the ongoing saga of my job

Back To Work

Been back from vacation for a day and a half now. Having trouble concentrating this morning. Good excuse to blog.

Lots of weirdness happened at work while I was gone. Our supervisor had already told us that he was leaving the department, so that was no surprise. His replacement was announced in my absence, though, and was met with lukewarm enthusiasm at best. His successor is a supervisor from another department, which left that department with a supervisory vacancy. In turn, yet another supervisor from another department — the department for which James and I are currently developing a new tracking database — is moving to fill *that* vacancy. Which leaves the department with which we’ve been working currently in limbo. So, the supervisors are having a nice little Chinese Fire Drill, people are leaving their respective departments like rats from a sinking ship, and James and I are a bit dazed.

The timing of the announcement was impeccable, too, being that I was on vacation last week and James is on vacation this week. So, he was pretty much flying solo last week, apart from us trading a few update emails, and I’m flying solo this week. These two weeks are enough to confirm our suspicion that this job really does require two people. It could be that we’ve just grown used to bouncing ideas off of one another, or it could be a function of my struggling confidence level, but I hesitate to make any drastic changes or embark on any new projects without confirming with James first.

That said, I should probably try to focus and make some headway on something.

randomness 1 Comment

The Vacation Thus Far

Monday: Bought the newest Civ IV expansion at Best Buy. Ran some random errands with Aaron. Maxxed and relaxed at home in the AC and played my new game.

Tuesday: Lunch with Aaron and Mark at Ruby Tuesday. Spent the rest of the day at home in the AC. Paid a bunch of bills. Got all funky-depressed from not exercising (or was it PMS?). Thenl we watched the Henry Rollins Show DVDs from his show on the Independent Film Channel, and I ate some oatmeal (with real maple syrup), and that made it all better.

Today: Went to the bank with Aaron and withdrew spending money for Otakon. Got a bunch of low-carb goodness and a cheap set of iPod speakers at Big Lots. Packed for the trip — and, again, maxxed and relaxed in the AC.

Tomorrow morning, we head out for Baltimore. It’s about an eight-hour trip from here, so we’re starting out around 8am. We’ll get to our hotel around rush hour, park and check in, walk to the Convention Center to get our badges, then meet the Ninja Consultants for dinner.

After that, it’s a wild ride of otaku conventioning and anime craziness until Sunday, a day of rest on Monday, then back to the grind on Tuesday. But that’s not for a while yet. I’ve still got half my vacation to go!

weight loss 2 Comments

Diet & Fitness Update, Week Ending 7/29/06

Considering my god-awful diet weekend with Aaron and Amy, and my lack of exercise this past week, only going up half a pound isn’t unreasonable. I’m now officially at 206.5 lbs. I’m still ahead of the game: I’ve lost 3½ pounds in two weeks. I’m OK with that. Gotta keep things rolling.

To review: for this week, I had been planning to do 60 minutes of cardio, drink a crapload of water, and get to bed by 11pm.

Cardio: Total bust. I only exercised once this week (besides my daily lunch walk, which I don’t even really count anymore), and that was to do a PUSH workout on Monday. I totally dropped the ball for the rest of the week. WTF.

Water: Good to go. I kept track for the first few weekdays, then realized that I was doing fine and stopped counting the tally-marks by my water glass. I easily drink at least 64 oz of water a day without even trying. To get up over 100 oz would be more of a challenge for me.

Bedtime: Improved. I didn’t get to bed by 11pm every night, but I did most nights. On the nights I didn’t, I at least made an effort to chill out by 11pm, and get to bed as soon as possible after that.

This week is going to be interesting. I’m on vacation, and Aaron’s on vacation. Otakon starts on Friday, and we’re driving out to Baltimore on Thursday. I know I need to set myself up for success and all that, but I really don’t know what kinds of goals to set for myself. I didn’t make myself a menu for the week, mainly because I don’t know what we’ll be doing, and it’s a lot easier for me to plan my meals when I’m on a rigid schedule, being at work. Helps to break up the day.

So, my goals for this week are to continue to eat five smaller meals a day, instead of the two large ones I’ll be tempted to eat instead; to exercise at least three days, one of those days being in the hotel at Otakon; and to continue to walk for an hour every day (at least Monday through Wednesday — I don’t know how conducive downtown Baltimore would be to a walk, especially at the weird times I won’t be in the con). I might switch up my times, like exercising in the afternoon and walking with Aaron after the sun goes down in the evening. Might make things easier for a vacation-week lifestyle. 🙂 Maybe the Marriott Inner Harbor has a weight room or something.

*checks website*

Looks like they do have a Fitness Center. Now I have to figure out how in the hell I’m going to get up early enough to actually use it. Oh, and they have an indoor pool, whirlpool, and sauna, too. There’s no way I’m going to manage to get Aaron in that sauna, though. 🙂

OK, so let’s amend #2 on my list: I’m going to use the Fitness Center at least once during my stay in Baltimore. I can do this.

*psyches self up*

Note to self: bring workout clothes and swanky new black swimsuit.