Friday, September 23, 2011

open my body up and do some surgery

This morning was rough; after getting less than my usual eight to nine hours of sleep for the past two nights, I felt (and likely looked) like the dead when i rolled out of bed at seven. Yes, seven -- and I know, I never get up at seven. But Alyssa and I had moved Friday's session to this morning at nine, a mistake I immediately regretted after sitting in traffic for an hour and a half. So while I was out the door by 7:45 and gave myself an hour and fifteen minutes to reach my destination, I was still fifteen minutes late to our training session. I think I only heard "Party Rock Anthem" once in that hour and a half, though, so I consider it something of a victory.

Today was our reassessment day, which means Alyssa weighed, measured, poked, and prodded me, and then we sat down to discuss goals, aspirations, hopes, dreams, etc. It was like a reality tv show, only without the yelling, crying, drinking or hair-pulling. I know, we're so boring. Since my anti-ulcer meds ended yesterday, we're tentatively waiting to see how my stomach fares this weekend, but the main goal is to get back onto a more consistent eating + gym regimen that has been sorely lacking all spring/summer due to the combo of my incessant traveling + my ulcer friend. Needless to say, it will be an interesting next few months (if "interesting" is the right word to apply to foods such as skinless chicken, steamed cauliflower, and peanut butter -- although it's really not as bad as all that, since the list still includes beef, bacon, oatmeal, and the almond milk smoothie I've come to adore). The main 'interesting' part is that the list does not include wine, tequila, mojitos, cosmos, vodka cranberries, champagne, mai tais, or any other delicious, delicious alcoholic beverages -- bad for my social life, but probably good for my ulcer and everything else.

After Alyssa and I wrapped up, I took a leisurely shower, then went over to my old place of employment and had lunch with Gyre. I hadn't caught up with him one on one since he went out on paternity leave, so we had much to discuss. He seemed to be in good spirits, even after we realized that we'd known each other for eight years and would probably be having the same lunch in another eight years from now. After we finished lunch, he escorted me upstairs (since I must now be escorted, even though my legend lives on since the streamers from my going-away party, now badly faded, are still in the main conference room in my old building) and handed responsibility of me over to Meital, who is admin to Alan (my old boss who is not the big boss, but who is one step removed from her). Meital and I caught up briefly before Alan spied me (not hard, since he has a floor-to-ceiling window overlooking Meital's cube). Alan and I then chatted for twenty minutes or so, which was lovely and made me feel like I had never left (even though it's been almost a year - shocking).

Eventually, though, I had to leave and return to the evil city. I made a v. rare (for me) mistake and put a meeting in my calendar for an hour earlier than it actually was, which led me to believe that I had been stood up. Luckily, I was 'stood up' at Samovar, my favorite place in the world, so I had a chai and wrote while I waited for my friend Grace (who, unbeknownst to me, had been sitting on the other side of the terrace most of the time I was waiting, since she was early too). Grace writes historicals, like me; she finaled in the same award contest that I won, although in a different year; and she's also waiting to hear whether anyone's going to buy her second book after getting all rejections on the first. Our paths are scary similar, so we had an excellent time gossiping and catching up on writing and life. While I love having friends who aren't writers, it's also nice to know people who are going through something similar to me, so we had a great time.

I dropped Grace off around six, came home, procrastinated for a couple of hours, and have been taking care of general tasks/housekeeping stuff for the past few hours. I also hung out with Terry and watched the hour-long premieres of "Big Bang Theory" and "Modern Family", both of which were excellent. Now, though, I should really sleep; I don't have to get up early tomorrow, but there's a lot I need to do in preparation for the weekend. Goodnight!

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