Back to Reality

So 10 months of blessed freedom (truly truly grateful to have it. Truly. Beyond grateful) is over. I started a new job last Monday. It's been a very intense, very tiring, and very humbling 6 days at my new job. My role is similar to what I did at my last company (project mgmt combined with services mgmt) but in an industry I've not worked in before (so terminology is all up in the air). I feel like I should have a sign around my neck that just says: "LOL. Wut?" Then about 25 times a day, I could just point at the sign. It would save everyone time and energy.

So last Monday was my first day at work. I had an early start and meetings that spanned my office, a client's office in New Jersey, and a vendor's office in the city. I also did not have a laptop, email address, or cell phone, so it was definitely just a learning day.

On Tuesday, I got my laptop. Toward the middle of Tuesday, I got my email address (they initially spelled my name wrong so we had to get that sorted out) and at the very end of the day, an office phone and a cell phone.

Wednesday, I spent the morning at the New Jersey client office before coming back to my company office to end the day. AA texted toward the end, and since he works literally across the street from my new office, we decided to get a drink. My English bar friend joined us for a quick one, and then we all cabbed back to our hood together. I did a quick workout at home and then joined the crew at the Winchester for a few drinks into the evening.

On Thursday, Blondie and I decided to do a celebration dinner in our hood so after work ended, I walked down to meet Blondie at his office (we work 20 blocks apart off the same avenue). We then trucked back to our hood, to the restaurant we had chosen, and ran straight into my company's founder's wife. LOL. The founder ended up joining us and paying for our meal (so sweet of him!!!!) and then we headed to a German restaurant afterward for more delicious beers (which we paid for but literally were like 1/8th the cost of what our meal had been). After the German place, it was over to Winchester to end the night.

Friday was kind of a mess. I didn't realize the company worked from home on Fridays (there are only like 6 employees total for my office) so I headed in. I had to get let into the office because I didn't have a key (cracked up at this), and then my laptop decided to be a bitch on an auto Windows update (and uninstalled all the stuff I had installed since Tuesday). So at like noon, I gave up and headed home to finish the day from there.

I was supposed to meet Blondie for a happy hour with his work group but I ended up feeling just completely drained and so I did a workout and then headed to Winchester. Blondie joined me about an hour later and we ended our night there.

Saturday was a dud. I was a day off on my workouts so my double day Friday ended up being a double day Saturday instead (I skipped my Thurs workout to go to dinner with Blondie and did my Thurs workout on Friday instead). Then we just lazed around all day. I made eggs and veggies for us for lunch, and then made pasta for dinner which involved a couple of bottles of wine. And then we crashed out watching a really bad movie (Jupiter Ascending - like REALLY bad).

Sunday was a good day. I did my stretch disc and then got a pedicure before hitting up Pony. Many drinks ensued there and then it was a trip to Winchester before heading home around 6 pm. I crashed for the night at 7 pm because I rule.

And today was pretty tiring as well. It was about a billion degrees in the city and I had to go to New Jersey for the afternoon so it was a very hot 23 block walk to the train and then I didn't get done in Jersey until about 6:30 which didn't put me home until about 7:45 and wah wah wah wah. Which, btw, means I skipped my Monday workout as well.

No plans for the week except trying to figure out exactly what I need to figure out with my new job. WOOT.

T25 - I just completed Week 4 of Beta. This is week 5. I'm not actually sure I'll get all the workouts in but I'm going to do my best. So far I like Beta way better than I liked Alpha, and my favorite workout disc (ever possibly) is Ript Circuit. I don't know why, but that one feels like it goes so fast and I get a great workout as well.

Have a good one people.

--K

Ooops. Forgot.

The cat!!!! New appointment with his oncologist and he gained .2 lbs. Not only that, they pulled urine this time to see about his kidney function because the problem we've had with his bile/diarrhea might be a potential problem that way, and the vet said, and I quote: "You couldn't ask for a better test result, even considering his age and his disease."

So all the yes in the world! My guy is kicking some ass right now!!!

--K

Short But Sweet

Well, my biggest news is: I am employed again. Yes. It's true. The "staycation" is *over*.

I start my new job tomorrow morning. I'll be doing project management for an IT firm in the financial industry, combined with services management post project management phases. I'm obviously well versed with both forms of management, but I'm not up on finance so this will have a sharp learning curve.

On the plus side, the pay is good and the founder knows about my part-time writing gig. So, yeah. I'm equally parts excited and nervous.

In book news, my book is actually doing really well. Amazon posts "stats" for what an average book sells (new writer, non friends and family buying) and my book is killing those stats. In addition, I put my book in the "borrow" program on Amazon (which is not required and not everyone does it). I get paid per page read once a reader goes past 10% of my book, and so far, in 12 days, I've had a crazy amount of pages read.

My next book comes out next weekend (squee!) and Blondie and I are going to celebrate.

We saw "An Act of God" on Broadway yesterday with Glitter. It stars Jim Parsons (Sheldon from Big Bang Theory whom we also saw in "Harvey" on Broadway last year) and it was ah-mah-zing! Favorite lines include the Sarah Palin one, the "My son is a pussy" one, the "Florida is shaped like a penis", and the part where God blew Michael's wing off. OMG. Literally my all-time favorite play I've seen thus far in my play-going career.

What else? Lots of catching up with friends. I met up with my friends from my last job on Thursday and we literally shut down the bar. It was so good to see everyone and drinks were free (thanks last job!) and lah lah lah... oopsie, bar was closed. And I met up with a friend who had also quit the last job on Friday, and we hung out all day long. Lunch, after lunch drinks, after-after lunch drinks. Just a lot of fun.

The 4th!!!! OMG! Blondie's work rented out this *massive* house in the Hamptons for the 4th. I was nervous because I hadn't met any of the people Blondie works with but my fears were entirely unfounded. Everyone was amazing. The house was amazing. The drinks and food were amazing. I burned my face so badly that I had raccoon eyes for almost 8 days. Eek.

Blondie's new project launched!!!! Blondie and his company have been working on it since Blondie started, and it launched!!!! So crazy happy for him! The feedback has been excellent and I'm so excited for Blondie going forward!

Shania Twain!!! Glitter and I trucked over to NJ last week to go to a Shania Twain concert. Glitter had signed up for a service that gives out last-minute seats for concerts/plays/etc that don't want empty seats toward the front, and so our seats were crazy good. It was a really good concert and I'm happy I got the chance to go. Plus, hitting up Landsdowne after didn't hurt either.

Landsdowne brought back cheese whiz! Cheese whiz, buffalo chicken nachos are back in play. YES.

I feel like that's my news but I might have missed something. If I did, and if I remember, I'll post it this week.

Have a great one, y'all.

--K