A Week Without Work

If I ever won the lottery, I would not be one of those people who kept working because they'd be bored without work. Nope, not me. I'd quit, and never look back.

So obvs, I had a great week. A really great week.

It started on Monday. I met up with my bar friend around 1 pm for lunch. We hit up a new BBQ place in our hood, and it was pretty good - and it has killer drink specials which always makes me happy. After lunch and a few beers, she had some shopping she needed to do, so off we went down to the Union Sq area. We spent the afternoon shopping away, and I helped her back to her apt with her bags. Then we went out for one last beer for the night at our local, before we both headed home, exhausted from all our shopping.

Tuesday it was off to get my roots done. It was a great time at the salon - it was rainy and cold out, and the salon was warm, so I fell into a light sleep almost immediately (my eyes were open, and I knew what was going on, but it felt like everyone was a million miles away talking in light voices) - and then when I headed out afterwards, I felt great from my inadvertent 3 hour "nap". After my roots, I stopped in at my favorite nachos place and got me a huge platter of buffalo chicken nachos. Along with a lot of beer. Once the nachos place started filling up with people (and seriously, 3:30 pm on a Tuesday and the bar is getting packed? What do you people do where you can be at the bar at 3:30 on Tuesday? And are you hiring?), I took off to Pony for several beers and got caught up with the bartender there who I hadn't seen in awhile. And finally around 5 pm, I went to our local bar to end the night. Blondie met me there, we ate dinner, and got caught up with everyone as it had been awhile since we'd been in together.

Wednesday I wanted a burrito for lunch, so I headed out around 11:45 to get one. Brought it home, along with some beers and gummy bears, and spent the afternoon in bed, watching TV and cuddling the cat. No lie. All afternoon.

And Thursday was a nice day also - I decided a salad from poison bar was what I wanted for lunch. So I stopped on the way to the bar and bought the latest issue of US Weekly, and then plopped at the bar for several hours, reading my magazine and enjoying my day. That afternoon, Blondie texted and asked me to meet him for dinner down by his work. So I took a 3 mile walk down the island to see Blondie (note: the wind was ferocious on Thursday evening, and it took me about 30 mins to heat up once inside the restaurant - never, ever, again will I walk 3 miles down the island in February. Lesson learned). We hit up a mexican restaurant for dinner - I had margaritas and fajitas, and Blondie had a burrito. We split guacamole and tortilla soup. And then we cabbed it home to end our day.

Friday I ordered in food for lunch, and was in the middle of watching crappy TV when Blondie opened the door to the apartment. He came home about 4 hours early and brought me tulips! It was such a nice surprise. We took it fairly easy the rest of the day, and around 6:20 headed on out. We met up with bar friend to go to an interactive theater experience called "Sleep No More". Basically this theater company took over a warehouse in Chelsea, and they converted it to look like a creepy old hotel. And then they re-enacted scenes from Macbeth and some Hitchcock movies all throughout the warehouse. You could explore at will, so if you saw an actor, you could follow them until they did something. Or you could just wander through the rooms. You wore a mask and couldn't talk the entire time - although if you took a break at the bar (which I did, and watched their jazz band which rocked) you could take off your mask and talk. I saw a bloody orgy (which I renamed vampire orgy) and found the candy room in the hotel, where I sat for about 10 minutes eating from the candy jars. They had an insane asylum floor which freaked me out - on that floor, I had a sexy nurse squeeze my ass, then strip an actress naked and dump her in a bathtub where the water immediately turned bloody. Awesome sauce. As weird as it sounds, it was pretty cool and intense. And it made me love NYC even more.

After the play, the 3 of us headed back to our hood and went back to my nacho bar, and I again had a giant platter of buffalo chicken nachos. We talked our way through what we had seen at the show (you split up in the hotel, so even though we went together, we didn't go through the hotel together). My favorite things had to have been the dead baby doll in the giant ashtray, or the mobile above an old crib made with headless dolls. So freaking creepy.

Saturday was low-key. I'm trying to get back in the mindset of yes, I do have a job I have to go to tomorrow. And it sucks. So we spent Saturday doing nothing. I took a nap in the afternoon and then we watched some Star Wars, but that was literally about it.

And today is going to be spent being nervous. It's been a long time since I've started a new job (I don't consider NYC move starting a new job b/c I already knew everyone from working with them while in SF) - and my nerves are kicking in. I just hope I do ok, and don't embarrass my friend who called me in for the position.

Workouts! GO ME!
Monday: 3.1 mile run in 40:58 (and seriously. W.T.F?), 5 min cooldown; ton of weights
Tuesday: none, hair appt
Wednesday: 3.1 mile speedwork - 2 mins at 4.1 mph, 2 mins at 5.8-6.5 mph - in 36:57, 5 min cooldown; ton of weights
Thursday: 3.1 mile run in 37:22 (FINALLY), 5 min cooldown; P90X Ab Ripper X; P90X Stretching; 3 mile walk down to Blondie's office
Friday: 10 miles on bike - 2 at level 7, 2 at level 12 - 41:28, 5 min cooldown
Saturday: Insanity Cardio Recovery; tabata push-up interval

--K

1 Year

I'm typing this from the comfort of my bed because I'm officially unemployed. For 1 week. Which means for 1 week, I don't have to move from said bed if I don't want to. I'm super excited about this, and actually do plan to spend one day not doing anything but watching bad TV (in bed) and cuddling the cat <- he's not thrilled.

This week was a weird one - so many conflicting emotions, good and bad.

So this past Tuesday started the week off well - I finally found out from my boss who was taking over my role. It ended up getting split between several people, but at least I could then start doing handoff. And then Tuesday night, Blondie and I headed out to Esca - Mario Batali's seafood restaurant - to celebrate my new job. I've been wanting to eat here since we moved to NYC, and we *finally* got around to it.

The food was excellent - we started with scallops in tangerine sauce, and followed that with baked crab and tuna meatballs, and followed that with spaghetti with lobster, mint and chilis, and then followed that (holy crap, do we eat a lot or what?) swordfish for Blondie and cod for me. I really liked this place - the tuna meatballs were my favorite things followed by the spaghetti. The only downside was our waiter seemed to disappear for long stretches, but Blondie and I took it in stride and just used it as a chance to talk a lot. After Esca, we hit up Dunkin Donuts for dessert. All in all, a really good evening.

Wednesday I went with my 2 BFFs from the office for lunch - we must've spent 1.5 hours out, enjoying what we knew would be our last lunch together. It was during this lunch that I realized that saying goodbye to everyone on my last day was going to be a bitch. I was a little emotional during the day but kept it to myself. And then Blondie brought me home roses on Wed night, which helped a lot - thanks Blondie!

Thursday was V-Day. Blondie and I don't really celebrate, so when my 1 BFF from the office invited me and my 2nd BFF from the office along with our spouses over for dinner, we jumped at it. His girlfriend cooked us an amazing dinner of dal, lamb biryani, and okra. And my 2nd BFF brought a bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue along which I drank half of for him. And his wife brought along pastries from a little shop near their house - which I ate half of for them. I brought nothing along but myself - which, I mean, pretty much rocks.

The backtrack slightly, on Thursday, I got sent an issue that had been found in our release for this week - and it was critical. So went spent the afternoon digging into the issue, writing up unlocks, figuring out how the issue showed up in the first place, etc. When we left the office to go to 1 BFF's apartment, I figured that was the last of work for me - and was a little happy that there had been 1 last "thing" I got to assist with and be a driver in getting resolved. Okay, so then when we were in the cab on the way back to our apartment on Thursday night, I finally checked my phone for the first time all evening. And then had to go home, log in to work, and work with QA to make sure they understood how to test. 4 hours left in my tenure, and I got called. As I told Blondie, it was kind of nice having one more WTF moment.

Friday I was hungover. And I knew as soon as I got to the office, it was going to be an emotional day. One of my coworkers had written the nicest note on my whiteboard, and as soon as I walked in, I saw it. And started crying. And had to shut my door for 10 minutes until I calmed down. I was then okay until I sent out my "good-bye" email - responses started coming in immediately and then I cried some more (with my door shut). Then the VP of the company IM'd me and asked me to leave for drinks a bit early (we had a half day on Friday and she had an appt scheduled, so she wanted to around 12:45 pm so that she could get 1 last drink with me). She came to my office to get me around 12:45, and I handed her my badge and VPN token, and she said "Oh Kerri" really quietly and shook her head, and then I started full on ugly crying. All the way down the hall and out the door. I didn't say good-bye to anyone. I finally got calmed down outside and then was uber embarrassed.

A lot of my friends came for good-bye drinks. We spent all afternoon at the bar, I leaked tears a little more but not full on crying. My boss stayed the longest with me. She brought me a very nice bottle of expensive tequila and the VP brought me a bottle of really expensive scotch. And then I cried a little more on my walk home. I got home around 6:30 pm and Blondie and I decided to go to our local for a quick drink, but it was super crowded when we got there, so we just ended up getting some food and going home.

And then it was Saturday. And I'm hoping this is the last time I talk about this on the blog (but I certainly have him in my brain everyday), but Saturday was a year that Max had died. I spent the morning crying some more - I really missed him on Saturday and when the time hit 10:10 am, which is when we lost him, I lost my shit for a few minutes. After I got myself under control, we decided to clean the apartment. We spent several hours throwing shit out, vacuuming up a ton of dust, etc. I felt a lot better after we were done. And then Blondie let me have the afternoon to myself - I ate cheese curds and watched bad TV and forced Tigga to sit with me. We ordered in chinese food for dinner and rounded out the night with The 3 Musketeers.

Yesterday I did some yoga, and then met up with my bar friends at Pony. I enjoyed many beers and a delicious grilled cheese (loaded with bacon and tomato). My bar friend's husband left early, and then my bar friend and I headed up to a mexican restaurant in our hood for guacamole and nachos. I rolled in around 6 pm, loaded down with vitamin waters and gummy bears. Go me!

No plans for the week - just a lot of relaxing before the stress of starting a new job.

Workouts - trying to get back on track:
Tuesday - 3.1 mile on treadmill in 41:58 (hahahaha - wtf?); 5 min cooldown; little bit of weights
Thursday - 30 mins on bike, 2 mins level 12, 2 mins level 7; 5 min cooldown
Sunday - P90X Yoga

--K

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack

I'm going to start full recaps next week again, but here are the highlights of what's been going on. For the last month. Oops.

1) Travel! 5 states, 4 timezones, 3 days. I hit up Spokane for a few days before flying down to SF for work. Spokane was beautiful - a lot of snow, but it made it really peaceful. My aunt and uncle are still crazy - which I love. And the highlight of it all, was that on my flight from Salt Lake to SF (Spokane->Salt Lake->SF - how is not easier to get down the west coast?) Ashton Kutcher was in the first class section. The non-highlight of that highlight was that I hadn't showered in almost 24 hours. And second non-highlight was that I creepy stared him down once I realized it was him. Shame.

2) Ca-burlesque! My bar friend was in another cabaret/burlesque show this past weekend. Several of us went out to cheer her on, and the night took off from there. Somehow I blinked and it was 3 am and I was rolling in drunk to the apartment (and waking up a sick Blondie in the process). Ugh. I'm almost 40, have I mentioned that?

3) N.E.W. J.O.B! This is what has been taking up my time - between interviews, travel, quitting, doing KT at the office, etc - but it's all good. Because it's leading to an opportunity that I'm so very excited for! I don't mention corporate names on this site, so I won't give that out, but I will say the interview felt like a party, and I can't wait to get going in my new office/role.

4) Getting to see all my SF friends one last time! It worked out extremely well that my SF trip was planned in advance, b/c I got to see everyone again - I didn't get to say goodbye in person to people b/c the new job offer wasn't finalized until that week (and I didn't want to say anything until I told my boss), but my week in SF was definitely a good one. I was out every single night, and got to see almost everyone I know and love in SF. Thanks work!

5) Exercise? Ha. No. None of that. I am feeling very pudgy right now, so I will definitely be picking back up on exericse - but I've been basically too excited about #3, and celebrating every night, to do anything active. I have been trying to walk home several days a week, but that doesn't even begin to counteract the damage I'm doing right now.

6) Snowstorm Nemo! Or as Blondie put it, "any other day in Wisconsin". NYC didn't get hit that badly, and it was pretty while it happened. And it gave us an excuse to head to Pony - 14% ABV pours while watching a blizzard? Not bad folks. Not bad. (14% ABV pours = Goose Island Bourbon Barrel Stout)

Plans coming up include - celebration dinner (for my new job) tomorrow night with Blondie; going away party on Wed for work; hanging out with my work friends and their sig others on Thursday; and immediate friend's going away party on Fri (i.e. my closest and bestest at the office only).

Then I have a week off (woot!) Where I will be going to see Annie on Broadway, getting my roots done, visiting Blondie for lunch, getting a pedicure, getting my eyebrows threaded, and a solo lunch at the bar that does my favorite nachos in the world. And sleep.

Full recaps going forward starting on Sunday. I promise.

Happy today.
--K