Let's talk about running

Well, I honestly have come off of a very very lazy week. Extremely lazy. I honestly don't think I went out and did anything at all this week after work.

Last Sunday Blondie and I headed to Pony Bar for lunch and some beers. I ended up getting some chili and Blondie got sausages and pretzels. They also had a sour strawberry beer that had been finished off in a bourbon barrel, and I fell head over heels in love with it. I normally hate sour beers, but this one, something about it - it was delicious. We didn't stay very long at Pony Bar, but did have a good time while we were there.

Work went fast up until Friday - and then I had my very first "this day is dragging" day since I started at my new job. The other days all flew by, busy each day, but then Friday happened and it was like hitting a brick wall at full force. Time felt like it went backwards. I ended up taking off early and met up with Blondie at our poison bar for salads and beer, before heading over to our local to round out our night. Due to my crappy Friday day, I got into the whiskey on Friday night. And I mean really got into the whiskey. And spent Saturday until about 2 pm sicker than a dog. A.W.E.S.O.M.E.

I don't have a lot of news this week so I'm going to talk about running. I've been and on-and-off runner for years now - I'd say it's been about 16 years that I've considered myself a runner. Some days/weeks/months I'm totally into it, and work my ass off for running, and some days/weeks/months I hate everything about running. I've been trying to fall back in love with running lately - there is a 10K in June in Central Park, and I really want to run it. But my body seems to have reached an impasse. My running feels awful and horrible lately, and it's like pulling teeth to get a run in. My breathing is erratic (no matter how slow or fast I go), and the thought of doing 2.5 miles makes me want to cry (so how am I supposed to do 6.2 miles in June?) I'm out of ideas for what to do - I've tried cross training, stretching, yoga, dropping my miles from 3.1 to 2.5, dropping my speed from 5.5 mph to anywhere between 4.8 and 4.9 mph (SLOW) and it's just not helping. I'm honestly thinking about just not running anymore - but that makes me sad. So that's my rant. I'm panic'ed because I don't want to hate running right now, but it just doesn't seem to be in the cards. If you have any ideas, please let me know.

Having said all that, workouts for the week:
Monday: Insanity Cardio Recovery
Tuesday: 28 mins on Precor; 5 min cooldown; 5 mins on treadmill at 5.5 mph; 6 min cooldown
Wednesday: 2.5 mile run in 30:15; 5 min cooldown
Thursday: 2.5 mile run in 30:50; 5 min cooldown; weights
Friday: Insanity Core Cardio and Balance; 3 sets of 16 reps - tricep dips and chest flys
Saturday: P90X Yoga
Sunday: 10 miles on bike in 41:36 - 2 mins level 7, 4 mins level 12; 5 min cooldown; around 8 mins on treadmill - some running, some walking.

What I'm looking forward to: We have tickets to see "Lucky Guy" on Broadway next Saturday (Tom Hanks, we got box seats); we got tickets to see Lady Antebellum for free (yay for Blondie's job!) in 1.5 weeks; the arrival of all the siblings and celebrating Blondie turning 40 in 2 weeks; and Slick and PFunk arriving in July for a few days! SO MUCH FUN STUFF COMING UP!

Kerri

Honeymoon Period

Last Sunday turned out to be an awesome day. I trucked up to my pedi place and got my silver polish replaced with bright red polish which I love. Also, there is something about a pedicure that makes my day - it's an hour of someone working on my feet, while I sit in a massage chair reading trashy gossip magazines and chugging Red Bull. It really doesn't get any better. After my pedi, I met Blondie at Pony Bar - we were the first ones there, but were eventually joined by our bar friends. Blondie and I split lamb sliders and fish donuts for lunch which were awesome. We were only there a couple of hours but it was a really nice day.

The week was kind of low-key - always, always busy at work, but I kept it easy at night. I feel like the honeymoon period I've been living in with work was blown this week - nothing in particular happened, but it just started to feel like "a job" finally. It had to happen, and I still love working there and love everyone I work with, but the magical feeling of "ooooh, I'm new! what might happen today?" has passed. Bummah.

That was kind of a downer paragraph, so I will tell you my good news - and that is apparently if I want something with my mind enough, it happens. I've made the woman I felt I would be good friends with, my friend. We've consistently been going to lunch over the past 2 weeks, and then finding a conf room afterwards and crashing to eat our food (open space office situation). Woo hoo!

On Wednesday, I met up with 3 women from my old SF office. They were in town for work and had called to see if I wanted to go to dinner. We hit up a Victorian themed restaurant in Times Square and had a blast. I hadn't seen them truly in about a year - even though I had gone to SF all the time, I was always on a different floor in the bldg than them. We chatted office gossip (I realize I don't work there and shouldn't care about gossip, but it's still my favorite thing to talk about), and I filled them in on my new position.

After dinner, I headed back to my neighborhood and met up with my bar friend and trivia friend for "Advanced Trivia" at a new bar in my hood. I came in after round 2 was done, but knew some of the answers for the last set of tryst rounds and round 3. We ended up in 5th place, which wasn't bad, and it was enjoyable end to the day. My bar friend and I walked back to our apartments afterwards, just enjoying the evening.

Friday I met Blondie for dinner after work - we went for cajun. I had some penne etouffee and Blondie had blackened salmon. It was nice having a "date night" for once as opposed to going to our local bar or ordering food in (our 2 Friday night standards). Afterwards, I felt like baking so we stopped and got some brownie mix and I cooked those up on Friday night.

Yesterday I went to the gym, and then finished working out in the apartment. We ended up ordering food in for lunch and then collapsing in front of the TV until about 6 pm. We roused our lazy asses at that point and ended up in our local, catching up with one of the bartenders who just got back from 2 months travelling Asia. Our bar friends were also there, and of course, the fabulous internet jukebox was on, so it was an awesome night.

Today I've done the gym / workout in house thing (my legs have felt like lead lately, and a bunch of stretching has been in order). We have no other plans, other than getting our groceries delivered. Will it be a Pony Bar day? An order-in day? A nice lunch with just Blondie day? Ahhh, lazy spring Sundays.

Workouts:
Monday: Insanity Cardio Recovery
Tuesday: 30 mins hill intervals - 2 mins at 5.3-5.5 mph on 3% grade hill, 2 mins at 4.1 mph flat, 5 min cooldown
Wednesday: 2.5 mile run in 31:xx ish mins, 5 min cooldown; weights
Thursday: rest day
Friday: 2.5 mile run in 30:37, 5 min cooldown; weights
Saturday: 30 mins hill intervals - 2 mins at 5.3-5.5 mph on 3% grade hill, 2 mins at 4.1 mph flat, 7 min cooldown; P90X Stretching; P90X Ab Ripper X
Sunday: 2.5 miles in 30:16, 5 min cooldown; weights; P90X Stretching

Downsizing

Last Sunday, Blondie and I hit up Pony Bar for lunch - we split an oyster and bacon sandwich, and a pulled pork sandwich; and I had a couple of beers to round out my lunch. There has been a trend lately (actually, I know nothing about beer other than the fact that I love to drink it, so this "trend" might've been around for a long time) of brewers finishing their beers in bourbon barrels - and holy shit, it.is.good. Anytime I see "stout" combined with "bourbon barrel", I kind of lose my mind. So yes, last Sunday, I had several of those.

And then Blondie and I wandered up to 9th Ave to do something we've been talking about for years. We bought a new bed. When we lived in TX, we had a ginormous house filled with stuff we didn't need. And I had a bit of a hoarder mentality. Since leaving TX, we've lived in considerably smaller and smaller places (see the 500 sq ft shoebox we live in now) and have had to let go of more and more things. And I realized that I kind of like it. I like not being tied to things so much. I'd rather have my memories, my husband, my cat and a life that I truly like. I had pushed back on buying a new bed because we already had one, but Blondie finally talked me around. We downsized from a king to a queen - giving us a TON more room in our bedroom, and we forked over the cash for a tempur-pedic mattress. We also ditched our headboard and footboard. I've slept like the dead since the thing got delivered (Tuesday). I don't feel Blondie toss and turn (he's a restless sleeper) and I feel like I'm making up on the massive sleep debt I constantly live under from my sleep issues. It's been awesome.

The week was good - fast again - but good. I kept it very low key this week as I've wanted to live in the bed since we got it delivered. Work again was a "blink and it's over" type scenario. And I got some really good news this week - a few weeks after I started at my new company, I had done technical support for a sales call (when they shipped me out to the NJ/PA border). The SVP that I had gone with stopped by my desk on Thursday to tell me that the place we had done the sales call for wanted to buy - they had called earlier that week and were ready to start negotiations. The SVP told me that a lot of it was because of my help - it really wasn't, but I thought it was really cool that the SVP took time out of his day to come over and thank me.

Friday we pushed a release out - and the day was spent dealing with that. One of our 3rd party tools that we need to deploy code had crapped out earlier in the week and they promised it was fixed, but it wasn't. So all day I sat at desks other than my own, working on manual steps to get things pushed out. I literally think I was physically at my desk for about 12 minutes on Friday.

I met Blondie on Friday night at our local bar for dinner and some drinks; we caught up with one of our friends and played some music on the jukebox. It was a nice low-key night. We came home afterwards and popped Anchorman in "Scotch, scotch, scotch, down my throat!" Yesterday we hit the gym, and then went grocery shopping. Afterwards, we headed out and got little tacos for lunch and just enjoyed wandering through our neighborhood. We put in Skyfall last night (Daniel Craig, squee!) and then fell asleep watching Scott Pilgrim (in our fabulous new bed). And today has been a trip to the gym. I'm going to go get a bright red pedicure, and then we're heading back to Pony Bar for lunch.

This week my plans include meeting up with an old coworker from the SF office for dinner on Wednesday. And that's it. "Lame. Everything's lame".

Workouts!
Monday: Insanity Cardio Recovery
Tuesday: 8 miles on bike in ?? (can't remember) - 2 mins level 7; 2 mins level 12; 5 min cooldown
Wednesday: 2.5 miles in 31:47; 5 min cooldown; weights
Thursday: 30 Day Shred - Level 1
Friday: 2.5 miles run in 31:22; 5 min cooldown
Saturday: 10 miles on bike in 41:30 ish - 2 mins level 7; 4 mins level 12; 5 min cooldown; weights
Sunday: 2.5 miles run in 30:28; 5 min cooldown; abs

--K

The Stinkiest Pillow In The World

I just sat here and watched the cat curl up in Blondie's armpit, with his head laying smashed against the armpit. The same armpit that just went with Blondie and ran over 4 miles. And is still laying here in a ball of sweaty messiness. I'm gagging a little.

So the weeks are flying by right now. It's amazing how fast things are going. I went into work on Monday and things were a mess. One of the pieces we pushed out Friday night broke one of our environments, so all day Monday was spent helping debug, and getting users back up and running. I swear to you, I looked down on Monday at my laptop and the time said "5:23 pm" and I said "oh shit!" My boss asked what was wrong, and I couldn't even answer him - I just couldn't believe I had been at work for 8+ hours already. I kept thinking "no way in hell is that clock right". But it was.

Tuesday I walked across the island after work and met my BFF from my old job for drinks and dinner. We spent about 3 hours just getting caught up, and chugging down scotch. He filled me in on the old office gossip, I filled him in on my new job. It was really nice getting to see him again, and we agreed we need to meet up a lot more often. After dinner, we walked 2 miles back to my side of the island so he could catch his bus home, and I could walk off dinner.

Wednesday my friend from work invited me to lunch - making it the first time I've gone with someone from the office for lunch (other than my boss). I got super excited because this is the woman I wanted to make my friend from the moment I met her. We had a blast, stayed out for about an hour. And I felt super ready to go back to the office afterwards.

On Thursday, I went with my friend again for lunch but this time around 3 pm. I know I say this every week, and I sound like a broken record, but with this job, the days go so freaking fast I don't know what to do. I literally looked down and it was 3 pm, and my friend was there telling me she hadn't gotten lunch yet so we took off again. Thursday after lunch was pretty funny - I was working with a team to get a fix deployed, and they pinged me on IM and asked me to come to their side of the office. As I was walking over there, I realized they had some music cranked. As I rounded the corner, all of them turned in unison and did a line from the song to me, and I about peed my pants laughing. I have no idea how they timed that. It was priceless.

Thursday night, 3 of my office friends and I headed to dinner on the east side of the island. We went for yakitori and beer, and had a blast. I really did make friends fast at my new job, and I LOVE it. Dinner went so fast, just a lot of laughter. And afterwards I walked back across the island home. The weather has been super nice so walking is making me happy right now.

Friday I got done with work at 5 pm, which kicked assed. I was home by 5:30 and just crashed out. We made a big dinner on Friday night and then I went to bed early. Just tired from the week. Saturday I went to the gym early and then we went grocery shopping, and I literally did nothing the rest of the day (I get really cold when I do hard cardio, so Saturday afternoon was spent trying to warm back up - it's weird). And today we've been to the gym, and are planning to hit Pony Bar for some lunch goodness in a few hours.

What I'm looking forward to this week: 75 degrees on Tuesday, and I've been put in charge of a massive project at work - I'm excited to jump in and get cracking on it.

Workouts:
Monday: 30 mins on bike - 2 mins level 7, 2 mins level 12; 5 min cooldown
Tuesday: 28 mins on Precor - 4 mins level 6, 4 mins level 11; 5 min cooldown; weights
Wednesday: rest day
Thursday: 3.1 mile run in 36:22; 5 min cooldown; weights
Friday: tried to do hill intervals - got 1 in and died; so walked the rest - 30 mins on treadmill, 2 min walk 4.1 mph, 2 min run 5.3 mph on 3% grade hill; 26 mins at 4.1 mph - 2 mins at 3-6% grade hill, 2 mins flat; 5 min cooldown; weights
Saturday: 46 mins on treadmill - 30 mins total of 2 min 4.1 mph walk on 0% grade, 2 min 5.3-5.5 run on 3% grade; 16 mins of 2 min 4.1 mph walk on 0% grade, 2 min 6.2-6.3 run on 0% grade; 5 min cooldown; tons of weights; abs
Sunday: 10 mins on treadmill - 4 mins 4.1 mph walk, 6 mins of 5.0-5.5 mph run; 28 mins on precor - 4 mins level 6, 4 mins level 11; 5 min cooldown; abs; stretching

--K

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

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

Massive Catch Up

Last I wrote, we were packing up to hang out in the Land of Cheese for a few days. Our trip out was pretty nice - the flight took off a few minutes late, but we still landed a few minutes early in Milwaukee. Blondie’s bro MG picked us up, and on our way back to Blondie’s hometown, we stopped for burgers and custard, and just got caught up on everything. The rest of the day was spent hanging out with Blondie’s family and ordering in pizza for a 4th meal for everyone.

Sunday we went over to Blondie’s uncle’s house - he has a massive house out in the middle of nowhere and every year, the extended family meets up before Xmas to celebrate. I got to see the newest niece for the first time, and re-see the nephew for the 2nd time. I got to see Blondie’s other brothers and their wives for the first time in 2 years. We (Blondie’s uncle’s wife, Blondie’s bro-in-law, me) put down an entire bottle of scotch - just an all-around good time.

Monday was spent hanging out at Blondie’s brother’s house for a bit, and then off to church for a mass. We always laugh that it’s amazing we aren’t struck by lightning before we go into the church. After church, that’s when the festivities started - we headed home to start eating and drinking, and then watched the little kids open up their gifts. And start watching A Christmas Story for the first time.

Xmas day was a good one - Blondie asked me to go on a walk, so we crunched out into the snow and ice and traipsed up and down Main St for a bit. We ended up stopping at a gas station and getting massive cups of coffee and just sitting there for an hour talking, hanging out, being together for our own tiny holiday. It was one of my favorite parts of vacation to be honest. Afterwards, back to the house before Blondie’s other brother and his family showed up. Then it was more gift time, and then a nap time, and then we played games into the night.

Wednesday we found out our flight home had been upgraded to first class. All right! That’s a good way to end a vacation! But then we also started watching the weather/winter storm hit NYC - and knew we would be lucky to get home that night. We got to the airport - and all other flights to NYC had flown that day, but of course, ours ended up getting cancelled. They put us on a flight back on Thursday, but to JFK which I hate, but we took it as we didn’t want to get stranded for 2 days.

We got a hotel room on Wednesday night, and just crashed out watching TV for the most part. Thursday it was back to the airport, where we found out we were still in first class, and then it was on home. 3 bourbons on the flight (hey, I rarely fly first class, I’m totally going to take advantage of it when I do), and then we were home to JFK. And then home to see my Tigga and collapse in our own bed. And to make declarations of “never travelling at Xmas time again”.

Friday, Blondie was back to work. I spent the day lazing in bed before meeting up with my bar friend for afternoon snacks and drinks. And then moving back to our normal bar to end the evening. Saturday we did a massive cleaning on our apartment which took all day.

Sunday was a majorly fun day - we had gotten tickets to see “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” on Broadway starring none other than Scarlett Johannson, Blondie’s favorite actress. On our way to the play, we passed a little holiday festival which had a german sausage tent, so we stopped for a quick bite (me - cheddar brat, Blondie - regular brat), which started our afternoon off well. For the play itself, we forked over the cash and sat very close to the stage. When ScarJo first came on stage (about 20 feet from us), Blondie in a reflex move grabbed my knee and just squeezed.

The play was excellent - sadly, I knew nothing about the plot line before I went in having never seen the movie. But I ended up really enjoying it - alcoholism, dysfunctional families, emotional abuse, infidelity... What’s not to like? And ScarJo will totally win a Tony for this - I’ve always thought she was a good actress, but she blew me away in this.

After the play, Blondie and I went for a dinner together - we stopped at a local pub and got chili and salads for dinner. And then headed home to crash out for the night.

Monday it was NYE - and I met my bar friend early morning. We headed up and through Times Square which was pretty dead suprisingly, and did some errands for her, before heading back through Times Square (which was not dead at this time) to do some makeup shopping. We spent 2 hours in Sephora as she helped me totally update my makeup collection. I owe her big time!

After makeup shopping, we did a bunch of grocery shopping as the chef at our local bar where we were headed for the night promised to make us a bunch of “off the menu mexican” if we brought in the goods. So, tortillas, cheese, avo, cilantro, etc, shopping was done. Then it was home to collapse for an hour and order in some food, before heading back over to my bar friend’s apartment. We started in on some champagne, and she spent several hours dolling me up - makeup and hair.

And people, let me tell you - I looked smoking hot. I literally had a hard time getting myself out of her bathroom and away from her mirror. We finished off the champagne, laughed at her farting dog (he kept bombing the bathroom), and then packed up to meet the guys at the bar.

NYE night was a lot of fun - we all got drunk, partied our asses off, and didn’t get our mexican feast for various reasons. Instead we got a bunch of appetizer platters, and stayed out until almost 2 am being idiots.

New Years day was also a lot of fun - I got up again early (ugh) and met my bar friends around 10:30 am. I had to stop at 7-11 and eat a donut, but then felt okay afterwards. It was off to the movies to see Les Mis on the IMAX. Blondie didn’t join as he doesn’t like musicals that much, but I really enjoyed the movie. I don’t think I would see it again, but am happy that I did see it while it was at the theater, and did see it in IMAX. After the movie, my bar friend and I headed out for some drinks at poison bar, while her husband headed home. We got our usual waiter, and before we knew it, massive shots had been consumed. We spent the afternoon being lazy, drinking and eating, and dreading going back to work the next day.

And then it was the next day, and the first day at work in a long time. I spent all day Wednesday frantically trying to get through emails, and was still overwhelmed when it was time to leave. I headed over the UWS, and met up with my bar friends, my trivia friend and a friend of my bar friends for dinner. Our trivia friend lives in UWS area and he had been telling us about this place for awhile - we all had several drinks, and then a hot dog covered in mac-and-cheese and a hot dog covered in sloppy joes.

The night was good but it was memorable because while I was sitting at the restaurant, I realized the back of my wrist itched. And when I went to scratch it, I realized it was covered in little bumps - like a rash. I was so surprised I was all “oh hey! I have a rash!” I got home that night and realized you couldn’t actually see the little bumps, you could only feel them - but covered the area in neosporin and went to bed.

Thursday when I was showering I happened to notice that my legs were all blotchy - and called Blondie in to look. It was really random but I wasn’t too worried at that point. Work that day sucked, and mid afternoon, I realized my legs were super itchy and when I pulled my pant leg up to look, the blotchy had spread big time. I stopped on the way home that night at an UTC but they didn’t take my insurance, so I decided not to worry.

And Thursday night, Blondie’s bro MG landed for a week of tooling around the city (he had never been before). We started that night by going for pizza where you can sit at a counter and watch them cook it in a brick oven. Afterwards, we walked up to Times Square and took in the sites, before hitting up Bryant Park and watching ice skaters. Then we trucked down to Rock Center to look at the big Xmas tree before heading back to our local bar for a drink to end the evening.

Friday I had the day off, so we were on the go all day. We started at the Chinese Embassy as MG’s girlfriend lives in China and he is off in March to visit her. And then it was some Thai food for lunch before catching the subway down to the tip of the island. We took the Staten Island ferry across the bay and got a good look at the Statue of Liberty, before wandering through the Wall St area for awhile - we saw the stock exchange, Trinity Church, the bull with his giant testicles, Zucotti park (where Occupy Wall Street started) and then finally the WTC buildings.

After that, it was back home for an hour - but stopping to get a postcard and some pumpkin bread, before Blondie met up with us for mexican for dinner. And then it was again back to our local bar so that MG could meet all of our friends, before we headed home and crashed out.

Saturday we started our day at 5-Napkin burger, before heading back up to Bryant Park area. We went all through the library - up and down about 50 flights of steps it felt like, before a stop in Grand Central to check out the whisper wall and see the main room. From Grand Central, it was a walk down to Central Park - stopping for coffee along the way. In Central Park, we went all over - we saw the ice skaters, walked down literary walk, saw the Alice in Wonderland statue, and then poked around in the castle in the middle of the park before heading back to our hood. In our hood, we stopped at a bakery (where I pronounced Challah bread like it’s spelled Ch-allah - awesome sauce) and then headed home to order in Peruvian and cheer the Packers onto a win!

Sunday was more low-key - we met up with my bar friend at Pony Bar for a bit, before Blondie and MG headed home to play PS3 games for the rest of the day. I stayed out with my bar friend, but eventually got home and convinced the brothers to watch a movie with me.

Monday was a walking-galore day. Blondie went to work, and then MG and I went nuts. We started with 2 hour workout in the gym, and then went back to the Chinese Embassy to pick up MG’s visa. We then headed several avenues down to the post office, before heading a few blocks in the wrong direction to stop at a bakery. Then it was down to the High Line park to walk all the way down that, before catching a subway to Brooklyn. We walked the Brooklyn Bridge back to Manhattan, and then spent over an hour poking around in Chinatown before walking over to meet Blondie at his office for dinner.

It was a mile back down to Chinatown / Little Italy area for Lombardi’s pizza for dinner, which is crazy good. Afterwards, we walked a mile back to the subway and I stopped for a new loofah because my rash had spread over my entire body and I was wondering if it was the old loofah causing the problems. Then it was home to completely crash out for the night. (The loofah seemed to do the trick as the rash has gone away now - thank god - still have no idea what caused it)

Tuesday we took it easy. MG and I did another 2 hour workout in the morning, but then just headed for ethiopian food for a late lunch. Our legs were fried on Tuesday so we just took it easy that afternoon and watched some movies. We eventually got up and walked a mile up to Broadway area, and met Blondie to see Wicked! The play was really good - it made me laugh my ass off, and Blondie even said it was his favorite musical thus far. After the play, we stopped for a late dinner on our way home.

Wednesday it was back to work for me - the day again was spent trying to get through all my emails, but then my 2 BFFs from work came back to my hood with me - the 5 of us spent the night playing poker at our apartment, and just having a really good time.

Thursday we said goodbye to MG and then it was back to work - I was beyond exhausted at this point; 3 weeks of being on the go had caught up to me but there was no resting that night. Our friend from TX was in town for the night, so we met up with him at our local bar for many drinks to catch up on his life. We finally left the bar at midnight that night. And Friday was more of the same - I was supposed to go to a friend’s birthday party, but it was pouring rain when I left work and freezing cold. So I decided to bail. And then changed my mind again and again. Finally left my apartment around 8:30 pm and trucked it over to the bar to meet up with everyone. I lasted until about 11 pm, before heading home.

Yesterday Blondie and I hit up the gym in the morning, before doing our grocery shopping. Our little grocery store is moving down the street and yesterday was their last open day. Since they didn’t want to store items for a month while they moved, they had a 50% off sale. And we stocked up on a ton of stuff and had to haul it all back to our apartment. The rest of the day was spent being lazy. And cursing the Packers as they let the 49’ers walk all over them last night.

Today I need to get a pedicure, and I’m about to do a yoga workout. And then maybe I’ll just get back in bed. I desperately need a break right now.

Workouts - these are official workouts at the gym, and do not count all the walking and stair climbing I’ve done over the past few weeks:
Monday: 3.1 mile speedwork (37:03) - 2 mins 4.1 mph walking, 2 mins 5.8-6.5 mph running, 5 min cooldown; ton of weights; abs; 1 mile walk up a 6.0 grade hill at 3.8 mph
Tuesday: 3.1 mile running (37:22) - all running but slower than Monday, 5 min cooldown; ton of weights; abs; 10 min walk up 7.5 grade hill at 3.6 mph
Saturday: 30 min hillwork - 2 mins 4.1 mph walking, 2 mins 5.3 mph running on 3.0 grade hill, 5 min cooldown; weights; abs
Sunday: ??? Yoga maybe

Plans coming up - I leave in less than 2 weeks to visit my cray cray aunt and uncle in Washington, before hitting up SF for a week for work. My bar friend’s cabaret/burlesque show is in early February. And Blondie and I are getting Broadway week tickets (2-for-1) to see Nice Work If You Can Get It for early Feb.

--K

Does syrup have sugar in it?

Tuesday night was an all-around amazing night. I ended up taking the subway from work down to the lower east side, and met up with Blondie, and my work BFF (who had the day off) and his wife. We went for dinner at Wylie Dufresne's restaurant - WD 50. It was my work BFF's bday so we wanted to celebrate in style.

The restaurant was beautiful but casual which I loved - you felt like you could talk, and didn't have to whisper, and the waiters wore jeans, so showing up in my business casual was totally fine. We had a 6 pm reservation and had no sooner sat down then we saw Wylie Dufresne in the kitchen. I geeked out a little because for awhile, I was obsessed with Top Chef including their master's edition which he was on.

We all ended up doing the 12 course tasting menu, and I did a wine pairing with my meals. It was incredible - there were so many dishes that I would go back and eat - including pho gras; veal tartar; squab; wagyu beef. OMG. And since it was 12 course, the bites were small enough to give you a taste but not too big to overwhelm you. And some of the wine pairings were off-the-hook good - I even took a copy of the wine list so I could look into getting some of the bottles I loved.

4 hours later, without even realizing it had taken 4 hours, we got to go back to the kitchen and meet Chef Dufresne on our way out. He was very nice and very pleasant, and when I said how good our waiter was (because he was awesome), Chef Dufresne cracked a joke about "you don't know him that well". I laughed my ass off. And to give me credit, I wasn't all like "TOP CHEF!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU RULE!"

Wednesday a coworker and I headed out for lunch - we went out so I could buy my boss a xmas gift, and ended up wandering around our area for awhile before sitting down for a meal. It made the day go really really fast. And Thursday, my boss' boss took her direct reports out for a late lunch which they weren't coming back from. So as soon as that crew was out the door at 2, my friends came by and we took off for a late long lunch also.

Thursday night, I decided to walk home and halfway there, my bar friends texted to come meet up for 1 last visit before holiday. I called Blondie who was still at work and pretty busy, but said he join up when he could. The bar that night was a blast. Everyone was in a good mood, and my bar friends decided to buy a round of "doomsday shots" for the group - we were trying to decide what a good doomsday shot would be, when our bartender came up with the idea that everyone who was doing the shot (8 of us - 6 locals, our bartender, the waitress) would put in their favorite liquor and we'd mix them together and do a combined shot - his reasoning was that if we were going out on Friday, we'd go out drinking what we love.

Our shot ended up being a mix of jaeger, jose cuervo, malibu, gin, patron silver, tullamore dew (me), cheap white wine, and then one of the guys took pity and said his favorite drinks were orange juice and cranberry juice. And the shot ruled. We have no idea how it turned out so good, but it did.

Right after the shot, Blondie showed up to the bar. I was all whooping when he walked in because the night was so good. He took off his jacket, and I started laughing - he had gotten swag from his corporate job! A really nice hoodie which made me a bit jealous - I've gotten a ton of t-shirts from places I've worked, but I love hoodies and have never gotten one of those. He started catching up with everyone, when my bar friends all of a sudden, gave us gifts.

I love my bar friends - they are both awesome people, and the gifts were spot on. I got a 5 lb gummy bear that's as big as my head (and my ass after I eat it). And they gave Blondie a toaster that toasts the Green Bay Packer logo on your bread! We already told them what we were going to give them - which is bringing back cheese curds from (appropriately) The Land of Cheese. But then Blondie also came up with another idea that night, so we'll do that also.

Yesterday was spent being hung over. I went to lunch with a friend again, said goodbye to my best female friend who had quit, and then we got sent home early for the day. Which was good. I spent last night being extremely lazy. But now today I've got to pack up for our trip.

No workouts again. I'm enjoying holiday right now. And I'm not going to feel guilty about it. Until I eat that 5 lb gummy bear - then I'll feel guilty.

Happy Holidays.
--K

Blah

This weekend I hated the following: Santa, Buddy the Elf, elves in general, anyone wearing fishnets, anyone wearing tutus, Rudolph, and Xmas trees. More on that to come.

Work last week was about what was expected. Very busy due to my project, but then 2 early days which helped my mood because my other days were so swamped. We got let out early on Wednesday for the overall company holiday party. I decided to skip the party because last year the space was so crowded you couldn't move, and I spent the party trying not to sweat on people. My besties and I were going to skip together and just hit up a bar, but they both decided to go last minute to the party. So I headed home. And got texted from them both about 30 minutes later that they had already left the party because (shocker) it was so crowded. And hot. At that point, I was already home in my pajamas so I told them I was skipping on more festivities.

Thursday my bar friend texted to come play trivia. But the weather that night was bitter cold. So being a big giant baby, and being totally against my blog post a few weeks ago about how I never say no to invitations during the holidays (god, 2 paragraphs, and I've said no twice - go me), I declined the invite. I just wasn't feeling it. It turned out that her dad had flown into NYC to surprise her for a short weekend, so I missed the whole shindig! I was so bummed when I heard, and totally wish I could've been there to see her face when her dad just showed up in front of her. I learned my lesson about saying no, and will now stick to my "just don't say no" plan.

On Friday, we had my immediate work group party at the office - we did a massive gift exchange and I ended up with a nice set of wine gear - corks, pump, (haha - sounds filthy!), and 2 servers. They had brought in a massive spread of food also, so we spent the afternoon just chatting, picking at food, and swapping gifts. Not a bad way to end the week. When I left on Friday, the weather was pleasant also so I decided to hoof it back to my hood - and I'm glad I did. Everywhere I looked is lit up for holidays, and crossing 5th Avenue was amazing (home to Saks, Harry Winston, Bulgovi, etc). When I got home that night, Blondie and I decided to stop in at our local for dinner and to see if my bar friend was there with her dad. They weren't there, but we ran into a ton of other people we knew, had some dinner, and just hung out into the evening. Which made my nice-week-ending even nicer.

Saturday brings us to the first line in this blog post. Santacon invaded NYC. Now, they do this every year, but this year it happened to start one block from our apartment, so Hells Kitchen bars were the starting point (and honestly, mostly the ending point too) for these "festivities". What is Santacon you ask? It's an excuse to get drunk off your ass, and dress up like Santa. Or Buddy the Elf. Or elves in general. Or wear fishnets. Or wear tutus. Or wear a Rudolph costume. Or dress like a Xmas tree. The problem was that there were about 10000 people who participated, and they just overran our neighborhood. I watched a guy (in an elf costume) cross the middle of the street, against the light, blowing a whistle to get cars to stop, and watched 3 cars in a row have to slam on their brakes to avoid hitting him. And his friends fucking cheered him on.

My friend from TX was also in town on Saturday so unfortunately we had to head out into the mayhem to meet up with her. We managed to find a nice bar at the very edge of our neighborhood that only had a few respectful Santas in it. We sat with her for a long time there, eating and drinking, and just finding out on the last 6 years of each other's lives. After several hours, we headed back down into the fray to show her our local bar. We walked into madness. The place was trashed - it literally look like the Santas had a beer bottle throwing contest - the floor was covered in broken glass. You couldn't hardly move in the place. We only lasted a few drinks there before calling it a night.

Sunday I headed out early afternoon to meet up with my bar friend and her dad. We met at Pony bar, and the bartenders there filled us in on how bad it was at Pony and their sister bar during Santacon. After we heard the news and shared our stories, we spent rest of the afternoon just hanging out and watching the Packers roll to NFC North champs! Goooo Pack!

Plans coming up: Wisconsin, Blondie's bro coming to visit, poker night at our house in Jan, launch of my major project late Jan, Spokane/SF late late Jan.

Workouts (sucked):
Tuesday: 30 mins on bike - 2 mins level 6, 2 mins level 11, 5 min cooldown; 7 mins on treadmill - 2 mins walking at 4.1 mph, 5 mins running at 5.5 mph (wanted to see how my neck felt).
Wednesday: 3.1 mile run in 35:44; 5 min cooldown; weights
Thurs-Today: none. Shame rattle. Shame rattle.

--K

Hanging in Jersey

Tis the week of sickness and throwing out of backs.

I ended up having to take it easy last Sunday - because while I was busy shovelling lunch down my throat, I managed to throw out my lower back. Yes, that's right. Apparently I eat with such gusto, my body can't handle it. So last Sunday was spent babying my way-getting-old body. Loads o' fun.

I woke up on Monday and was still incredibly achy, but decided to go ahead and work out anyway. I took a load of laundry down also, and threw that in the washer while I worked out. I felt a lot better when I was done, still creaky but moving around much better than before. Afterwards, I headed out and got my roots done. My hair looks so much better - he fixed my (unintentional) ombre hair, and trimmed it up - lurve it! After my hair, it was back to the bar to down a few beers and eat some nachos for lunch. I sat at the bar, and eavesdropped on conversations around me, and just generally enjoyed having absolutely nothing to do.

I stopped on the way home from the bar and got some gummy bears, and then treated myself to an afternoon of bad reality TV and sugar. And some napping. All in all, one of the best days I've had in awhile. I also realized that if I had won that crazy powerball lottery, basically the rest of my life would look like last Monday did. Sigh. Perfect day.

On Tuesday it was back to work. Which is insane right now. Blondie was working crazy hours too last week - almost 60 hours for him in 5 days. Wednesday I woke up and felt a bad cold / sinus thing coming on - I powered through Wednesday and Thursday but felt crappy both days. We ended up doing a group lunch on Thursday which was nice, but I felt weird about being away from work with how much I have left to do for my project.

Thursday night my bar friends texted, so I drug my increasingly sick butt to the bar to meet up with them for a few, and get caught up on each other's week. I decided my body needed alcohol to kill the germs, so it was straight into a bunch of scotch. Blondie texted around 8:30 pm and headed over to meet us for a bit. Afterwards, we went out for mexican and just enjoyed our evening.

Friday, if I had to give it a 1 word description, would be "Pbbbbbbbttttt". I went into work just feeling horrid - in addition to the cold / sinus which was in full on agony, I had been sleeping in a funny position because of my lower back and had thrown out my neck. My boss stopped by my office about an hour after I got to work, to lay 2 pieces of news on me - one was that I had been put on a committee that requires me back in SF in January; the other was I was being sent home sick. I had only gone in because I had a ton of meetings, but she helped me pawn them off on other people, and then by 11:30, I was home, in bed, feeling miserable. And pissed off about the committee.

I passed the day watching TV off of netflix, blowing my nose, and trying desperately to get my neck to stop hurting (literally, this is all I did all day - Blondie didn't get home from work until almost 1 am, so until almost 1 am, this is what I did). If I had to give myself a 3 word description on Friday, it would've been "barrel of fun". Saturday was more of the same - just trying to get better.

Then came Sunday - our bartender lives in Jersey, and he is a local at a bar there and had been asking the "bar crew" to come over to visit him on a Sunday to watch football and hang at his local. We decided to make the trek on Sunday. Blondie and I were a last minute decision b/c of how crappy I was feeling, but decided 20 mins before we had to leave to catch the bus to go.

5 of us walked up to Port Authority and caught a transit bus over into Jersey to our bartender's bar (it was about a 30-40 min ride). And we had a blast. I kept laughing because I felt like "wow, who does this? Takes a bus out of the city to go to a bar?" But our bartender was so happy to see us, and it was such a fun day. Everyone was in great moods, and the Jets actually decided to win a game. Beer was flowing, the bar tab was cheap, and it was great seeing everyone in a different location. Partying in Jersey? Absolutely.

We got home last night around 5:30 pm (we had gone over at 10:45 am), and I managed to stay up for 45 minutes, before crashing for the night at 6:15. And it was exactly what I needed, as I feel about 80% back to normal today from my head cold. My neck is still rotten, but everything else is on the mend.

Plans for this week - leaving work early on Wednesday as my holiday party is then, early day on Friday as we're doing a holiday swap in the office, possible trivia on Thursday, and good friend from TX landing on Friday night. Next week is my immediate office group party, before leaving for the Land of Cheese for a few days. Then it's NYE and Blondie's bro is visiting for a week. Then it's back to SF with a possible stop in Spokane to visit my cray cray aunt and uncle.

Workouts were not great - due to cold and neck, it was a struggle
Sunday: 40 mins on Precor, 2 min level 6, 2 min level 11; 5 min cooldown; 10 mins on treadmill - 6 mins running at 5.5 mph, 4 mins walking at 4.1 mph.
Monday: Bunch of weights, 20 mins walking on treadmill at 3.2 mph up 8% grade hill
Tuesday: rest day
Wednesday: 30 mins walking on treadmill - 2 mins 4.1 mph on 5% grade hill; 2 mins 4.1 mph on 0% grade hill; 5 min cooldown
Thurs-Today: Nothing
Tomorrow: Something - I promise.

--K

Jam Packed

There is something about the holidays that for me, makes me want to busy all the time. The rest of the year I'm fine with turning down invitations, but holiday season, I can't say no. We had a pretty busy week to start off with, and the next few weeks are going to be the same or worse. But I'm looking forward to it!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHUGS! Hope you have a fantastic day!

Last Sunday turned out pretty nice. I drug myself up to my nail place and got my toes done. I picked an orangey color for fall, and it looks pretty good. Afterwards, it was over to Pony Bar to meet up with my bar friend for many drinks. We wasted the afternoon away there, and met some pretty cool new people. I got home that night and Blondie and I decided to have one last bad meal for T-day weekend and ordered in a ton of chinese food. Then we watched the Packers "play" the Giants - and just groaned at such a horrible end to the weekend.

The week itself was one of those weeks where it feels like it's over before it even started. I swear, I woke up Monday morning and it was already Friday evening. I have a project we are trying to get closed out on, and taking care of that every day made each day FLY by. It was nice having the week go so fast, but it's extremely nerve wracking trying to get this project done (which we didn't do). And Blondie is also extremely busy with work - he's been working 12 hour days on his project and making great progress on what he has due.

Monday night, our bartender and one of the usual patrons of the bar both texted. We ended up going over as Blondie had won a little bit of money on the weekend's games. We only intended to stay for an hour, but that easily turned into 2 hours with a lot of talking and laughter.

Tuesday night, I went out with my friend group from work - we hit up our normal bar by work, and just got caught up on everything. We always have very weird conversations - and this was no different. We actually discussed (seriously I might add) that if you worked from home, and got an unwanted blowjob from your significant other, would that be sexual harrassment. What was supposed to be a few quick drinks at 5:30 pm ended up with me showing up at home at 9:30 pm drunk.

Thursday afternoon, my bar friend texted that trivia was a go for that night. I couldn't decide if I should go or not, as I was really tired. I texted Blondie and he said he had to stay pretty late at work that night, so I ended up deciding to go. Our team name was "Taint nothing but a G thang". We started out extremely sucking - and all of us admitted that trivia that night was making us feel stupid. Then, out of nowhere, we ended up coming from 8th place all the way to 2nd place in the final round (when you ask a bunch of 20 year olds questions about music from the 70's, you automatically give the lone almost 40 year old in the group a very big advantage). We actually ended up winning a $20 gift certificate to the bar.

Friday was also a good day - my BFF wanted to go to lunch, so we took off around 1 pm for some bites. And then we seriously took our time as it was Friday. It made my day fly by even faster than it had been going. Friday night was the only night Blondie got home on time - we ended up ordering BBQ for dinner, and then deciding to hit up 7-11 for some junk food to eat while we watched movies.

Saturday I made Blondie get up super early so we could get to the gym - afterwards, we cleaned up quickly and then headed up to Times Square so we could see the early showing of Skyfall! ($7 tickets before noon). I LOVED this movie - I have a major crush on Daniel Craig as it is, and the movie was just so good on top of it. Afterwards, we had a late lunch at a cajun restaurant before coming home and crashing out for afternoon naps (the weather was cold and cloudy yday - perfect for napping). We had some groceries delivered last night, and then watched some TV to end the day.

Today I have on tap a workout, and then meeting up with bar friend at Pony Bar. One of my old coworkers is in town today so he's also going to join us at Pony. Tomorrow I have the day off, so I will be doing some laundry before getting my roots touched up. Then I'm going to hit up Landsdowne to get some of my favorite nachos in the world and a few beers for lunch, before back to the office the rest of the week.

Workouts were good except for Monday:
Monday: Rest day. Not intended but so full from our chinese food binge I had no choice.
Tuesday: 30 mins on bike - 2 mins at level 6, 2 mins at level 11; 5 min cooldown; weights
Wednesday: 30 mins hill repeats - 2 mins walking 4.1 mph on 0% grade; 2 mins running 5.3-5.5 mph on 3% grade hill; 5 min cooldown; weights
Thursday: 30 mins speedwork - 2 mins walking at 4.1 mph; 2 mins running 6.2-6.6 mph; 5 min cooldown
Friday: Rest day. Planned.
Saturday: 3.1 mile run in 35:19; 5 min cooldown

--K

Catch up

Sometimes it's nice to take a break from blogging. I love having my "diary", but it's sometimes hard to make myself sit down every week and fill it in. When I have those weeks where I don't do an entry, I always enjoy it - until I do sit down to recap and realize I remember nothing about what had happened. Yay for me. 3 weeks of recapping, from what I do remember, starts now.

Well, almost now - first off, happy birthday to The Sheriff, my mom, and BFF TT! Love you guys!

I left off last with the week of Sandy hitting. I met my bar friend that Sunday for many drinks at Pony to have 1 last day of celebrating my birthday. We met up with our musician friend there and got to see how he came through the storm. It was a nice way to end the week - and again, so glad everyone I know came through okay.

Monday through Friday it was work - I walked to work on Monday because even though my train was back up and running, Bloomberg had said that transportation would be jammed b/c not all lines were running, and the ones that were running were on limited schedule. But my friends that also ride my line told me at work that day that our train was pretty standard (i.e. not that bad) so I took my train the rest of the week.

Also, Blondie started his new corporate job on that Thursday - Blondie's company that he owns is now moving into contracting, and he's back to a commuting with me daily. Blondie loves his new job, which makes me sooo grateful.

I remember that I worked out every day that week except for Monday which was a rest day. I did a 3.1 mile run on Tues, 30 minutes of hill work on Wed, Insanity Cardio Recovery on Thursday, and 3.1 miles of speed work on Friday.

And then, Saturday morning, bright and early (4:45 am), Blondie and I took off for the airport. We headed to SF for a few days - I had to work that week and Blondie came along b/c we needed a vaction. (Blondie had his trip planned before he got his job, and they okayed him taking off a few days). We got to SF, and landed in beautiful weather - it was sunny and gorgeous out. We took a cab to Shelbs and Bbbb - and the cab went along the Great Highway, so we literally spent most of the ride along the ocean, watching waves crashing and just being like "omg. so f'ing beautiful!"

We spent most of the day being lazy - we toured their house which is all kinds of awesome (and with a killer view of the Pacific). We hung out with their new dog, who took a shining to Blondie and wanted to make out with him pretty much non-stop (I wanted to steal Thunderdog I loved her so much). We went for an outdoor lunch. We pissed around in the Mission. We drank beers in Dolores Park. We hit up Toronado. And finally, we picked up pizza and split it with wine at their house.

Sunday was pretty much the same type of lazy-day activities. We took Thunderdog up to Land's End and strolled all through the park and out until we could see Golden Gate Bridge. We went for tacos and margaritas for lunch, before shopping a bit in the mission. And then we picked up some beers and food to grill out, before stopping to eat a Honey Pot in Outer Richmond. Shelbs had told us about this weird desert thing - which was honey bread covered in gelato - and Blondie had to have some. So we stopped for that. Then we went home, crashed out on their back patio and watched the ocean. And then grilled out for dinner.

Monday we hit up Say Cheese and ate in our old dog park for lunch, before Bbbb drove me and Blondie to our hotel in Union Square. I headed into the office for a meeting, but then met up with an old coworker of mine for many drinks. Blondie and my 2 BFFs from the NY office (who also happened to be in SF for work that week) also joined us. Then Blondie and I headed over to meet up with my old gang for mexican and margaritas into the night.

Tuesday I said goodbye to Blondie who was headed home that day. Off to the office for many meetings, before going to lunch with one of my old teammates (from the first group I was ever on at my company). After work fesitivies involved hanging out with a woman who I work with now quite closely. We went for appetizers and many drinks, and just got caught up on life. I've worked with her on several projects over the past year, but mostly as peripheral teammates - but in the last 6 months we've had to work closely together, so getting to know her better was quite fun. After drinks with my coworker, I hit up Irish Bank for CChu and her bf TDawg. We had dinner, many drinks, and were just generally snarky about people we don't like.

I woke up Wednesday in misery - from when I went to bed on Tuesday night and when I woke up Wednesday morning, I had come down with a massive head cold. I sucked it up, showered, and headed into the office as Wednesday was lot of meetings. I also went to lunch with a part of the team that I work with now - it was a lot of fun, and getting to know people outside the office is always nice. I decided that I needed some booze Wed afternoon to hopefully kill the cold germs, so I took off a tiny bit early and met up with Sweetie J! We drank our way down to the Embarcadero where she met up with a friend, and then I headed back up to Union Sq area to meet up with KT and KevB! We had a blast having many more drinks, before heading to dinner for mexican and margaritas. It was soooo good seeing everyone, but honestly, the drinks just made everything worse with my head cold.

Thursday I packed up, checked out, and stowed my bag at the hotel before heading in for my final day at the office. Lunch was with my BFF from the NY office and his gf (who had flown in that day). Then I was expecting low-key to end my day - but it wasn't; we had our final release of the year and caught something major that stopped us from proceeding. I couldn't stay on the call though b/c I had to meet 1 last group of people for drinks (ran in, had a quick whiskey, ran out), and then it was off to the airport.

Normally I love the red-eye back to NY as I sleep well on planes anyway. But this time, with this head cold, it was horrid. I got maybe 45 mins of sleep and was then just awake, with a snotty achy head, the rest of the time. Got home on Friday, and went straight to sleep - but woke up 2 hours later just miserable. I spent the day with the cat, weepy, and finally showered which helped break up some of the snot. Blondie got home that night, and lo and behold, he had the same cold I had. And then we noticed the cat was sneezing like crazy too.

The weekend was spent hunkered down trying to get better. Finally on Sunday, I met my bar friends at Pony simply because I was tired of hanging out in the apartment. Getting out felt pretty good - I think I just needed to move. It was pretty cool because our bartender overheard me talking about the SF trip, and she mentioned that the other bartender who was coming into work in a few mins used to work at Toronado (my fav beer bar from SF). When the other bartender came in, we talked for a long time about SF, and she bought us a shot Fernet. All in all, a good day.

This past week was of course, a short week. But a weird one. I'm on a project that is not going well - our lead developer quit, and now it's up to 2 new developers (both are good but they were brought in last minute) to finish this job. I wanted to move our timelines some, and take a bit longer to finish this project, but their boss didn't agree with me. And we got into it on Tues. Their boss also happens to be 1 of my 2 BFFs in the office. We had to actually say "5 minute break! We are getting nowhere" and walk away from each other at one point.

The day ended okay though, because at around 6 pm, their boss walked back into my office and was apologetic as hell. But it was hard to hear him because I was so busy trying to apologize to him also. He also told me to swing by his office before I left, so I did, and he had a bottle of scotch out. So once everyone was gone, him and me and my boss, had a few drinks and crackers and cheese to end the night.

Wednesday was a short day - my boss and I walked up to Momofuku Milk Bar and got some thanksgiving croissants - which was basically a hot pocked stuff with turkey, stuffing and cranberries. I bought that and a compost cookie (my fav cookie - loaded with chocolate chips, coffee grounds, pretzels and potato chip crumbs) and then headed over and met Blondie to see "A Christmas Story: The Musical" on Broadway! While waiting in line to get in, we had our snack of croissant and cookie, and then I got a whiskey in a sippy cup once inside.

The play was pretty funny - they even had dogs (real dogs) play the part of the dogs from the movie. They chased the actors across the stage and even stole the turky in the end scene! And the kid who played Randy (Ralphie's brother) was spot-on. And they had this cute little kid (a boy) in one of the scenes who had on a hat, and I was all "OMG! It's TCKITWv4.0" - not that the boy looked like my little niece, but he had the same type of grin - all teeth - that my niece has, and it really showed up when he had his hat on. We came out of the play just laughing hysterically - seriously, the dogs alone made it worth seeing.

Afterwards, it was off to poison bar to meet up with my bar friend. 3 shots and about 5 beers later, we headed off to our local to meet up with everyone. Blondie headed home early but I stayed and just got trashed. So awesome on my part. Thursday we were lazy - I felt fine when I woke up (surprisingly so), so around noon we headed out to buy a pie and do some grocery shopping. Everybody and their brother was out, and since the parade had ended, traffic was a bitch. After shopping, we met up with my bar friends again at Landsdowne for lunch and beers - we hung out for a few hours watching football, and then headed our own way for the rest of the day. Blondie and I ordered in food from our diner for dinner that night, and then spent the night watching movies.

Friday I woke up and felt completely exhausted. I was supposed to go with my bar friend to shop, but I couldn't get myself moving. Finally around 3 pm, Blondie and I headed out for some food. I felt a tiny bit better afterwards, so met up with my bar friends again at our local for a few beers. While I was on my way to our local bar, Mr Pooh texted, and he happened to mention that of his 3 favorite bars in the world, 2 were in NYC. And if he had 4 favorite bars, 3 would be in NYC (poison, Landsdowne and our local). I got to laughing b/c I realized in the last 3 days, I had been in all those bars.

Saturday we didn't do anything - we finally got some real grocery shopping done and then I crashed out watching Freaks and Geeks on Netflix while Blondie worked. And today, well, I'm up and showered at least. I have to go get a pedicure and hopefully meet my bar friends at Pony, but that's it.

Workouts - well, the head cold took me down and out for about 2 weeks. But I started up again yesterday:
Saturday: 3.1 miles on treadmill - 2 mins walking at 4.1 mph, 2 mins running at 6.0 mph - 37:25 mins
Sunday: 3.1 miles flat out running - 36:04 mins*; weights

* Completely shocked about this time - way faster than I expected; and I felt great the entire time. Normally if I hadn't tried to flat out run in 2.5 weeks, I'd be a heaving mess within 3 minutes, but not today.

--K