work

Another Day in Pair Of Dice

No, I’m not in Vegas and it isn’t looking like I’ll get there in 2014. We certainly want to go back,though. It’s been 4 or 5 years since we’ve gone. This time, we’ll do it in the summer though so we can check out the pools. No swimming in January, that’s for sure (at least not for me).

Others on my list of places to go include, from near to far more or less, Garden of the Gods, Crested Butte, Park City, pretty much anywhere in Cali since I’ve never been there, Banff, New Orleans, the northeast adventure (PA/NY/DC), and pretty much all of Mexico. I’ll leave my outside of North America list for another day. Have passport, will travel!

Yes, I’m on that vacation kick because, well, I like vacation and work is slowly driving me insane and I STILL haven’t even started doing the new position yet, at least not full time. When I get to doing this full time, they may very well put the pedal to the metal and bump that mother up to 100, making my drive to insane a heck of a lot shorter. I’m hoping that isn’t the case, but a very wise man once told me “wish in one hand and shit in the other and see which fills up faster”. Translation: yes, it’s gonna suck. You said you’d go all in for a year so have at it. Just keep dancing.

Dancing. Exercise. Zumba. I love that class. And now I have something additional to work on because I can’t just go in there and move around and sweat and be satisfied. I want to actually LOOK LIKE I’m doing it right. Tough one since I’m not Hispanic nor do I have more than one ounce of rhythm. Such a shame. I did get a hint to help me along my way from my instructor (whose hips NEVA lie) who is also a Samba dancer. He said, and I’m ~~making this up~~ paraphrasing, get out of your gringa ways and move your hips in the way that is completely unnatural to you! Yeah, yeah. I get it. In my head. Now what my body wants to do is a totally different story. Just keep dancing, just keep dancing.

From dancing to other fun physical stuff: handstands. They’re something that I’ve wanted to be able to do for quite some time. Why? No reason. Just thought it would be cool to be able to bust one out whenever I feel like it. Maybe on the mountain with my snowboard on, who knows? I suppose I’ve just never really put the effort into working on them (and this week I haven’t been putting in effort to working out very hard), BUT, Aerial Amy (over there in the blogroll in case you don’t want to search for this post again) mentioned how she’s going to do the 28-day handstand challenge. We have different obstacles to overcome, but she’s starting on Feb 1 and so I think I’ll join her. Perhaps Nina would like to join too. 🙂 Still a couple days to figure it out. Yes, I am going to add one more thing to the daily repertoire. Workout, stretch, handstands, write, breakfast, work, lunch, work, Zumba/pole/aerial, dinner, write, sleep. Totally do-able (insert eyerolling emoticon here). If I were feeling really outrageous, I’d add the 750 words a day challenge for February as well, but I think I’ll stick to just getting some (at least 100) words down a day.

Yesterday I realized that I hadn’t broken my goals down by month. Today seems like a good time to do that since there are only a few days left here in January. So let’s see. What should we do in February?

28-day handstand challenge
28 days of working out. Preferably P90X3, but snowboarding can substitute if I ride hard
12 split-specific days of stretching, 20 minimum total stretching days
28 days of blogging
28 days of writing lab assignments
Set up private and find my place in PDP with the L’Ru ladies

I’d go on, but I’m sure that’s ENOUGH! Just goals. I’m going to aim for them but I’m not going to beat myself up over missing any of them. Maybe blogging, but not the others because these are lofty goals. I swear a goal should be to clean the house top to bottom, but boy is that not fun. It isn’t even that it’s so dirty, just dusty mainly, but that’s gonna have to wait until a warm day where I can open windows and not be a dust-sneezing monster. I’m not entirely sure why this house has so much dust, but it does. It’s literally dusty within an hour after cleaning. Air ducts need cleaned much? Probably. Are we going to pay for that in a rental? No. And neither will the owners so we just have a dusty house.

You know how I enjoy my morning chats with you four, but the time has come for me to get a move on. Happy Hump Day!

ROCO Friday – The Half Payday (New) Edition

Who doesn’t love a little N.E. Heartbreak? Also, WIN! Video posted in blog!

Most of this week I was just aching to find out if, with the new promotion, they would throw me a bone and pay me for two weeks of new job money. Of course they did not. But hey, I’m still moving on up. And on that note, I don’t understand why it is that when I update my LinkedIn saying I got a promotion is when I get an influx of calls from recruiters. So backwards. If I had lost my job, I wouldn’t get one call. (Totally not true, but trying to make a point here.) They’re interesting to talk to though. Wednesday I got a call from a corporate recruiter who was really blunt about asking me info about where I work and what I do and how much money I make. In turn, I decided to return the favor. Her position was downtown so that’s an automatic no thank you in my book, particularly since I’m currently only 10 minutes away from work and getting downtown could take an hour. Since she was cool talking money, I asked her the range on her position. Caps out at $17k less than I’m currently making. Ummmm, I’m good on that, but send me your contact info because those things are good to have. If you’re looking for an IT job that is SQL based plus troubleshooting, let me know. I have leads for you. 🙂

Did I mention TGIF? ROCO Friday? End of the week? Get on down to party town? Anything else cheesy and cliche I can add here? As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, it’s been a long week and I am ready to strap this piece of fiberglass/wood/metal to my feet and go rocketing down a mountain in the snow. I will be jumping comfortably by the end of this season!

I’m out of things to say for today. I’d like to know what you think. Is this a good length for a blog post? Too short? Certainly not too long. Do you blog? If so, what do you base your post length on? Happy Friday and ROCO!!

It Was The Best Of Times

It was the worst of times. Not classic books. Not classic rock. I’m talking about these twenty minutes on the foam roller. OMG OUCH! Yep, I’m paying today for snowboarding without stretching on Saturday and also not following up that riding day with hot tub time (machine). No one to blame but myself, and I’m pointing that finger pretty hard this morning. This morning where I have the hips of,gasp, a 40 year old! Or maybe it’s just that I have beast quads and I just need to get the scar tissue broken up in them. Either way, I probably need help. Like a yoga chair. It’s high on the list.

Today officially starts this new job era for me. I’m partially looking forward to it, partially dreading it, and totally looking forward to my first paycheck. The fun never ends when you just aren’t sure when that’ll happen. Granted, I know that it will for certain by the end of the month, but will they break me off a little sumthin sumthin before that? You just never know here in ye olde Corporate America. Makes me wish, every now and again, that I could just skip it all and go back to bartending. Ah, that fun. Definitely where I’m at my best when I can smartmouth you and you’re gonna take it because you want your drink. No, wait, you want the drink that I made for you because, well, I’m a kickass bartender. But, reality struck (Better find out before your time’s out, what the f!%$!!) and real jobs happened and now I have too much stuff to go back. First world problems.

I think I’ll start openly talking about girl issues here. Why? Well, because it’s my blog and I don’t think that any of my 4 readers are male. You’ll have to make a comment down below if you are indeed male and then perhaps I will scale back the vagina monologues. But until then, I was so sad last week because I had started working out and I still felt as though I was the size of a bounce house. Fortunately, I came to the realization that I was just bloated from that wonder of nature that we ladies experience but I can’t wait to stop experiencing either by menopause (too long to wait) or surgical intervention (when I think I could find 3 weeks where I could sit still to recover). Man, you’d think my life is a lot rougher than it is. (I know I have it good. A lot better than some others. I’m not complaining. Much.)

At almost two weeks into the new year – where it alternates between feeling like January should be over already and it should be somewhere around the second day of the month – I’ve actually surprised myself by getting in here and writing down something, even if it’s only a few sentences, every day so far. 21 days creates a habit right? Or is that 30? And is it same time, same place? Ah well, I’ll just stick with being happy that we’re two weeks in and I’m still writing. My money is in the jar for the 52 week challenge. I’m working out. I’m stretching. I jumped (off of a very small jump) on my snowboard. 2014 is going well. The only thing where I’m falling behind is a latecomer to the ‘things I want to do’ party. I want to get a short story down once a week. By the end of the year, I’ll have an anthology of sorts. Dirty stories. Because they’re the easiest to write. But people are still out there reading Penthouse forum, so I bet they’ll read this.

Well, the time to get moving is upon us. Or at least, it’s upon me. Let’s get out there and get it in week three of the year. This week looks like two Zumba classes, a FabPole class, more working out, more stretching, and snowboarding on the weekend. How’s it looking for you?

Seven Whole Days

So we’re a week into the new year. Doesn’t it feel like the holidays were already forever ago? No? That’s just me? *Cartman voice* Screw you guys, I’m going home.

I really do feel like Christmas was forever ago. I suppose that could be because I more or less skipped it this year. I didn’t put up the tree or the village as I wasn’t feeling it (and we weren’t even home the entire week of Christmas, so whom exactly was going to see that work? No one.) Maybe I’ll get back into the swing of things this year, maybe. I guess I’m one of those Scrooge-type people that could seriously do without all the extra stuff, just let me have a couple days off of work.

Speaking of work, this is new for 2014: I got a promotion. While it isn’t official for another week, I’ll be leading my little team of 2 (and a half) engineers whilst shaking the hands and kissing the babies of other departments. Is it my lifelong dream? No, not exactly, but I can do it and I can do it well, so onward and upward after a rather interesting process of getting to this point. I swear I watched one person in particular do a complete 180 in regards to how said person was acting towards me and my interest in the position. Weirdos.

Anywho, work schmerk, let’s talk about my breakfast sandwich maker. I LOVE IT! Now that I’m in my healthy breakfast sandwich mode (egg whites, smoked salmon, slice of cheese on a whole wheat muffin) , it’s so much easier to just throw the stuff in the machine, walk away and come back to a sandwich. Gives me time to do things like start writing the daily blog post. 🙂 I know that healthy breakfast and slice of processed American cheese don’t go together, but man is it good. Although, I am considering finding a different cheese because my sandwiches get too hot and therefore cause more of the cheese to end up on my paper towel than ends up in my belly, but that’s probably not such a bad thing either.

Sidebar: My mom just sent me an email and a portion of it said: “Let your confidence be as an earthquake – a force to be reckoned with – crumbling all negativity that comes your way. BOOM!

So day 2 of P90X3 was a little rough. These workouts are only 30 minutes, but they’re still tough. Today was Agility X. (It’s athlete stuff says Tony,which explains why I had a heck of a time..no coordination.) Jumping around and squats and lunges and more squats and lunges. I’m sure my knees will be feeling this tomorrow, particularly after I tried to follow it up with some hip and hamstring opening yoga and Zumba tonight. Somewhere along the line, I probably lost my mind. Before I lost it, I might have thought that this continual stretching and exercise might get me in shape. We’ll see what happens.

By the way, I haven’t forgotten about the writing prompts (or Zero to Hero for that matter). Sometimes the writing prompts just don’t prompt me to do anything but shake my head. Sometimes the ZTH item doesn’t require an actual post. Today’s prompt is about a time you felt helpless. I don’t do helpless. I’m sickeningly self-sufficient. More than my husband would prefer I’m sure. Perhaps the one time I felt a fleeting case of helplessness was about 20 years ago when I was driving down a hill (going to Monongahela for those that know) that had just been oiled and it had just rained and my tires were none too grippy. I completely lost control of my car, sliding on the wonderful mixture of bald tires, oil and water. Took a cruise down the oncoming traffic lane much to the chagrin of the car coming towards me who was laying on the horn as though I wasn’t trying to get the hell out of their lane. Finally made it back into my own lane, only to overcorrect and start spinning, Fortunately, it ended up only being a 180, but it was a slow motion 180 as I watched the guard rail come closer to the side of my car and hoped against all hope that it held as there was a rather large downhill/cliff waiting for me if it didn’t. Fun! Obviously it held as I’m still here. I did get out of my (new at the time) car and I literally expected my car to be bleeding. Hey, what do you want? I was like 19 and it was my first brand new car. I was absolutely butthurt. Possibly feeling helpless that I broke my car. Poor thing. No sliding around in the Brown Bomber though! I TRY to make that thing spin out but the ABS and AWD and anti-slip/anti-skid kick in and all I get is a little noise. Safe? Extremely. Fun? Hardly.

Well then, I suppose the time is now for me to wrap this up and get on with the day. Enjoy your Tuesday. Stay warm wherever you might be. It’s cold out…you know, because it’s WINTER!

Soul Sellers

Welcome to the first Monday of 2014! The day in which NYRs really start. The day where we “really” start putting our best foot forward. The day in which I sell my soul. Yep, welcome to pseudo-management. But work, who wants to talk about that? Not me.

Up at 5 this morning, per the plan. First day of P90X3 went pretty well. To only be a half hour, I was surprised to have still broken a sweat. I don’t know what I was expecting. I mean, it is still a P90X product. Not as holy hell difficult as the first one, but hopefully I’ll still see results out of it. Followed that up with a little stretching for splits. I keep saying that I want to get these damned splits, but then I keep not stretching. 1 plus 1 does not equal splits here. But if I can stick with this plan for a while (and I should be able to), perhaps in a few months, I’ll be closer to getting there than I am now.

There’s the starting point. Pretty much the same place it’s been forever. *sigh* Time to get flat. (but not ass and titties…ass and titties).

The morning routine will be deemed a success. 5am isn’t so much worse than 5:30, especially when my body says “hey, wake up!” anyway. More years, less sleep. The fun never ends.

Fun week ahead! The morning routine continues, Zumba on Tuesday and Thursday, FabPole on Wednesday. Snowboarding on Saturday. Good times.

Well, the time is rapidly approaching for me to go shake hands and sign for my soul on the dotted line. I can do this. I can do anything! Have a great day.

work

Another Day in Pair Of Dice

ROCO Friday – The Half Payday (New) Edition

It Was The Best Of Times

Seven Whole Days

Soul Sellers

You Missed

Nothing To See Here

Too Damn Slow

Ghosts (of Days Gone By)

Raunchy Activated