I've never seen Finding Nemo, but isn't there something about "just keep swimming"?
That's kind of what I've been doing. I still feel kind of like I'm underwater. I'm going through the motions, and sometimes, it feels like everything is back to normal. Then it kind of hits me again. Ugh. But I'm getting through it I guess, as are my brothers and my mom. Times passing, and that means it's getting better, right? It's certainly not my only thought all day, every day anymore. So that's progress.
Work has been a beat-down, which is kind of a welcome distraction in some ways. One of my coworkers had a serious family medical issue that started last August. It got significantly worse over the course of a month, and I guess has gotten progressively better since then? (Co-worker's father sustained serious injury, three weeks in the hospital, died, then co-worker sold mother's house and she moved in with co-worker and my co-worker's family, then she needed two separate operations and is now in a rehab facility. Yow.) And it turns out that my co-worker didn't really ask for help when all this was happening and largely neglected at least the case load I care about (I think my coworker handled cases on some other programs, but not the one I work on). So of the 50 or so cases my coworker had on this program, I've voluntarily assumed 20 of them. Whew! So I'm trying to get up to speed on about 20 cases that haven't really been touched in almost a year. It's certainly an undertaking.
And I've been traveling A LOT for work. Like back when I was working at a big firm. Mostly, Philly, but there has been some LA, and there's some upcoming Illinois and New Mexico Last week was particularly dreadful -- I was actually scheduled to be in town all week. I worked from home Wednesday (per my usual routine), and at 3:00, while still in my gym clothes, was told I needed to be in court in Philly at 9:00 Thursday morning. Ugh. So it was the whole drill -- find a plane ticket, find a hotel, shower, pack, get out the door. All in less than an hour. I had to call my husband from the car and tell him I was going, and wasn't sure if I'd be back the next day or not. And then I had to come back to Philly yesterday, and I'm probably stuck here all week. Fortunately Philly is a pretty awesome city.
The worst part about the work travel is going back home. I don't know why it doesn't bother me when I fly out of DFW, but when I land, I get that overwhelmingly sad feeling. Last week, I got off the plane and broke down in the bathroom. I actually met a nice girl from Germany who was connecting in Dallas for her visit to the US ever (flying to Killeen to visit her cousin who married someone who's in the military). I came out of stall where I was bawling because I realized there was a line. She didn't speak much English, but she tried asking, and I totally unloaded on her. I don't like stranger hugs, but sometimes, when that's all that's available, it works.
I've even been having dreams about the airport lately. Mostly where I try not to say goodbye to my mom and my stepdad when they leave. Sometimes though they haven't visited yet and he's already died but they're somehow allowed to come visit because the trip was already planned. I guess it could be worse -- my middle little brother has had three dreams where my stepdad (his dad) is sitting there crying and everything is just going on around him. I guess it's only been 10.5 weeks. These things take time. I know.
My poor husband -- I crawl into bed on days I fly home and I'm so distraught, I wake him up, and he gets stuck listening to me and trying to console me. He must be wondering how much longer this will last. He's certainly the bright spot in my world. I'm so lucky, I'm not sure I'd be so patient with myself. He certainly wasn't like this after his dad died in January. But that was so different in some ways. I think the sudden-ness of this is maybe the heart of my struggle? Just not getting to say what I wanted to say? Not knowing that airport hug goodbye 2 weeks and 5 days before it happened was a forever goodbye?
But in faith that things will at some point get back to normal, we booked our vacation tickets on Saturday. That's certainly something to look forward to. We've decided to fly into Cape Town (via Doha), and then out of Livingstone.
So it may be very, very dark still, but there is this little spot on the horizon. I just have to keep swimming and I'll get there eventually.
Showing posts with label office. Show all posts
Showing posts with label office. Show all posts
Monday, June 11, 2018
Thursday, March 15, 2018
AVP
About 5 years ago (maybe more, yikes, time flies), the company I work for was acquired by a pretty big company. We merged into one of their subs. In one of our first meetings after the acquisition, the guy who is the head of our division said something like, "titles are cheap. If you want to be President, take it, anyone can be anything." And of course, I thought, hey, I'd like that title. I'm sure he was speaking to the fact that the division we merged into was kind of VP-heavy, and we had a more traditional structure, but that we all need to be team players and get the job done without worrying too much about titles, particularly right after the acquisition.
Anyway, I've been chugging along at work. I think I'm good at my job, and I certainly put in the effort and the hours. Ugh, lately, all the hours -- even overnight when I'm waking up stressed about cases. Anyway, until about a year ago, one coworker and I each took about 45% of the cases in our program, and one other person took the remaining 10%. All 3 of us work hard -- I can't speak to any of the other programs in our office, but I think of us in our little sub-group as hard-working and good at our jobs. All 3 of us had the same title. The other 45%er and I started at the company within a few months of each other, but then she left for a year or two and came back. The 10%er is relatively new -- maybe started a year or two ago.
In our performance evaluations, we have to list short and long term goals at the end. I've always put a title promotion as a short-term goal. And now, well, not NOW, but in "relatively short order," I need to come up with a new short-term goal! Because I'm going to be an assistant vice president! Woot! In many ways, it's a meaningless change. My duties and salary will stay the same, at least for now. But I'm super excited for the title, whenever it goes into effect.
It might take a little while for the change to officially take effect, so I'm not really telling anyone until then except my boss and the head of our division know, and of course my husband, and of course my best running buddy, and of course the whole anonymous internet world (plus I guess the three people who could potentially see this blog and know me in the real world). But until it's official, my husband's super secret nickname for me is Assistant Vice President Elect.
I've got to start pondering new short term goals to put in my next evaluation -- world domination?
Anyway, I've been chugging along at work. I think I'm good at my job, and I certainly put in the effort and the hours. Ugh, lately, all the hours -- even overnight when I'm waking up stressed about cases. Anyway, until about a year ago, one coworker and I each took about 45% of the cases in our program, and one other person took the remaining 10%. All 3 of us work hard -- I can't speak to any of the other programs in our office, but I think of us in our little sub-group as hard-working and good at our jobs. All 3 of us had the same title. The other 45%er and I started at the company within a few months of each other, but then she left for a year or two and came back. The 10%er is relatively new -- maybe started a year or two ago.
In our performance evaluations, we have to list short and long term goals at the end. I've always put a title promotion as a short-term goal. And now, well, not NOW, but in "relatively short order," I need to come up with a new short-term goal! Because I'm going to be an assistant vice president! Woot! In many ways, it's a meaningless change. My duties and salary will stay the same, at least for now. But I'm super excited for the title, whenever it goes into effect.
It might take a little while for the change to officially take effect, so I'm not really telling anyone until then except my boss and the head of our division know, and of course my husband, and of course my best running buddy, and of course the whole anonymous internet world (plus I guess the three people who could potentially see this blog and know me in the real world). But until it's official, my husband's super secret nickname for me is Assistant Vice President Elect.
I've got to start pondering new short term goals to put in my next evaluation -- world domination?
Monday, February 26, 2018
Putting in the Hours
What's kept me busy lately?
Sorry it's not well lit, it was late when I finished so it was dark.
It's a map of the world -- not to scale. Hawaii and Solomon Islands were right next to each other, and Australia was pretty close to Machu Picchu. But it was a fun puzzle.
Aside from the puzzle, just the usual, running and working, some travel. The best part was last week working in Miami -- beats the usual Philly trip by miles!
The Miami trip was weird. It didn't go well work-wise, but at the same time, we left the door open, so maybe in the next week or two, we'll get it done. But the extra fun aspect was that my husband's cousin and boyfriend also happened to be in Miami so I got to go out for drinks with them. I felt mildly guilty because my boss was Miami-bound and had a horrible trip (flight posting a 4 hour delay, then cancelling, getting rebooked on a flight that posted a 3 hour delay (bad weather in Dallas), that had him landing around 2 am, getting to our hotel at 3 a.m.). Needless to say, he wasn't exactly on time to meet me in the lobby to go meet defense counsel for breakfast! He was so grouchy all day, I felt bad that I'd had such a fun night.
But running there was kind of sucky. It was flat, but the temp was in the mid 70s at 5:30 a.m.! Dallas has been up and down lately, typical February for us. Run cancelled on two weeks ago due to a winter weather advisory, our group Tuesday run was around freezing (for me, that means tights and two long sleeves!), then the Thursday run was 66 degrees with 85% humidity, so shorts and a tank. But going up the extra 10 degrees in Miami hurt, I felt like I was sucking wind! But it was so pretty to get to run along the water.
Views from the run: City Hall, and along the water.
The Miami skyline on my way home.
We drove past this road, named long before the school shooting (which was the reason for the lowered flag at City Hall). When we drove past the street sign, we asked about it, and defense counsel told us about Marjory Stoneman Douglas, whose claim to fame is largely for her work for the environment, getting the Everglades protected (the "river of grass"), but who also championed lots of other important causes.
One cool part of my room was a full-sized fridge! I bought beet juice for breakfast.
And I had a legit suite. Separate bedroom, full kitchen, living/dining area, porch with seating for two. Kind of fun, if I hadn't been gone working, running, or hanging out with my husband's cousin all the time I was there...
Friday, February 2, 2018
2018 Joy
It might have been just me, but growing up, my folks put a lot of restrictions on soda and TV. We basically got soda once a week as I recall, and we could watch TV on Saturday mornings and most days after school, but we couldn't watch PG13 or R movies and we couldn't watch TV late at night. In fact, we couldn't stay up late -- I remember getting caught reading in bed by flashlight so many times and getting in trouble (and then later, when I got to high school, getting caught on the phone after bedtime).
So of course if I was at a friend's house, I would suck down gallons of soda, watch Nightmare on Elm Street, and stay up as late as I could.
I feel like I'm perpetually at a friend's house now that it's 2018. I know I posted about this before, but I am so DUCKING HAPPY not to have to check my voicemail every day I'm in the office anymore! That was seriously a painful resolution. It's now Friday morning, I'm sitting on a conference call, and my voicemail light has been on since Monday at 10:35 -- and best of all, I have no idea who the message is from!
I know, I know, I actually really do need to check it. It's kind of part of my job. But I feel like I'm rebelling. Maybe I'll give myself through the month of January to recover from my 2018 resolution, and then I'll try to get back in the habit of not letting it sit for more than 2-3 days?
So of course if I was at a friend's house, I would suck down gallons of soda, watch Nightmare on Elm Street, and stay up as late as I could.
I feel like I'm perpetually at a friend's house now that it's 2018. I know I posted about this before, but I am so DUCKING HAPPY not to have to check my voicemail every day I'm in the office anymore! That was seriously a painful resolution. It's now Friday morning, I'm sitting on a conference call, and my voicemail light has been on since Monday at 10:35 -- and best of all, I have no idea who the message is from!
I know, I know, I actually really do need to check it. It's kind of part of my job. But I feel like I'm rebelling. Maybe I'll give myself through the month of January to recover from my 2018 resolution, and then I'll try to get back in the habit of not letting it sit for more than 2-3 days?
Wednesday, April 26, 2017
Invisible
Yesterday I had the STRANGEST experience at work.
I had an accounting question on one of my files, so I sent an email to my accounting buddy to ask her to look into it. I didn't get a response within a few minutes, and I didn't want to move on to another case without resolving this, so I walked down to her office.
Did I mention we have those dreaded glass walls between our office and the corridor? (Real walls in between the offices though.)
So I could see that another attorney was in my buddy's office, working on his own accounting issue with her. But she could see me waiting my turn. And of course when she looked out at me waiting, he turned and saw me, so he knew there was a line. He got done, I went in. She pulled up my email, then opened the file on the system.
I walked around her desk so I could look over her shoulder at her computer and show her where I thought the entry issue was.
-- As an aside, I always think of that as the "sexual harasser position." Too many workplace videos on preventing sexual harassment in the office I guess. In those videos, things often go south when someone crosses the desk line in an office. The boss looking over the employee's shoulder starts giving a shoulder massage or something. Haha.
I was looking at the screen and my buddy and I were talking about how the funds posted, where, etc. We'd been working on the issue for probably 60-90 seconds, when this new secretary walks into my buddy's office. Just hired in the last month (I've never even been introduced to her actually, but I'd assume she knows I'm an attorney, given that I have an office, not a cube, and only attorneys and my accounting buddy have offices). She just walked right in -- not waiting outside the office for me to finish (with glass walls, this kind of "lurking" is very common in our office).
And then the new secretary says something like, "Gene [one of the attorneys she handles] is out of the office this week, and I'm trying to set up his new files and his instructions aren't very clear and I don't know how to enter the location code."
I kind of just stood there in stunned silence.
My accounting buddy sat for a second, also pretty surprised, then she called out of her office to her assistant, who sits directly outside, and asked her to walk the new secretary through location codes. The new secretary said something to my accounting buddy like, "oh, sorry, does she [accounting buddy assistant] know more?" My accounting buddy said something like, "uh, well, she can help you with location codes, I'm working on something else right now [and kind of nodded her head toward me]." And then the new secretary followed my accounting buddy's assistant back to her desk to figure out how to enter location codes.
I was like, "am I invisible????"
It was so weird! It wasn't like the new secretary poked her head into my buddy's office and said, "sorry to interrupt," or "I just have a real quick question." Both of those would have been fine, and understandable, particularly if my issue was going to take more than 5 minutes. But no, she just came in and started talking, like I wasn't there. My friend agreed it was certainly the weirdest office event of the month, maybe longer. We laughed for a while and were again joking today about whether or not she can actually see me.
I had an accounting question on one of my files, so I sent an email to my accounting buddy to ask her to look into it. I didn't get a response within a few minutes, and I didn't want to move on to another case without resolving this, so I walked down to her office.
Did I mention we have those dreaded glass walls between our office and the corridor? (Real walls in between the offices though.)
So I could see that another attorney was in my buddy's office, working on his own accounting issue with her. But she could see me waiting my turn. And of course when she looked out at me waiting, he turned and saw me, so he knew there was a line. He got done, I went in. She pulled up my email, then opened the file on the system.
I walked around her desk so I could look over her shoulder at her computer and show her where I thought the entry issue was.
-- As an aside, I always think of that as the "sexual harasser position." Too many workplace videos on preventing sexual harassment in the office I guess. In those videos, things often go south when someone crosses the desk line in an office. The boss looking over the employee's shoulder starts giving a shoulder massage or something. Haha.
I was looking at the screen and my buddy and I were talking about how the funds posted, where, etc. We'd been working on the issue for probably 60-90 seconds, when this new secretary walks into my buddy's office. Just hired in the last month (I've never even been introduced to her actually, but I'd assume she knows I'm an attorney, given that I have an office, not a cube, and only attorneys and my accounting buddy have offices). She just walked right in -- not waiting outside the office for me to finish (with glass walls, this kind of "lurking" is very common in our office).
And then the new secretary says something like, "Gene [one of the attorneys she handles] is out of the office this week, and I'm trying to set up his new files and his instructions aren't very clear and I don't know how to enter the location code."
I kind of just stood there in stunned silence.
My accounting buddy sat for a second, also pretty surprised, then she called out of her office to her assistant, who sits directly outside, and asked her to walk the new secretary through location codes. The new secretary said something to my accounting buddy like, "oh, sorry, does she [accounting buddy assistant] know more?" My accounting buddy said something like, "uh, well, she can help you with location codes, I'm working on something else right now [and kind of nodded her head toward me]." And then the new secretary followed my accounting buddy's assistant back to her desk to figure out how to enter location codes.
I was like, "am I invisible????"
It was so weird! It wasn't like the new secretary poked her head into my buddy's office and said, "sorry to interrupt," or "I just have a real quick question." Both of those would have been fine, and understandable, particularly if my issue was going to take more than 5 minutes. But no, she just came in and started talking, like I wasn't there. My friend agreed it was certainly the weirdest office event of the month, maybe longer. We laughed for a while and were again joking today about whether or not she can actually see me.
Monday, April 17, 2017
Fake Working
As is my usual Marathon Monday tradition, I will be "fake working" pretty much all morning and early afternoon today. I will be sitting at my desk, watching the live coverage of the race and tracking all my friends, same as I do pretty much every year. In 2014, when Meb won, multiple people came to my office because I was ... ummm, not quiet. I was so excited when I realized he was really going to do it.
The first time I got a BQ was probably the proudest moment of my running career. Happened at Twin Cities in 2010, and I promptly registered to run Boston in 2011.
It was my favorite marathon by leaps and bounds -- the history, the involvement of the entire city, the runners in town wearing their jackets, and the race itself. Totally amazing. I think I've qualified a total of three times (?), but I only ran it once, primarily I think because that day was so perfect that I don't really want another Boston memory. I don't think it could ever be topped for me.
Good luck and Godspeed to all the runners today. May the wind be at your back and the memories among your favorite of all time. I'll be at my desk and not working.
The first time I got a BQ was probably the proudest moment of my running career. Happened at Twin Cities in 2010, and I promptly registered to run Boston in 2011.
It was my favorite marathon by leaps and bounds -- the history, the involvement of the entire city, the runners in town wearing their jackets, and the race itself. Totally amazing. I think I've qualified a total of three times (?), but I only ran it once, primarily I think because that day was so perfect that I don't really want another Boston memory. I don't think it could ever be topped for me.
Good luck and Godspeed to all the runners today. May the wind be at your back and the memories among your favorite of all time. I'll be at my desk and not working.
Wednesday, April 6, 2016
Training
I guess I am now committed to running Broad Street on May 1.
I got into the lottery, but I was having trouble justifying the price of a plane ticket to Philly and a hotel.
But I mentioned the race to my favorite Philly defense counsel and asked if he could work his magic and have me required to be in court on May 2. Done!
So work paid for my plane ticket (same price if I fly to Philly on Sat or Sun, otherwise I would have had to pay the difference). I'm paying for Sat night hotel (Sunday race) but I don't have to worry about checking out or anything, staying at the same hotel on my work credit card Sunday night.
I checked on my 10 mile race PR and I would say I have a slight chance of beating it. I've actually only done two 10 mile races (I don't count a longer race like a half, even if there is a mile 10 chip time provided). It's a stretch and a challenge, but it's not totally outside the realm of possibility.
I don't think I'm going to taper much for the race, so I've got about 3 weeks of training left. Right now, I can manage a few miles at my goal 10 mile pace.
I actually ran a half a few weeks ago (the Dallas Rock and Roll race) and averaged 30 seconds per mile slower than I need to be for the 10 mile race. The Dallas course had some Dallas hills, whereas I think the Philly course is very flat -- it's point to point with a very slight net elevation drop (less than 200 feet over the 10 miles).
If I take my 3 slowest miles out of my recent half time, it would leave me about 3.5 minutes slower than I'm hoping to be at Broad Street (that's a little misleading because Dallas was basically a loop course, so I'm counting the biggest downhill miles and not counting the biggest uphill miles).
But I would still think that with some work, I can make a dent in those 3.5 minutes I need to trim. If only I had more than 3 weeks.
I was supposed to have 1 more week, but I was down for the count with some kind of upper respiratory thing last week. It's about 75% better now, but I'm still wheezing, coughing, stuffy/runny at times, just not as bad as it was before.
But either way, no more slacking!
After Broad Street, then it will be beer mile time, and after that ... still toying with some ideas for a fall marathon.
Since we're not leaving for South America until Oct. 19, I've actually got an extra weekend of races to consider than we usually have (we usually fly out about a week earlier for vacation).
My top contenders, roughly in order: Columbus or KC (tied for top spot, KC is hilly I think but since I'm not in PR shape, might be a good time to check that state off the list, plus free lodging in KC, lots of high school friends to visit), Des Moines or Quad Cities, or Steamtown (least likely just because I want to be in better shape for this course).
I'm waiting to get on a plane to Philly right now for work.
My big dilemma: try to run part of the course tomorrow (probably about 4 miles of it, and then doubling back to my hotel), or run with my favorite running group there, or run one of my favorite solo routes.
If it weren't for the fact that the race course is a straight shot down Broad Street, and I know there are traffic lights about every block, I'd definitely aim to do the course. But that would be a whole lot of potential stopping and starting, and that does not lend itself to even a single pace mile.
I got into the lottery, but I was having trouble justifying the price of a plane ticket to Philly and a hotel.
But I mentioned the race to my favorite Philly defense counsel and asked if he could work his magic and have me required to be in court on May 2. Done!
So work paid for my plane ticket (same price if I fly to Philly on Sat or Sun, otherwise I would have had to pay the difference). I'm paying for Sat night hotel (Sunday race) but I don't have to worry about checking out or anything, staying at the same hotel on my work credit card Sunday night.
I checked on my 10 mile race PR and I would say I have a slight chance of beating it. I've actually only done two 10 mile races (I don't count a longer race like a half, even if there is a mile 10 chip time provided). It's a stretch and a challenge, but it's not totally outside the realm of possibility.
I don't think I'm going to taper much for the race, so I've got about 3 weeks of training left. Right now, I can manage a few miles at my goal 10 mile pace.
I actually ran a half a few weeks ago (the Dallas Rock and Roll race) and averaged 30 seconds per mile slower than I need to be for the 10 mile race. The Dallas course had some Dallas hills, whereas I think the Philly course is very flat -- it's point to point with a very slight net elevation drop (less than 200 feet over the 10 miles).
If I take my 3 slowest miles out of my recent half time, it would leave me about 3.5 minutes slower than I'm hoping to be at Broad Street (that's a little misleading because Dallas was basically a loop course, so I'm counting the biggest downhill miles and not counting the biggest uphill miles).
But I would still think that with some work, I can make a dent in those 3.5 minutes I need to trim. If only I had more than 3 weeks.
I was supposed to have 1 more week, but I was down for the count with some kind of upper respiratory thing last week. It's about 75% better now, but I'm still wheezing, coughing, stuffy/runny at times, just not as bad as it was before.
But either way, no more slacking!
After Broad Street, then it will be beer mile time, and after that ... still toying with some ideas for a fall marathon.
Since we're not leaving for South America until Oct. 19, I've actually got an extra weekend of races to consider than we usually have (we usually fly out about a week earlier for vacation).
My top contenders, roughly in order: Columbus or KC (tied for top spot, KC is hilly I think but since I'm not in PR shape, might be a good time to check that state off the list, plus free lodging in KC, lots of high school friends to visit), Des Moines or Quad Cities, or Steamtown (least likely just because I want to be in better shape for this course).
I'm waiting to get on a plane to Philly right now for work.
My big dilemma: try to run part of the course tomorrow (probably about 4 miles of it, and then doubling back to my hotel), or run with my favorite running group there, or run one of my favorite solo routes.
If it weren't for the fact that the race course is a straight shot down Broad Street, and I know there are traffic lights about every block, I'd definitely aim to do the course. But that would be a whole lot of potential stopping and starting, and that does not lend itself to even a single pace mile.
Wednesday, March 16, 2016
Struggling
We've been in the habit (since November 1) of making a nightly "grateful list" of three things each. Last night I was grateful to get to take the shortcut exit from the parking garage. It closes between 6:30 and 6:45, and I squeaked through yesterday when it was in the process of being closed.
Ugh.
I know I have many more things to be grateful for (including that I left work driving a convertible on a lovely 82 degree night, at about 6:40, which is a highly reasonable time). But ugh, I feel like I'm getting hit hard now. From all sides.
Watching my husband say good bye to his dad this past weekend broke my heart. His dad is still hanging on, but it's been a lot of ups and downs (high BP, low BP, possible kidney failure, then more fluids, now a fever, not eating, etc.). I'm SOOOO glad we went to Pittsburgh on short notice and got to spend days with my in-laws. If/when my father in law passes away, at least we will have gotten to say goodbye.
Watching my mother-in-law deal with it has been nearly as distressing. She's pretty emotional, understandably, but she also seems to forget about it and she goes on and on about this male resident that she seems to be infatuated with. I know, this is very common in people with Alzheimer's. I remember reading something about 15 years ago about Sandra Day O'Connor acknowledging that her husband had a girlfriend in his assisted living facility. Her attitude toward it was very calm and understanding, saying along the lines of her wanting his last days to be happy. Even at the time I read that, I remember thinking it must have been hard for her, and all these years later, it stuck with me. But now I have a tiny grasp on some of how hard it must have been. It's so hard for my husband, and his brothers, and his mom's twin sister, to hear her go on and on about him. (He actually seems to be a very nice man, I sat with him at the community jigsaw puzzle one day for a few hours.) She sounds like I imagine she must have sounded when she was in high school in the 40s. Fortunately, she has at least some of her mind left and she doesn't mention this guy as often when she's sitting at her husband's bedside. I've tried to keep my husband from being too upset about it, telling him this is common, and it's okay. Even if his dad were to become aware of it, I like to think that he would be as understanding and gracious as Sandra Day O'Connor seemed to be.
On top of that, there is a fairly significant crisis that my husband is dealing with at work (along with other people). It happened Sunday evening (while we were in Cleveland, hanging out with my law school roommate and her husband for a few hours before catching a 5:xx flight back to Dallas on Monday morning, the second in our string of red eyes). While he didn't know either of the people involved, he's gotten involved in the $hit$storm that has followed. Very high stress, a lot of media, lives at stake, lives lost, all that crap.
And my work is B-A-D. The most time consuming type of new matter that I work on is something involving a death (much like my husband's job, incidentally!). It's hard to use averages, but I'd say I usually get about 1 death per month. Each death takes multiple full days of work to get all the associated tasks completed. When I flew up north this past week, I had a total of 2 deaths "in the hole" (that I needed to work on). When I got back to my desk on Monday morning, I had gotten 4 more. Ugh! It's like I need a month straight just to handle those 6 cases -- but of course my 150ish non-death cases also need work done, so I can't just abandon them for a month! This is probably the furthest behind I've ever been at this job, and it's scary. And unfortunately, I've got tons of work travel on the books in the next month or so, which will make it even harder to get on top of it all.
I guess that's all I really have to complain about. A dying elderly father-in-law, a mother-in-law slowly and painfully losing her mind, work homicide-induced restlessness for my husband, work other death-induced restlessness for me.
I know things aren't so bad in the grand scheme of things. And honestly, I know it could be about a million times worse. We are both healthy, no one will say my in-laws were taken "too soon", we both love our jobs, despite the stress; heck, we both HAVE jobs!
But it still feels like it's kind of hard to breathe right now.
Watching my husband say good bye to his dad this past weekend broke my heart. His dad is still hanging on, but it's been a lot of ups and downs (high BP, low BP, possible kidney failure, then more fluids, now a fever, not eating, etc.). I'm SOOOO glad we went to Pittsburgh on short notice and got to spend days with my in-laws. If/when my father in law passes away, at least we will have gotten to say goodbye.
Watching my mother-in-law deal with it has been nearly as distressing. She's pretty emotional, understandably, but she also seems to forget about it and she goes on and on about this male resident that she seems to be infatuated with. I know, this is very common in people with Alzheimer's. I remember reading something about 15 years ago about Sandra Day O'Connor acknowledging that her husband had a girlfriend in his assisted living facility. Her attitude toward it was very calm and understanding, saying along the lines of her wanting his last days to be happy. Even at the time I read that, I remember thinking it must have been hard for her, and all these years later, it stuck with me. But now I have a tiny grasp on some of how hard it must have been. It's so hard for my husband, and his brothers, and his mom's twin sister, to hear her go on and on about him. (He actually seems to be a very nice man, I sat with him at the community jigsaw puzzle one day for a few hours.) She sounds like I imagine she must have sounded when she was in high school in the 40s. Fortunately, she has at least some of her mind left and she doesn't mention this guy as often when she's sitting at her husband's bedside. I've tried to keep my husband from being too upset about it, telling him this is common, and it's okay. Even if his dad were to become aware of it, I like to think that he would be as understanding and gracious as Sandra Day O'Connor seemed to be.
On top of that, there is a fairly significant crisis that my husband is dealing with at work (along with other people). It happened Sunday evening (while we were in Cleveland, hanging out with my law school roommate and her husband for a few hours before catching a 5:xx flight back to Dallas on Monday morning, the second in our string of red eyes). While he didn't know either of the people involved, he's gotten involved in the $hit$storm that has followed. Very high stress, a lot of media, lives at stake, lives lost, all that crap.
And my work is B-A-D. The most time consuming type of new matter that I work on is something involving a death (much like my husband's job, incidentally!). It's hard to use averages, but I'd say I usually get about 1 death per month. Each death takes multiple full days of work to get all the associated tasks completed. When I flew up north this past week, I had a total of 2 deaths "in the hole" (that I needed to work on). When I got back to my desk on Monday morning, I had gotten 4 more. Ugh! It's like I need a month straight just to handle those 6 cases -- but of course my 150ish non-death cases also need work done, so I can't just abandon them for a month! This is probably the furthest behind I've ever been at this job, and it's scary. And unfortunately, I've got tons of work travel on the books in the next month or so, which will make it even harder to get on top of it all.
I guess that's all I really have to complain about. A dying elderly father-in-law, a mother-in-law slowly and painfully losing her mind, work homicide-induced restlessness for my husband, work other death-induced restlessness for me.
I know things aren't so bad in the grand scheme of things. And honestly, I know it could be about a million times worse. We are both healthy, no one will say my in-laws were taken "too soon", we both love our jobs, despite the stress; heck, we both HAVE jobs!
But it still feels like it's kind of hard to breathe right now.
Thursday, March 3, 2016
Upcoming Miles
The good news is that I'm going to secure my airline status early this year. The bad news is that I just looked at my calendar and I have one more lovely week, and then I'm going to be all over the map and traveling every single week (which is my least favorite way to live life, unless it's all personal vacation travel).
This is what the current travel plan looks like between March 15 and April 14:
To Cleveland and back (side trip to Pittsburgh to check on my in-laws)
To Florida and back (work)
To San Fran and back (personal, visiting my nephew for Easter!)
To DC and back (personal)
To Philly and back (work)
To Philly and back (work)
Then I'll have a lovely no-travel week at home -- but that week will include one of our two major audits of the year, and then it's possibly back to Philly the following week if I decide to run the Broad Street 10 miler since I won that lottery.
I just have to remember that two of those trips are 100% fun and that all the other trips will give me miles to later go to fun places on personal trips!
And while having short weeks in the office will make things a bit more chaotic, it will also make the work weeks feel a lot shorter.
This is what the current travel plan looks like between March 15 and April 14:
To Cleveland and back (side trip to Pittsburgh to check on my in-laws)
To Florida and back (work)
To San Fran and back (personal, visiting my nephew for Easter!)
To DC and back (personal)
To Philly and back (work)
To Philly and back (work)
Then I'll have a lovely no-travel week at home -- but that week will include one of our two major audits of the year, and then it's possibly back to Philly the following week if I decide to run the Broad Street 10 miler since I won that lottery.
I just have to remember that two of those trips are 100% fun and that all the other trips will give me miles to later go to fun places on personal trips!
And while having short weeks in the office will make things a bit more chaotic, it will also make the work weeks feel a lot shorter.
Thursday, February 11, 2016
Lotto
I work in Philly fairly frequently, so I end up running there every so often -- it's actually like the scene of the crime for me: when I stepped on that huge rock in September and broke my ankle, that was in a Philly suburb.
The ankle has made vast improvements in the last few weeks. I am now pain free for more than 7 miles -- to the point where on a good day, I can't even remember which ankle it was! Doctor is planning to check one more time, but I'm confident at this point that it's healing well and there won't be any surgery.
Anyway, one of the biggest races in the US is held in Philly every Spring -- the Broad Street Run, a 10 mile race.
I happened to read something about it today, so I looked it up to see when registration is held and I just went ahead and entered the lottery!
It turns out registration opened Feb. 1 and closes tomorrow.
Why not?
If I get in, I'm far from certain I'd do it -- I have some kind of mental hang-up about buying plane tickets for a race that's not a marathon. But I'd at least consider it, and maybe even try to see if I have any flexibility to set a work obligation there around the same time.
So I'm officially in the Broad Street lottery. Woot! Signing up for races also makes me happy.
The ankle has made vast improvements in the last few weeks. I am now pain free for more than 7 miles -- to the point where on a good day, I can't even remember which ankle it was! Doctor is planning to check one more time, but I'm confident at this point that it's healing well and there won't be any surgery.
Anyway, one of the biggest races in the US is held in Philly every Spring -- the Broad Street Run, a 10 mile race.
I happened to read something about it today, so I looked it up to see when registration is held and I just went ahead and entered the lottery!
It turns out registration opened Feb. 1 and closes tomorrow.
Why not?
If I get in, I'm far from certain I'd do it -- I have some kind of mental hang-up about buying plane tickets for a race that's not a marathon. But I'd at least consider it, and maybe even try to see if I have any flexibility to set a work obligation there around the same time.
So I'm officially in the Broad Street lottery. Woot! Signing up for races also makes me happy.
Thursday, February 4, 2016
Morning Mezzo
When I had my best training season ever, I was running pretty high mileage for me (chump change for others). High mileage for me is when I have multiple consecutive weeks in the 50s. I've done plenty of marathons where I rarely get into the 50s for a week, and when I first started running, there were races that I trained for and I rarely got into the 40s for a week. But when I'm running strong, mid-50s is where it's at for me. I seem to find I get injured if I go over that. And I am very good about mixing up my miles -- some quality, but also plenty of junk miles. The best junk miles for me are commuting miles.
If I do my full commuting week, it adds about 19 miles to my schedule. Commuting miles are the best junk miles because I do them alone and I'm never under a serious time constraint (if I was ever running late, I'd just shower at home and drive to work). So 19 slow, easy miles per week.
Sometimes VERY slow and easy, especially when I can talk my accounting buddy into going halfway home with me one night per week. That adds in a couple miles of walk-run.
At my peak, doing high mileage with a full commuting week included, the most I ever run before I get to work is about 12 miles. That happened fairly regularly on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. I would run about 8 miles with my running buddies, go home for breakfast and sometimes a dry shirt, then run another 3.75 miles to work. And then on Tuesdays, it would be a 15.5 mile weekday because after that morning 12, I'd work my usual day and then run the 3.75 home. But it was broken up so it never felt too long.
Well, today for the first time ever I think, I did my highest pre-work mileage. I ran a morning half, and then some! (Half is "mezzo" in Italian.)
I decided that with a marathon later this month, I couldn't afford to totally blow off my weekend long run.
But on the other hand, I have the foresight to recognize that I consume more alcohol at Mardi Gras than pretty much the rest of the year combined, and odds are very high that a run will not happen there. And even if by some miracle it does happen, I'm usually not inclined to go very long -- something about standing around watching parades and then wearing heels and dancing at a ball all night...
So I told myself to suck it up today. I was only running 6 with my usual crew, but one of them ran to the grocery store where we met, so after our group 6 miles, I ran him home, then back to my car. That got me to 8. I was thinking I'd drive home and then run the trail by our house, but it was so cold this morning. I figured I'd be freezing if I got in the car and stopped sweating on my drive home, even though it's not very far.
So I ended up grabbing water at my car and heading toward the lake, then zigzagging my way back to the car, ending up just over 13.5 miles.
On a weekday!
Boo-yah!
Of course I'm totally dragging ass now. If I'd needed to do a running commute on top of that, I'd probably still be out there, crawling slowly toward the office...
I need to plow through major work so I can leave early tonight to start our trip. But now, any Mardi Gras miles will be bonus miles. Exactly my goal!
If I do my full commuting week, it adds about 19 miles to my schedule. Commuting miles are the best junk miles because I do them alone and I'm never under a serious time constraint (if I was ever running late, I'd just shower at home and drive to work). So 19 slow, easy miles per week.
Sometimes VERY slow and easy, especially when I can talk my accounting buddy into going halfway home with me one night per week. That adds in a couple miles of walk-run.
At my peak, doing high mileage with a full commuting week included, the most I ever run before I get to work is about 12 miles. That happened fairly regularly on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. I would run about 8 miles with my running buddies, go home for breakfast and sometimes a dry shirt, then run another 3.75 miles to work. And then on Tuesdays, it would be a 15.5 mile weekday because after that morning 12, I'd work my usual day and then run the 3.75 home. But it was broken up so it never felt too long.
Well, today for the first time ever I think, I did my highest pre-work mileage. I ran a morning half, and then some! (Half is "mezzo" in Italian.)
I decided that with a marathon later this month, I couldn't afford to totally blow off my weekend long run.
But on the other hand, I have the foresight to recognize that I consume more alcohol at Mardi Gras than pretty much the rest of the year combined, and odds are very high that a run will not happen there. And even if by some miracle it does happen, I'm usually not inclined to go very long -- something about standing around watching parades and then wearing heels and dancing at a ball all night...
So I told myself to suck it up today. I was only running 6 with my usual crew, but one of them ran to the grocery store where we met, so after our group 6 miles, I ran him home, then back to my car. That got me to 8. I was thinking I'd drive home and then run the trail by our house, but it was so cold this morning. I figured I'd be freezing if I got in the car and stopped sweating on my drive home, even though it's not very far.
So I ended up grabbing water at my car and heading toward the lake, then zigzagging my way back to the car, ending up just over 13.5 miles.
On a weekday!
Boo-yah!
Of course I'm totally dragging ass now. If I'd needed to do a running commute on top of that, I'd probably still be out there, crawling slowly toward the office...
I need to plow through major work so I can leave early tonight to start our trip. But now, any Mardi Gras miles will be bonus miles. Exactly my goal!
Tuesday, January 12, 2016
Small Things
Figured I'd share a few small things that really have made me happy in the last week.
First, as part of my new year "straightening out" phase, I accomplished a major thing: a clear(ish) desk at work!
First, as part of my new year "straightening out" phase, I accomplished a major thing: a clear(ish) desk at work!
(Just ignore that massive stack in the upper right hand corner, which is my paper in-box. For a "paperless" company, there are still a ton of paper records that I end up receiving, and unfortunately, all of those pages need to be reviewed and summarized...)
Previously, I had papers from about 5 matters spread across the top, and even though I rarely referred to them, they took up a lot of space and I wanted them accessible. I went ahead and just stacked them up in alternating directions, and now my desk surface is totally clear except for that stack! (Well, clear except for that stack and the in-box, details, details...).
But my desk didn't stay clear long. Happily! One blog I read all the time, Running on Lentils, posts frequent running clothing reviews. My running wardrobe is OLD. I'm one of those "if it ain't broke" people (and generally as cheap as $hit unless it comes to travel money), and aside from making the move to tech fabrics in about 2006 when it became all the rage, I've basically just continued to wear a lot of the same stuff, with some additions over the years from Christmas gifts, race shirts, and the occasional purchase. But I think some of Jenn's blog is rubbing off on me -- I sometimes read one of her reviews about how much she likes quality pieces and why, and I think, gee, I'd love to have a pocket for a key in my running capris! So sometimes she convinces me to look at a Lulu item on sale and if it's in my size, it's on my desk before long.
Of course, step 2 is that I should purge an old pair of running pants from my current collection to make room for these, but I'm actually low on pants, so I probably won't (plus the whole "hoarder" thing...).
My other big office thing... finally fixing my water bottle. I've had this water bottle from The Lyons' Share that I use a lot of the time (the other bottle is a generic Aladdin one from Target that I use when I'm washing my regular one).
Well, a while back, I dropped the lid when I was refilling it, and the cap to close it actually broke off, so I've been using it like this:
The second picture shows it better, but that's basically nothing between water and my laptop and my work papers if I tip the bottle over. After I broke the lid, there was no way to close it (but, not a wide opening, so less fatal that it could be I guess).
Well, at boot camp last week, I finally told Megan that my cap was broken, and she replaced it!
Isn't it lovely?! Honestly, makes a big difference in my days though -- I can keep the bottle closer now since it's spill-safe, so I drink more! And that nagging worry that I'd knock it over is gone (along with any nagging fear a co-worker thought my broken topped bottle was ghetto...).
All three of those things have made me very happy. Sometimes it's just the little things, right?
Friday, January 1, 2016
5 years later
Back in December 2010, one of the bloggers I've read the longest, Bella, got me into doing a series of prompts in December that were on such interesting topics.
One of the prompts in December 2010 was to write a letter to yourself going into 2011 from the year 2015. And I did it! And now, 5 years later, I'm still blogging, and it's going to be 2016 soon.
Here's my original post (and here was Bella's), I thought it would be fun to see where things stand now.
The prompt was awkwardly phrased, telling you to imagine yourself 5 years from now (in Dec. 2010) and give advice to your current self for the year ahead. I kind of blew that off, saying that I didn't really see any big changes in 2011 (other than knowing my 2 youngest brothers were getting married that year), and I was kind of hoping my life would be basically the same at the end of 2011 as it was at the end of 2010. The biggest struggle for me at the end of 2010 was that I didn't really like my job, but the rest of my life was pretty much just as I wanted it.
I chose to look at the question based on the main categories of how I define myself set out on my About Me page.
Runner. In late 2010 (almost 3 months after my first BQ), I figured that by late 2015, "I hopefully will have run Boston and requalified several times" and I'd have run several other marathons that were of interest, as well as a trail race and an ultra. And I'd still run with the same crew, and hoped 2 friends who had left our crew would be back.
Status: Well, I've run Boston and I have requalified on more than one occasion, but I'm not presently qualified, and I'm a long way from it! But running Boston and having the option to do so again was the real goal in 2010 looking toward 2015, and I've accomplished that. As to the other aspects of my 2010 running goals/predictions for 2015, I've made some progress. I have done a couple of the other marathons on my list, as well as a bunch of other marathons. But I didn't really run a trail race or an ultra -- I did a marathon that was partially on trails (the Bataan Memorial Death March Marathon) and in training for that, I did 27 miles of walking while wearing the extra 40 pounds I carried on my back for that marathon. But neither of those are really what I envisioned 5 years ago as "doing a trail race" and "running an ultra." But as predicted in 2010, I still run with the same group of people. But sadly, my 2010 dream was that two of my favorite running buddies who both moved to Cali would move back to Dallas, and neither of them has (but I'm still in touch with both, just visited the So-Cal one (and his wife and son) this past summer!). But I've met some new running friends over the last half decade and those have been great experiences too.
Wife. In late 2010, I wanted 2015 to have us as a settled and secure married couple, who know each other well and think of each other first. I knew that would be tough (not just because I'd been unmarried for the first 30+ years of life), but I wanted to always think before speaking, to make more of an effort to let the little things go and to have the word "squadra" (Italian theme for our goal marriage) at the forefront of my actions.
Status: Going stronger than ever! Feel very secure and settled, but there are definitely times we each think of ourselves first, and less like a team. But I'm better about not sweating the small stuff, and we work on being a "squadra."
Vegetarian. Five years ago, it was easy to predict that I'd still be a vegetarian. I also predicted that I'd have even gone vegan on many days. In 2015, I wanted to be an adventurous cook, always trying new recipes and relying more frequently on homemade leftovers for lunch instead of frozen meals or restaurants.
Status: Definitely still a vegetarian. More vegan days since November 1, 2015 than probably in the last 5 years combined, but still far from being a real vegan. I'd say I'm a pretty adventurous cook, but I still don't cook enough. I work a lot and we go to bed usually not too long after I get home from work, so almost all weeknights it's something in the microwave (usually something from the in-store prepared meals section from the grocery). And it's leftovers for lunch maaaaybe once a month. When I cook on the weekend, there are usually leftovers, but I use those for other dinners and still eat Amy's frozen meals for lunch most days (though now vegan meals more often).
Dallas-dweller. In 2010, I wasn't certain where we'd be living today. I knew it was most likely the same place we lived in 2010, but there were thoughts of moving back near my parents or near my in-laws, or maybe even to near my husband's family in Italy. In 2010, my husband had said he really didn't want to move until 2016 or ideally after 2020. In 2010, my immediate hope was to make progress hammering down the mortgage in 2011.
Status: Same, same! Happily living in the same condo and no plans to move on the horizon. Earlier this year, I had a strong bug to move to San Fran, and I'd still love to do that, but my husband still isn't ready to change jobs and it's not really on the radar anymore. I did refinance the mortgage at least once, maybe even twice, and I'm working on paying it off ahead of schedule.
Attorney. In 2010, I expected that right now I'd still be a a practicing attorney and that I'd love my job. In late 2010, I knew the 2015 plan was likely going to require change from where I was in 2010, either by making some changes to how my 2010 job worked, or changing jobs. I also expected that in 2015 I'd be a zealous advocate for a pro bono cause dear to my heart, and doing what I can to help children who encounter worse circumstances in their living arrangement than most people can imagine or would ever want to consider.
Status: Success! Crazily enough, I changed jobs within about 3 months of writing out these predictions in 2010 and I'm still at that job. Up until a few weeks ago, I loved it more than I thought it was possible to love a job. The last couple months have been exceptionally stressful and yielded an unmanageable caseload, but that is presently slowly resolving. The last few weeks have also added some very stressful salary negotiations, but as of last week (a call with the president of the sub for which I work, after multiple conversations with my boss, and with the president of my division), it seems like the negotiations are going well and I'm optimistic it will get worked out within the next couple weeks. If it doesn't that will leave me in an awkward spot -- I don't want to change jobs, but I also don't want to be paid less than I believe (and apparently my boss, the president of my division, and the president of our sub) I deserve, it's just a matter of working out when and how that will happen. If they don't make it happen, I don't want to leave, but I might try to make myself look. It would all just be so much easier if they could just give me what I ask for immediately, sigh!
Traveler. In 2010, I was hoping that in 2015 I'd still go overseas every year, and roughly every other one of those trips would include Italy. I wanted to get better at speaking Italian and even learn some dialect. I planned on speaking Italian at home more and going back to an Italian conversation group, but adding some actual studying outside of class. I hoped that by 2015, I'd have "been to Egypt, India and/or China." I wanted to manage my work schedule and finances as needed to allow for an overseas trip each year, knowing that big trips overseas tend to strengthen our marriage, my perspective, and my sanity.
Status: I'd say success! We have gone overseas every year for the last five years (including trips to many places I've long dreamed of going), and there's nothing like planning a wedding in an isolated non-touristy part of Italy where you pretty much can't find a wedding planner to force your Italian language skills to improve! Unfortunately, even though I was able to communicate pretty easily a couple months ago in Italy, I don't work on my Italian as much as I should. I really would like to use it more at home (though prioritizing open and clear communication is certainly more important), I really should go back to conversation group (my husband still goes weekly), and I really should study on my own. I'd say I've met my actual travel goal -- I've been to India AND China (and I would have gone to Egypt, but for that political stuff...). And, to excuse my lack of Italian studying, in my defense, I've taken Chinese class for a pretty long time (though you wouldn't really know that to hear me speak). Honestly though, "learning" is something I should put more effort into going forward. Italian, Chinese, French or something new, I should just buckle down and spend at least an hour a week on it. I usually like trying to unplug on the weekends, but it's turned into lazily watching TV lately instead of even just pulling out a language book and working on it. Guess now's the perfect time to make some kind of resolution...
There was also a bonus question in December 2010, looking back at where I was 10 years earlier (December 2000) and thinking what advice I wished I'd had then. In December 2000, I had just found out I passed the bar and was settling into my first few months of work. The main thing lacking from my life then was work-life balance, and there were lots of dinners at work that were bad for my social life and my waistline. But in December 2010, I recognized that I was quite content, and everything in December 2000 worked out just right to lead me to where I was in December 2010.
I feel that same way now, looking back at December 2010. It all worked out just right. There were lots of changes between December 2000 and December 2010 (job change, starting running, dating, meeting and marrying my husband, etc.), but there have been very few changes between December 2010 and today (the primary one being my job), and I don't really expect much to change in the next 5 years. I'm actually hoping very little will change -- I'd be very content to still be running the same mileage, still traveling, still at the same job and in the same condo with the same guy, going to visit the same relatives...
If I get motivated, maybe I should now try to look ahead to December 2020... But that would be three posts within a week, and yow, that's just unsustainable these days!
One of the prompts in December 2010 was to write a letter to yourself going into 2011 from the year 2015. And I did it! And now, 5 years later, I'm still blogging, and it's going to be 2016 soon.
Here's my original post (and here was Bella's), I thought it would be fun to see where things stand now.
The prompt was awkwardly phrased, telling you to imagine yourself 5 years from now (in Dec. 2010) and give advice to your current self for the year ahead. I kind of blew that off, saying that I didn't really see any big changes in 2011 (other than knowing my 2 youngest brothers were getting married that year), and I was kind of hoping my life would be basically the same at the end of 2011 as it was at the end of 2010. The biggest struggle for me at the end of 2010 was that I didn't really like my job, but the rest of my life was pretty much just as I wanted it.
I chose to look at the question based on the main categories of how I define myself set out on my About Me page.
Runner. In late 2010 (almost 3 months after my first BQ), I figured that by late 2015, "I hopefully will have run Boston and requalified several times" and I'd have run several other marathons that were of interest, as well as a trail race and an ultra. And I'd still run with the same crew, and hoped 2 friends who had left our crew would be back.
Status: Well, I've run Boston and I have requalified on more than one occasion, but I'm not presently qualified, and I'm a long way from it! But running Boston and having the option to do so again was the real goal in 2010 looking toward 2015, and I've accomplished that. As to the other aspects of my 2010 running goals/predictions for 2015, I've made some progress. I have done a couple of the other marathons on my list, as well as a bunch of other marathons. But I didn't really run a trail race or an ultra -- I did a marathon that was partially on trails (the Bataan Memorial Death March Marathon) and in training for that, I did 27 miles of walking while wearing the extra 40 pounds I carried on my back for that marathon. But neither of those are really what I envisioned 5 years ago as "doing a trail race" and "running an ultra." But as predicted in 2010, I still run with the same group of people. But sadly, my 2010 dream was that two of my favorite running buddies who both moved to Cali would move back to Dallas, and neither of them has (but I'm still in touch with both, just visited the So-Cal one (and his wife and son) this past summer!). But I've met some new running friends over the last half decade and those have been great experiences too.
Wife. In late 2010, I wanted 2015 to have us as a settled and secure married couple, who know each other well and think of each other first. I knew that would be tough (not just because I'd been unmarried for the first 30+ years of life), but I wanted to always think before speaking, to make more of an effort to let the little things go and to have the word "squadra" (Italian theme for our goal marriage) at the forefront of my actions.
Status: Going stronger than ever! Feel very secure and settled, but there are definitely times we each think of ourselves first, and less like a team. But I'm better about not sweating the small stuff, and we work on being a "squadra."
Vegetarian. Five years ago, it was easy to predict that I'd still be a vegetarian. I also predicted that I'd have even gone vegan on many days. In 2015, I wanted to be an adventurous cook, always trying new recipes and relying more frequently on homemade leftovers for lunch instead of frozen meals or restaurants.
Status: Definitely still a vegetarian. More vegan days since November 1, 2015 than probably in the last 5 years combined, but still far from being a real vegan. I'd say I'm a pretty adventurous cook, but I still don't cook enough. I work a lot and we go to bed usually not too long after I get home from work, so almost all weeknights it's something in the microwave (usually something from the in-store prepared meals section from the grocery). And it's leftovers for lunch maaaaybe once a month. When I cook on the weekend, there are usually leftovers, but I use those for other dinners and still eat Amy's frozen meals for lunch most days (though now vegan meals more often).
Dallas-dweller. In 2010, I wasn't certain where we'd be living today. I knew it was most likely the same place we lived in 2010, but there were thoughts of moving back near my parents or near my in-laws, or maybe even to near my husband's family in Italy. In 2010, my husband had said he really didn't want to move until 2016 or ideally after 2020. In 2010, my immediate hope was to make progress hammering down the mortgage in 2011.
Status: Same, same! Happily living in the same condo and no plans to move on the horizon. Earlier this year, I had a strong bug to move to San Fran, and I'd still love to do that, but my husband still isn't ready to change jobs and it's not really on the radar anymore. I did refinance the mortgage at least once, maybe even twice, and I'm working on paying it off ahead of schedule.
Attorney. In 2010, I expected that right now I'd still be a a practicing attorney and that I'd love my job. In late 2010, I knew the 2015 plan was likely going to require change from where I was in 2010, either by making some changes to how my 2010 job worked, or changing jobs. I also expected that in 2015 I'd be a zealous advocate for a pro bono cause dear to my heart, and doing what I can to help children who encounter worse circumstances in their living arrangement than most people can imagine or would ever want to consider.
Status: Success! Crazily enough, I changed jobs within about 3 months of writing out these predictions in 2010 and I'm still at that job. Up until a few weeks ago, I loved it more than I thought it was possible to love a job. The last couple months have been exceptionally stressful and yielded an unmanageable caseload, but that is presently slowly resolving. The last few weeks have also added some very stressful salary negotiations, but as of last week (a call with the president of the sub for which I work, after multiple conversations with my boss, and with the president of my division), it seems like the negotiations are going well and I'm optimistic it will get worked out within the next couple weeks. If it doesn't that will leave me in an awkward spot -- I don't want to change jobs, but I also don't want to be paid less than I believe (and apparently my boss, the president of my division, and the president of our sub) I deserve, it's just a matter of working out when and how that will happen. If they don't make it happen, I don't want to leave, but I might try to make myself look. It would all just be so much easier if they could just give me what I ask for immediately, sigh!
Traveler. In 2010, I was hoping that in 2015 I'd still go overseas every year, and roughly every other one of those trips would include Italy. I wanted to get better at speaking Italian and even learn some dialect. I planned on speaking Italian at home more and going back to an Italian conversation group, but adding some actual studying outside of class. I hoped that by 2015, I'd have "been to Egypt, India and/or China." I wanted to manage my work schedule and finances as needed to allow for an overseas trip each year, knowing that big trips overseas tend to strengthen our marriage, my perspective, and my sanity.
Status: I'd say success! We have gone overseas every year for the last five years (including trips to many places I've long dreamed of going), and there's nothing like planning a wedding in an isolated non-touristy part of Italy where you pretty much can't find a wedding planner to force your Italian language skills to improve! Unfortunately, even though I was able to communicate pretty easily a couple months ago in Italy, I don't work on my Italian as much as I should. I really would like to use it more at home (though prioritizing open and clear communication is certainly more important), I really should go back to conversation group (my husband still goes weekly), and I really should study on my own. I'd say I've met my actual travel goal -- I've been to India AND China (and I would have gone to Egypt, but for that political stuff...). And, to excuse my lack of Italian studying, in my defense, I've taken Chinese class for a pretty long time (though you wouldn't really know that to hear me speak). Honestly though, "learning" is something I should put more effort into going forward. Italian, Chinese, French or something new, I should just buckle down and spend at least an hour a week on it. I usually like trying to unplug on the weekends, but it's turned into lazily watching TV lately instead of even just pulling out a language book and working on it. Guess now's the perfect time to make some kind of resolution...
There was also a bonus question in December 2010, looking back at where I was 10 years earlier (December 2000) and thinking what advice I wished I'd had then. In December 2000, I had just found out I passed the bar and was settling into my first few months of work. The main thing lacking from my life then was work-life balance, and there were lots of dinners at work that were bad for my social life and my waistline. But in December 2010, I recognized that I was quite content, and everything in December 2000 worked out just right to lead me to where I was in December 2010.
I feel that same way now, looking back at December 2010. It all worked out just right. There were lots of changes between December 2000 and December 2010 (job change, starting running, dating, meeting and marrying my husband, etc.), but there have been very few changes between December 2010 and today (the primary one being my job), and I don't really expect much to change in the next 5 years. I'm actually hoping very little will change -- I'd be very content to still be running the same mileage, still traveling, still at the same job and in the same condo with the same guy, going to visit the same relatives...
If I get motivated, maybe I should now try to look ahead to December 2020... But that would be three posts within a week, and yow, that's just unsustainable these days!
Thursday, December 3, 2015
Grimm no more
Relief is on the horizon at work. My new co-worker started on Tuesday, and of the 115 extra cases I'm handling right now, I have given her 6 of them! And I'm planning to give her 5 more this week.
Last night I left the office after 8. Oddly enough, I was grateful for it.
I was grateful that I was able to put in the extra time yesterday to allow myself to "tread water" (i.e., maintain an even number of screaming emergencies that need attention in my in-box, instead of going home with a higher number than where the day started).
I was also grateful that working late didn't mean leaving a lonely or pissed off husband at home -- he was at the office past 8 too. Crazy stuff happening in his work world lately.
I was also grateful that working past 8 is novel for me. I had a job for about 7 years where I was in the office from 8:30ish until after 10 pm, and frequently after midnight, on a vast majority of days. That was the normal there, and it wasn't all horrible (though I did gain weight and felt like my dating life was basically on hold), I made lots of good friends, got great experience, etc. (of course being paid well never hurts).
And finally, I was grateful that both of our extra effort and hard work is noticed, and at least in my case, appreciated (probably in my husband's too, but we haven't discussed). Yesterday at 7:30, as my husband and I touched base about when we were going home and what we'd do for dinner, both of our bosses were still working as well. We decided to give it another hour and then touch base again. In that hour, sometime around 8:15 maybe?, my boss left. On his way out, he told me that he'd talked to our divisional president that day, and I've been approved to go with them to a conference at the end of January that I really wanted to attend. Usually our company hates sending people to stuff like that -- lost revenue plus travel expenses -- so this felt extra special.
But anyway, all that wasn't the point of this "short" post. When I finally did get home, I heated up some food from the prepared section of the grocery store and sat down to watch TV while I ate and while I waited for my husband to get home. I made a decision then, and then I waited until he got home to make sure he approved of my decision -- and then I deleted about 50 hours of Grimm off our DVR. We just weren't watching it. I hope I'm not missing out on some awesome show. We liked the first season okay, but then never got back into it.
Now our DVR has all kinds of space and it feels oddly freeing. No pressure to clear it off (not that there was any pressure in the past, or that if there was, it motivated me to actually do anything about it).
Not planning to add anything new. Our current "regularly record and watch" list is:
Law & Order SVU
Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown (and any of his other shows)
Fareed Zakaria GPS
Amazing Race (my show, not "ours")
And our current "record but don't regularly watch list" is:
Americans (not airing currently)
Bachelor/Bachelorette (not airing currently)
Tyrant (not airing currently)
Simpsons (rarely watch but still record)
Family Guy (rarely watch but still record)
The other show we're watching ... no surprise to people who know me in the real world ... Amazon Prime's series The Man in the High Castle. Like it so far, only about halfway through the season.
Last night I left the office after 8. Oddly enough, I was grateful for it.
I was grateful that I was able to put in the extra time yesterday to allow myself to "tread water" (i.e., maintain an even number of screaming emergencies that need attention in my in-box, instead of going home with a higher number than where the day started).
I was also grateful that working late didn't mean leaving a lonely or pissed off husband at home -- he was at the office past 8 too. Crazy stuff happening in his work world lately.
I was also grateful that working past 8 is novel for me. I had a job for about 7 years where I was in the office from 8:30ish until after 10 pm, and frequently after midnight, on a vast majority of days. That was the normal there, and it wasn't all horrible (though I did gain weight and felt like my dating life was basically on hold), I made lots of good friends, got great experience, etc. (of course being paid well never hurts).
And finally, I was grateful that both of our extra effort and hard work is noticed, and at least in my case, appreciated (probably in my husband's too, but we haven't discussed). Yesterday at 7:30, as my husband and I touched base about when we were going home and what we'd do for dinner, both of our bosses were still working as well. We decided to give it another hour and then touch base again. In that hour, sometime around 8:15 maybe?, my boss left. On his way out, he told me that he'd talked to our divisional president that day, and I've been approved to go with them to a conference at the end of January that I really wanted to attend. Usually our company hates sending people to stuff like that -- lost revenue plus travel expenses -- so this felt extra special.
But anyway, all that wasn't the point of this "short" post. When I finally did get home, I heated up some food from the prepared section of the grocery store and sat down to watch TV while I ate and while I waited for my husband to get home. I made a decision then, and then I waited until he got home to make sure he approved of my decision -- and then I deleted about 50 hours of Grimm off our DVR. We just weren't watching it. I hope I'm not missing out on some awesome show. We liked the first season okay, but then never got back into it.
Now our DVR has all kinds of space and it feels oddly freeing. No pressure to clear it off (not that there was any pressure in the past, or that if there was, it motivated me to actually do anything about it).
Not planning to add anything new. Our current "regularly record and watch" list is:
Law & Order SVU
Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown (and any of his other shows)
Fareed Zakaria GPS
Amazing Race (my show, not "ours")
And our current "record but don't regularly watch list" is:
Americans (not airing currently)
Bachelor/Bachelorette (not airing currently)
Tyrant (not airing currently)
Simpsons (rarely watch but still record)
Family Guy (rarely watch but still record)
The other show we're watching ... no surprise to people who know me in the real world ... Amazon Prime's series The Man in the High Castle. Like it so far, only about halfway through the season.
Friday, October 9, 2015
Travel oops
I had grand plans of scheduling posts about last year's trip to Nepal, India and Dubai to come up over the next few weeks while we are in Spain, Morocco and Italy, but alas, time got away from me.
And to further complicate matters, I'm having trouble uploading pictures from my camera to the blog, so my revised idea of sharing just a photo a day is also scrapped.
What can I say?
Super excited about the trip. We are about to leave for the airport because my husband's birthday is while we're gone and I got him what I hope will be a gift he'll love, but it will be enjoyed at the airport beginning in a couple hours.
Tentative itinerary (we haven't really booked much, planning to wing it again as we did in India):
Toledo, Cordoba, Seville, Grenada in Spain,
Then to Algicieras to take a ferry to Tangier.
Then Tangier, Chefchouen, Fez, Marakesh in Morocco.
Then a flight to Lamezia Terme (connecting in Milano).
Then about 6 days in Lamezia seeing my husband's family.
Then a day in Milano, then a flight home.
For the first time ever, I'm going to try to work while on vacation. I scheduled 3 partial days of work while we're in Lamezia. Kind of a trial run to see how it works -- if it goes well, maybe when we're back in 2 years, we can extend our trip a week or so without me using vacation. And then eventually, maybe I can work there for a month, then a few months, then half the year! That's a ways down the road. I'm also hoping working partial days will make it less painful to come back to weeks and weeks worth of unread emails.
Have a great few weeks! By the time I get back, it should only be another couple weeks until I can run again (already trying to find the positive...).
And to further complicate matters, I'm having trouble uploading pictures from my camera to the blog, so my revised idea of sharing just a photo a day is also scrapped.
What can I say?
Super excited about the trip. We are about to leave for the airport because my husband's birthday is while we're gone and I got him what I hope will be a gift he'll love, but it will be enjoyed at the airport beginning in a couple hours.
Tentative itinerary (we haven't really booked much, planning to wing it again as we did in India):
Toledo, Cordoba, Seville, Grenada in Spain,
Then to Algicieras to take a ferry to Tangier.
Then Tangier, Chefchouen, Fez, Marakesh in Morocco.
Then a flight to Lamezia Terme (connecting in Milano).
Then about 6 days in Lamezia seeing my husband's family.
Then a day in Milano, then a flight home.
For the first time ever, I'm going to try to work while on vacation. I scheduled 3 partial days of work while we're in Lamezia. Kind of a trial run to see how it works -- if it goes well, maybe when we're back in 2 years, we can extend our trip a week or so without me using vacation. And then eventually, maybe I can work there for a month, then a few months, then half the year! That's a ways down the road. I'm also hoping working partial days will make it less painful to come back to weeks and weeks worth of unread emails.
Have a great few weeks! By the time I get back, it should only be another couple weeks until I can run again (already trying to find the positive...).
Wednesday, July 22, 2015
Repeat Request
If I had to pick a recent day to repeat often, I might very well pick yesterday -- even if weekend days were in contention.
Let me recap a few awesome highlights of yesterday. There were other good parts, but these are the real banner moments.
First. I went running with my friends. Schedule was 8 miles including 2 miles tempo (designated as 15k pace). I looked up what my 15k pace should be based on my fall marathon goal time and it did not seem particularly achievable for 2 miles, let alone 15k. Ran 2 miles easy, stopped for water, then the tempo started. And I KILLED it! Actually, I shouldn't say that because I actually failed to nail my paces -- I was too fast. That doesn't really bother me. Usually on any kind of pace running, I try very hard to be spot on -- going too fast isn't part of the plan. But who in the heck knows how to nail 15k pace on their first attempt of a training season? The first mile started off with a (Dallas) uphill -- I glanced at my pace a couple times as I went up it -- 15 seconds too slow, 30 seconds too slow, so I pushed. I'm not sure I ever nailed the pace on the uphill, but I more than made up for it on the downhill. I ended mile 1 about 15 seconds faster than my goal. So I tried to moderate more for mile 2, which was pretty flat, but included a U-turn .1 miles from the end (and there is no speedy way to U-turn). Mile 2 ended up about 5 seconds faster than goal. Score! I can't remember the last time I hit two consecutive miles at that pace. It definitely didn't feel easy, and I'm not sure how much longer it was sustainable, certainly not 7.3 more miles, but either way, I gave myself a big pat on the back for hitting my paces. While normally I would prize being spot on over being too fast, since I was so nervous about even hitting this pace in the first place, the fact that I beat it actually makes me happy. Still not 5k PR shape, but heck, 2 good miles was a great start to the morning! I took a pretty long water stop after the tempo finished, waiting for my running group to reconsolidate, and then the last 4 miles were easy effort (monitored by HR) but still surprisingly strong, steady, and sustainable.
Second. I checked my work email as soon as I got home from my run and realized there was a division meeting scheduled for 10:30 a.m. -- first set at about 9:30 last night. I guessed at the subject (raises approved (likely) or not approved (unlikely), and I decided I wanted to be there, so I hurried to finish up some work, shower, and pack for my trip(s), and then get to the office. I got there about 30 seconds after the meeting started and it was very clear from looking around the room -- raises! Annnnnndddddd... retroactive to June 1! Annnnnnnndddd ... office location not moving for at least 15 more months! (As you know, I love having the option of a 3.75 mile each way running commute, so I've been terrified that when our lease was up, I'd end up with a commute from hell that was not only not runnable, but involved lots of highway miles.)
Third. The meeting was short. I stopped into my office afterward to put away my notepad and the divisional president asked if I could stop by his office. I said I had about 4 minutes, but I correctly guessed the subject -- my salary/bonus -- so I knew I wanted to make time for it. More good news there. Top percentage raise in the office! Eeeee! That's exciting, especially since I'd mentioned before my overwhelming disappointment in May when someone less senior than me in another group surpassed me in title. While I am maintaining my current title, I think I likely got the salary increase to the same level as my co-worker who was promoted.
Fourth. I got in my car to drive to the airport and turned on the radio. Some Pit Bull song came on. And I sang along as loudly as possible while car dancing on my drive to the airport. I seriously felt like I was on top of the world -- two strong tempo miles and a raise and (essentially) a bonus!!!!
Fifth. Upgrade! Not a long flight, but every bit helps!
Sixth. Lovely hotel here in Albuquerque, and an hour or two of free time before dinner to take a self-guided Breaking Bad tour. Last night I went to the "Northeast" sights. Walt & Skylar's house. Hank & Marie's house. The car wash. Saul's office. The laundry. This morning I'm going to head to Jesse Pinkman's house on my run toward the Rio Grande.
Seventh. The most fun work dinner I've had not involving my boss ever. Defense counsel and two other people involved on our side in this case (one of whom was new to me, but who I've interacted with a lot by phone and email). Too much good Mexican food and lots of cerveca (cervesa? cerveza? how do you write beer in Spanish???). Will make for a slow run this morning!
So yeah, this is a day that would be in recent contention for my pick for my own personal Groundhog's Day to repeat again, and again, and again. Love it! I'm hoping the mojo stays with me for today's mediation, which is my largest active case.
Let me recap a few awesome highlights of yesterday. There were other good parts, but these are the real banner moments.
First. I went running with my friends. Schedule was 8 miles including 2 miles tempo (designated as 15k pace). I looked up what my 15k pace should be based on my fall marathon goal time and it did not seem particularly achievable for 2 miles, let alone 15k. Ran 2 miles easy, stopped for water, then the tempo started. And I KILLED it! Actually, I shouldn't say that because I actually failed to nail my paces -- I was too fast. That doesn't really bother me. Usually on any kind of pace running, I try very hard to be spot on -- going too fast isn't part of the plan. But who in the heck knows how to nail 15k pace on their first attempt of a training season? The first mile started off with a (Dallas) uphill -- I glanced at my pace a couple times as I went up it -- 15 seconds too slow, 30 seconds too slow, so I pushed. I'm not sure I ever nailed the pace on the uphill, but I more than made up for it on the downhill. I ended mile 1 about 15 seconds faster than my goal. So I tried to moderate more for mile 2, which was pretty flat, but included a U-turn .1 miles from the end (and there is no speedy way to U-turn). Mile 2 ended up about 5 seconds faster than goal. Score! I can't remember the last time I hit two consecutive miles at that pace. It definitely didn't feel easy, and I'm not sure how much longer it was sustainable, certainly not 7.3 more miles, but either way, I gave myself a big pat on the back for hitting my paces. While normally I would prize being spot on over being too fast, since I was so nervous about even hitting this pace in the first place, the fact that I beat it actually makes me happy. Still not 5k PR shape, but heck, 2 good miles was a great start to the morning! I took a pretty long water stop after the tempo finished, waiting for my running group to reconsolidate, and then the last 4 miles were easy effort (monitored by HR) but still surprisingly strong, steady, and sustainable.
Second. I checked my work email as soon as I got home from my run and realized there was a division meeting scheduled for 10:30 a.m. -- first set at about 9:30 last night. I guessed at the subject (raises approved (likely) or not approved (unlikely), and I decided I wanted to be there, so I hurried to finish up some work, shower, and pack for my trip(s), and then get to the office. I got there about 30 seconds after the meeting started and it was very clear from looking around the room -- raises! Annnnnndddddd... retroactive to June 1! Annnnnnnndddd ... office location not moving for at least 15 more months! (As you know, I love having the option of a 3.75 mile each way running commute, so I've been terrified that when our lease was up, I'd end up with a commute from hell that was not only not runnable, but involved lots of highway miles.)
Third. The meeting was short. I stopped into my office afterward to put away my notepad and the divisional president asked if I could stop by his office. I said I had about 4 minutes, but I correctly guessed the subject -- my salary/bonus -- so I knew I wanted to make time for it. More good news there. Top percentage raise in the office! Eeeee! That's exciting, especially since I'd mentioned before my overwhelming disappointment in May when someone less senior than me in another group surpassed me in title. While I am maintaining my current title, I think I likely got the salary increase to the same level as my co-worker who was promoted.
Fourth. I got in my car to drive to the airport and turned on the radio. Some Pit Bull song came on. And I sang along as loudly as possible while car dancing on my drive to the airport. I seriously felt like I was on top of the world -- two strong tempo miles and a raise and (essentially) a bonus!!!!
Fifth. Upgrade! Not a long flight, but every bit helps!
Sixth. Lovely hotel here in Albuquerque, and an hour or two of free time before dinner to take a self-guided Breaking Bad tour. Last night I went to the "Northeast" sights. Walt & Skylar's house. Hank & Marie's house. The car wash. Saul's office. The laundry. This morning I'm going to head to Jesse Pinkman's house on my run toward the Rio Grande.
Seventh. The most fun work dinner I've had not involving my boss ever. Defense counsel and two other people involved on our side in this case (one of whom was new to me, but who I've interacted with a lot by phone and email). Too much good Mexican food and lots of cerveca (cervesa? cerveza? how do you write beer in Spanish???). Will make for a slow run this morning!
So yeah, this is a day that would be in recent contention for my pick for my own personal Groundhog's Day to repeat again, and again, and again. Love it! I'm hoping the mojo stays with me for today's mediation, which is my largest active case.
Tuesday, July 7, 2015
Baby Visit II
Woo-hoo!
I've got some work travel coming up this month that has me in Albuquerue on a Wednesday, and then continuing on to LA on Thursday. My LA setting happens to be on a Friday, and LA is so close to San Fran, and San Fran happens to be the location of my newest adorable baby nephew.
Yesssss!
It just so happens that my sister-in-law is leaving town that same Friday, which means my brother will be spending his first weekend alone with baby Willard.
And that definitely means his big sister should come for the weekend and help (although she really has no experience with babies to speak of, at least not in the last 20 years since said brother was a mere babe himself)!
So I just booked a flight from LA to San Fran and I'll get a few days with the little guy.
Happy!
And while I'm in LA, I'm going to get to have dinner with one of my best running buddies who moved there. I kind of wish I had more time, because I have one former co-worker and one other running buddy I'd like to see, but this one wins:
I've got some work travel coming up this month that has me in Albuquerue on a Wednesday, and then continuing on to LA on Thursday. My LA setting happens to be on a Friday, and LA is so close to San Fran, and San Fran happens to be the location of my newest adorable baby nephew.
Yesssss!
It just so happens that my sister-in-law is leaving town that same Friday, which means my brother will be spending his first weekend alone with baby Willard.
And that definitely means his big sister should come for the weekend and help (although she really has no experience with babies to speak of, at least not in the last 20 years since said brother was a mere babe himself)!
So I just booked a flight from LA to San Fran and I'll get a few days with the little guy.
Happy!
And while I'm in LA, I'm going to get to have dinner with one of my best running buddies who moved there. I kind of wish I had more time, because I have one former co-worker and one other running buddy I'd like to see, but this one wins:
Those are his buffs. I always make fun of him when he wears one. Now that's he's all Mr. California, he's got a bunch of them. Anyway, I can't even begin to count the number of miles, and laughs, we have shared together. About 5? 8? years ago, some woman he married dragged him out to Cali, and there he lives. They come back a couple times a year since his folks are here, and they have their own cute little California baby (well, toddler now) too. It will be so great to get to see him again.
This makes work travel infinitely more fun -- combining with family and friends!
Thursday, June 18, 2015
Office Visitor
This was actually a few weeks ago, but I was working quietly at my desk and almost had a heart attack. (I feel the need to post something lighter after my heavy, heavy this week...)
My office isn't very high (I'm on floor 9 of a 10 story building), but given that it's high enough, I get very used to pretty much nothing changing outside my window. Sure, clouds, etc., occasional birds, but never anything very big.
All of a sudden, this guy was right outside my window, watching me eat lunch. Well, actually, he probably couldn't have cared less. I almost screamed though.
My office isn't very high (I'm on floor 9 of a 10 story building), but given that it's high enough, I get very used to pretty much nothing changing outside my window. Sure, clouds, etc., occasional birds, but never anything very big.
All of a sudden, this guy was right outside my window, watching me eat lunch. Well, actually, he probably couldn't have cared less. I almost screamed though.
That goes on the short list of jobs you couldn't pay me enough to do.
Thursday, May 28, 2015
Crazy Texas Laws
You hear all the time about those random crazy laws still on the books. You can't carry a chicken while walking in the roadway after dusk or something.
I just found a fun Texas one. (Hey, at least I'm not posting about how much I miss that stinkin' baby, right?)
You cannot carry a knife with a blade over 5.5 inches unless you are (1) in your house or (2) inside of or directly en route to your vehicle.
So if your friend drives you to Crate & Barrel and you buy a knife there and ride home in her car? Illegal.
If you're like us and live within 2 blocks of a Crate & Barrel and buy a chef's knife and walk home? Illegal.
If you live downtown and park on the street and were walking into your apartment building while carrying the shopping bag? Illegal.
If you get a knife set for Christmas, fly home with it in your checked suitcase, and then take a taxi home from the airport? Illegal (probably; it would depend whether you could say the taxi was a vehicle under your control).
Apparently there's no exception if it's in a box, with a receipt, purchased in the last 30 minutes.
Section 46.02 of the Texas Penal Code.
One of the things you sometimes hear in discussions about race and policing is how there are these laws that are discriminatorily enforced, how police presence and resources are not evenly distributed over all areas of population, and how, as a result of targeted police presence or enforcement, some people have trouble making it through life without accumulating a conviction of some type. So far, I think I have bought two sets of knives in my life, both of which sets contained more than one blade over 5.5 inches. If I had to guess, for the balance of my life on this earth, I could see buying 3 more knives or sets of knives with blades over 5.5 inches. Odds are high that I would not do so while riding in a friend's car, but if we still live in this house, there's a good chance I'd walk home from Crate & Barrel, which would be the most likely place for me to buy one. I'll have to cross my fingers and hope that I'm not subjected to any kind of targeted enforcement effort.
I just found a fun Texas one. (Hey, at least I'm not posting about how much I miss that stinkin' baby, right?)
You cannot carry a knife with a blade over 5.5 inches unless you are (1) in your house or (2) inside of or directly en route to your vehicle.
So if your friend drives you to Crate & Barrel and you buy a knife there and ride home in her car? Illegal.
If you're like us and live within 2 blocks of a Crate & Barrel and buy a chef's knife and walk home? Illegal.
If you live downtown and park on the street and were walking into your apartment building while carrying the shopping bag? Illegal.
If you get a knife set for Christmas, fly home with it in your checked suitcase, and then take a taxi home from the airport? Illegal (probably; it would depend whether you could say the taxi was a vehicle under your control).
Apparently there's no exception if it's in a box, with a receipt, purchased in the last 30 minutes.
Section 46.02 of the Texas Penal Code.
One of the things you sometimes hear in discussions about race and policing is how there are these laws that are discriminatorily enforced, how police presence and resources are not evenly distributed over all areas of population, and how, as a result of targeted police presence or enforcement, some people have trouble making it through life without accumulating a conviction of some type. So far, I think I have bought two sets of knives in my life, both of which sets contained more than one blade over 5.5 inches. If I had to guess, for the balance of my life on this earth, I could see buying 3 more knives or sets of knives with blades over 5.5 inches. Odds are high that I would not do so while riding in a friend's car, but if we still live in this house, there's a good chance I'd walk home from Crate & Barrel, which would be the most likely place for me to buy one. I'll have to cross my fingers and hope that I'm not subjected to any kind of targeted enforcement effort.
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
3-2-3 at Work
The weekend before last, we were at my law school reunion in Charlottesville. It deserves a post of its own (which I really need to do), but on Sunday, after brunch with my best friend and her family, we got in the car to drive back to DC to fly home. Unfortunately, as I said, big storms in the Dallas area at the same time apparently, which led to the cancellation of all flights home.
We spent Monday hanging out in DC (I worked remotely) and flew home Monday night. As an aside, we had to fly home separately. We had flown out to DC several days apart, and when flights were rebooked, if we wanted 2 seats on a flight, we had to wait until Tuesday, so we opted to fly separately Monday night. We each had a car key. My husband was supposed to land about 20 minutes before me. Because DFW sucks, there are 5 different terminals, and if you fly on American, which is based there, the odds of landing at the terminal where you took off are roughly 30%. Even if you fly round trip, there's still a good chance you have to get on a stupid train to go back to your car. The plan was that he'd land, go get the car in terminal A, and then pick me up outside wherever I landed.
We're "early to bed" people (the whole "workout starts at 5:30 a.m." leaves us with few other options), and he was supposed to land at 8:40, and I was landing at 9:10. Yikes.
AND we were flying home to a house with no food, so there was going to have to be a stop at the grocery store. Double yikes.
Well, as luck would have it, my husband's incoming plane had a casket on it.
This is his FB picture and I will say for the record that he posted that he had a lot of internal debate about whether to even take this photo, as well as whether to share it, but he decided to do so, thinking it was something we shouldn't forget.
I don't know if it was the casket or something else, but his flight was delayed. At first, it was just 20 minutes, then 40, then an hour. I knew he was delayed 20 minutes when I was taking off, so the plan was we'd land and both head toward the car and see who got there first to pick up the other person. I landed at terminal C and went straight for the train to get to terminal A. On the train, I checked his flight status and saw he was scheduled to land at 10:10. I'd landed a couple minutes before 9.
An idea took hold and I texted about it with my best running buddy. He encouraged me. And I went for it.
Got in the car and drove as fast as I could to a grocery store he recommended, spent about $100 buying the essentials (breakfast, lunch and dinner food to get us through at least a few days), and then drove back to the airport as fast as I could.
I was pulling out of the grocery store parking lot as my husband texted me to say "wheels down." Drive, drive, drive. Fortunately, no traffic, and fortunately, I'd gone out the north airport exit, which is as close as possible to the terminal where he was landing.
As he was walking outside, I was pulling up. I'd guess he had to wait about 30 seconds. He was thrilled there were groceries in the car and we could go straight home. We got to bed not long after 11 I think, and then we were both back at work the next day.
I always work from home on Fridays, so that meant Tues-Wed-Thurs in the office last week.
This week, only two days. Monday-Tuesday. Tomorrow we are heading to San Fran for an awesome very long weekend. I can't wait!
Flying home Monday, Memorial Day. Then Tues-Wed-Thurs in the office.
3 days, 2 days, 3 days. I could get used to that!!
We spent Monday hanging out in DC (I worked remotely) and flew home Monday night. As an aside, we had to fly home separately. We had flown out to DC several days apart, and when flights were rebooked, if we wanted 2 seats on a flight, we had to wait until Tuesday, so we opted to fly separately Monday night. We each had a car key. My husband was supposed to land about 20 minutes before me. Because DFW sucks, there are 5 different terminals, and if you fly on American, which is based there, the odds of landing at the terminal where you took off are roughly 30%. Even if you fly round trip, there's still a good chance you have to get on a stupid train to go back to your car. The plan was that he'd land, go get the car in terminal A, and then pick me up outside wherever I landed.
We're "early to bed" people (the whole "workout starts at 5:30 a.m." leaves us with few other options), and he was supposed to land at 8:40, and I was landing at 9:10. Yikes.
AND we were flying home to a house with no food, so there was going to have to be a stop at the grocery store. Double yikes.
Well, as luck would have it, my husband's incoming plane had a casket on it.
This is his FB picture and I will say for the record that he posted that he had a lot of internal debate about whether to even take this photo, as well as whether to share it, but he decided to do so, thinking it was something we shouldn't forget.
An idea took hold and I texted about it with my best running buddy. He encouraged me. And I went for it.
Got in the car and drove as fast as I could to a grocery store he recommended, spent about $100 buying the essentials (breakfast, lunch and dinner food to get us through at least a few days), and then drove back to the airport as fast as I could.
I was pulling out of the grocery store parking lot as my husband texted me to say "wheels down." Drive, drive, drive. Fortunately, no traffic, and fortunately, I'd gone out the north airport exit, which is as close as possible to the terminal where he was landing.
As he was walking outside, I was pulling up. I'd guess he had to wait about 30 seconds. He was thrilled there were groceries in the car and we could go straight home. We got to bed not long after 11 I think, and then we were both back at work the next day.
I always work from home on Fridays, so that meant Tues-Wed-Thurs in the office last week.
This week, only two days. Monday-Tuesday. Tomorrow we are heading to San Fran for an awesome very long weekend. I can't wait!
Flying home Monday, Memorial Day. Then Tues-Wed-Thurs in the office.
3 days, 2 days, 3 days. I could get used to that!!
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