Woo Hoo For Spring!

It feels like winter has finally broken in NYC. It also feel like this has been the longest winter ever. It wasn't a bad winter, just a really long one. Someone pointed out that because Hurricane Sandy hit at the end of October, bringing with it the start of some gross weather, that's why winter feels like it has been here for 5 years. But whatever the reason, it's over. And I'm fucking relieved.

The week was a good one - super fast again - but super good.
Monday was a typical Monday - I was immediately put on another project, this one due this past Friday, so Monday was spent in meetings, making sure everything was set for Friday. And then on Tuesday, the week got 10000x better as the one and only Shelby Shelbersons showed up for a few days!!!!! We got to meet up on Tuesday night, and headed to a scotch bar by my work. We were joined by Blondie and enjoyed the evening catching up over a few drinks. After drinks, we went to Lillie's for dinner, and then we said goodbye to Blondie and Shelbs and I headed back to her hotel for drinks at the bar to end the evening. We were joined by a few of her coworkers and I made my way home quite tipsily around 1 am. Oops.

I was in a fog all day Wednesday. The day went fast, due to my project, but I couldn't shake the remnants of the party the night before. I was still sitting at work at 6:30 pm, simply because I couldn't get the energy to walk home, when Shelbs texted for dinner. She was supposed to have had a work function that got called off, so Blondie and I went to Koreatown and met her for some Korean-y goodness. The night was short, just dinner, but it was good seeing her one last time before she flew home.

Thursday Blondie got the official good news at his office - that being that his company bought out his contract and made him a FT employee! He signed the paperwork on Thursday and starting tomorrow, is no longer a contractor. This is awesome news for Blondie - he loves his company and his coworkers, and had often talked about how he wished he had found his company on his own instead of through a contracting company. CONGRATULATIONS BLONDIE! He's really excited about getting vacation days again. :)

We went out to celebrate on Thursday night at our local bar. We both ate some dinner there, and I had a few scotches. Our bartender is super excited for Blondie as well as all our friends - everyone kept coming by to say congratulations. It was a great almost end to the week!

And then here comes Friday to ruin it all. Ugh. My project was an upgrade to one of our envs. I had been PM'ing and coordinating the effort because this upgrade was going to cause a lot of people to not be able to work until we got everything back up and functioning. We started around 11:30 am, and immediately ran into some issues. We plugged away all day on them, and it would get better and then worse and then better... rinse, repeat. Everyone except the immediate team on this project also took off early on Friday since it was a holiday for some. It was disheartening to watch people leaving around 3 pm when you knew you were going to be there for a lot longer. BUT, FINALLY, around 9 pm we finished up. It was a great feeling - and my boss' boss sent me a "OMG! This went so much better than last time!" email - so even though it felt hard and long, apparently it kicked ass over the last upgrade. The team that was left (6 of us) chugged a beer while I was testing, and then headed on home.

The day was notable for another reason also. Around 4:30 pm on Friday, I started feeling funny. My stomach wasn't cooperating - I felt crampy and nauseous and it just got worse throughout the day (I hadn't eaten hardly anything on Friday so I have no idea what was going on). I got home on Friday night, ate 2 sushi rolls, and went immediately to bed. I was up and down most of the night, just miserable.

I woke up Saturday morning and realized I had the same stomach thing that brought Blondie down last week (to a much lesser extent though). When I recovered on Saturday, we went and did some grocery shopping, and then I came home and went right back to bed. Finally around 1:30, I decided to do some yoga - I took it very easy, and didn't push myself, and by the time I was through, the nauseousness was gone although the cramps were still there. Last night we made some dinner, which I managed to eat okay, and then watched Argo before heading to bed.

Today the stomach thing was back in full-force, but I feel better now. I attempted a run (shitty - haha, pun intended), and am now going to take it easy today. I'm excited for the Louisville / Duke game because no matter what happens, one of them has to lose! Haaaaaaaaaaaa!

This week is back to PM'ing 2 projects, both due early morning Friday. And I'm meeting my BFF from my old job for drinks on Tuesday as well as going to dinner with 2 friends from my new job on Thursday (squee! new friends!).

Happy Cadbury Creme Egg Day People!

Workouts:
Monday: Insanity Core Cardio and Balance
Tuesday: 2.5 mile run in 30:12; 5 min cooldown; weights
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: 3.1 mile run in 35:47- 2 min walk at 4.1 mph, 2 min run at 6.2-6.7 mph; 5 min cooldown
Friday: Insanity Cardio Recovery
Saturday: P90X Yoga
Sunday: 2.5 mile run in 31:57 (shitty); 5 min cooldown; weights
--K

Riding in Cars

To celebrate last Sunday's 13-year-date-a-versary, Blondie and I headed out for burgers that night. We hit up 5-Napkin Burger and enjoyed our evening together. I had 2 glasses of champagne, a salted caramel milkshake, and a ahi tuna burger; and Blondie had a strawberry milkshake, and a classic burger. Then we rolled our tubby butts home afterwards to collapse out and watch our Netflix. It was a nice way to end the week.

Work was very busy again this week, but a lot of good things happened. On Tuesday, I got the last of the major project finished up and shipped out, so I was pretty happy about that. I was sitting at my desk, relieved that it was over, when my boss' boss came by and said they needed me on technical support for a sales call in western NJ on Wednesday. Which started my stress over again. I'm very comfortable with our product and what it does, but technical support for it is not something I've done.

I was a stress ball all night on Tuesday night, just worrying about Wednesday. But then I got to work on Wednesday morning and felt okay. I met up with the 2 sales guys who were also going out with me, did some work on their specific pieces of our product (I had to get some stuff downloaded and set up on their pieces so that the sales pitch could work), and then we got in a chauffeur driven SUV around noon and headed out. It was about 1.5 hours out to western NJ, almost at the PA border. We got there and I got everything set up while the sales guys schmoozed with the people we were presenting to, and then I sat there in sheer fucking relief as everything worked as expected. I got to participate in the sales call, and answer some questions also. Then we got back in our SUV and headed back to NYC. We got back in around 5:15 pm, and I heard immediately that the sales guys had called the CTO and told him I "rocked it". So yeah, Wednesday was aok in my book :)

On Wednesday night, Blondie got sick - some kind of stomach virus that has pretty much knocked him down and out. He's finally feeling better today; but his week was ruined b/c of this bug.

On Thursday, we had an all afternoon offsite (presentation and cocktails) for my company. We had a pretty major speaker come in and then the CEO of the company did a spiel. And then we spent several hours enjoying the completely open bar. I got to hang out and become even better friends with the woman who reminds me of my old BFF from SF company, and left the event around 6 pm completely happy. The sun was shining that evening on my walk home which made me not want to end my day so I gave my friends a call to see if they wanted to meet up. They were hanging at our local, so I went to join them. We ended up there all evening long, doing yet another dance off to the internet jukebox. My dinner was a pack of sliced ham I had bought on my way to the bar. It was just a crazy night.

And Friday was another good day. I was busy all day long, and then we had a post-mortem on the project I had just finished up. And everyone was very appreciate of the work I had done which was extremely nice. And Friday night around 4:30 pm, we got some extremely good news for our company. So the president took us all out for drinks. I only stayed for a few before heading home (simply b/c I was still hungover from my Thursday night party - also, please note that I've had more company-sponsored happy hours in the 4 weeks at my new job than I had in 6 years at my old job.). Also on Friday, Blondie got some excellent news about his job, so both of us ended our weeks on a high note (even though Blondie was still sick at this point).

Yesterday I woke up super early and got a good workout in. Then I did a bit of grocery shopping, stopped for a powerball ticket, and got a pedicure, all before 11:30 am. I spent the rest of the day relaxing, watching basketball, and dozing periodically. Today it was pretty much the same thing - up early, a bit of grocery shopping, and now being super duper lazy. No plans for the rest of the day, which makes me happy.

Workouts! Back on track, thank god.
Sunday: P90X Kenpo, tabata push up interval, tabata bicep curl interval
Monday: 30 mins on treadmill - 2 mins 4.1 mph walk, 2 min 5.8-6.5 mph run; 5 min cooldown
Tuesday: 30 mins on bike - 2 mins level 7, 2 mins level 12; 5 min cooldown
Wednesday: Insanity Cardio Recovery
Thursday: 2.5 mile run in 30:52; 5 min cooldown; weights
Friday: rest
Saturday: 3.1 mile run in 36:02 - 2 mins 4.1 mph walk, 2 mins 6.0-6.7 mph run; 5 min cooldown; weights
Sunday: 30 mins on treadmill - 2 mins 4.1 mph walk, 2 mins 5.3-5.5 mph run up 3.0% hill; 5 min cooldown

--K

Feeling Good. Feeling Real Good.

Overall, I've truly enjoyed my new job. Which makes me grateful. I can honestly say the last 3 weeks of work have been the fastest 3 weeks of my work-life. I feel like I wake up on Monday, and it's Friday before I know it.

So I've been helping on a massive project this past week at work, which also has contributed to making things fly by. I was just supposed to be assisting the person in charge, but due to personal reasons, this person had to be off of work on Thursday and Friday. Which meant I took over. I didn't exactly "knock it out of the park" but for only being at my job for 2.5 weeks, I definitely held my own. My boss' boss even came by at least 5 times last week to tell me thank you.

On Wednesday, we had a late night. I was at work with a few others until almost 9 pm trying to get things ready for our "army of temps" on Thursday. Around 9 pm, we got things prepped and ready for Thursday, so we decided to go join a going-away party that one of our 3rd party companies was throwing for one of their employees. It ended up being a blast. I was nervous because even though I feel I've fit in well, it's always nerve wracking at one of your first company outings where you don't know anyone well enough to be truly yourself.

I walked in with the few people who I had stayed late at the office with, and was accosted almost immediately by people happy that I was there. (The 3rd party company picked up the entire bar tab). Next thing I know I've got a scotch in one hand and a shot of tequila in the other. My boss' boss also came with us, and he pulled me aside for about 15 minutes to talk - it was a really good conversation, just him letting me know that so far he's impressed with what I've done. I also know this woman at work whom I really want to be friends with - she's just nice and friendly and really reminds me of my BFF from the SF office of my old company. Anyway, she was there and she came up as soon as I walked in and we spent about an hour in conversation. I left the bar around midnight, just truly feeling at peace for the first time in a long time.

Friday I almost made a big mistake at work. I caught it before anything bad happened, but I was pretty shaky about it after. I was working pretty heavily with another group on Friday also, so I had moved over to their section. I had given my boss' boss the basics about what I had almost screwed up, and after I got it fixed, he came by to where I was crashing in the office see what had truly happened. He got to laughing when he heard about it, and just said "no biggie, you caught it. That's all that matters". So I told him that I was having trouble regaining my equilibrium (just a new job, you hate to make a mistake). Anyway, I was sitting by one of the guys I had talked to at the bar on Wednesday, and he turned to me (while my boss' boss was there) and just had the nicest words to say about it all. He got me calmed down. The people at my new company are just so nice.

I ended up staying late on Friday night, trying to get one last issue resolved. There were about 5 of us left around 8 pm when we got everything going for the project I got dumped on. Everyone was all "thanks for staying! You didn't have to do that!" So anyway, I just feel good right now. I know I'm in the honeymoon stage of my new job, and that I will definitely have bad days and good days, but I'm glad it has started off well.

I met Blondie on Friday night at our local after everything had wound down at work. All of our friends were there and we spent several hours getting caught up with everyone. We decided Thai food sounded good, so around 10 pm, we left our bar and headed for dinner. Blondie had a good day also, so we got to just chat and eat some good food. Not a bad way to end the week.

Saturday was yuck. It started snowing early and it kept up All.Day.Long. Last year on St Patrick's day, I wore a long-sleeved t-shirt and was fine. This year, I was bundled up in sweater, heavy coat, scarf and was still freezing. Around 1:30 pm I headed down to Greenwich Village area and met up with 2 of my girlfriends from my old job for brunch at Minetta Taver. We had a blast - from many drinks, to just shooting the shit, it was a great time. I had 3 "Kentucky Dawn" drinks - bourbon, espresso syrup and orange, and a massive burger. Sooooo good. On my way home, once I got to my neighborhood, I ran into my one of other friends from Pony Bar - just got to say hi to him and do a quick catch up. Last night, Blondie and I stayed in and ordered in food and just watched TV.

Today is actually our 13 year together-versary. We didn't even realize it until about 2 hours ago. We ended up making reservations to a burger place in our hood for dinner tonight. Also today, we had groceries delivered in and both of us did a good workout (the first for me in a week).

All in all, feeling good right now.

--K

Dirty 30

Week 2 at work was an odd one. But I'm kind of an odd one, so I feel like I will fit in well at my new company.

On Tuesday, I had to start working on an assignment (manual work) that I knew we couldn't get completed in the deadline required. I got through what I could on Tuesday and was a mess Tuesday night. My hands and wrists were bruised, and my feet and legs were fried because I had been standing all day long. They decided to bring in some temps starting Wed to finish everything off and I almost cried with happiness.

Wednesday and Thursday were kind of low-key days. Being new, I was a little bit bored. I want to help, but right now my assignments are all "get done in an hour" type of assignments.

And Friday actually helped a lot. Around 10:30 am, they realized there was a problem with the manual work assignment the temps were doing (the temps weren't doing anything wrong - I didn't give the wrong instructions, but the wrong instructions were given to me and I had given those to the temps). So we had to stop the temps from what they were doing. And then there was scrambling to come up with the right instructions. And then I got pulled away from my desk and moved into the main area of the office around 4 pm to help with testing the right instructions. And I was relieved - because I felt like one of the gang. The CTO came through the office around 4:45 pm and passed out some beers, and I got to joke around with people, just generally feel like I was fitting in. I stayed until around 7:15 pm, and was happy to do so.

I was though exhausted when I got home on Friday night. I just took some beers home and then we ordered in dinner. And I collapsed in front of the TV.

Saturday was a much better day though. We got up super early and did our grocery shop, and were done by 10 am. I then finally did a workout for the first time in 2 weeks. And then we made lunch. And then we both went back to bed for 3 hours. Around 6 pm, we started a dance party in our apartment (Blondie played the music, I danced my ass off) and then around 7:30, headed off to celebrate my bar friend's 30th birthday! (and yes, I feel old right now).

We started at our local bar for drinks and meeting up with everyone. Then we headed up the street to a restaurant in our hood - there were about 12 of us, and we took over a large portion of their patio. After the restaurant, Blondie and I went back to our local bar to pick up the cupcakes they were holding for us (it was a surprise from my bar friend's husband to my bar friend, and Blondie and I just had to pick them up and bring them to our next locale). We had a drink at the local before trucking back up to Times Square area and going to karaoke! We had our own private room with unlimited drinks and we sang the night away. Before we knew it, it was 3 am (time change) so Blondie and I bowed out and headed to McDonald's in Times Square for late night eats. And were home in bed around 3:30 am. Which is the latest we've been up in a looooooong time.

Yesterday was horrible. We slept until 1 pm, and then finally got up. We met up again with my bar friend and her husband for a late lunch at my nachos place, and then came back home and fell back asleep for the afternoon. A bit of TV last night, and it was back in bed around 10 pm. And I'm STILL dead on my feet today. I honestly could sleep for another 5 hours.

Old. So. Old.

--K

Week 1

So week 1 at the new job went quite well - I'm cautiously optimistic that I'll end up really liking the company and the work that I'll be doing.

The week started off with a trip out to Brooklyn for orientation. I was pretty nervous on the way out, but ended up really enjoying it as I met someone at orientation who was going to be working at my location right off the bat (multiple locations for my company). We ended up taking the train back to our location after our orientation, and then spent the afternoon getting introduced around our office. I ended the day by meeting Blondie and our friends at our local for drinks to celebrate day 1 being done.

The rest of the week was pretty good also. My work is walking distance from my apartment, and I'm really enjoying the trek up and back for the day. I'm already pretty involved in several things, and the people are really friendly, and to be honest, it feels like I've worked there for 6 months instead of 5 days.

Thursday evening, my bar friend called and I went and met her and another friend of ours for trivia. 2 guys sat down at the table next to us right before trivia started, and they ended up starting a conversation with me. We ended up talking about work situations, and guy 1 mentioned that guy 2 works at a .com in the fashion industry (a very important, well-known one). So I mentioned something about where I used to work, and they asked what I did there, so I told them. Then I asked friend 2 what he did at his company - and yes, he is the CEO of it (I googled him on my phone to confirm - and it was him). I felt like a giant jackass. Then friend 1 asked what I thought about a new hotel in our hood, and I mentioned that I had never been but another friend of mine loves the brunch there. It turns out that friend 1 owns the hotel. (I googled that too). In the end, they ended up taking my email so they could send us discount codes for the website, and brunch tickets for the hotel. I'd call that a successful night! After the trivia (which we blew at), we headed back to our local for some more drinks. 1 drink there turned into another 3 hours, and it was 1 am before I knew it.

On Friday, I was pretty tired and miserable all day, but since I am new at work, I didn't say anything to anyone about it - just sucked it up. Blondie met me after work was done (holla, 5:15!!!!) and we walked back to our neighborhood together. We ran an errand and then stopped at poison bar for drinks and dinner. Around 6:30, we headed to our local and met up with all of our bar friends. We ended up partying the night away, many shots ensued and the internet jukebox got a workout.

Yesterday, Blondie and I finally did some grocery shopping. After eating every meal out for the past month, we were dying for some home-cooked food. Our little grocery store shut down in January and moved down the street - and they had just re-opened on Thursday so we went to try it out. It was very clean and pretty but extremely cramped. We have to figure out if we need to find another grocery or not. Then in the afternoon, I met up with my bar friend for brunch (not at the hotel, but at another fav of ours). We had a couple of beers and some food before I helped her with her grocery shopping and got her back to her apartment.

Today was spent being lazy. I slept in late and then took it easy, watching TV all afternoon. It's back to work tomorrow - and I'm hoping that I continue to enjoy it!

Workouts - NONE! The first week took a lot out of me mentally, so I rolled with it. I'm hoping to get a workout in tomorrow night (I hate Monday morning workouts) before rolling back into a bunch of morning workouts this week.

--K