27 posts tagged “work”
Well, it's after midnight, so technically it's the 4th of July. Happy 4th to everyone!
Let's see. The beginning of this week was so-so but it got better with each day. I had a good run on Monday and a fun West Coast swing dance class on Tuesday. I'm going to try and take new classes at this studio instead of Lindy. There weren't a whole lot of people in the last class, and the teacher was alright. She spent maybe two minutes talking about connection, and that's such an important part of the dance! I'm still a novice at it, but if you throw me out on the dance floor, I'll know a lot more Lindy than anything else; unless I'm going to take the more advanced classes downtown, there's no point in wasting my money.
I've only taken one West Coast class last year, so it was good to relearn the steps I had completely forgotten. The teacher was the most touchy-feely dance teacher I've had so far, making us clap every time we learned a new step, as if we were in kindergarten and learning the hokey-pokey. But other than that, I had a good time. Some interesting people in there-one dude walked in straight from the 70's, looking like he was a long-lost member of Queen or Led Zeppelin. Another woman in her fifties was trying to reclaim her youth by wearing a halter dress with a Vera Bradley-looking pattern. Ew.
Work yesterday was good. One of the engineers said that I had done a great job with my detention pond calculations, and that he's going to use me next week for some more sizing. I hadn't done detention pond calculations since college (if ever), so I was happy with that. There was an ice cream social, and ice cream at work always = good times. I dressed casually too, for once, since it was my Friday. I just wore my skinny jeans, a shirt that could pass as business casual, my ballerina flats, and scrunch n' go hair (thank goodness it's long enough again for me to do that). Later in the day I was wishing I hadn't dressed so casually. ;)
I drove home this morning. My parents and I went shopping, and they took me by the Coach shoes. I thought it was kind of strange my dad had followed us all to the shoe area, because usually he flees for the technology or magazine section. Anyway, we were looking at the shoes and I was complaining about the price of the flip-flops and wondering out loud how anyone would want to buy them for the price. "You are," my dad said. "No I'm not," I said, shaking my head determinedly. "Yes you are!" my mom said, and by then I was confused. Turns out that my parents had taken me by the shoes because they wanted to buy me a pair as an early birthday gift. Oops! My mom usually gives away surprises by accident, so I was really surprised and happy; it was a completely unexpected gift!
Pretty, no? They are very sleek and comfortable. I'm trying to think of how to get away with wearing them at work.
Well, it's pretty late. I'm going running with Daddy, Terry, and Pat tomorrow, so I need my beauty sleep. After the ice cream, and the Starburst Jelly Bean/Dr Pepper relapse I had this week, I'll need it! Have a safe and Happy 4th to all my American readers. And for those of you who don't celebrate-have a fun day at work?
Today was a good day, but the "jubilation" part of my title is from the song "Cecelia," which is currently STUCK IN MY HEAD FOR GOOD. I did an earworms post last summer, and I don't know how this song didn't make my list. It was stuck in my head for the longest time and I finally got it out, but I heard the song again today.
What's with New Kids on the Block being big again? When did we revert back to first grade/1990?
So today was good. I think I'm going to have to start showing up to work at 8 instead of 8:15ish. I'm definitely not the only one who doesn't show up at 8 (luckily the environment is very flexible). When I got to work this morning, I saw that I had been invited (or, rather, told) to attend a meeting, since I would have to take over the rest once the chair left. The email had been sent late yesterday, and I didn't receive it until this morning. The meeting started at 8:30. I read this email at 8:25. Cue Jenny scrambling for her materials.
The project is going well. Now we have an intern, and it's weird to think that I have enough work to where I can be delegating a little bit of it to her. This project has gotten really busy in the past couple of weeks, and I'm getting more and more work/responsibility. I'm just at the EIT level so I can't imagine how busy it must be for the project managers! I'm learning so much in this project. If you had asked me if anything related to water (water lines, wastewater) was interesting back when I was in school, I would have laughed at you. I thought, what's the big deal about water lines? Design them, put 'em in. Boring. But there's so much more to it than that. Sure, details about valves can be dry no matter how you spin them, but it's the whole design process that makes this work interesting. You can't provide a design without all the details-do you have access to this land to do the design? Are there any critical environmental features to avoid? What about designing through creeks? Traffic control? Is TxDOT is building new roads? What legal and political factors are driving this process? I wouldn't mind being a remediation/infrastructure hybrid. Infrastructure is turning out to be more interesting than I thought it would be.
So after work I went to my eye appointment. Besides the shot of air and bright lights, I love eye appointments (I'm such a nerd!) It's fun to pick prescriptions (when I was younger, I would drive my doctors crazy because I was so indecisive. "Is 1 or 2 better?" "Um...I'm not sure...can you go back? 1. No, wait. 2. I think.") Mine went pretty quickly, though. My eyesight got worse, not surprising. I have new contacts and ::cue heavenly music:: I am no longer blind. It's been about 2 months since I've worn my contacts, and I always forget how awesome they are until I wear them for the first time after a long time. I can't help thinking, "I can see, I can see!"
The run today was good. I think I'm getting acclimated? It was 101 and I felt stronger during this run than I have in awhile. I need to push myself more, though. I'm getting to the point where I'm just running in my comfort zone because I'm inherently lazy, and there isn't any solid improvement. I was doing alright but by the last lap I was getting tired (more mentally than physically, I think). Some older guy kept running behind me and that was annoying, so by the last lap I made sure I drank my water slowly so he could run ahead of me. I'm competitive and if someone is running behind me, I want to run faster and I wanted to take this last lap slower. By the end, Anya, who coaches running on the side, ran up behind me. "You have the potential to run a minute faster than the rate you're running at now," she said. "Try lengthening your stride." I obeyed and sprinted to the finish line. It was tough but I felt exhilarated at the end. "You finished at a 6:30 pace," she said. "And you quickened your pace by even more than a minute." I was grateful for Anya's kick to the ass. I need to push myself because I will be a better runner for it.
I'm trying to eat healthier. I'm a terrible sugar fiend. I'm trying to give up soda except for special treats, and I'm trying to remember to take my vitamins. I bought a bunch of healthy snacks and brought them to work. I brought tea to work too because I am rather hyperactive and anxious, so tea is relaxing. I brought honey too, because honey is supposed to be a natural stimulant (or so I read), and heaven knows I need a stimulant since I gave up caffeine for the umpteenth time. I felt good during the run today thanks to my healthy snacks, so I'm going to keep this up.
Some progress is being made...I think :)
Mother of eff, it's 11:49 and I need to head to sleep. My family is coming in tomorrow. Yay! If you read all this...then you are amazing. Because I just wrote a huge, meaningless post.
I finally have a new fridge. Yay! The new part would have taken 15 days to get in, and apparently was more expensive than the fridge itself. Finally. The other maintenance men (who for some reason had to repair and replace my French door in the kitchen) made me mad, though. I'm going to have to let the office know. I came home and found that they had moved my table without putting it back, and placed my blinds in one of the rooms. I had closed the door before I went to work. If the door is closed and you do not have a maintenance job related to that room, then you have no business opening it. I have a glass table, and even though I may sound like a wimpy girl, it's heavy to lift that glass up again. I did it but I would rather not do it again. There's two maintenance men, they should have no trouble putting that table back in a minute. People live here, assholes. Put everything back the way you found it.
I went on a good run today. The weather was cooler so it wasn't as bad, but my legs were so sore from Monday's workout (and I think even from dancing a little yesterday, because we worked on bouncing in rhythm.) So I've decided that I'm definitely going to try and make it to the downtown swing dance next week. Yeah! I've heard that these dancers are amazing, so I really want to see what I can learn. Eventually I want to take lessons down there as well, because they have this amazing lineup of Lindy classes. My major concern is parking; I've heard it's challenging in this area, but I'll ask people at my class next Tuesday and see where the best places to park will be. Worse comes to worse, I can be a major nerd and show up super early to snag a good spot. I would like to go tomorrow, but since I have a long day ahead of me on Friday (what with work and travel), it'd be best to get a good night's rest. Dancing always leaves me keyed up for a couple of hours, and unlike my good old college days, I can't dance until midnight, go to sleep at 2, and then wake up nice and late. I have a JOB. BOO responsibility.
Work has been keeping me busy. I finally have a use for a planner. It used to be that I could just remember things for school and activities, but now there's more important things riding on my memory, so writing everything down is key. Plus, it's terribly satisfying to look at my planner at the end of the day and see how much is crossed off (and a little depressing to see how much I have yet to do). There's one major project that pretty much takes up all my time. It's a huge project and I'm doing some engineering and real estate support work on it, and there's always something to do with it. Always. But I love being busy!
I finished a mystery novel and really enjoyed it (I need to start doing book reviews again, I'm so lazy). It is from the Maisie Dobbs series, a series that I enjoy immensely. It is about this woman detective in the 20's and 30's and they are really good books. I really like the character and the stories don't get bogged down with any romance either. There are some books where I don't mind romance being a key plot (i.e. Gone With the Wind), but in others, I find it a pain if it interferes with mystery or action stories.
Crap, it's already 11 and I'm wide-awake. I need to go simmer down before bedtime. I'd like to try to get another run in tomorrow. We'll see how that goes.
It's already another Monday. I can't wrap my head around how fast these months are zipping by. Well, this weekend was really fun. One of my friends from high school had his 24th birthday celebration this weekend, so we hung out and went to Outback. Outback sucks but I had a lot of fun being there with my friends. It's crazy to think that I've known some of them for nearly 10 years!
This weekend I also went back to swing class. It's beginning, so it was kind of boring ("Let's learn how to do a rock step and triple step." Sigh). And also...how do I say this politely? The people attending the class were not in my age demographic. But one of them said I was easy to dance with since I knew what I was doing (but then again, remember that these are all beginners so that doesn't necessarily mean that I'm terribly skilled). I'm going to try and head to the Lindy class tomorrow evening. Even though it's a beginning class too, it's been awhile since I've taken a Lindy class and I need a brush-up on the basics. I hate dancing with guys who are just learning Lindy, because they are so rough and don't have any rhythm.
But I can't complain, because I know I made a lot of mistakes when I was learning it (like not keeping enough tension and, um, trying to lead). But I'm really glad I went back, at any rate. I love dancing. It allows me to express the graceful side of me that usually does not exist. Plus I have fun ballerina flats to dance in now. I should have listened to my dancing instructors from college; those are way more fun to dance in than heels! Even though this dance studio isn't the downtown scene, it still offers really great classes. I think I'll want to take West Coast later on. I took one West Coast class last year (last year already?!) and it was a lot of fun.
Today at work I kept busy, busy, busy. I'm working on one project and it keeps me busy pretty much every day, every week. It's a huge project though so I'm learning so much from it.
Today at the running group we had to do circuits. We had to do 100s at a "reasonably fast but not all out sprint" and then do calisthenics. The circuits were push-ups, lunges, crunches, and then jumps. I thought it would be easy, but hale no. I did 4 of those and then ran a really slow mile. I heard it takes 6 weeks to get acclimated to the heat. I want to hurry up and get acclimated already.
If I were Paul Bunyan, I would drop-kick my refrigerator down a flight of stairs and watch it crash to the ground with a sickenly satisfying crunch.
Already the middle of May. Seriously, 2008. Slow the fuck down.
Today one of my friends texted me to say how bored he was at work and how he didn't want to do anything. Man, I felt the same way. I had a "case of the Mondays" this morning, but then work picked up this afternoon and I was busy again. I texted him back on how jealous I was of the stupid college kids and their summer breaks. Enjoy it while you can, assholes. I have to say that even though vacation time is severely shortened out here in the "real world," I'd much rather have the 8-5 days, guilt-free evenings, and no tests :)
Today I was working on a problem at work, and I figured out how to do it fairly quickly (I'm not trying to be a show-off, because the problem was pretty easy). But even though I knew I had the right process, I couldn't make intuitive sense of it. So I doubted myself and spent awhile trying out other solutions. Nothing. I put the problem away and went to run an errand at the TCEQ office. I came back, looked at the problem, and figured out in a minute where I'd wrong: my original math was right, just my justification for it was off. I was frustrated at how easy the problem actually was, and I how I'd made it so much harder by overthinking it. Two lessons: I shouldn't doubt myself when I know the math is right, and I should just put the problem away next time and let my subconscious work it out.
The run today was good. 5 sets of 400/200s. The 200s kick my ass. I like running as fast as I can for the first, but it gets harder with each successive one. The weather was cool, so that was nice, at least. (Well, the weather was probably around 70 degrees. Living in Texas for 14 years has warped what my sense of cold weather is.)
This weekend I went home for Mother's Day, of course. How can I spend Mother's Day without seeing my mama? I got my mom some lotion from Victoria Beckham's line. My mom loves Victoria Beckham so it was an ideal gift. (My mom is really bad with remembering names, so sometimes she'll call her "Rebecca Buchman." Hee.) It was nice to be home, and I had a good time with my family. My mom always makes me a nice Italian sauce, and my dad will usually make some sort of barbeque dish, and I take the leftovers from that too. See, I don't even live at home anymore, and I still manage to eat all the food. Ha!
This weekend I went to see Iron Man with Pat. The theater was so packed (at 11:45 am on Saturday!) that we had to sit in the 2nd to front row. (Obadiah Stane's head looked extra huge from that view, let me tell you.)
I really liked this movie. It had a great plot, really good acting (except for Gwyneth Paltrow's apparent inability to act in front of a green screen, but she was tolerable in other scenes), the sarcastic humor that I like, minimal romance that would otherwise suck the life out of an action flick, and good eye candy for me (seriously, this movie makes you see RDJ in a new light). I like the character's name too ;)
Um so I have three days to finish my two stories before the writing contest's submission date. Hey, it's just like college!
Wow, I have written entirely too much for one post. Time for me to call it a night :)
Holy hell, how is it already Wednesday? And almost May, at that? That means that there's a little more than two months until I turn 24 (sigh). January and February were so slow, but March and April just shot by.
Today was a good, random day. I started off my morning by making a dumb driving mistake. It was nothing dramatic, I mistakenly went before my turn at a 4-way stop sign. I texted my brother and asked him if he'd ever done that before and he said that he had...just this morning! Isn't that funny? I'm sure it will warm my parents' hearts to know that their children do not know how to wait for their turn at stop signs.
At work I got assigned to do a small research task for a project we're working on. It has to do with bioremediation, which is right up my alley. I don't care if my task is just a small part of the project. I've been doing a lot of support work for the infrastructure group lately. Don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying the work there and I'm learning a lot. But remediation is my baby, so I'm happy that I'm getting work in that department as well.
Today I drove all the way downtown and was all ready early for the meeting that we'd had scheduled. I got antsy when it was five minutes till the meeting was supposed to start and no one had showed up. I knew that I'd gotten the right place and time, so I called my coworkers. Turns out they had canceled the meeting that morning and conveniently had forgotten to tell me. I'm not upset because the mileage and $2.50 I spent for the parking meter is reimbursed. I'm going to mess with them the next time I have to attend a meeting. "Are you sure you all aren't going to cancel this at the last minute and forget to tell me about it?"
The run today was AWESOME. Today's run was the first time in nearly four years that I finally felt closer to being the runner I was when I was nineteen. I didn't finish last, and instead of using the recovery time to walk, I kept running. I pushed myself and was doing really well for the first two laps; I just have to work on having a strong finishing lap (which has always been my weakness). Everyone is so encouraging, cheering you on at the end. What a great group of people. Like my dad says, "Have you ever met a runner who is unhappy?" There was a bit of a commotion today as there was a rattlesnake on one of the trails. He was all curled up, luckily, and not shaking his rattler. I had advance warning and I thought he was a small critter, so he didn't really bother me. I thought it was kind of cool, actually, as I'd never seen a rattlesnake in person before. Some other people were freaking out over him though. Now if he had been bigger and had that rattler going, THEN there would be problems.
I'm enjoying it here so far. I've been here for three months and I finally feel like I'm making a life for myself here. I'm meeting people and doing things that I enjoy.
Man, I scratched up my leg today after the run. I scraped my leg against the pavement. It looks like I've been clawed. Will I ever have ladylike legs? They are constantly bruised.
I came up with a story idea today. I think I will work on it. It's an idea for a kid's novel. I think it has potential if I develop it more.
Volleyball double-header tomorrow. James is now the team captain. This ought to be interesting.
I want to read a bit before bed. I never want to fall asleep, and I never want to get up in the morning. It has been this way since I've been a baby. Night, y'all.
I was looking at an old gas receipt from last week, and already the price of gas has risen 10 cents per gallon since then. This is the only, only time I wish I drove some death trap of a vehicle, because you want to know how much I spent filling up only half a tank? Fifty dollars. For half a tank. Yay for gas-guzzling trucks. Sigh.
This weekend was fun. I watched There Will Be Blood. I liked it, it was really good. Caveat: if you are expecting an action-packed film, this is certainly not the movie for you. It unfolds slowly but it has a really good story. And it certainly wasn't as slow as some of the movies I had to watch for my film class, like The Claim, which was so terribly boring (was that really two years ago already?) The performances in this movie were really good too. I can see why Daniel Day-Lewis won an Oscar. I think Paul Dano should have gotten at least nominated, because he also did a really good job. Even the kid actors were talented and weren't hammy and annoying like some kid actors tend to get.
I am so thirsty. I need to get some water. I went for the run today and forgot my stopwatch :( It was a short workout, a little over mile that was split into a 500 m sprint and two 200 m sprints. I felt like I was having an easier time running faster, but who knows, since I didn't have a stopwatch to confirm this.
So I finally have business cards. I feel terribly official now. I put my title as "Graduate Environmental Engineer" which is unnecessarily fancy. But I didn't want to put "EIT" because even though I passed the FE, I'm still waiting for the dumb certificate to come in and I didn't want anyone to look me up in the database and think I was lying when my name didn't pop up. So far I have only given my business card to a friend at work, my parents, and my hairdresser, who I've known since I was in high school. Her name is Rocio and she is adorable. She is really proud of me and always gives me dating and life advice, and no one does hair like her (not at the good price she charges, at least). Anyway, Rocio was so excited about my business cards that she took several. I have yet to give my cards to a client.
I need a new schedule. It will commence tomorrow. I think.
Ok I really need to get some water and start winding down.
This weekend was so much fun. Meg and Matt came into town. I haven't seen Meg since December, so I was really excited for her visit. We went to Arts Festival, which was actually really disappointing. There was some good art there, but so expensive! I'd naively brought $40 with me to splurge on a piece of good art. Yeah, um, most of the art there was $300 and up. There were even a couple of sculptures that were $10,000. (I stayed far away from those). But we had fun walking around downtown all day doing touristy things and we ate downtown at night ;)
Yesterday evening, I put my culinary skillz to work. I made a recipe from my Rachael Ray cookbook-Wild Mushroom Turkey Patties. So good! I made my own gravy for it too. I also made ragu' but it didn't come out as good as it did the last time I made it. Plus, hot sauce from the pan hit my arm and now I have a burn there. Sexy! Finally, I made a Chocolate Pecan pie. It was great. So I still have meals for this week AND dessert. Win-win.
Work today went well. This morning was one of those time-warp mornings. I spent it working on a memo, and by the time I turned it in, I felt like I'd done little to the memo. Ugh, Mondays! But this afternoon was productive. I had to go to another meeting, at some new location on the other side of town. I didn't get lost, woot! Well, to clarify: I didn't get lost getting to the general location, but the reps at the meeting we were going to gave the project manager and me bad directions on how to find the building. I don't think that counts :) Another place to add to my grid. I'm so glad that mileage is reimbursed because it was a 50-mile round trip!
The run today was awesome. I love my running groups. A bunch of great, positive people who share a common love: running! Today's run started with two 700 m sprints at 5K pace, with a 100 m recovery for each. Then four 300 m sprints at goal mile pace with a 100 m recovery for each. Those 300s kicked my ass...it actually hurt to breathe after I was done with each lap. But I had a strong last lap and I felt good enough to run a couple more slow laps. I have insider information that the next workout is going to be insane so I'm going to rest up for it. :) I'm getting addicted to running again. I love feeling stronger with each run, and, of course, the runner's high.
Time for me to go and relax before tomorrow.
So, I got my hair "done" yesterday. The stylist still left roots in my hair, so she's going to fix them for free on Saturday (I don't think any male reader will care why this is important, but I know you ladies will feel my agony). I also got my hair cut. Somehow, "shoulder length, some layers, nothing drastic" turned into hair that just barely goes into ponytail and layers that are cut as short as my chin. You know how it is-by the time you can say anything, half your hair is already on the ground. Despite my misgivings at first, I like my cut. It has some edgy rocker chick layers, and it makes me look more my age instead of a college freshman. The last time I had my hair this short, I was going through a bad breakup and wanted to change everything about myself. There's nothing dramatic spurring this change now except a desire to feel more age-appropriate and professional.
Today I felt like a real "professional." I had meetings, deadlines, and an interview. The interview went well, but it's so weird interviewing someone with tons more experience and who has been an engineer since before you were born. She was professional, though, and if she was annoyed by someone with a month's experience interviewing her, she didn't show it.
Today I went out to lunch with some gals from the office. One of them is very pregnant, and she was telling us what her daughter's name is going to be. It's a pretty name, and since the rest of us are childless, I figured I could rant about how much I hate the name Madison and not offend anyone (I seriously hate names like Madison, Tyler, Taylor, etc for girls. I like classic but uncommon names myself. My favorite names always change but if I were to give birth to a girl say, tomorrow, I would name her Sabrina.) Anyway, so I say, "That name is really pretty. I hate the trend of giving a boy's name to a girl." And a MILLISECOND after I say this, I remember that one of the ladies has a boy's name with a girl's spelling. Open foot, insert mouth. Lately I've been saying things without thinking and while I like this lack of censorship with myself, I really should think sometimes before I say something.
Okay enough about work. My brother started his own Myspace music page. He has a real talent for writing songs and playing the guitar, and he wrote this one melancholy song that is soooo pretty. I'm really glad he's putting his music out there.
So remember how I said that yesterday was all beautiful and warm? Today was windy and chilly-of course, the night when Spring Volleyball starts. Of course. My first week of work, I was recruited to join the Thugzzz, a self-described mediocre volleyball team. Perfect for me to join, since I never was a serious volleyball player, and haven't played since high school P.E. when I was 15 or 16.
I like my team members except for one who is a major flirt-you know, the type who is touchy-feely with girls. At one point I said something when he playfully pushed me. One of my team members heard me and laughed, but all he said was, "What did you say?" (So much for sassiness. Maybe it's his hearing since he's OLD). I have a sense of humor, but when you get all touchy with me when I've barely even met you...no. He complimented my earrings too. Dude, you are old enough to be my dad. Gross.
I also got mildly annoyed when someone from my team asked me if I drink beer, since that's all there was available for beverages. I said no, I didn't like the taste. I wasn't annoyed by that first question, but by what he asked me afterward: "Do you drink at all?" Unable to hide my irritation, I said that I don't really drink but I'm not opposed to it. What's the big deal? I'm not saying that I don't enjoy a drink every once in awhile, but it's not my thing and never has been. I hate getting the third degree from people about it. Maybe I should ask them, "Oh, so you're going to drink AND drive?" and see how they react.
I haven't played in years so I wasn't expecting to be terrific. And I wasn't. I would freeze up when I was going for the ball and someone would yell "OVER!" Then sometimes I wouldn't even go for the ball at all, thinking someone else would (and they didn't). I got in a couple of hits, but I sucked otherwise. I did make up for my poor skillz by doing surprisingly well at serving. I didn't have to feel too badly at my poor playing, though. There are a couple of team members who are good, but the rest were making the same dumb mistakes that I was. Still, I had a lot of fun playing. Even the other team would start joking around with me, calling me "Little Red Riding Hood," (I was wearing my red hoodie) and joking around when I would hit the ball over the net at the wrong time (i.e. the fourth shot.)
I also got hit in the head with the volleyball a couple of times. Once was when Flirty Middle-Aged Man made a power serve aimed straight at my head on "accident." It didn't hurt though. LOL one of the times happened when I was supposed to set the ball (I hate that position), and I was staring up at the volleyball...SMACK! The volleyball bounced straight off my forehead. Then the team actually made a play off that! Apparently that's a legal play! We all had a good laugh about that one.
Well, I'm going to go so I can get to sleep a little early (HOPEFULLY). I'm going to get my hair highlighted tomorrow after work. Excitement!
