Friday, September 29, 2006

Off to the Big Easy..... hopefully

Headed to New Orleans tomorrow, hopefully. I've been planning this weekend for a month. There's a convention in town and a bunch of my friends will be there, meaning drinking (hopefully at free convention parties) in the quarter, with much debauchery. I'll be staying with my SIL, who lives on Bourbon.... so even more debauchery. I haven't seen her since before Katrina, and I suspect she's been having a rough go of things lately, so I want to spoil her a bit.

The only kicker is that I've been sick for 3 weeks now. 2 weeks of a head cold which has now migrated into my chest. I was doing much better last weekend and in the past 2 days have become worse. And the idea of driving 5 hrs each way by myself while sick doesn't sound great. Neither does partying while sick. Seems like a dumb thing to do.

However, I'm not exactly known for being smart. Which is probably why I relapsed - my new swim team is at an outdoor pool. 5:30 AM in 60 degree weather, wet, AND sick? Yeah, not smart.

So, hopefully when I wake tomorrow I'll magically feel better (or on the way to better) so I can have a 3 day weekend drinking and eating tasty food.

Sunday, September 24, 2006

Long time no blog (again)

I've had a head cold for two weeks and its kicked my ass. I've kinda gone into hermit mode. But I finally broke down and saw the doctor last Friday and am starting to feel mostly human....

Thought I'd give an update on what I've been up to....

Jewelry - worked a craft fair last month. Only sold $75 to strangers and then another ~$100 to friends. Not a stellar outing. I'm going to enter a different craft fair in October and see how that goes. And I haven't sold jack at that gym, so I'm thinking of pulling my stuff.

Swimming - haven't swam in 2 weeks due to this dang head cold. Hoping to swim with the new team tomorrow. I've entered a swim meet that's in 2 weeks, which is kind-of a joke, as I haven't done anything resembling fast swimming all summer long. I got pretty complacent this summer. Partially b/c I could only swim 2x a week and it was at the 50 m pool. And I was the leader of the slow lane, b/c well, I prefer to lead and make my own pace rather than be last in the fast lane and get my ass kicked. I know I did myself a disservice by doing this, b/c I had no one to push me into going faster. But it made me happier, so 'evs. I'm entering 100 IM, 100 free, 50 free, and 100 breastroke. Didn't put fast seed times. Hoping just to survive, mainly b/c I haven't done much of anything in the past 2 weeks.

Work - its mostly good. I don't hate the place, so that's a start. Trying to figure out politics, etc. Where I fit in in our office, how I can get ahead. My main problem is lack of diversity. See, we only have one project manager for the kind of work I do in our office. And she's got 26 projects open, which is about 15 too many. And she's the type that needs to know 100% of the details. While I understand the reasoning behind it, it still doesn't help me much, b/c she's the log jam on most of my work. Meaning, I end up waiting on her a LOT. And I was hired to help her out and relieve some of her work load, but frequently, I feel like I'm a gnat buzzing around her, rather than an asset. I need to diversify my project load (ie - get other sources of work). I've got one project out of our NOLA office and they LOVE me, so I'm hoping that will pay off. I did really good work for them last week, and they were very vocal in their appreciation of me. I told them that if they liked what I did, to keep me in mind for future stuff. They warned me about being careful of what I wished for - so I take this as a good sign. I don't have a lot of friends at work, which I'm ok with. Everyone is nice, but busy. And I'm pretty much over the whole needing to have friends at work thing, so its no biggie. As long as no one's stabbing me in the back and I like the kind of work I'm doing, its all good.

Fun things - did a pub crawl last Friday with my husband's friends. It was pretty crazy. Cheap tequilla shots, broken glass, Will's foot bleeding, me driving our drunk friend back to our house and making him spend the night. Good times. Next weekend I'm going to NOLA to hang out with my SIL and some other friends, so that should be a good time. Hoping I remember most of it....

That's honestly about it. I'm pretty lame, I know, but I'm hoping to have fun stories after next weekend.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

I am soooo bummed

I feel as though someone has ripped my heart out of my chest and tossed it on the floor, and all I can do is watch it stop beating.

Got an email from my swim coach today - starting the 18th, he's moving all swim practices to a pool that is very, very far away from me. As in I'd have to drive an extra 50 miles AND leave half-way through practice to get to work on time. In other words, its possible to swim there, but not remotely practical.

In April, we lost access to the HS pool we were swimming at. Turns out our coach was paying the HS coach under the table to grant us access. Well, the HS fired the coach and changed the locks. And guess who was screwed? Us! The solution was to swim T-Th at an outdoor pool which is on the way to work for me and M-W-F at the far, far away pool.

So, its already been sucky to have my practices reduced from 4x a week to just 2. And now I'm essentially losing my team until we can get access to our very-centrally-located-former pool again. Which, I've been told, we're doing thru proper channels, but since its a public school district, they don't move very fast.

I'm bummed for so many reasons. These people are like my family - I've got a few "moms". Some really good friends. I'm challenged, but not in a way that I'll end up hurting myself. And its a good emotional/physical release from stress - had it not been for swim team during my past job, I'm not sure I would have ended up killing a few people. And I've been with these people for 2 years. Its amazing how you bond at 5:30 AM when you're cranky and half asleep.

Mostly I'm bummed over this disconnect from my friends that I see at practice. When I moved to Houston, I had a hard time making friends (despite what you hear, I don't find Houston a very friendly place.... unless you're a specific type of person, and by that, I mean not me). So, I joined a gym, in high hopes of meeting someone with common interests and goals. And no one talked to me. And they looked at me like I was a freak when I put on my "I'm really fun and friendly" face in hopes that maybe someone will strike up a conversation. I was really hurt over how hard it was to make friends in a social-sports environment. I even joined a social volleyball team, and all that got me was a broken thumb. From beach volleyball, In December. I've always had a fairly easy time making friends in sports - two of my best friends I met in summer league swim team when I was 17. And now I'm on this team and I'm comfortable and I have friends. And now its like our parents got a divorce, and our parents are on opposite sides of the country, and we (the team) are having to pick which parent to live with. And unfortunately, it looks like I'm going to have to live on my own for a while.

So now, I have to shop for a new team. And I'm not sure any will "fit." A few are at night and I'd have to fight heavy interstate traffic. A few are in the morning, but even earlier than my current team - but its fairly easy to get to work.

I've got a few calls and emails out for research. But overall, I'm just really, really bummed that I'm losing my family, even if it is for a month or so.