It’s been about a month since I’ve written on this blog. Looking back at the title of the last post- “System Overload”- I can say that the same feeling of being overwhelmed continues to dominate my little world.

There are ways in which I have settled down at my job. Parts of what I do feel comfortable. Other parts feel way over my head, but the sickly feeling that accompanies having no idea what I am doing is consistent enough that now it just feels like part of my daily routine- walk dog, drink coffee, break out in cold sweat while reviewing to-do list at work, go to gym, and so on. Almost everyday I find out that something new has been added to my plate. Or maybe these things were always on my plate, but just safely hiding under the “and other duties as assigned” clause of my job description.

There are definitely some awesome things about the new job. For example, I seem to come home with a new work-related t-shirt almost every week. Since t-shirts are my favorite thing in the world, this makes me very happy. Kabluey, however, is not as impressed with the amount of swag that has entered the house during my first month of employment. Surely she will change her mind when the compliments start rolling in on the company-issued metal lunch box that I generously gave to her, and pack her sandwich in every day.

Enough about my job. It’s the Saturday of a 3-day weekend, so who wants to think about work?

As of today, it is 2 weeks until my half marathon. The farthest distance I have run is 8 miles. That was 3 weeks ago. I’m not great with numbers, but I am pretty sure that means I am screwed. I know it sounds like I have totally messed this up, but only part of it is my fault. And the part at fault is my hamstrings. Ever since my 8 mile run, I’ve had problems with my hamstrings that have manifested themselves through pain in my lower back. This is probably due to one of two things. It could be the horrific running form that I have mentioned before. Or it could be because I am getting old. Both reasons make me mad so who really cares which one it is. Kabluey has been giving me stretching exercises and if I can get up to 10 miles before the race, I may try to pull out the whole distance. I’ll have to make sure I bring work home with me that weekend, as it’s unlikely I’ll be able to walk for a while after the race.

One form of exercise that does not give me pain is bike riding. This is great because once I get past this ill-fated half marathon thing, I think it will be fun to ride my bike a bit more. Or at least ride it in the great outdoors, as opposed to on a stand in my basement, which is where I usually ride. I had already been thinking it would be a good idea to get my bike out of the house, but my recent bit of good luck solidified this idea. Kabluey and I were at Hopworks (our home away from home) attending one of their Mug Club parties. Neither one of us even knew there was a raffle, until they started pulling names for prizes like t-shirts and 22oz bottled beer. Imagine how excited we were when I won the grand prize, which was a $500 gift certificate to Bike n Hike!

I think it would be cool to get a city/commuter bike, and start riding to my office in Clackamas. I’ve only spent a little time looking at their bikes online, but so far these two are looking pretty sweet:

All this typing about Hopworks has got me craving a Rise Up Red. Off I go…

Tags: bike buying, half marathon training, Hopworks

I made it through two weeks at my new job and it’s safe to say my brain is officially fried. The good news is that I think I am really going to like this job. The potentially bad news is that everyone there is so excited about the company, and there is so much to do, that I could easily be putting in 12 hour days, 7 days a week if I don’t make a concentrated effort to maintain some kind of work-life balance.

Here’s a quick recap of some of the work-related things that have happened in my first two weeks:

1. My first day I worked 10.5 hours with no break
2. My second day I worked 10.5 hours, but managed to sneak away for twenty minutes so I could drive to a Lowe’s Hardware store, sit in my car in the parking lot and eat my sandwich
3. My third day I has to stand up and give a 30 minute presentation on social media to 15 members of the sales and marketing team
4. The company is buying me a new phone, which is awesome for me, and also awesome for the company since it will make it very easy for me to put in the 84-hour work weeks mentioned above
5. I got a full behind-the-scenes tour of the Oregon Humane Society (and I only started to cry twice!)
6. I got to buy an awesome video camera for the company, and have already made a video of Riley which I will post here soon (I also used it today, Saturday, for a work-related event…)

All in all, it was a pretty successful couple of weeks. I just need to get past the extreme stress and fatigue that seem to accompany the start of all new jobs. I need my energy so I can get outside and increase my distance running. The half marathon is fast approaching, and at the rate I am going now, I am going to be one sad camper during miles 7-13.

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