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Cubicle Whore

Three (3!) Things Thursday

1. Today I start a once/week 8-week leadership certification course. I was nominated to take the course by my mentor, and I’m hoping to learn a lot and become an even more awesome manager and a good leader. Also, I am excited because I get to wear jeans, there is free lunch, and free parking! WOO!

 

2. I am definitely feeling a return of energy this week. I ran Monday night and swam last night. I also got the bike trainer all set up so I could bike when I get home tonight. Of course, I was asleep shortly after 9 last night, but whatever….I’ve been active and feeling good!

This is a dramatic re-enactment of my swim

(I am neither that pregnant, nor am I likely to bust out a bikini any time soon.)

 

3. I am always always hungry. I haven’t been this hungry since my high mileage marathon weeks (in fact, between the sleepiness and the hunger, I feel exactly like I’m in the high mileage marathon training weeks, except without all the excess laundry). I carry emergency snacks in my purse, but I ran out Tuesday and forgot to replace them. So, last night when I drove the Ambitious One home after our swim date, I made her pay for the ride with a Luna Bar!  I am such a demanding bitch!  (I will eat ALL the food.)

 

I am internet-less today (except for breaks and the smartphone) – have a great Thursday!

Photo Essay Monday

Not too much of a photo essay for this last weekend. Nothing I did was particularly photo-worthy.

Friday, I ended up at work for waaaaaaaaay too long (especially since it was my day off). The rest of the day was spent finalizing my final paper for my very last regular course for graduate school. All done! (And, I got an A in that class! Go, me!)

Saturday was kind of a lazy day. The kind of day I thought I deserved after finishing 19 courses in just over 2 years and getting to within 17 weeks of qualifying for my Master’s Degree. I mean, I took a cat to the vet (at 8 AM!) and had a movement therapy appointment (my SI area is killing me), and then I lazed the rest of the day.

The architect, however, did not have a lazy day. Instead, he finished tiling the shower area & grouted 80% of the same area (the other 20% needs to wait for a week, since that was the part he’d finished tiling that same day):

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This photo makes it look really orange, which is weird. BUT – it’s not. The tiles are white with black grout.

Sunday was a bit busier….eventually. I did some last minute Halloween shopping. Apparently the week before Halloween is not an ideal time to do that, as most of the stores had mostly switched over to Christmas decorations. I did get some good stuff, though. I am, however, still sans costume. The pregnancy costumes are all for people who are really pregnant. Painting my belly at this point would look stupid, and I’m not pregnant enough to pull of pregnant nun. I tried on some plus-sized stuff, but that was all too big, and the regular sized costumes don’t fit in the boobs and are super tight across the mid-section.  I think I’m pretty much decided to go as this:

three gold stars if you get the reference

I am super excited to get all my decorations up and have an awesomely spooktacular party this weekend, though!

Lazy Bones!

 

After getting through all that stuff (and picking up another pair of sweet maternity jeans), I decided I needed some healthy snacks. I have been loving bran muffins lately, and spending $2/muffin (they are humungous) from the hospital coffee shops at least once/week. I thought I could probably make my own for much less than that. And so I did. And, because the architect hates bran muffins, I made him some blueberry muffins.

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(There were a dozen of each – this photo was after I put most in the freezer for safe keeping.)

And now – back at work. I was looking forward to a week off school, but our syllabus for the Capstone project was released today, and I think that although school doesn’t technically start until next Monday, it would be in my best interest to only be on half-vacation this week. In addition, Thursday I start my weekly Leadership Foundation course (it runs through 12/15) that I was nominated to attend through work, so I’ll be in the office one less day, which means more work on the days that I am in……oh well – the price of success or something, right?

Happy week!

Three (3!) Things Thursday

1. All of my top search hits this week are for “gazelle attacks bicyclist” or some variation thereof. I have never attacked a bicyclist, nor would I. This gazelle is a lover, not a fighter.

Gazelles with freaking laser beams

 

2. I had a flu shot yesterday, and I can barely move my arm….by about 4:30 yesterday afternoon, it hurt very badly, and I spent most of the evening lying about moaning theatrically (not really, that would’ve been obnoxious, I only moaned theatrically in my own head). Having had influenza when I was younger, I know that is infinitely worse than how I feel right now, and I know that getting the flu shot is good, especially now, but I just want to crawl into bed and do nothing but nap and read trashy books for the rest of the day. Stupid meetings.

 

3. I’ve been having lots of big thoughts lately, which I suppose comes with the upcoming parenthood gig I’ve got going on. A year ago, my plans for the future were vastly different than they are right now – partially because of upcoming baby nomming responsibilities, and partially due to the big-ass job changes I’ve gone through in the past 7-8 months. I apparently like to cram in as many things as possible into short periods of time (between July 2006-May 2007, I moved to Portland, got a new job, got married, and bought a house; between April 2011-April 2012, I got a new, very traumatic promotion, got pregnant, will finish school, and then have a baby [at least I understand that's the most likely outcome]). My only regret is that I couldn’t just throw a marathon into the mix on that last one, too….I should’ve done an earlier marathon, but it is really hard to go for long runs while constantly nauseated, FYI.  ANYWAYS – big thoughts: I actually quite enjoy my job; it’s kind of career-like now. But it’s not what I ever anticipated doing, and I don’t want to get stuck in something that really isn’t big & meaningful to me. But then I wonder, does a job really have to be big & meaningful? Is what’s wrong with kids these days that they want to follow their dreams at work instead of just doing the mothereffing work and enjoying themselves in their leisure time? Should I just be grateful for my paycheck and the job stability and look for emotional fulfillment outside of the office? Big, obnoxious, thoughts.

Three (3!) Things Thursday

1. The bathroom is coming right along. The architect is home, right this instant, tiling. (I assume that’s what he’s doing. He was also going to mow the lawn weeds today.) By the time I get home, there should be tiles on the floor! Then, tomorrow, maybe I will grout! (It is still up in the air on whether or not I can be trusted with this very important job.) And then Saturday/Sunday will be sanding/wainscotting/painting day!  And in 8 days, we will have a working toilet again! YAY!

As of this morning, the bathroom looked like this:

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2. I feel fantastic today. Or at least fantastically dressed. I am wearing fall boots, and I love fall boots. I am not sure I’ve ever worn both the left AND the right pair of these boots at the same time (I probably have, I just can’t remember right now), as I bought these boots right after I had surgery last fall and wore the left one a LOT.

3. Starting in October, I go back to having every Friday off. I. Cannot. Wait. Seriously – I mean, I’ll be working four 9-hour days, but I kind of do that most days, anyways. YAY!

Three (3!) Things Thursday

1. I am really looking forward to a week and change off work in mid-August. I am planning on sleeping. And running. And trying not to melt while hanging out in South Dakota. Amy needs some R&R

 

Looking forward to my run on the Mickelson Trail

2.  I just registered for my last class of of my Master’s degree coursework as well as my Terminal Project. In six months, this journey will be done and I will have earned my MS. Of course, graduation won’t be for another six months after that, but I can still use those letters, right?

Soon enough, that'll be me....

3. As of yesterday afternoon, I am now officially a manager-type person. I have meetings with three of my four direct reports next Monday. Three of my new peeps are going to be awesome to work with – I am so exciting to find out their strengths, help them with their weaknesses, and work with them on their professional development. The fourth? Is so not excited to be reporting to me. In the meeting where it was announced, he started….well, if it wasn’t a grown-up, I would have called it sulking. I think he will be a very interesting challenge. And challenges are good, right? Growth experiences and all? Any advice for a new manager of a possibly recalcitrant employee with a track record of poor performance?

 

Grow and thrive, little employees!

* all photos were found by searching my 3 things key words for Creative Commons licensed photos at Flickr