Dallas!

Howdy y'all. I'm in the great state of TX right now. Back in my old stomping grounds, ready to launch my project tomorrow! I'm excited, I'm nervous, it's weird being here without Blondie... All of it, welling up.

Last week was good, short week but a good week. Blondie and I spent last Sunday watching some Breaking Bad episodes. What an amazing show right? I'm at the point where I hate Walter White, but then I love Walter White. I think Jesse is a big baby and I want to slap him, but he lends some humanity to the show. And Saul is just flat out heart for me.

I was only in the office last week on Monday and Tuesday - both were extremely busy days as I have 2 projects launching this week. I was heads down in a lot of manual labor on both days, and ended up having to work until almost 9 pm on Tuesday night to get things done for one of my projects. But then it was Wednesday morning and off to the airport to fly to Dallas for work from Wed - Fri. The trip down was nice as there was a group from my office flying to a different site on Wed and our gates were just 2 apart and the flights were only 15 mins difference. So I showed up at LaGuardia and it felt like a normal morning at work.

My flight to DFW was nice - empty plane and I literally slept the entire way down. We landed (I flew with a coworker) and then it was off for launch and a shower, before heading out to our site for a night with the team. It actually ended up being really funny because we were about halfway through what we had planned that night when one of the guys on the site team was like "oh hey, skunk in the building". I thought it was a weird joke, but they really had a skunk in the building. I got so tickled (not a rat? not a roach?) and ended up getting a good picture of it. They kicked us out early so animal control could come in (the skunk sprayed after we left), and then my coworker and I went for a nice dinner.

Thurs and Fri were a lot of manual labor - my back was so stiff and the top of my foot was completely bruised when everything was done. But the team is really nice here in DFW, so it made the days go so fast. Thurs night dinner was at a tex-mex place, where we imbibed in some margaritas and fajitas and then I crashed out in my hotel room watching football to end my night. And then Friday - ugh. The weather turned on Thurs night and it was pouring all day long on Friday - I had a flight back to NY that night and I had geared my attitude to be ready to stay in DFW for the weekend.

But the flight ended up going really well! It started weird - someone asked to switch seats with me as I was sitting by their friend. I said sure, and we went to switch and pissed the flight attendant off - she asked us to wait until everyone was seated. So we did. I did NOT want to get kicked off the flight so I made sure I was super polite. Then when she came through for drink service, she gave me a bourbon for free. AND THEN, the guy I had switched seats with sent me a whiskey to thank me! Seriously - one of the best flights. Ever.

Blondie and I took it easy on Saturday - we went to the gym, and then I got a pedicure before meeting Blondie for lunch at our local mexican restaurant. Afterwards, it was a trip to the pet store and then home to finish off the Breaking Bad eps we had. We ordered in dinner on Saturday night and then caught up on the new seasons of New Girl, Mindy Project and Sleepy Hollow, before watching Cloud Atlas to end the night.

Today it was an early flight back to DFW (36 hours in NYC - so worth it). My flight ended up being full but with an empty first class section so I got upgraded (woot!) A few whiskeys on the plane and then it was time to meet up with coworker who had flown in from CA. We spent the afternoon watching football, and I'm now in my hotel room watching TV and eating some gummies.

This week will be good - I'm in DFW until Wed night and then I'm back in NYC for less than 24 hrs before flying back to Arkansas for MG's wedding. I have 2 launches this week - I'm in DFW for both, but one of my launches is actually back in NYC. We had a conflict so a coworker has to cover my NYC launch for me. After this week - that's it. All of my projects are launched. BUT, I am ready for some new ones.

All right folks. Off to relax in my hotel bed and gear up for tomorrow. Hope everyone had a great week!

--K

Well hello there. Where the hell have you been?

I'm back people. Put your party hats on and prepare for a recap. Of all the lame-o things I've been up to.

1) My Project - I left off my last blog post right before a trip out to my NJ site - I ended up having to do 3 days in a row there, but it was worth it as we cranked through a ton of manual stuff that needed to be done. When I left that Thurs, I felt super confident for the launch that was coming up 2 weeks later. And then I got back from my KY trip, and walked into a shit storm. We worked with a 3rd party vendor for some of the stuff we did - and they advised us to go in a certain route on a piece of the project. Which did not work out for us - and it was discovered the week after KY (the week before launch). Everything escalated out on that Wed, and we came up with a plan on Thurs morning that was an "impossible plan" - meaning none of us thought we could get done what we needed to get done in the short timeframe left (Tues launch, Labor Day weekend coming up). BUT WE DID IT. We moved mountains, and got shit done - things that normally take 2 weeks we did in 1.5 days. I had to actually labor on Labor Day - meaning I went out to NJ and worked all day at the project site; but it was worth it. As the following day we actually LAUNCHED MY PROJECT!!!!!!!!

I'm so happy and proud of everything that I did on this thing - the NJ site team sent several extremely nice emails to my boss about what a great job they thought I did; they kept saying I saved the project (while I definitely had a major hand in getting everything fixed, there were a lot of other people that had to help also). And the launch went really well - better than any other launch we've had at the company. And on the first full day of use of the product (that Wed after launch), someone stopped me on site and told me they had never had such an exciting day on the job.

I got back to NYC on that Wed late afternoon and headed straight to the bar - I have never been so tense about a project, starting that Wed before when everything blew up and up until Wed full day of use was over. I had slept maybe 3 hours a night, tossing and turning and worrying about everything. And it literally felt like a massive weight had been lifted. So I had my coworker drop me at my local bar and I spent a few hours in there celebrating before Blondie joined me.

I ended up going out to the NJ project one day last week also - just sitting with a couple of the teams there and working with them so they had a better understanding of everything we were doing. While I was there, I ended up talking to a few of the people actively using the product and was able to bring back a lot of suggestions on things we can do better / areas we need to ramp up more heavily on (while the launch went awesome, there are always things that you can change to make things better - this is true for anything. ever.)

In addition, I was actually stopped by the president and the CTO of the company after we did our launch and I was back in the office to thank me for everything, and telling me they had heard nothing but praise about how I dealt with everything. I'm hoping I don't jinx myself but I am really happy about this and I'm totally psyched to launch my next project in 8 days. :)

2) KY! Blondie and I flew out on the Thurs night after my first NJ trip to KY. Our flight was delayed so we didn't get in until almost 1 am, which meant we didn't get to see anyone until Friday. That was ok though because everyone showed up super early at my parental unit's house as we took a massive bus up to Kings Island to hang out for the day. It was SO GOOD seeing everyone - my uncle had even flown in for the trip which was a surprise to me. My nieces are super cute and super growing up fast. I got to ride a bunch of kiddie land rides with them - the youngest niece who has always been slightly terrified of me, actually seemed to take to me this year; she actually came up and took my hand at Kings Island and drug me with her to ride a ride.

That Saturday we were in KY, I went shopping early morning with my mom, sis, and Mr Pooh - and then we made a beer run and were drinking and playing cards by 11:30 am. My nieces stayed with Mrs Pooh's family that day which gave us an adult day - it mostly involved drinking heavily and playing cards / board games all afternoon. And eating. A LOT. And then Sunday we met up with BFF TT and her man for drunk Sunday - my whole family came and we all met up for mexican and margaritas, before taking the party back to Mr and Mrs Pooh's house. I made the nieces laugh by chasing them around the house and giving them raspberries (I'm guessing this is the last year I can do it to my oldest niece - after that, it might be just kind of gross). We ended up back at my sis's house, eating chicken wings and drinking beer - it was around midnight that I said goodbye to most of the family and TT.

Our flight back to NY had us getting up at 4:30 am on Monday - it was the worst, most hungover, flight I've ever been on - I'm not sure how I didn't throw up. And then traffic coming into NY was a major bitch, so we ended up walking across most of the island to get to the subway / office respectively. And then I walked into the shit storm with my NJ project. And that ended the fun.

3) 9/11 - Living in NYC on 9/11 is both the best and the worst. My street has a fire station which lost the *entire station* when 9/11 happened - every year they do a motorcycle run down to the WTC for the 9/11 ceremonies - they block off the street and take over with everyone coming to celebrate the lives of the men that died that day. I ended up having to go out to NJ that day, and coming back to the city that afternoon, we drove over the GWB - they have the biggest american flag hanging from the bridge right now and you can see Freedom Tower from the bridge, it was just a very powerful moment.

4) Upcoming travel - and here we go again. I'm off to Harlem on Monday morning, and then leave on Wed to go to DFW until Friday night. I'm back for 2 days before leaving for DFW again for 3 days. And then I'm back and off to Harlem for the day. Then ALL MY PROJECTS ARE LAUNCHED!

Toss into this mix a bunch of personal travel - Arkansas in 2 weeks for MG's wedding, Poughkeepsie in 3 weeks for Yippers wedding, Vegas in 4 weeks for our 10 year anniversary (giving me status for the year on my airline) followed by 3 days in Salem, then a down week, then mom and sis are in for the weekend, and then it's my birthday weekend.

And.... spent.

That's the highlights - certainly not everything that has happened, but the highlights. And back to our regularly scheduled blogging next week.

--K

Today Can Bite It

Soooo tired today. I feel completely drained - totally worn out. I even wore glasses to work today instead of contacts which hardly ever happens. And then everyone commented on them because I hardly ever wear them. Which made me feel self-conscious that I had them on. There is no point. I'm just rambling.

My week was fairly low-key last week. The biggest thing I had to do was head up to Harlem on Thurs morning for my project. I met up with some of my coworkers around 6:45 am and we took a car up to the project site. We had just gotten set up when I realized that we had an issue with some of our stuff (fun to deal with at 7:15 am on no coffee). We were scheduled for an 8-12 meeting with the team, so it was a frantic 45 minutes before we got everything sorted out. We then dealt with minor issues throughout our meeting time, which is just draining. Blondie ended up texting during my meeting and asked how things were going - I had my typical response "ugh. need a drink". So he suggested meeting at a local bar for food and drinks on the patio that night.

I was in! WOO HOO! I was pretty excited because Blondie doesn't ask often for dates - I got all excited and thought "I'll leave early and secure us a good spot on the patio". Because I had come in at 6:45 am, I was determined to leave the office early that day. We took a cab back to the office on Thurs, getting there around 1 pm. And then because I was dying to be out of there by 3:30 pm, shit happened and I was stuck until almost 5 pm (seriously - I *have* to stop saying I'm leaving early b/c everytime I do, I get sucked into a massive problem. Every. Single. Time.)

It ended up okay though because I still got a good spot on the patio and was joined about 30 minutes later by Blondie. I filled him in on my morning and we got some food and beverages and hung out for a long time talking. We then trucked to Dunkin Donuts for a dessert before hitting up our real local bar to catch up with our bar friends and bartender. After our bar, I was pretty hungry again so we did a 7-11 run; and then went home to stuff our faces and konk out for the night.

Friday ended up being a good day. Me and some of my work friends ended up heading down to West Village and meeting up with Blondie at a bar down there. One of my friends even came in from Brooklyn to hang out (he had worked from home for the day but likes Blondie so much he made the trek in). We hung out way into the evening, and just had a blast. We did a 7-11 run again on Friday night, and the guy checking us out was like "oh hey, I checked you out last night!" Uhhhhhh. Well - that did it; no more 7-11 runs for awhile. OMG. We're in there so much the guy knows us. It's kind of cool though - how many people can say they are regulars at a 7-11?

Saturday was pretty lame - we watched TV most of the morning and then went out to dinner at our local mexican restaurant (full disclosure: we're regulars there also). Afterwards, we finished up Breaking Bad season 2 (finally. yes. we are wayyyyy behind). And Sunday we didn't do anything - I went and got myself a pedicure, and then we curled up in front of the TV for all of Breaking Bad season 3. The good news for the weekend though is that we settled on half of our anniversary plans. We booked our hotel and tickets out to Vegas in Oct - we're going out for 5 days and are planning on renewing our vows at the chapel we got married in. We'll fly back to NY on a Saturday and then we are trying to figure out what to do for the rest of our time off. I'm rooting Montreal; Blondie is rooting Salem. And holy shit - 10 years official. Where did the time go? How did I get so old?

Today was super duper fast - I had a billion and 1 meetings to go to, and now I'm not in the office anymore this week. My Tues and Thurs at my NJ project site got extended to Tues-Thurs, and when I leave on Thurs night, the car is taking me straight to the airport so I can head back to Land of Bourbon for the weekend.

A 1 day early HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the fabulous Mr Pooh!!!!! Have many beers tomorrow and we can celebrate this weekend!

Very tiredly,
K

'Sup?

First off, HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Brother R and Sis!!!!! Hope you both had great days, with lots of bourbon (Brother R) and chips and salsa (Sis).

My last week was very tiring quite frankly. I was on the go every single day of the week, and it totally wore me out. My week started with a super early alarm on Tuesday because I had to do a bunch of laundry, before catching an early morning flight to DFW. I flew down to DFW for a project, and spent 3 hours in the airport after I landed (waiting for a coworker from CA). I worked for several hours, and then spent the last hour monitoring email while drinking a beer at one of the airport bars. When my coworker landed, we got our rental car and then drove out to north DFW burbs to crash for the night. Some totally good tex-mex food, and then a few beers back at the hotel while we prepared for our meeting the next day, and our day came to a close.

We were up extremely early on Wed and drove about an hour out to our project site. We spent all morning meeting with the team there, before I had to pull off and lead a call for one of my other projects. Afterwards, we drove straight back to the airport and grabbed a very quick lunch there, before flying back to NY.

I landed around 9 pm, and immediately caught a cab down to Chelsea area to a bar called Trailer Park (awesome kitschy bar with very very potent margaritas). I met up there with my bar friends, and my building friend. It was a happy / sad night as we were saying goodbye to my building friend. Him and his partner are moving back to CA permanently and Wednesday night was his last night in town. We ended up chatting for a long time, heading out around midnight.

Thursday I had another early start as I met up with several of my new coworkers - I was tasked with bringing them to my Harlem project and showing them several of the pieces of the project my team is responsible for. It was a very early start, but the actual work went well. We got back to our office around 11 am, which was nice. I took off around 5 pm that day and headed over to midtown east. I met up with a bunch of my old coworkers for many drinks into the night. It was SOOOO great seeing them, and getting to snark on everyone. Several of us stayed until almost midnight - I love my old work group, and I love that I'm still close to see them on a regular basis. The highlight of Thurs night though had to be the crazy text message conversation I had with Blondie - it was seriously one of the funniest things I've read in a long time - and makes me realize how much I love this guy and how boring my life would be without him in it.

Friday I was exhausted. I drug my ass into work just feeling completely worn down. The day felt like it took forever, and finally around 4:30 pm, I was like "I'm declaring this day done". I had just packed up to leave, when some coworkers swung by my desk and were like "woo hoo! drinks!" And then I was all "woo hoo! yes! drinks!" I fully intended to stay for 1 beer, but uh yeah. If you read this blog, you realize that's probably never going to happen. I think I finally left the bar around 9 pm to head home for the night.

Saturday... up and at 'em early for no reason at all. I finally went to the gym, which was the only healthy thing I had done in a week. I made myself some beans for lunch, and then Blondie and I finally went out and did some grocery shopping. We got home around 4:30 pm, and it was then I realized I had an email that contained some bad news. I won't give details - the bad news is not about me - but my heart is breaking for 2 people right now. As soon as I read that email, I cried a little bit. And then I got into my bottle of bourbon.

Blondie and I ended up having a good night in spite of it all. We cooked in and made salmon sandwiches, and then we popped in some good movies (ahem, well - a really crappy movie and then some good movies) to take our minds off everything. I finished my bourbon and then we had some wine to end the evening.

Sunday was a total disaster. My bourbon / wine party, while a blast while going on, was not so fun the next day. I lazed in front of the TV all morning, trying to not be sick (success). But then Blondie was like "oh hey, bar friend #3 is back from India and wants to meet up for drinks today". So we headed out to Pony - I didn't think I would be able to drink more than a beer, but see "Friday". It was very slow going, but gradually I felt better. Me and my female bar friend and bar friend #3 ended up staying out until almost 6 pm.

Also, I have a thing for... talismen maybe? I like to collect little statues / figurines / etc from around the world (usually from friends travelling to these places and bringing them back). I have a weeping yogi from Nepal (he's supposed to suck the bad energy from the room), a happy buddha from China, a fortune kitty from Japan, an evil eye from Turkey, and now my bar friend #3 brought me back Ganesh the elephant god from India. My collection ROCKS. LOVE.

So today was a super duper fast day at work. They had asked for volunteers to help out one of the NC projects (not mine) and I had put my name down, but my boss told me not to worry about it. Which was good because I'm super f'ing busy on my own projects right now. I literally felt like today it was 4:27 pm before I realized it had started.

Upcoming plans: off to Harlem on Thursday, NJ next Tuesday, NJ next Thursday, and then land of bourbon next Thursday night. So many trips, so little time!

Workouts: Well, pathetic. I worked out on Saturday and that was it. Insert embarrassed emoticon here.

--K

The Highs and the Lows

My week was mostly highs this week, but something happened that made me grateful I'm not in a low period of my life. I have depression, which is something I've known for a long time, but officially diagnosed by my therapist back in TX. Also, I saw a therapist in TX for a good while which I guess I should've started off with. I call my emotional status my roller coaster, because I know when I start going up (and I'm in for a few good weeks of sunshine) and I know when I start going down (and I'm in for a few bad weeks of rain). However, and this makes me lucky, no matter how bad my low weeks are, I've never considered suicide as an option - and this week made me grateful for this. This will make sense in a few paragraphs.

Last Sunday started out pretty well - after I got over my anger at my upstairs WOO HOO-ers, we met our bar friends around 10 am to start an early birthday celebration for one of them. The 5 of us walked about a mile down Riverside Park to Chelsea Piers and spent another hour whacking golf balls from the driving range out over the Hudson. It was actually a great time - because all of us sucked at one point, and all of us had some awesome drives at one point. After Chelsea Piers, it was a cab ride over to Katz Deli for massive sandwiches (Katz's Deli is where the orgasm scene in "When Harry Met Sally" was filmed). We stuffed ourselves, had some beers, and relaxed before grabbing some gelato down the street.

Then it was a mile walk back to West Village, where we stopped at a random bar for some drinks - and it turned out to be awesome. One of my bar friends is English and the bar we stopped at was called GMT. Perfect. We had many mixed drinks there, so tasty. All of us were so full from lunch that fruity punchy drinks were in order. Around 3 pm, we headed to me and Blondie's favorite bar in the area - which also had a full list of beers from England (not planned, not thought about - just totes worked out). And we spent the next 4 hours imbibing there before taking a cab back home. All in all, a great day.

Monday I took a car service out to the NJ/PA border where I spent the next 3 days. I got there before any of my coworkers, and spent an hour with the networking guy, touring the site, and running various tests. Afterwards, I met back up with one of my coworkers (who had arrived while I was running around), and we got to work on what we were really there to do. We got done early, but I had to join a 2 hour conference call, so we had to sit at the site while I took that. Then finally, it was back to the hotel to check-in and collapse for an hour.

Dinner that night was a German restaurant - it was really tasty, and it was good getting to see my coworker (who lives in DC) and just chat with her. While at the restaurant, my coworker from FL texted and he had just landed and was on his way. So I met up with him when he got in town, and we went to the bar for a bit. It was an early night though as we had 2 days ahead of us to be geared up for.

Now for why I wrote my first paragraph. I got texted very late on Monday night from one of my building friends, and I didn't receive the text until Tues morning. Someone jumped from the 29th fl of our building on Monday, off his balcony, directly above me and Blondie's apartment. He landed on the 2nd fl sundeck, 8 stories directly below our unit. Obviously, he is dead. Blondie saw part of his body - he didn't know anything had happened on Monday, and stepped out to enjoy the view early Monday evening, and thought some jackass kids in our building had tossed a mannequin as a prank (the body was covered with a sheet, but the wind had blown part of the sheet off the arm). The 2nd fl is now closed, and completely ripped up in the area where he landed. It turns out 2 women were hanging out on the sundeck when he landed - they had to go to the hospital because they saw it happen and couldn't cope.

Why I wrote my first paragraph - I can't even imagine what that kind of pain is like, when suicide becomes an option. As someone who has the (HIGH) highs and the (low) lows, I thought I could kind of empathize with what people go through when suicide starts to seem like a way out. But I can't - I got back to our apartment on Wed night, and leaned over our balcony to see the damage to the sundeck, and there is just no way I could bring myself to leap (in any situation). My heart goes out to the person who did jump and his family and friends - I don't see this as selfish (and again, I've not had a family member of friend commit suicide, so I don't know if my mind would be changed if that happened), but as a way to end pain that nobody can endure. And my heart goes out to the 2 women on the sundeck, and to Blondie and everyone else who happened to be looking down that day, and to anyone that saw it happen.

The rest of my week was excellent though - my project went off without a hitch. Tues and Wed were spent just marveling at how well everything worked. The team that met me there were amazing, and I'm just relieved that things went as well as they did. The team headed out to dinner on Tues - we went to this excellent beer house in the middle of nowhere NJ, and enjoyed some beverages to celebrate as well as tasty grub. And on Wed, I caught a ride back to the city with 2 coworkers who had come out for the day to NJ/PA to work with various members of the project site we were out. I couldn't have asked for a better project, both in terms of staff at the project site as well as staff from my office

Thursday I went into the office and saw some great emails - the project team from NJ/PA site had sent an email to me and my 2 coworkers telling us how happy they were with the project and with us, and asking us to forward onto our mgmt staff. My coworker had sent to his boss, and she forwarded it to my boss, who forwarded it up the chain. Everyone is so happy with how things went - I even have an email from the president thanking the team on everything. We just need to keep it up now - as a startup, we have to make things work well from the get go. So now the pressure is on.

Thursday night I went out with a few coworkers - it was a completely last minute idea. We started with some drinks in the Times Sq area, but then split up around 8. However, one of my coworkers wasn't quite ready to go head home, so we spent another few hours in my neighborhood - we got to talk personal life, etc, and I feel like I got to know this person really well. So a good night in all!

Saturday was a lazy day - it was completely overcast and gross, so I went to the gym and then laid in bed watching eps of House of Cards and reading. All day. We had some wine delivered on Saturday night (too lazy to walk 2 blocks to my wine store) and then watched silly movies all night (Napoleon Dynamite, Real Genius, etc). Today it was gorgeous, so we headed out for some food and then took it to the park and had a picnic. Then I came back home and collapsed for a few hours for a nap.

My week this week involves a flight to DFW on Tues, coming back on Wed night, and a trip to Harlem on Thurs. It's going to be fast and furious.

Workouts! Sucked! I was not motivated in NJ, and then was exhausted (it was draining worrying about my project) when I got back.
Monday-Friday: None. I'm sad but I'm not sad.
Saturday: 3.1 miles in 38:09; 5 min cooldown; weights
Sunday: 10 miles on bike in 36:09 (2 mins level 8, 4 mins level 13); 5 min cooldown

--K

Ode to the Assholes Who Live Upstairs

Stop fucking having "WOOOOOOOO" parties at 5 am on Saturday and Sunday on your mother fucking balcony.

And now that that's out of the way...

My total project load at work is now 5. I was expecting a new project last week, taking my total to 4, but instead got 2 new projects. And my boss has asked me to mentor the 3 new people who are coming onto the team, as well as help the 1 person who will be doing a project beside me. Part of me is happy that my boss is happy with my work (really happy with it), but the other part of me is like "how in the world am I going to have time to do all this?"

My projects are also spread out around the country - and I have to be onsite for each one of them at various points in the project. I have my NJ/PA border one, one in Asheville, one in Harlem (I guess it really doesn't count b/c I don't even have to leave the island for that one), one in Raleigh, and one an hour out of DFW. I'll be leaving tomorrow morning to go to my NJ/PA project for the next 3 days - it's far enough out that it makes more sense to stay in a hotel as opposed to coming back to the city every night, so I will be doing that. So far it's looking like I will be travelling a few days each week for the next 6 weeks in a row.

Work was good this week - super busy again, but it's ok because it's making my days go fast again. It feels like it felt when I first started, where I would blink and the week would be over. On Tuesday I was at my NJ/PA project for the morning working with the networking team out there - it was a lot of fun (the team is awesome) and we found a big issue that they needed to resolve; so it was super useful that I went out there ahead of this week.

And then Friday happened. It kind of came up behind me, hit me in the head with a baseball bat, and then took off running. My Raleigh project was kicking off officially on Friday - everybody and their brother knew about this, between meetings I attend and emails I send, everyone knows when my projects are a go. My office found a bug on Thurs that they had to fix before Friday (so we could actually launch) but they didn't tell anyone they were going to release code to fix it; they just did it and then sent email after the fact (late at night).

I got up at 7 am on Friday to check on my project - and they were having an issue. It was an easy one to resolve, but it was also one that should've been resolved already. I sent an email to the team and told them to ping me when ready and we would get cracking, and then logged into our portal to get ready, and realized we had a massive issue - the portal shows status of what we have in the field, and my project was solid red. It was also at this point that I saw the email that there had been a release on Thurs night.

I immediately start pinging people left and right - wtf is going on???? In the meantime, I helped the project team on the ground get their first issue resolved. And then I took off to the office and spent the rest of the day in meetings - trying to replicate the issue as well as come up with steps to resolve it. What made it even more painful was we had a company offsite on Friday so everyone started taking off around 1:30 pm to go to that, except for the team involved in the issue (ahem).

I left on Friday night just feeling completely beat down, completely done with everything, completely ready to quit. And so I headed straight to the bar. And then spent the next 5 hours talking with friends, hanging with Blondie, and generally imbibing in some boozy goodness to get my head on straight.

In better, non-Debbie Downer news, Blondie got some excellent feedback this week about his performance! I'll let him fill people in on that, but the news he got shows that his company LOVES him and is willing to invest heavily in him and his future. GOOOO BLONDIE!

Yesterday I took it easy - actually decided to not leave bed the entire day (outside of the gym), but then an old coworker of mine texted - him and his girlfriend were in the neighborhood so I met them at the bar mid afternoon to catch up with them both. It was really good seeing them, and I ended up being glad I did get out of my apartment for a little bit.

Today we are off to Chelsea Piers and Katz Deli to celebrate a friends birthday. I'm already tired b/c of the giant fucking douche bags that live 1 floor above us - apparently it's fun to wake everyone up at 5 am by "WOOO HOOOO"'ing off the balcony, or by screaming FUCK every other minute. So awesome.

Workouts:
Sunday: Insanity Cardio Recovery
Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 2 miles on treadmill in 24:15, 5 min cooldown
Wednesday: 5 miles on bike in 19:38 (2 mins level 8, 4 mins level 13); 5 min cooldown; .5 miles on treadmill at 6.1 mph; 5 min cooldown; weights
Thursday: 2.5 miles on treadmill in 30:45 (suck); 5 min cooldown; weights
Friday: Rest
Saturday: .87 miles on treadmill and then mentally copped out; 10 miles on bike in 38:30 ish (2 mins level 8, 2 mins level 13); 5 min cooldown; P90X Stretching

--K

Heat Wave

First let's start with some amazing-ness that I left off my last blog post; on July 3rd, Blondie and our bar friends hit up a cabaret club in the lower east side to see a show done to Ziggy Stardust! We went for dinner and then stayed for the show, which featured all different variations of David Bowie songs and looks (not really cabaret-y but still awesome-y). There were some cabaret pieces of the show, but the highlight had to be the male pole dancer. It was honestly the most incredible display of athleticism I've seen - my female bar friend and I were like "oh holy hell that is *insane*", but Blondie and my male bar friend were blown away by the sax that blew flames. A great night all around!

And back to this past week... which was the grossest hottest week I've lived through.

Let's start with the fact that I love being able to walk to my job. I don't pay for subway, I don't pay for car, I don't pay for insurance. I just walk (and sweat). And then the temps exploded this week to where it would be 97 with 40% humidity. Every single day I came into the office today, I had sweat streaking down my arms and legs. Just running down them like I was in the shower. Ewww.

Work was pretty good overall this week - my projects are in full force go-mode, and I think I'm about to get a 4th one dropped on my plate so the week was fast to say the least. I got my performance review on Friday, and it went really well. The president of the company had sent out a note saying "this is the percentage of people who are going to get each rank" which I thought was weird. I have no doubts that companies ahead of time will say "x% of people get the lowest grade, and so on" but I had no idea that any company would ever send that out to employees. Anyway, because they sent that email, I know where I fit in terms of the company and I'm happy about it.

Blondie and I hit up our local bar on Wednesday night. It's literally been too hot to cook, so I kind of melted my way to the bar for cold beers followed closely by Blondie. We sat and chatted with our bar friends for a long time before we decided to eat at the bar so we didn't have to figure out what else to do for dinner. Then Blondie headed on home while I had a mini dance party at the bar with one of my friends. We left around 10:30 that night to head home and it was still disgusting out.

Yesterday Blondie and I both did a really long workout - we thought we would leave the house afterwards and wander, but again, the heat was intense. So we both just crashed out, ordered in some food, and took it easy all day. Today I've got to make a prescription run, do a workout, get our groceries, and get a pedicure. But the heat is starting to break, so hopefully it won't be too bad.

Workouts were as good as they could be this week - the a/c in our gym is busted, so they just have some standing fans in there right now. Every workout you do feels 20x harder than normal because of this.
Monday: rest
Tuesday: 2 mile run in 23:38; weights
Wednesday: brick - 5 miles on bike in 19:10 (2 mins level 8, 4 mins level 12); 5 min cooldown; .5 mile run at 6.0 mph; 5 min cooldown
Thursday: 2 mile run in 24:30; weights
Friday: 28 mins on Precor weight loss program; 5 min cooldown; weights
Saturday: 65 mins on treadmill - 5.02 miles total (way worse than last week - much less distance covered; felt awful - thanks no air conditioning!)
Today: Going to just lift some weights I believe.

--K

And here we are again...

I have no excuses. I simply have not felt like blogging come Sunday mornings. I start out every Sunday with the best intentions - I'm going to get up early and I'm going to write my blog before Pony Bar. Yet every Sunday, it turns out more like this - I'm going to get up at like 11:30 am, maybeeeeeeeeeee take a shower, and then go to Pony Bar. As I tell my cat (whenever he starts his "meow until the meow-er box runs out" habit) - dat's pa-te-tic.

So hopefully I'm back in the blogging world for good this time, and hopefully it's not a repeat of last time where I blogged and then went away again for 3 weeks.

Onto some form of recap. Wooty Woot!

1) Bowling!!!!
My work ended up renting out the private room of a bowling alley (4 lanes, it's own bar, big screen TVs, etc) and took everyone over for an afternoon of "not work". It was pretty awesome, and not just because the bowling alley was 1 block from my house. I actually really like to bowl - I'm not good at it by any means (any), I just think it's a fun way to spend a day. Top that with getting on a lane with my favorite coworkers, and the completely free open bar, and the day ended up a blast.

Afterwards, a smaller group of us decided to have an after-party, so I trucked over to my local bar and grabbed Blondie and my bar friend, and we headed up a few streets in the hood and hit up a vodka bar. It was the first time Blondie had met this specific group of coworkers and they LOVED him. As they told me - "Your husband is one of us!" meaning he speaks their language (coding, networking, etc). They also LOVED my bar friend - as we ended up taking over the dance stage in the bar and having a massive dance party. Top that off with the 3rd party company we work most closely with paid our whole bar bill - seriously one of the best Fridays I've had in a long time.

Blondie left the vodka bar a bit early to grab empanadas and go home and crash. But my bar friend and I stayed until about 1 am, and then stopped for nachos and margaritas on the way home. While sitting on the patio of the mexican restaurant, my BFF from work came walking by (he had just left the after-party) so we hollered at him and he helped us eat our nachos and drink our margs. The next day I realized I had texted Blondie at 1:30 am - and it said "I'm at mexican!" That's me - so excited for food that I text my husband, who I knew was sleeping, that I was eating mexican. Awesome.

2) Asheville!!!
Last week I got sent down to Asheville, NC, for a few days. It was insanely beautiful down there. As my plane was coming in for a landing, it was just solid green and mountains everywhere you looked. They had just came through a week of storms so everything was lush and bright - it blew my mind. A coworker and I drove up into the mountains and gave a presentation to some people there (the reason I had been sent down). We got there early, and they let us talk early, so we were down over an hour ahead of when we expected to be done which was nice (and the people we presented to were so friendly, just a really great group).

After our presentation, we drove back to Asheville and checked into our hotel - which was a boutique crazy ass hotel (still a Marriott though). The whole thing was like being in some hunting lodge crossed with some bohemian chic accessories. Like the purple velvet couches situated under the chandelier made from deer antlers. Or the gigantic see through fireplace (open on all 4 sides) with the stuffed warthog beside it. LOVE. Also, Asheville has their own creamery, so we checked in to our hotel and then grabbed a seat at the bar for a cheese plate from the creamery (amaze-balls) and some wine (first we had eaten all day as we had early early flights to get into Asheville).

The next day we took off and toured Biltmore House in the morning which also blew my mind. We hiked down to the house from the parking lot, and we were just chatting and not paying attention, and all of a sudden there was the great lawn with the most massive house I've ever seen at the end of it - my coworker went "Oh. My. God. I just got goose bumps". We made the ticket lady laugh with our running commentary as we bought our tickets - I offered to give my coworker an audio tour consisting of me just repeating "It's a big house. I mean BIG. Like really big". And ticket lady couldn't keep a huge grin off her face. Just a really great trip, and one I get to repeat in 2 months! :)

3) Hair!!!
Perhaps this should've been #1. But I went in a few weeks ago, and chopped 8" of hair off. My hair guy kept saying "there are a lot of women who would hate you for doing this"; but my reasoning is that I don't take care of it. It was constantly in braids or a ponytail. So yes, chop that shit off. It's way cooler, and it looks way better. Should've done this many months ago.

4) BOOK OF MORMOM!!!
On my bucket list for NYC - and finally we went. The Book of Mormon in this situation refers to a play written by the creators of South Park. It has been SOLD OUT since it opened 3 years ago. And it has won every major Tony you can win for a musical. We finally bit the bullet and bought some tickets off stubhub. And went last Sunday. It was worth every penny we spent on the tickets - I laughed so hard I almost peed myself. The musical concerns 2 mormon missionaries who were sent to Africa to convert. One guy was the "good guy" who everyone thought would excel at converting people; the other guy was the "screw up" who ended up kicking ass at converting but only because he lied about everything. I was dying the entire time - so funny. Blondie even bought a show t-shirt he liked it so much (which for a musical is REALLY saying something).

5) 4th of July!!!
This is also a sad thing - but my building friend invited us up for 4th of July for one last chance to view fireworks from his balcony. Him and his partner are moving back to California next month so we won't get to do this next year. The fireworks rocked - again something Macys does really well. I love watching them, and then love people watching as millions stream out of the viewing areas and back up the streets while I drink beer on a patio already at home. And I love living in NYC and the fireworks every year remind me of how much that means to me.

6) World War Z!!!
Just go. Amazing. Swarming zombies FTW.

7) Exercise!!!
I'm on a mission. I have been kicking ass and taking names these past few weeks - from getting 2 miles in at 5.5 mph pace the entire time (that's my normal running pace and I've been having a horrible time trying to get back there); to my first full hour run yesterday in almost 2 years (it felt great, which made me realize that if I can do an hour and feel fine, I'm totes mcgoats not pushing myself hard enough on my 30 min runs during the week); to "bricks". For anyone that does triathalons, what I'm about to describe is not a brick workout - I'm not trying to make it sound better, just not sure what term to describe it with. But basically it's the bike for whatever amount (5 miles, 10 miles, 30 minutes, whatever) and then for me a .5 mile run at a steady pace. So today I did 10 miles on the bike in 38:43 between levels 8 and 12, and then .5 miles at a 5.8 mph pace. It doesn't sound like much I know but it's helping me kill my other workouts right now. I feel good, so I'm going with it. Endorphins bitches, it's what's for dinner.

8) Hooters!!!
Haha. I'm so lame. I've been craving some Hooters for a few weeks now. After my hour run yesterday, it's all I could think about. Luckily Blondie was in (he also did an hour run yesterday), so we walked 1.2 miles up to Hooters (in 90 degree heat with 1000000% humidity - we were soaked with sweat when we go to Hooters; also, does that count for 2 workouts for the day?) and split a bunch of wings and some beers. Afterwards, we hit up a street festival and wandered through there for a bit, before pulling off to go to House of Brews for some mid afternoon refreshments. Then it was home to peel off sweaty clothing, and collapse. And my Hooters craving is now gone.

9) 10 Year Anniversary!!!
Blondie and I have finally decided on our 10-year anniversary plans! We are going back to where it all started and hitting up Las Vegas in October. We are going to spend 4 days there - renew our vows at The Little White Wedding Chapel drive-thru (where we got married); relax by the pool; gamble; drink. And then it will be off to either Sedona or Havasu for 3 days to end our trip. So excited we are going to do this! I'm looking forward to a week off with my Blondie!

10) Upcoming Travel!!!
I have the following trips planned coming up - off the Jersey/PA border 4 times over the next 3 weeks; KY in August; Jersey/PA border beginning of Sept; Asheville twice in 2 weeks in beginning of Sept; AK at end of Sept for MG's wedding; Poughkeepsie (sp?) beginning of Oct for a former coworker's wedding; Vegas mid Oct for our 10 year anniversary; and then not moving for the last 2 months of the year. It's a LOT of travel, but I'm totally looking forward to it!

So that's it. Hopefully I will get my head out of my ass next weekend and not let this blog go 3 weeks in a row anymore. Go me for doing the bare minimum.

--K

Really long time, no talk

Hello! It has been awhile since I last posted - no excuses, just wasn't feeling it come Sunday morning(s). I've been pretty much on the go for a few weeks now, and yesterday and today are the first days in a long time where I got to just relax. WOOT!

So. What has been up? Some travelling (some crazy weird ass last minute travelling), some hanging with friends (old and new), some concert-ing, some exploring, some working out. Let's get this recap started.

1) Exploring:
Blondie and I have been talking about leaving our neighborhood. While we love Hells Kitchen, we've become a bit bored. It's not Hells Kitchen's fault, it's ours. But we need to shake ourselves out of our slump. We think we want to live in Tribeca / Nolita / SoHo area of Manhattan, so we've started going to these various neighborhoods to hang out, eat dinner, have a few drinks. The whole idea started in SoHo one Friday night - I had gone down and met Blondie at his office, and we had gone for dinner. Then, not wanting to head back home, we started wandering and made our way to Nolita where we ran into a street fair. (We didn't run into it per se, kind of walked into it). We wandered up and down the streets before plopping ourselves on a corner for sangria and people watching into the night. While there, we kept saying how much we loved the neighborhood and an idea was born.

Last week, I went down to Blondie's work another night, and we went for some mexican goodness before wandering through SoHo window shopping and people watching. We want to do this several times over the course of the next month so that we are certain this area is where we want to move to. We are going to try and do different days too, so that we get the feel of the neighborhood. It's certainly much nicer living here and being able to take the time to figure out where you want to live, as opposed to moving here from SF and not knowing anything about the city at all and just picking a neighborhood at random (although we certainly got lucky as Hells Kitchen is a great place to live)

2) Concert-ing:
Blondie got free tickets to a band called "Twenty One Pilots" from his work - we hadn't heard of them, but decided to go anyway to listen. The venue these concerts are at is a small, 100 person only, standing room only room - so you are literally no more than 20 feet from the band. These guys came out from backstage in skeleton masks and I turned to Blondie and said "What the fuck have you gotten us into?" But the band ROCKED. I have been cranking their music since we came home from that concert. GO LISTEN NOW! I also love the feeling of "I live in NY, I'm at a free concert, this band rocks!" At one point during the concert, I was jumping up and down and looked over at Blondie and he was also jumping up and down! Nothing like some really good music to get you pumped!

3) Travelling:
2 weeks ago, I was sent out to the NJ/PA border for the day - they had a fancy car pick me and a colleague up and drive us out for work. We spent a day doing a kick-off meeting, and answering questions, before the car drove us back to the city. It was a nice break from my normal work week, but very tiring - you get somewhat tense for these sessions as you have to be on at all times, as well as you never know what kind of questions you are going to get.

Then, my week last week started with a Sunday trip to NC - I flew down Sunday afternoon to Raleigh with a couple of my colleagues and we drove 1 hour out of Raleigh to our work site. We spent 3 days down there, along with about 20 other people who had flown in from the office for this. Work put our hotel rooms on a corporate card, and then picked up all incidentals (the VP who was telling us this said "everything, including beer. seriously. put your liquor on the room. watch me!" and walked over to the bar and ordered a glass of wine and said "charge to my room!") We worked our asses off during the day (I was technical lead at a site which meant while the work stuff was going on, anything that went wrong, I had to deal with - either fix it, escalate it, write up tickets for it, etc); and then partied our asses off at night.

My 2 colleagues and I were slated to fly back to NYC on Tues night, so we got to the airport and found out our flight was majorly delayed. We took a seat at the bar and were drinking pretty heavily (only because everytime it was close to our flight taking off, it would get delayed again). It was while we were sitting at this bar that I found out I had to take a trip to SLC on Friday. Finally it was time for our flight - so we paid up and walked up to our gate - to find out in the 4 mins it had taken us to get to the gate, our flight had gotten delayed again. We plopped down in some seats and were just hanging out wondering if we would get home that night, and up comes the CTO of the company. He was flying with the president of the company and they were hanging at a bar (their flight was also delayed) and offered to buy us some drinks - I took him up on the offer (the CTO and president offer to buy you drinks? you say yes. always) and we hit the bar up for some more goodness. Finally, 5 hours after we were scheduled, we got to head on home. I got to my apartment around 1 am, and it was sheer relief. Until I remembered I had a trip to SLC in 2 days...

Which takes us to Friday morning, and the 4 am wake-up call. I hopped a 7 am flight to SLC with another colleague. We landed around 9:30 am SLC time and took a cab to downtown. (BTW, SLC is GORGEOUS. I kicked my own ass all day about not staying through the weekend.) We met up with a few other coworkers and started talking through the presentation we were there to do. Around 1 pm we started our talks with the company we were there to visit - we had 1 minor technical glitch which took me about 90 secs to resolve midway through (the longest 90 secs of my life), but other than that, it went pretty well. As soon as the presentation was done, it was back to the airport - 2 of my colleagues had flights out at 3 (not to NY but to other places) and I had a flight at 5. I texted a friend from NY who I knew had been staying in SLC for a month or so, and it turned out he was on his way to the airport too! I grabbed a seat at the bar, and had a few while waiting for my friend. We had a great hour getting caught up, before he caught his 5 pm flight to Portland at gate D7 while I caught my 5 pm flight to NY at gate D6. It was crazy coincidental and crazy good getting to see him. The flight back went well, and I got back to my apartment at 1 am, leaving me almost shaking with exhaustion.

And... I get to leave again in 2 weeks - this time to Asheville for a couple of days. So I'm mentally gearing up for that. Luckily, a colleague from Atlanta is flying in also - a woman I adore, and we have made a lot of good plans for what we will be doing while we are there (outside of work stuff). I feel kind of lucky that I'm in a role where I do get to travel a lot - I got to go for my old job a ton, but it was almost strictly back and forth NY->SFO (with an Atlanta trip tossed in) - so getting to see new places is pretty exciting.

For other news on the job front - something very exciting about my role had been floated to me about 3 weeks ago. I got giddy with the thought of it (nervous too, but mostly giddy) - and it appears now that this is not going to happen. I've been trying to deal with the emotional fallout of it without it affecting my work, and it's been hard (I've done it though). I just had worked myself into such a state of excitement, and to find out it's a no-go has been extremely disappointing.

4) Hanging with Friends:
Blondie finally got to meet my new work colleagues - the ones I adore! We took a Friday night and a large group of us went out for dinner with someone who had left recently. One of my coworkers and I had been talking before we had went out - he was bringing his girlfriend, and I mentioned something like "everyone will love Blondie and wonder why he married me" and he got to laughing and said "everyone will love my g/f and wonder why she puts up with my bullshit" And then we agreed we'd be the 2 who partnered well and nobody would understand it. And of course, everyone loved Blondie and the g/f. The group hit up West Village / NYU area for dinner, before going to one our favorite beer bars in that area. Blondie and I were laughing b/c everyone in my group is so young, so we probs looked like everyone's parents. The night was a blast though and one I'm glad we got to have.

2 weekends ago, my BFF from work and I had went with a smaller group on Friday for drinks (I had been in charge of coordinating a massive upgrade to some systems at work - it had gone on that Friday and it had gone excellently - so all involved went to celebrate with beer and tequila shots). Afterwards, she called her boyfriend and the 3 of us headed to our local pub to meet up with Blondie for some more fun. It was the first time Blondie had met her boyfriend and only the 2nd time Blondie had met my BFF. Again, the night was killer - my BFF nicknamed me Energizer Bunny b/c I like to dance to the new internet jukebox. We split a bunch of sampler platters for dinner and just chatted the night away. We agreed that next time we would go to my BFF's neighborhood (UES) and do dinner / drinks there.

I've gotten to meet up with my old work colleagues three times in the last few weeks also! The first time I met up with my old product lead for my favorite project that I did; along with my old boss. We went for many fruity drinks at a midtown bar, and closed the place down (on a Wednesday). It was really good seeing them and getting caught up - only my boss is left at the company, and it was good getting office gossip as well as hearing how much the product lead loves her new job.

Secondly I got to meet up with my 2 BFF's and their significant others at a tapas place in Chelsea. My 2 BFF's still work at the company so it was good getting more office gossip. We stayed for a long time at dinner, before I convinced one of my BFF's to give me a ride home.

And finally, on Thurs night (before my 4 am wake up call to go to SLC), I met up with a larger group as a former coworker is moving to SF in a few weeks - so it was a good-bye party for her. We started with many drinks at a bar in midtown east area, before my 2 BFF's and I walked back over to my hood for dinner. We went for mexican and sangria, and talked non-work for a long time (getting caught up on what is going on outside of the office). Afterwards, I met Blondie at our local for a bit, and then headed home (and cussed out my alarm clock as I set it to 4 am - it hurt).

5) Working out:
It's still happening! Even with all the craziness that has been going on, I'm still getting good workouts in 3-4 days a week. I'm down to 28:50 for my 2.5 mile run. Which is really good for me. Yesterday, on almost no sleep and pure exhaustion, I did 2 miles in 23:38 which made me happy. Today, well, I might relax and just go get a pedicure, or I might lift some weights and then go get a pedicure. But definitely, a pedicure.

6) Miscellaneous:
We saw the new Star Trek finally in 3D! It was really good - it always takes me a few mins to get used to 3D, so I did spend about 5 mins reacting to things on the screen by jerking around in my seat (good times, good times). We went for tapas last night on a date night - headed out to a place in our hood and just took our time. Seafood paella, peach sangria, some empanadas... it was a great night last night. And there were 2 little kids in the row in front of me on the flight out to SLC - when we landed the little boy was all "mom! mom!" and then started going "Yankees (turned his thumb down), Mets (turned his thumb up), Giants (turned his thumb down), Jets (turned his thumb up)". I about died laughing - Blondie would've LOVED this kid.

That's about it - full recaps start again next week (yay, yay for you).

And finally, HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO TCKITW (how long can I call her this?) Hope you had a great day sweetie! We miss you and love you!

--K

Forty

The week of Blondie's birthday turned out to be a most excellent week. It started off that Wednesday with me making a trip down to Tribeca to meet Blondie after work. It was the first time I had been on the subway in over a month, so it was actually a lot of fun heading down there. I like walking to work a lot, but do miss the crush of a rush hour subway sometimes. Anyway, Blondie and I met up for some pizza and a few drinks and then wandered Tribeca for awhile, before heading to see Lady Antebellum!

Blondie had gotten free tickets for their show - they did a very intimate, standing room only, 50 minute set, and it was incredible. I don't listen to country music, but Blondie loves it - I was very hesitant going in, hoping that I would like it, and they blew me away. They were literally about 10 feet from us (only about 100 people got tickets to this concert) and I loved it. We are hoping we can see more concerts like this in the future. Afterwards, we were giddy - and got to talking all "did you ever imagine that 10 years ago we'd be living in NYC?!?!?!" Just a really great night.

Thursday I was up and at 'em early b/c Mr and Mrs Pooh were on their way to NYC! I got to work at 8 am so that I could leave at 4 pm and hang with the Poohs. Side note: it's really funny when you mention "my baby brother is here!" and someone says "how old is your baby brother?" and you say "35". The day went super fast, and before I knew it, I was walking out of my building to meet up with the Poohs. We headed over to poison bar for many drinks (and free Jaeger shots from the nice folks at Jaeger) and some snacks. Blondie joined us there for a bit before we headed over to Southern Hospitality for some dinner. The highlight of which was when Blondie sprayed Mr Pooh with BBQ sauce.

After dinner, it was a trek back up to the Pooh's hotel so Mr Pooh could change out of his BBQ shirt; and then a quick walk over to see Rock of Ages! We imbibed in some jello shots beforehand and then spent a delightful 2.5 hours watching the show. I love Rock of Ages - everything about it makes me happy. I was singing and dancing along in my seat - and I was not alone. Blondie even said it was his favorite musical out of all the ones we've been to. The evening ended then as the Poohs had an early start on Friday.

Friday Blondie and I started our laundry and then headed to the gym. We got everything done and the apartment cleaned, and then N&LG arrived! We hung out with them for a bit in our apartment, and then I headed up to Penn Station b/c Brother R and Shugs were coming in also. What a morning - everyone was in NYC for Blondie and it made me soooo happy! I walked Brother R and Shugs back to their hotel, and Blondie and N&LG met us there. We walked up through Times Square and then took a train down to Little Italy - we met up with the Poohs and all of us headed for Lombardi's pizza for lunch. Brother R and I also got to drinking, which ended up making for a delightful lunch. (Brother R declared Lombardi's the best pizza he had ever eaten; Mr Pooh thought he was ridiculous; but the pizza is fucking awesome).

After lunch, the group split up. Blondie headed out with the touring group; and Brother R and Shugs and I headed back to Hells Kitchen and hit up Pony Bar where we started drinking heavily. We were eventually met up again by Blondie and N≶ and a coworker of mine (long story - but they sent a coworker to get my desk keys; very new, very young, very shy guy who I forced into drinking with us). We ended up staying until around 5:30, and then Brother R went back to the hotel to get Shugs (who had headed for a nap earlier) and the rest of us headed to the apartment to drink more beer on the patio.

Around 7 the entire group met up for dinner. By then, I was pretty drunk so I was adamant we get a lot of sangria. And then I ignored my dinner entirely. Yet another sidenote: we had been trying to take Mr Pooh to the restaurant we were at everytime he came to town and had never done it; finally we went; and he said the chicken was the best chicken he had ever had (2 for 2 for meals!) After dinner, it was back over to the Winchester with everyone. The group split up pretty early but the Poohs and I stayed out until 11 pm ish. And then I headed back home to find the wonderful MG had made it town also!

Saturday I woke up and went to check on train schedules out to the Hamptons and realized we all had to be at Penn Station at 11:20 to make the train or we wouldn't be out to Hamptons until 9:30 pm. Oops. It was a mad dash - I immediately took off and ran errands (groceries, cupcakes, picking up breakfast stuff) and showed back up an hour later coated in sweat and rain. We managed to pull everyone together and make it to Penn on time; and then it was a 2 hour train trip out to the Hamptons. We ate lunch when we got there, and then walked about 1.5 miles to our house. Once we got settled in, the Poohs and I walked back up to town and bought a bunch of beer and then cabbed it back home. The Super V's showed up Saturday night, which made our group complete!

The house was really nice - big and spacious; but the hot tub never got above 85 degrees; and the heater for the pool didn't start until Monday (we called several times for both). So that kind of tainted our weekend; but other than that, we had a blast. We drank every day, we cannonballed into the cold pool, we got sunburnt, we watched bad TV, we cooked great meals, and most importantly, we celebrated Blondie turning THE BIG 4.0.!!!!!!!

Sunday was Blondie's birthday and we had a blast that day - most of the group headed off to the Hamptons beach early morning, but Brother R, Shugs and I sat around the pool drinking all morning. The group showed back up around 2 pm, and that's when we started cannonballing into the pool, and just generally being idiots. Mr Pooh did a BBQ for a late lunch, and then we got into some beer darts, which made me laugh until I almost peed myself - my 2 favorite things were when Mr Pooh hit my beer can and immediately got sprayed when it exploded backwards; and when NG hit Brother R's can and he stuck his foot over top of the spray because he was getting nailed (omg - I'm sitting here laughing thinking about it) MG made a poppy seed torte for Blondie's special treat (I bought cupcakes, MG actually cooked for Blondie - I'm an awesome wife ;) Shugs didn't realize it was poppy seeds and asked if it was tadpoles - another thing that is making me do a literal LOL right now. All in all - a great day celebrating Blondie surrounded by family.

On Monday we said goodbye to N&LG and the Poohs; and then we found HBO On Demand and started watching "We Bought a Zoo"; and we got into the wine and scotch big-time. By the end of our movie, me, Brother R and Shugs were bawling our faces off. We took a gross picture of my snotty face and texted it to the Poohs; and then headed out to sit with our feet in the pool (it was slowly warming up at this point). Shugs ended up dunking Brother R into the pool which was another "laugh until I almost pee myself moment" and we watched the next door neighbors attempt to pull a giant tree trunk out of their lawn with a pickup truck.

And then the weekend was over - the last day in the house the pool was awesome so we all went swimming that morning. And then we tried to use up the rest of our food and drink (breakfast scotch!) before we caught our train back to the city. At JFK stop, we said goodbye to everyone and then we got on our train to Penn Station and I cried the entire 20 minutes. I hate saying goodbye - it sucks.

To completely end the festivities, we met up with our bar friends on Tuesday night at our local, and filled them in on our weekend. It was good seeing them, and they wanted to wish Blondie a happy birthday also.

Wednesday it was back to the grind. Pbbbbbttttt. My boss and coworker were headed out of town for work for Thurs and Fri, and I got super excited because I was all "I'm leaving early on Friday!". Note to self: never ever ever say you are leaving early on a day because something will go wrong. And something did go wrong. And Friday was spent dealing with the fallout - it was a very long, very draining day, but I got to be part of something very exciting. I dragged myself home on Friday around 8:30 and then didn't move the rest of the night.

International Food Fest started on Saturday so Blondie and I headed up for that. Blondie got a turkey leg, and we split some empanadas. Then I found one of the bars doing a frito pie - and I knew immediately "I NEED DIS!" So I had a giant frito pie. And then we wandered our way back down the street and hit up poison bar - they were roasting a whole pig so we split a pig sandwich. Our waiter was there and he kept us in beer. The temps were dropping though so we didn't last very long before heading home to warm up.

On Sunday, I started my day out with a pedicure. It was perfect because it was misty and cold, so the pedicure totally hit the spot. Then it was Maine day at Pony Bar - all beers were Maine beers and the menu was a seafood menu. We split scallop sliders and a lobster roll, and got caught up with our musician friend who we hadn't seen in awhile. Then it was back up to Food Fest for some cupcakes and wandering.

On Monday I went into work and knew it would be crazy - the fallout on Friday was not resolved. We knew when we left on Friday that we would have a lot of work to do on Monday, so I went in just dreading it. Around 11 am, they asked me to hop a 4:30 pm flight out for work - headed back down to where my boss and coworker had gone the previous week to do technical support. So it was literally a run home, pack, run back to work to catch a car with the VP out to the airport.

We flew into Raleigh and then drove 1.5 hours out of Raleigh for work - we got in super late and then the next morning it was literally go-go-go until 3:30 pm; when we drove 1.5 hours back to Raleigh to catch our flight back to NYC. While in line at security in Raleigh, Mr Pooh texted and it turned out he was on his way to Raleigh also! I couldn't believe it - I was soooo hoping my flight would be delayed, but it wasn't; and I missed Mr Pooh by 45 minutes. It was a total bummer - that would've been so cool to meet up randomly in Raleigh.

The rest of this week has been boring. Not much has been going on. I got some corporate swag (a new umbrella) on Thursday and they brought in massive gourmet ice cream sandwiches yesterday for treats (I had a vanilla bacon ice cream in a chocolate chip cookie sandwich - it was nom nom nom). And then last night, Blondie and I headed to another local bar that we hardly ever go to for dinner. And afterwards it was back to our local where we had a sing/dance-off to the jukebox with all our friends. It was one of those nights where you feel so lucky to be alive and living in NYC - 15 people sitting around the bar singing along to Bon Jovi; getting free shots from our bartender; my best friends and my Blondie with me; I am lucky and I forget it sometimes. But not last night.

Workouts - I've been really good with workouts but I can't remember all that I've been doing over the last 3 weeks. I can tell you that I'm under 30 minutes again for 2.5 miles (29:09) so I'm super excited about that. But pinkie swear, I've been working out every day. I'll start up next week with my workout posts.

Happy Memorial Day weekend everyone!

--K

A Broken Record

Honestly, my blog this week could be a total clone of last week - and it would all be accurate. I've got to break out of my slump right now and start doing things (anything) again. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.

Last Sunday was good - we were planning a low-key day after the gym, so we ordered in some little tacos from a bodega down the street from us. And then my bar friends texted - they were supposed to have other plans last Sunday but those got cancelled so I ended up meeting them at Pony for a few drinks in the afternoon (bourbon barrel beer - FTW). It was a nice surprise, and I'm glad I got a few drinks in with them before starting the week.

My week was semi-fast. My job title got changed on Wednesday - "they" are considering it a "bump up" in title but in all honesty, it's the exact same fucking title as before. It more accurately reflects the group I work in now, but nothing else changed about it. On Thursday, the company brought in a film crew to do some promotional videos - my boss' boss volunteered me to be interviewed about the company (I'm a female on a very technical team and he thought it would reflect well on us). The only problem is that he didn't tell me about volunteering me so I wasn't prepared (I hadn't washed my hair and I had braided it off my face in 2 braids like a little girl, and I was in a t-shirt). I ended up not doing the interview. Oops. The good thing is that I learned my lesson about how not to show up to the office looking. :)

Friday night we took it easy - my bar friends texted again around 8:30 pm on Friday telling us to come to our local bar, but I was just not feeling anything on Friday. I didn't want to leave my apartment for any reason. I felt better after a long night's sleep on Friday - and Saturday we took off around 1:15 pm to head up to Broadway! For Blondie's birthday, I had bought box seat tickets to the Tom Hanks play "Lucky Guy". Tom Hanks is one of Blondie's favorite actors.

The play was amazeballs. There were SOOOO many famous people in it - Tom Hanks of course, Maura Tierney, Shooter McGavin from Billy Madison (we kept whispering "Red Lobster" to each other anytime he was on stage), Courtney B. Vance, the other Bosom Buddy from Bosom Buddies, one of the main actors on Mentalist, the list goes on and on. It was about one of the most famous NYC reporters, and it had been written by Nora Ephron. We laughed our asses off through the play - just really enjoyed it. It was also cool when they would start doing a scene involving a story that the reporter had done - and realizing I had heard all about the story before I ever lived in NYC.

After the play, Blondie and I hit up a bar in the theater district for an early dinner, before heading to a local bakery for treats. After the bakery, Blondie stopped to get a haircut and a straight razor shave - making him look 12 again to me. Then we headed home and finally watched a Netflix we had sitting around for 2 weeks (and seriously - a movie that I adored - Perks of Being a Wallflower - watch it).

Today was spent being crazy busy - we started out with the gym before ordering in food for lunch. Then we finally got all our food ordered for our trip to the Hamptons - that took several hours and several mis-steps before getting it all sorted out. Then it was straight into a ton of cleaning, before ordering in food for dinner. Our apartment looks great now, and I've got a full belly.

This week - I CAN NOT WAIT FOR 4 PM ON THURSDAY! I'm meeting Mr and Mrs Pooh around that time to hang out for a bit. Then we're meeting up with Blondie for some Southern Hospitality for dinner before taking in "Rock of Ages" on Broadway. On Friday morning, Brother R and Shugs, and N&LG land; with MG landing on Friday night. Saturday it's off to the Hamptons for the weekend. And 1 week from today, we celebrate my hottie Blondito Bambino turning the big 4.0.

Workouts!
Monday: Insanity Cardio Recovery
Tuesday: 2.5 miles in 29:50 (whoa! picking up some speed maybe?); 5 min cooldown; weights
Wednesday: 30 day Shred Level 1; abs
Thursday: 30 mins hill intervals - 2 mins 4.1 mph flat, 2 mins 5.3-5.5 mph on 3% grade hill; 5 min cooldown; weights
Friday: 2 miles speed work in 23:08 mins - 2 mins 4.1 mph, 2 mins 6.2-6.8 mph; 5 min cooldown
Saturday: 3.1 miles in 36:58 (all running, but slow); 5 min cooldown; weights; abs
Sunday: 28 mins on Precor - 4 mins level 8, 4 mins level 12; 5 min cooldown; P90X Stretching

--K

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