on his cubemates, catching up on each other's lives, etc. He's someone that I trust with my work life - he would never blab anything I told him, so he got an earful about this new role I'm in.

That night, my coworkers that had flown in and I had dinner at our hotel restaurant - afterwards, I headed to our hotel bar with 1 of my coworkers while the other went to bed. We had a good time - we're both at hard places in our lives for different reasons. Mine is work related, his is personal, so it was good to have a sounding board for our issues - my personal life is on track right now, while his work life is on track. We talked and drank for so long that they had to kick us out of the bar. And yes, even that late and with that much drink in me, I still feel asleep to the TV on sleep timer. :)

Wednesday was travel back to NYC day - the exhaustion was beyond believable. When they started boarding my flight, I literally thought "I don't know how I'm going to stand in that line long enough to get to my seat". It took every last ounce of strength to get myself onto the plane (and in the middle seat, woot). I slept literally the entire way back, and caught a cab - and had amazing luck in that getting through NYC wasn't that bad.

Thurs I headed into the office, fought with laptop to get it going (4 hours later), and then left around 1:30 pm to head out with my team to go bowling! I still had the tireds something fierce but managed to chug down a gallon of beer and then drunkingly head out to get a burrito before heading home. Blondie that evening then suggested our bar, so I chugged some water before joining him for more beers.

And then Friday was a full day. It went super fast, mostly because I hadn't really been on email since Monday afternoon so I basically played catch-up most of the day. Friday night, Blondie and I took it easy - we watched the Brewers win their game and had a few beers. But we had to keep it low-key. And that's because...

We are now trained to be balloon handlers!!!! Saturday we were up and on an 8 am bus to Jersey (Meadowlands Stadium) where we got trained on how to haul the T-day balloons around! It was fun and exciting, and they literally brought in 3 of the balloons and inflated them, and we learned all the signals, how to raise and lower the balloons, how to take corners on the balloons, etc. We met a pretty cool chick from Brooklyn also, ragged on the uber-excited people, ate some free breakfast, and enjoyed our free gift of a slinky afterwards.

We were back to NYC around 1 pm, and immediately headed over to Southern Hospitality for brunch and beers. It was a gorgeous day - 80 degrees, no clouds whatsoever, so after lunch, we stopped at a local farmer's market (not our typical one) and then headed on home to nap for several hours. Balloon training took a lot out of me - we were on our feet and moving for over 4 hours.

Today I got up and after I finally stopped sneezing, I did my Cardio Max Insanity DVD. My legs were shaking so bad by the time I was done. I'm now lying in bed, wishing we had a TV in here, b/c the Packers are playing and I feel like lying in bed while watching them.

Tomorrow is our official 8 year anniversary - looking forward to that. And next week, we have a show that our friend from the bar is in. And then 2 weeks from tomorrow, we will be in Barbados! I hope to feel good enough when I wake up tomorrow to attempt a run, maybe some weights. Half of the office is off to the SF offices this week (not me), so it should be a bit more quiet than usual. Here's hoping the week goes fast!

--K

It's wedding season!

First and foremost, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to Yours Truly and The Blonde One! We hit 8 years (unofficially) on 9/27. Our official anniversary is 10/10, but we kind of celebrate both.

So the past 2 weeks have been pretty hectic. We're dialing up my project slowly but surely. And it's starting to take off. Our numbers have just about tracked our legacy site, but in the last 5-6 days, we've started to outperform legacy. We *STILL* have something we have to fix which is frustrating as f*ck b/c the last time we fixed an issue, "they" swore everything would be fine. And it's not. So I'm having to fight my temper, and not do what I want to do which is scream at my program manager and my delivery lead. Not even scream any words, just a loud "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" right in their faces. Can you say mature? Apparently, I can't. ;)

So last Friday night, we took off to SF. It was Blondie's first time back since we moved, and my 5th time back. But it was my first time that didn't involve work. We got in really late Friday night and went straight to bed. Saturday we were up around 7:15 am, and decided to head straight to the bar. SF is awesome due to the fact that football starts at 9 am, and we decided to take full advantage of it.

We headed from our hotel down to the subway, and the entire time I'm ragging on Blondie about why he doesn't miss SF - "how can you not miss it here? how do you hate it here so much?" Non-stop, the entire 10 min walk. We get to the subway, and start down the stairs and this guy about 3/4th the way down the stairs in front of us, turns around and hollers "hey guys, watch it down here!" And that's when the smell hit us. Human sh*t, down the steps. Blondie turned to me and goes "And you wonder why I don't like it here!" It was pretty ironic. SF definitely has a homeless problem, and they don't know how to fix it (I don't either).

Anyway, while we were on our train, we texed Bbbb and Shelbs to come meet us at the bar. They had originally said that Bbbb would try to meet up with us around noon-ish, but Shelbs was headed to the airport. About 45 mins after we got to the bar, they showed up and surprised us! I almost spit beer everywhere I was so shocked. It was SO GREAT seeing them. We got caught up, were generally loud, and just had a blast.

Around 1 pm when we were leaving the bar, the waitress asked us what our plans were for the rest of the day, so we told her about the K's wedding that night. And it turned out that the couple at the very next table (who had already left) were going to the same wedding.

Blondie and I left the bar, laughing about the day - 3 pitchers of beer, tons of food, awesome company, back in SF. We headed to Say Cheese to get more tasty sandwiches, and crashed in our old dog park, chowing down like we used to.

The K's wedding was that night - they had a bus that took us from our hotel to the wedding/reception. We got to see Mr K on the bus, and as soon as we got to where the wedding was, we ran into like 50 of our other friends - the sisters C, Dirty Sanchez, Bring Your Own Cary, F&J, Double D - everyone who we knew and loved (minus Sweetie J) from SF was in 1 place at 1 time. It was a fabulous night. We saw the K's get married - she looked so beautiful, and he was so happy. We ate a ton more awesome food. We drank from the open bar. We danced our asses off. We enjoyed the company like you wouldn't believe. And we ran into the couple from the bar that morning who immediately recognized us, and we hit it off with and would've been friends with if we had still lived in SF.

The wedding was a crazy party - Blondie and I kept it under control, but someone puked in a urinal in the men's room, one of my friend's yakked at the reception, and one of the bridesmaid lost it on the bus back to the hotel - it was all kinds of awesome!

On Sunday, Bbbb picked us up from our hotel and we went to Sports Basement b/c Blondie and I needed new shoes. After that, we headed back to Bbbb's and crashed out for awhile before heading out for pizza, and to watch the Packers game. My good friend KT (who I used to work with in SF) came out and met up with us, and we had a blast that afternoon. Shelbs got home from her trip on Sunday night, and we rounded out the evening just chilling.

It was hard leaving on Monday - normally when it's time to head back to NYC, I'm fine with it. This time I wasn't - I think it was because I got to see everyone I love (and I didn't have to go to work), and it made it a billion times harder than when I've been at work all week. In the airport on Monday, I ran into an old friend from work who was headed to NYC for the week. He looked so good - he's lost a ton of weight, and when I asked him what he was doing, he mentioned he had just done a Tough Mudder in Northern CA a week ago!

Mr Pooh is signed up for Tough Mudder in Nov, so I took the opportunity to grill him all about TM. He said it was the hardest thing he's ever done, and he's never been so happy to finish something in his life.

This week was pretty long, which was weird b/c I only worked 3.5 days. It was trying to figure out when we are going to fix this last issue (which "they" promise will truly truly be the fix) and dealing with coming into lock for our next release. It was a very long, yet short, week.

And on Friday I left work early to head to our friends from the bar wedding - they got hitched in City Hall on Friday afternoon. He's here on a "fiancee visa" and they had to tie the knot fast, and will have a big blowout wedding next year. After the City Hall wedding, we headed back home and crashed for a bit before meeting up with the group at the bar for the reception. It was great seeing everyone, and celebrating our 2nd wedding in less than a week!

Some other stuff has gone on also in the last few weeks.
1) I need to call out how grateful I am to Mr Pooh - my body has just shut down over the past few weeks, and working out hasn't been happening. However, Mr Pooh has agreed to come back to NYC next spring and run the NYC half marathon. And he's been great about texting me 3-4 times a week to tell me about his workouts (which is motivating). Because of him, I've been full force this week at the gym - Wed-today I've been down to the gym for at least a 3.1 mile run, weights, situps, etc. I've also started watching what I eat again. I can already tell I'm down about 7-8 lbs since Monday, and I'm starting to feel "normal" again.
*** I'm not someone who gains a pound and freaks out. I'm typically a yo-yo'er. But in the past 1.5 years, I've had to admit to myself that I do NOT feel good when I'm not watching what I'm doing. Even knowing this, it's still like pulling teeth to watch it sometimes.

2) Blondie and I are officially in to walk balloons in the T-Day parade this year! We put our apps in, and go to "Balloon Training" next Saturday. They'll teach us how to deal with wind gusts, etc. We'll apparently be on the smaller balloons (think pumpkins, not Spiderman) but I'm very excited to be in the last parade going through Times Square! Set your DVR for T-Day morning everyone!

3) I also got stuck on a last minute trip to Atlanta, leaving tomorrow. I leave tomorrow afternoon, have all day meetings in Atlanta on Tues, and fly back on Wed. I'm pretty beat from the last 2 weeks, so I'm trying to pump myself up for this, but the excitement is not there.

All right everyone, that's my catch up. I'm relaxing after a 5 mile run today, waiting on Blondie to get back from the gym. We're going to order some food and watch the Packers play this afternoon.

--K