Blah, blah, blah

2 weeks of reverse commuting to NJ has done me in. And it's not about to end anytime soon. The madness is just starting - by the time this year ends, if I maintain the same amount of days I will have stayed in a hotel room this month, it will equate out to about 72 nights. SOB.

2 weeks ago, I was in NJ for 5 days of training for our 3rd party customers. I did an out and back commute on Monday, but ended up staying Tues and Wed nights. Training starts super early, which means a 5 am wake-up call if I stayed in NYC, and I just couldn't handle it. My coworker stayed with me also - which was nice as I had someone to eat dinner and have drinks with. Also, this coworker and I have never really had 1-on-1 time, and I really feel I got to know him that week.

So the training went well - this is honestly my favorite group of 3rd party customers I've ever worked with. They made me laugh on a daily basis which is always a nice thing. But the week was kind of a bust for multiple reasons. I had to do a bunch of networking tests throughout the building we will be putting our product in, so every night after training ended, it was several hours of wandering the building, doing tests, making notes, etc. After an early start, working into the evening, fried me.

And then.... ugh. The PM I tag team with quit. Him and I had been on multiple projects together, we had an excellent rapport and had reached a point in our working relationship that we knew what the other was thinking. Things just went well when we worked together (me = technical PM, him = project PM). Anyway, he did quit - his last week was 2 weeks ago during training. I had been bugging him and his boss about who was taking over, and they (my boss, his boss) ended up deciding I would just handle it all. They told me the night before his last day - which was a complete shock. The stuff he deals with is stuff I don't like to deal with - insurance, legal issues, etc. So it's been a super frantic 7 days since he's left the company - I feel so overwhelmed I don't know what to do.

Last weekend, after getting the news I own the project, I decided to just collapse. We didn't go out on Friday night, just stayed in and watched TV. However, on Saturday, we went up to Times Square to BB Kings with our bar friends to watch an 80's cover band play! The band was amazing - the show didn't start until 11:30 pm which is super late for me, but I'm so glad we powered through. I think we got home around 2:30 am. I was coated in sweat from being a dancing machine and just giddy from good music, good friends, good beer, etc.

On Sunday, I went up and met my bar friends sans Blondie at Pony. We spent most of the afternoon there - I love the bartender that works there and enjoy getting to sit and chat the day away with her. We ended up re-doing the match.com profile of one of my male bar friends (with his permission, he was sitting there with us) and drinking some great beers. After Pony, it was back to our local bar to end our night. I ended up at home around 8 pm, and we ordered in a ton of pizza for dinner. And then crashed out again watching TV.

And NO SUNDAY DREAD b/c we had Monday off for MLK day. Blondie and I met up with my best bar friend around 2 pm at a new restaurant in our neighborhood for brunch - this restaurant also is a mixology bar so I had 2 of the best bourbon cocktails I've had in my life along with a killer smoked chicken hash. Blondie went with a totally refreshing apple salad, and my bar friend had a negroni and a cuban. After lunch, Blondie headed home but my bar friend and I went back to Pony for some more beers. We also ended up getting into some deep conversation and kept delaying our departure so we could talk.

And then Tuesday - back out to NJ for a week of manual labor. I met up with a coworker bright and early and we boarded the train. And it started snowing about 10 mins into our 30 min train ride. And it kept up all day. We met up with 2 other coworkers at the 3rd party site in the morning, and 3 of us ended up deciding to last-minute stay the night b/c of how bad the snow storm was. It was treacherous driving, and the 3 mile drive to our hotel took 1.5 hours. Wednesday our 3rd party site shut b/c of the weather, so I waited until about noon and then made the trek back to NYC. Blondie had stayed home to work that day also b/c of snow, so him and I got to do a nice lunch together.

It was back to NJ on Thurs, this time meeting up with 4 more coworkers. Most of us stayed the night on Thurs also - we went for a killer dinner and then bought a bottle of bourbon and sat up in the hotel lobby until 1 am, drinking, talking, etc. And Friday was horrible - I had identified a problem with the network at the 3rd party site, and had brought in our network engineer to talk to them. They finally agreed they had a problem (which was a major step forward) but now we are in the midst of trying to get it resolved ASAP. On top of that, all of the PM duties are in my lap so I felt like all I did this past week was sit in meetings where I would take 25 million action items down. Completely overwhelmed. I haven't felt this kind of work stress in a long time.

We did nothing again this weekend. I hitched a ride back to NYC on Friday night with my driving coworkers and then collapsed early in bed. And yesterday it snowed again like crazy so Blondie and I did a junk food and wine run around 4 pm and then nothing the rest of the day. Today, taking it easy. It's back to NJ on Monday, the oncologist for Tigga on Tuesday, and leaving for Atlantic City on Wednesday through Friday to support yet another 3rd party site that got put back on me when the PM quit (it was originally our launch last August, but I rolled off and he stayed on. Now it's back to me fully. And I haven't kept up with them because I never dreamed this would happen. So yay. Yay on that).

And starting next week, I'm 4 weeks at our NJ site in a row as we do a rolling launch.

For the Tigga fans out there - he's doing great. We went through about a week period where he wasn't eating - I called the vet about it and they said to keep him on the dosage until his checkup (which is Tuesday). If he stopped eating entirely, then to bring him in earlier. But he didn't stop eating, just stopped eating his normal amounts. Anyway, he's back to eating his full amount of food and he's still feeling heavier to me. He hates his pills right now, so that's always fun in the morning. And he seems to be "achy" for lack of a better word - he used to fling himself into your lap, but now he steps on and gently eases himself down. However, for the most part, he looks good.

Ready for summer.
--K