Literally spent

Last Sunday ended on a down note as all of my teams (except the Giants) got knocked out of the running for the Super Bowl. At least it was fun as I met up with my bar friends for many drinks while watching the 49ers/Giants game. Blondie didn't come out, but we made sure to text him frequently so he knew what kind of fun he was missing.

Monday started half marathon training, and somehow, I managed to find the strength to do all my assigned workouts this week (I'll post them at the end of this). I'm not sure how I did it, but I drug myself through week 1 of training. Yay, 7 days down, 77 days to go. :) My thing about running is that I want to love it so much it's not funny, but I just don't. I love races, but I don't love the training required to be able to run races. Blah.

Also, on Monday, Blondie's sister showed up for a week of running around NYC. She's here for a conference, but came in a few days early in order to have some business meetings before her conference. Monday was a long day at work for me, just trying to get caught up from having the previous Friday off, but then I met up with Blondie and his sis on Monday night for Ethiopian food, before we headed over to our bar to introduce her to everyone. It was a good way to end a Monday.

Tuesday through Thursday work (I had Friday off again) was the same - it's killing me right now as we're trying to get this project ready for launch. My business partner for this project is "not good", so I've been having to do their role in addition to mine (writing reqts, making sure reqts are solid, comping out what we want the experience to look like). So I'll leave work talk as follows - SUCKITY SUCK. If that changes, I'll let you know.

For the fun stuff, Tuesday night was dinner at Colicchio & Sons (I had beef tartare and a prosciutto pizza - soooooo f'ing good; oh, and many whiskeys). We caught a cab back to our place afterwards and crashed out watching movies.

Wednesday we hit up Capizzi - a pizza place in our hood that we love. Blondie's sis and I split an eggplant parmesan pizza (holy crap - one of the best pizzas I've ever had), and we all split a big bottle of wine. Afterwards, we stopped by our wine store and stocked up, before heading home to order ice cream. You read that right, we have ice cream delivery. Does it get any better? Unfortunately though, ice cream is not my cup of tea, so I skipped the ice cream and just had a little bite of Blondie's. If there were gummy bear delivery in our hood, I would be the fattest person alive. Seriously. Literally.

Thursday was my last day of work, and around 4 pm, I just started counting minutes down. When I got done for the day, I headed out and met Blondie and our bar friends for trivia night at a local bar. We lost, thanks to me - I was sure I knew the final question, everyone else agreed on 1 answer, I insisted on another - and the answer everyone agreed on but me was the right answer. WOOT. Oh well, we gave it a good try.

Friday it was pouring rain, and I've not been so happy to not have to commute. I drug Blondie to the gym when we got up, before we ordered in BBQ and took it easy watching TV in the afternoon. We got into our wine stash on Friday night, and before I knew it, we had hoovered through the stockpile we bought on Wednesday. Oops. We ended up ordering in sushi as we were starving by then, and stuffed ourselves to end our evening.

Yesterday it was back to the gym, before we went and did some grocery shopping. We got Subway for lunch and then took naps in the afternoon. And FINALLY, we made a home-cooked meal last night - we made steak and onion stir fry, and put it on mashed potatos. Dumped some A1 on top and mixed it all together - holy crap, so good. I've been craving home cooked food lately, and it just tasted so good. We ate a ton of fruit for dessert (dehydration from running makes me crave fruit like crazy) and then watched Friends With Benefits and laughed our asses off.

Today, the week caught up with me. I woke up around 8 am and chatted with Blondie for a bit. But between getting up early to workout, being out every night this week, and have Max howl all night long so even when I'm sleeping I'm not truly sleeping, I was done in. I headed back to bed and didn't wake up until 11:40 am. I got in a workout, and now we are waiting for lunch to be delivered.

Plans for the week include Blondie's sis 1 last night tonight - dinner out most likely. We are off to our bar this week for the drawing of the Super Bowl boxes, and then my bar friend has her Valentine's Day burlesque/cabaret show on Friday. Sunday is Super Bowl (Go Giants!). Then it's low-key time for a month, which is good because training will be full-force come early March.

So workouts - here you go:
Monday - Insanity Cardio Recovery disc (ha, my first day training, and I do Cardio Recovery)
Tuesday - 3 mile run (40:27 - walked a lot of it)
Wednesday - 2 mile run (25:44 - ran it all)
Thurs - rest day (wasn't supposed to be, but since I had Friday off and that was my rest day, I decided to flop them around)
Friday - 3 mile run (37:56 - ran it all)
Saturday - 4 mile run (53:02 - walked a small portion of it)
Sunday - Insanity Core Cardio and Balance disc

My speed is sloooooow right now - 13 min miles anyone? But it was never like I was a fast runner to begin with. If I can get it back down to 12 min miles, I'll be happy with it for my half.

--K

Kicked some ass, took some names, goaled

What. A. Week. PHEW. I am tiiiiiiired right now. It's a good tired though, not the tired that comes with lazing around all day, but the tired that comes with being on the go for the week.

So last Sunday brought the unthinkable as the Packers rolled over and let the Giants win. It was not a good afternoon in our house. The only bright spot (and Blondie sure as sh*t doesn't see it this way) is that if the Giants win the Super Bowl, we can go to a ticker tape parade! So I'm trying to focus on that. Blondie is focusing on forgetting football is still on.

A lot of people had this past Monday off for MLK day. I was not one of those people. However, it was really nice. Some of my office had taken vacation, so it was pretty quiet. And also, the subway was dead that day due to it being a holiday. I got texted around 4:30 pm that my bar friends were headed to the bar in the evening. I called Blondie and he didn't want to go out, so I went over by myself after work. I only intended to stay for a few, but ended up there for almost 4 hours. Blondie was asleep when I got home, so I ate a subway sandwich and watched some of my TV shows that Blondie hates (Glee, RHOBH, etc).

Tuesday was an okay day at work - the days are running together right now as my shitty project is gearing up for launch in February. The thing that stands out about Tuesday was that it launched the final bit of my good project (last year's, year-long, project) for my old division. I cheered that on, and then cleaned my whiteboard (which had everyone's names, dates of releases, what we were releasing when, etc). While I was doing a bit of a cheer on Tuesday, my 2 BFFs from work came by and wanted to grab drinks after work. I decided to go, and that ended up being a late night, but a fun one, as the bar had a singer with a guitar and we decided to "help" him with his vocals (i.e. sing along, loudly).

Wednesday was off to dinner with the girls - we headed down to East Village to go to Apiary, and it was so good. I had a steak and creamed spinach (I'm having a slight spinach obsession right now - steamed, creamed, sauteed, raw - can't get enough), and split a few bottles of champagne with a friend. It was so good getting to see the crew as most of them have moved on to different companies, and getting caught up on their lives.

Thursday was yet another drunken function - we are in the process right of switching CMS tools for my company, and on Thursday they brought down the old one and we now freeze for 3 weeks while we transition. Everyone that worked on the old system was ecstatic, so we headed out for many drinks to celebrate. Afterwards, a friend of mine and I headed back to my hood and met up with Blondie for a few more drinks. Ugh.

Friday I was hungover. And hurting. And not sure how I didn't get sick. But it was okay b/c I had the day off! I had 2 vacation days left and have to use them by February or I lose them. So I took a long weekend, and will have another one this week. I recovered during the morning on Friday, and then Blondie and I went to lunch for Mexican. We stopped on the way home and bought some beers, and junk food, and came back and crashed.

But not for long. Because folks, I had agreed to play with an indoor soccer team on Friday night with my bar friends in Murray Hill area. It's been 20 years (I was 17 when I played my last game, now I'm 37) since I had played, and I was nervous. Luckily, the other team never showed, but we got to play for an hour just against each other for fun. I had a blast - I worked up a horrid sweat, had my heart rate blasted, and just had fun kicking the ball around. AND I SCORED. Against a really good goalie! The ref who was supposed to ref our game decided to play with us, and he was really good. Really really good.

Afterwards, my bar friends, Blondie and I headed back to our hood to hit up our bar for some drinks and dinner, before Blondie and I headed home for drinks on our own and to watch Hangover 2. I'm an achy wreck right now - can't believe how sore I am from one soccer game. I'm thinking about joining up with the team - but for now can just drop in as I want. I never thought I'd play soccer again, as I didn't have the best time playing it growing up, but I'm so glad I bit the bullet and did it.

Yesterday we woke up to a beautiful snow happening. The streets were coated and it was just so quiet and peaceful. It snowed most of the day, and Blondie and I just stayed in and watched TV. Today I headed out to run an errand, and now we're watching the football game (go Ravens! VU - if you read this, it's nothing against the Patriots, but I'd like to see the Ravens win). I'm heading out soon to meet my bar friends for the Giants / 49'ers game (oh man, I would love to see a ticker tape parade, but I'd also love to see my old city go to the Super Bowl).

Tomorrow officially starts half-marathon training. I thought it started last week, but when I matched up my training calendar, with the actual calendar, I realized I was off a week. I'm just dreading this. After I do this race, I'm just going to throw in the towel for running. I don't mind 5K's or 10K's and will try to maintain a 3-5 mile base for my running ability, but anything more than that, f it. I'm going to admit it here - running blows. After this half, I'm going to figure out some things I truly like (swimming, dancing, maybe soccer???) and stick with those.

News on the home front is good - Blondie's sis arrives tomorrow for a week of kicking around in NYC. We have reservations to Colicchio & Sons on Tuesday, and am looking forward to that. Blondie and I also have tickets (2 for 1) to see Spiderman on Broadway in February. Blondie's cousin arrives in March for 4 days (tickets bought), and then Mr Pooh (and maybe Mrs Pooh) arrive sometime in May or June timeframe.

The cats are good - Tigga hates everyone, and Max can't see, but other than that, they are good. Max still howls all night, but he's so loving and sweet right now, it's beyond cute. Tigga is a major shithead, but you can't help but laugh your ass off when he gets so pissed.

Off to rehyrdrate before I dehydrate. Go Ravens! Go Giants! Go 49'ers!

--K

It got cold

It's been a good few weeks. Which is a nice change. I normally loathe January and February (with February being the worst month for me). It's the dark in the morning, and the night. It's the temperatures. It's everything about the months. Boo. Hoo.

New Years week was fast - which was nice. Only 4 days of work of course, and that makes me happy. I worked out on Monday and Thurs of NY week. I'm having the worst time getting up in the mornings right now, due in a large part to not sleeping through the nights. I'm not an insomniac, but I can't stay asleep at nights. I'm up and down 20 times a night for various reasons. It's particularly bad right now because Max is fully blind now, and he howls all night long. Loudly. The only thing that seems to help is if I get up and get him some milk - usually after his milk, he can fall asleep for awhile. So anyway, the howling is contributing to my lack of sleep.

Due to my exhaustion, and coming off of hard core drinking over NYE, we took the NY week pretty easy. The only thing we did do was hit up our bar for drinks and dinner one night, and got caught up with our bar friends.

Last weekend, I worked out both days - I did the Max Cardio and Max Plyo discs from Insanity set. They are my least favorites. They take everything out of me - I'm left as a shaky blob after I'm done with those discs.

Last Sunday, I went into an emotional tailspin. It was ridic. I was sitting here watching TV, and craving gummy bears. So I decided to go get some, and Blondie decided to walk with me. As I was putting on my coat, my mood just sunk. Fast. I had a moment where I realized that everything is always going to be the same - I'm always going to be too fat for my height, I'm always going to want way too many gummy bears, I'm always going to have a job I hate that I have to go to everyday, I'm always going to hate Sunday nights because that means Monday mornings, etc (1st world problems anyone?). All that started spinning around in my head, and I couldn't cope (could you guess I'm almost 40?) I bawled my head off for about 15 minutes, and then put myself to bed. At 6 pm. I fell asleep almost immediately, and it was like being in a coma. Blondie tried to wake me up for dinner, and I couldn't pull myself out of sleep. I slept 14 hours that night, waking up at 8 am on Monday, and honestly, could've slept easily for 8 more hours.

The sleeping didn't help my mood at all, I was still in the same emotional spot when I woke up. Monday at work was a long day - I had a ton of stuff to do, and didn't get out of work until after 8 pm. Around 7 pm, Blondie texted and said he was off to the bar - my good news for that day was that our bar friend went "legal". His work visa came through, so now he can start job searching (he's ecstatic). I met up with the group around 9 pm at the bar, chugged a couple of double scotches, and then we did a shot of bourbon to celebrate the visa.

I worked pretty late all week, except Thursday. And that's because on Thursday, I was at work at 6 am. The last project of my program from last year launched, and I've not been so excited about a work thing since last August, when the major piece of the program launched. The launch went super smooth, and my project looks fantastic. I left work around 3:30 pm (after literally sitting in my office blabbing to my friends for the last 1.5 hours of the day), and met Blondie to celebrate at our poison bar. After the poison bar, we took off to our regular bar, bought everyone some shots, and then stopped to pick up greasy chinese food for dinner.

I went into work on Friday seriously hung over. And had to work my ass off all day long - no break. I got out of work around 7 pm, but it was okay, because my day ended on 2 really high notes (2 good things happened between 5:45 and 7 pm that made the 7 pm end time okay).

Yesterday we lazed around, before meeting up with our bar friends and our building friends at our local bar. We had many beers, before heading out for Ethiopian and a couple of bottles of wine. Afterwards, it was back to our building to hangout at our building friends apartment, drink a lot more wine, and play Just Dance on the Kinect.

Today, it's like -12 degrees outside. We scrapped our plans for the day (which honestly was just to drink heavily anyway) and I'm now just lazing around, eating gummy bears (does this surprise anyone?) and trying to rehydrate from yday's binge.

Tomorrow starts half marathon training officially - I'm signed up for a women's only half in April in Central Park with my PA friend. I printed my schedule out today, and immediately just sighed. I'm so tired right now, all the time, and just looking at the miles (which really are not a lot at all) makes me mentally burned out. I don't think I can beat my half marathon time from last year, simply b/c this half is in Central Park which is rolling hills (half marathon last year was pretty flat for the most part). I do intend to run outdoor training runs a lot more than I did last year, so maybe that will help.

Also, I've officially accepted a new job at my company (yet again - 5 job changes in 5 years, the resume of someone who can't settle down). I start that role on 3/1, so I still have to finish up the program I'm on. But at least there's an end in sight from this role I'm in now - hate. hate. hate. I'll have a new boss in the new role, and a senior/manager title, and will maintain bonuses, etc. So it's all good.

Okay, off to cheer on the Ravens. Or the Texans. I like them both, so I'm not going to decide. But FOR CERTAIN the Packers. However, if the Packers lose, then I will cheer the Giants to the bitter end. But really, the Packers. GO PACK!

--K

2011 Recap

Highlights of 2011:
1) Travel - I managed to hit up the following places in 2011:
San Francisco x 4
Las Vegas
Barbados
Lexington
Atlantic City
Philadelphia/Northern PA
Atlanta

2) Killed my previous half-marathon PR - my half in May was one of my favorite parts of the year

3) Ran 2 races with family - Mr Pooh and Blondie for the half in May, and then 2 weeks later, Mr & Mrs Pooh and Blondie for our 5K in Lexington.

4) Saw a ton of plays - Seminar, Sister Act, Avenue Q, Priscilla Queen of the Desert - to name a few

5) Made friends that aren't work friends - I love my work friends, but I also love having friends that know nothing about what I do during the day

6) Made status on my airline - it's never happened before - but all those work trips finally put me over the edge this year.

7) Crossed a ton of stuff of our "Do This in NYC" list - ice skating, football games, etc.

8) Walked in the T-Day parade - an experience everyone should get.

Happy Holidays!

San Francisco was an okay trip. I flew out on Sunday morning and everything went well - no delays, no headwinds, etc. I got to my hotel without traffic, and proceeded down to the gym to do a workout. It was horrendous. I did 6 minutes of running, hit a wall (seriously - 6 mins and I hit a wall), then did 16 minutes on the bike. And then threw in the towel. I drug myself to Walgreens afterwards and bought some pretzels, and chowed down on those while watching TV in the afternoon. Then I got to meet up with my good friend KT! I took the train out to my old hood, and met her for nachos and margaritas for apps, before we headed to Vietnamese for soup and noodles. It was really nice getting to see her and catch up on her life.

Monday, true to form, my stomach revolted. When it finally settled down, I went to the gym and did 3.1 miles on the treadmill, before getting ready for work. Work sucked. I wasn't happy that I had to be there (the week before Xmas), and I hate the project I'm currently on. So yeah, not a happy camper. The good parts on Monday though were meeting up with CChu for lunch and shopping, before heading back to Sunset for dinner and many drinks with Shelbs and Bbbb! They had just closed on their house, so I got to take a look at the outside of it, before we broke in a bar in their new neighborhood.

Tuesday, again, stomach problems - and another run on the treadmill after. Lunch was with an old coworker of mine - we used to be on the same team, but have now switched teams a billion times since then. We then hit up the Macys store for awhile before heading back to the office. I managed to triple book myself on Tues night for plans, so had to skip one set of plans. But I did make it out for drinks with an old group I used to hang out with, before meeting up with the team that I worked with last year for drinks and dinner. Afterwards, on a whim, I stopped by a bar that I know a lot of the office hangs out at, and lo and behold, ran into my old buddy KevB who quit the company last January. I got to laughing when I saw him, and we blew away several hours drinking whiskey and catching up on each other's lives.

Wednesday I couldn't handle the stomach thing, it just wouldn't stop. So I blew off my workout (and didn't workout again until today - yay for holidays). Drug my body into work, before heading out to lunch with the team that I'm currently on (finishing up in January - not my crappy project). Then I met up with someone on my crappy project for many drinks, before calling it quits for the day and heading up to Chinatown to meet up with the sistersC and Sweetie J. We ended up in the Richmond, eating Korean, and having a blast.

And Thurs, yay, that was it. I went to lunch with CChu again before heading out to a team outing (the project I was on over the summer had a party) at a bowling alley. Many beers later, and I was done. I picked up my bag and went to the Castro to meet up with OP and another friend of mine. We had a crazy good dinner (holla Brussel Sprouts!) before we stopped in at Lucky 13 (a fav of Blondie and me when we lived there). A tall boy PBR later, I caught a cab to the airport and flew home to see Blondie.

The flight went on time, and except for the row of friends beside me who got so drunk that one of them actually lost his shoelace (?!???!?!) and had to call the flight attendant to help find it (?!?!??!?!), it was a good trip home. I slept a lot on Friday, but managed to rally and we hit up our bar to see our bartender. Saturday, we pissed around most of the day, but did eat at McDonald's for lunch. Around 5 pm, we headed up several flights in our bldg to hang out with friends for Xmas Eve.

Xmas day, we cleaned our place for a bit, before heading back up to our friends apartment for lunch/drinks/etc. They have a crazy good view (better than ours) and we just enjoyed not travelling for Xmas, being with each other, and celebrating our life in the city. I also pulled a "pass out at 7 pm on their couch" move, which is awesome. Blondie was happy that day also b/c the Packers won, which gave them their home-field advantage for Super Bowl.

Monday, I had off and we decided to hit up a bar of ours for lunch. Literally, that place is poison b/c we *always* end up drunk. Even when Mr Pooh visited, him and Blondie stopped in for lunch and were still there 5 hours later when I showed up. So many shots and beers later, we went to see the new Mission Impossible - SOOOO GOOD. You have to see this! I'm a big fan of the Mission Impossible movies to begin with, but this one blew them all away.

Tues-Thurs it was back at work, but it was nice b/c we were given permission to leave early each day. I did work a full day on Tues, but then Wed, I was out early, and Thurs, a bunch of my friends and I headed to the bar early. My BFF from work and I decided to walk to Grand Central after the bar on Thurs, and we must've spent an hour running around in there - buying tons of food, and checking out the "whisper station" in front of the Oyster Bar (the roof curves and you stand on opposite sides of the hall and whisper into the corner, and the person on the other side hears you like you are standing right beside them). After we got done in Grand Central, I walked back over and met up with Blondie at our bar for many beers and making plans for NYE.

Friday I was a mess, but luckily it was a half day. Blondie met me for lunch at my fav mexican restaurant before we ran some errands. It was back home to collapse for a nap, and then our bar friends called so we went back to the bar and met up with them. It was an early night though b/c we were up and at 'em early on Saturday. We caught a 1:45 pm bus out to the middle of New Jersey to hangout with our bartender and his friends for NYE. It was a blast - many drinks, a ton of food, solid laughter, just a great time.

Sunday was a mess though - we all spent the night at our bartender's house, and then we hit up his local bar for drinks bright and early Sunday morning. We finally made it back to the city around 2 pm, and immediately showered and headed back out to meet up with our bar friends at the "poison bar", where sure enough, all of us got hammered. I love our waiter there - he ROCKS. It was back home to pass out for the night.

Today I woke up at 9 am and went back to bed at 10 am and got up at 1 pm. I finally started working out around 2:30 pm and feel much better now - I did an Insanity disc and a Wii cardio disc. It's back to eating right tomorrow, but for today, I'm going to finish off the rest of the crap in the house. Blondie is gearing up to watch Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl, and a pizza is on it's way.

Happy Holidays everyone!

--K