CafeChatNoir

For anyone wondering, our favorite Coastie is alive and well and probably hung over this morning. :)

I don’t want to work part time. I just want to quit.

71 things about me - stolen from and

1. Initials: CDC
2. Name someone with the same birthday as you: Glenn Miller
3. Last thing you ate: Rice Krispy Treat
4. For or against same sex marriage: For
5. Last person who texted you: Tasha
6. Last person you hugged: Matt.
7. Do you believe in God: Yup
8. How many US states have you been to? More than 5, less than 25
9. How many of the U.S states have you lived in: 2
10. Ever lived outside of the US: 3 years in Japan
11. Name something you like physically about yourself: Eyes.
12. Something non-physical you like about yourself: Can’t realy think of anything off the top of my head, but it’s not like I loathe myself either.
13. What is your dads name? Dad
14. Why are you still up?: They frown on my napping at work.
15. Who made you angry today: Coworkers
17. Favorite holiday: I don’t know that I actually have a favorite.
18. Do you download music: Yay for iTunes
19. What illegal things have you done: Nothing, of course. ;)
20. Where would you want to go on a first date? Old Town in the summer
21. Would you date the person who posted this before you? I suppose anything is possible, but she’s really not tall enough.
22. Has anyone ever sang or played for you personally: Yes
24. Do you like Bush: Not particularly
25. Have you ever bungee jumped: Nope
27. Has anyone ten years older than you ever hit on you? Yes and ick.
28. Has anyone fifteen years older then you ever hit on you? Yes, and ick again.
29. Have you met a real redneck: Yes
30. How is the weather right now: Beautiful, sunny & 70 and I’m inside.
31. What song are you listening to right now? Computer Fan
32. What are your current fav songs?: Float On/Modest Mouse, Figured You Out/Nickleback
33. What was the last movie you watched?: I think it was the Zorro movie
34. Do you wear contacts: Yes
35. Where was the last place you went besides your house? Gym
36. What are you afraid of?: Not much of anything at the moment
37. How many piercings and tattoo’s do you have?: just the ears, 2 in one, 1 in the other. No ink yet.
38. How many pets do u have: 2 cats & dog
39. Have you ever loved someone: Yes
40. What turns you on?: No, you have to figure it out on your own.
41. What do you order at Starbucks? Large Latte
43. Are you missing someone: Yes.
44. Fave TV shows?: My Name Is Earl
45. Do you have an ipod?: Pink!
46. Has anyone ever said you looked like a celeb?: Yes, have gotten Alanis Morrisette and Fiona Apple
47. Whats your mom’s name: Mom
48. Who would you like to see right now: Pretty much anyone I don’t work with.
49. Favorite band of all time (ONLY ONE): Rolling Stone
51. Have you ever been caught doing something you weren’t supposed to? Hi, I was a teenager once.
52. Favorite flower: African Daisies
53. Butter, plain, or salted popcorn: Butter, Salt, bring on the fat & calories.
54. What books are you reading: On Strategy, A Critical Analysis of the Vietnam War, Theives of Bagdad, and Dogs of God.
55. Have you ever ridden in a limo: Nope.
56. Has anyone you were really close to passed away? Too many.
57. Do you watch MTV? They’re still on the air?
58. What’s somethings that really bugs you: Dumbasses
59. Whats your favorite hobby? Does training count?
60. Do you like Michael Jackson: Note really.
62. Favorite team: C-A-P-S CAPS!CAPS!CAPS!
63. Favorite cereal: Rice Krispies
64. WHAT Do you drive: Jeep Liberty
65. What’s the longest time you’ve gone without sleep: 45 hours
66. Last time you went bowling: Years ago.
68. Who was your last phone call? Client
69. Last time you were at work: Um, that would be right now.
70. Whats your favorite state to be in: Deliriously happy.
71. Whats your favorite color: Green. No, blue. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I am TRYING to be optimistic. I really am. But you know, I just don’t see how on earth this is going to work out. There is no self sufficiency, no sense of boundaries as it is, why do I keep thinking that will somehow change?

I am moving decision day back to May 1.

Next week, it’s bankers hours for yours truly. Boss sent out an email to the group yesterday w/my change in status - including the phrase “she tried to resign”, so folks got the message. We are waiting for dingbat coworker to demand PT status as well.

Now, here is something good for a laugh: Next Friday, guess who will be speaking to the new batch of consultants in bootcamp about what support does and doesn’t do? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Yes, this should be highly entertaining.

I came into work to an email from our marketing department announcing the “marketing management team” - OK, sure, they’ve done some reorganizing over there, nothing wrong with letting folks know who is who these days.

However, we now have five VP’s in marketing, and a Director. The mind boggles.

Ever have one of those days where the coffee is just NOT kicking in? Today is one of those days so far. Maddening. Focus? What’s that? I think my weightlifting and swim last night left me a little too relaxed.

Oh boy…

34 hours and 5 more minutes of full time.

You know, I’d said I’d give it to May 15th.

I think I’ll be changing that to May 1st the way today has been going.

I should have just stuck to my guns and quit.

OK, I think I just need to keep reminding myself:

This time next week, I will be getting OFF work for the day.

That works.

Don’t lay your trail through the chem labs…

Oh, and it’s the Hash House Harriers…

and I am tired for whatever reason, despite getting to bed early, have a bit of a headache, and am having trouble getting my brain warmed up in general.

But I am just not feelin’ the love today. Between a snarky comment by the director on Friday that is still bugging me, and being bombarded with dumbassed questions this morning, I am wondering if PT will actually be worse rather than better. (I am already getting the impression that they are going to try to suck 40 hours worth out of me in the space of 20.)

However, I will put forth a genuine effort between next week and May 15th to make it work. I think 6 weeks is more than enough time to evaluate. If it’s working, fantastic. If not, we gave it the old college try - but I’m not going to drag it out any longer than that.

I really would like this to work, just not feeling optimistic about it this morning. But like I said, I’m also tired and a little off my game in general, which usually doesn’t result in my being exceptionally upbeat, because I am more thinking about a nap. :)

Our entire marketing department needs a collective swirly.

Oh. My. God.

GMU just beat UConn and is headed to the Final Four.

WOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh - and apparently someone at ESPN is a Spinal Tap fan, as the current headline is “This one goes to 11″

Answer the twelve questions and then do a Google image search for each answer, choosing one result image to post in your journal.

1. Your age on your next birthday:

2. Your favorite color:

3. Your middle name:

4. The last meal you ate:

5. Your bad habit:

6. Your favorite fruit or vegetable:

7. Your favorite animal:

8. The town you live in:

9. Name of your pet:



10. Best friend’s nickname:

11. Your first name:

12. Your last name:

Today is the running of the National Marathon & Half Marathon here in DC.

They only set the date for today’s races last November. I never really saw much in the way of any press for the event, and they limited it to 5,000 runners in total. You had to have a qualifying time to enter, ranging from a 9m6s pace for a previous 10K to a 10m18s pace for a full marathon.

I heard on the radio this week that the city is losing an estimated $60,000 on the event. The race started at 7AM, Metro opens at 7AM - they made no arrangements with Metro at all, because of the free parking at RFK. OK, fair enough on that, but at the same time, how easy is it to drive to RFK when there are going to be detours and such already getting started before the gun goes off? And yet, they encouraged spectators to use Metro - well, if the runners can’t get there via Metro for the start, how are the spectators going to get there on time?

The time and participant limits were imposed due to “permit issues”. I know they were very desperate to get this race on after the DC Marathon debacle in 2003, where it ended up being canceled right at the last minute, so I am sure they bent over backwards on any permit requirements just to make this happen. But I’m honestly not sure how they can continue this as an annual event right now if they truly want it to be a successful event. With only 5,000 slots, tight qualifying times, very little press and not much in the way of making it easy for folks to be at the start, I’m just not sure how you really can attract people to it.

Just a quick comparison to some other distance races in the area:
– Cherry Blossom 10 miler - 10,000 runners, 14 minute pace limit, Metro opens early.
– Army 10 Miler - 24,000 runners, 15 minute pace limit, Metro opens early
– Marine Corps Marathon - 30,000 runners, 14 minute pace limit, Metro opens gawdawful early.

In one of the press releases, they stated “The local running community has been asking for a spring marathon, the National Marathon will provide this outlet” - and how many in the local running community has a 4:30 marathon under their belt to be able to participate? Of the 18,846 runners that finished the MCM, only 7,184 had under a 4:30 time. The DC area is ranked as the third largest region for runners, and yet, they’re keeping a lot of them out on this one.

The three races above all have to get permits, they all go through DC, they all require road closures and such - and yet they’ve managed to make them open to more runners for a longer period of time. I’d say the folks at the National Marathon need to talk with the other local race directors and find out what the big secret is to putting on a race that can be enjoyed by a lot more people. Granted, the comment that the race director “is working to ensure that the National Marathon is a ‘runners race’” may just be his way of saying “We only want the Boston qualifiers coming to our race, so stuff it.”

And as it turns out, they only got ~2,000 runners in total for the races. OK, so they only had from November to promote it, but that is still four and a half months that you can put out a BIG blitz and let people know about it. They say they want this to expand, but they’ve got to make some changes - get the word out, get more people to run, work with Metro, and change the course - running through Anacostia and the Navy Yards isn’t “scenic”…

It will be interesting to see if they can get it together for next year - I’d probably give the half a go if I could get a qualifying time between now and then.

GO PATRIOTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Damn, what a game - caught it at GD’s and what a great place to see it - every time we scored, the place went nuts. What an off the wall tournament it’s been - I have one team still standing in my brackets, and it’s Mason. They are up against UConn tomorrow at 2:40. You can bet I’ll be watching.

HR has to approve my PT status, but it looks like everything is a go on that. And apparently, 20 hours a week actually still qualifies for benefits - shocked the hell out of me. I really hope this works out well - but as I told my boss, if it doesn’t, we gave it the old college try at least.

Added another race to the season - GW Parkway Classic - 10 miles, starts at Mt. Vernon and ends in Old Town - should be fun. Next weekend is the Cherry Blossom 10 miler - looking to come in under 2 hours on that one - I want to beat my pace from the half on that one, which was 11m36s when you take out having to wait for the WC - I think it’s doable. I can’t help but be somewhat amazed by the fact that a 10 mile race is simply not intimidating to me anymore.

So, the government has decided that they want to beef up penalties for illegal immigrants. Personally, I think we’d be as well served to actually concentrate on enforcing the existing laws, but hey, what do I know. The part that actually baffles me is the protests that have been going on this week over it. Hi, folks, the key phrase here is illegal. I know that folks come here to get away from some pretty heinous situations in other parts of the world, and yes, they contribute to the economy, but still, if you’re here illegally, you are breaking the law, you know you’re breaking the law, and if you get caught, you’re gonna get your butt bounced out of here. I don’t see where the righteous indignation is justified on this one. Then again, I don’t claim to be particularly politically savvy, so maybe I’m missing something here.

And yes, I do look like a total dork. :)

Lighthouse - right around mile 8

Mile 13 - I swear, I really AM running.

Even though they broke into the cabinet today and broke the cookie jar from Germany that we’ve had forever. As I told the cats, THIS IS WHY WE CAN’T HAVE NICE THINGS.

I keep having to remind myself that all I have to do is slog through the next week and a day and then I get a BIG chunk of my life back. Things seem to be going through w/the PT status, apparently there are some things to hammer out w/HR, but it would seem that I will be on a 20 hour workweek starting 4/1. Seems I was the topic of more than a few conversations at the user conference, and the general consensus is “she cannot be let go.” (Which still surprises me, cause the level of fried has affected my performance - my A game isn’t exactly around these days, I figured they’d be happy to get rid of me and get fresh blood in, but it seems I know a lot of stuff that no one else does.)

6 full workdays… Just gotta slog through.

Good lord. So yeah, no one has told ME about my employment status, but there are NON-employees that know…

Seems director told training manager (who has a big mouth) who then told her husband (ex-employee) who in turn emailed my coworker saying he’d heard that I quit, but was now part time…

That right there makes me want to call all deals OFF.

Edit: Just spoke w/ my boss (reports to director) - she hasn’t been given a final go/no go either - she’s pissed off now too!

I am still on a complete high from the weekend. It was a very big weekend in many ways, not just the whole “I am going to go run half a marathon” part, but it was also going to be the first and final determining race as to whether or not I do the MCM this year. (I knew I wanted to, just didn’t really know if it was a good idea…)

The minute I finished, I knew I could do it.

Come hell or high water, I will be at MCM, and I will rock the house.

Hoorah.

OK, so I tried to resign on Thursday. They offered up part time, we discussed further on Friday. Boss said it was all reasonable to her, but it has to go through the director (her boss). However, the director (who won’t make a decision w/out *her* boss, the VP getting involved…) was already on the way to our user conference, so I had no final answer when I left the office on Friday.

So, I gave her my cell # and asked her to please get the director to make a decision today and leave me a voice mail. I have no voice mails from her… Now, if it was completely no-go, I would have at least heard something from her. So, all I can assume right now is that the director is freaking out because they don’t like my list and yet, don’t want to lose me and don’t know what to do.

I don’t care that they’re busy at the user conference - this isn’t a hard decision to make. Yes or No. It’s not like I’ll have hurt feelings either way.

I seem to have spent about 15 of the last 30 hours sleeping. :)

Still flying pretty high from yesterday - what an absolutely perfect weekend, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. It was great to have Matt (aka, the Marine) down there, too - I knew folks there, and it’s certainly not the end of the world to be on your own, but it just really is nice to have someone at the finish just for you.

The race report is up.

It was such a screwy week last week, I needed this road trip/long weekend SO badly.

I have never been so happy to have a 4 hour drive ahead of me than I was Friday night. Hit the hotel, called my brother who informed me that Mason won - I’m standing in front of the hotel and screaming “YES!!!!” and getting some strange looks, but it is St Pat’s day, so they all just think I’m drunk anyway. Send Matt another email that he should come down, because the room is not a broom closet afterall and there is definitely room for another body. Hit the bar for a beer and some unwinding time - good band - if you’re ever somewhere that Rock Star Parking is playing, catch them. I ended up talking to them later down in the lobby cause I was still too wound up to even think about sleeping and ended up puttering around a bit - nice guys, too. Finally got to bed around 4 AM, after getting an email from Matt stating that I am evil.

Up at 8ish, off to breakfast, then to watch the 8K. Oh. My. God. The wind. The winds were awful. I ended up with a lovely sunburned and windburned face. I’ve got a good case of nerves going on already - the weather is freaking me out. Then my phone rings and I hear the words “I’m on my way” from Matt. WOOHOO! Then watched the little kids races, then off to packet pickup. I was prepared for it to be much more crowded, but I was in & out in no time, with race number and some throwaway gloves, cause if Sunday was going to be like Saturday, I was gonna freeze before we even got started. Back to the hotel and slept until Matt got there. Headed out for a late lunch, then we both sacked out for a couple more hours afterwards. (Sleep became a recurring theme for me this weekend.)

Then we met up with several other BT’ers for dinner. I’d met Liz & Mike before (Quantico 5 miler) and finally got to meet Christine, Shannon, Christian (and several of his friends, names completely forgotten), Debbie & Trixie. They ended up having to split us up between two tables, so it was me, Matt, Liz, Mike, Trixie, Christine & Debbie at our table. The fact that Matt did not run screaming from the restaurant is quite the testament to his character. You get 5 women together and well, things will get raunchy very quickly… Guys, you have nothing on us when it comes to locker room talk. Can’t remember the last time I laughed so much. By the time we left, the nerves were totally gone - I was ready. I’m pretty sure we were sacked out again before 10.

Then up at five-freaking-thirty the next morning. When I checked in, the desk clerk had said the kitchen opened at 7 for breakfast, despite the races. Wrong! And glad I found that out early on - they were up and running at 5:30, so I stumbled down and got a bagel. Back upstairs and let the layering begin! Ran in my bike pants again - they are great - good tight spandex on the calves and then looser at the top and fleece lined. Then tank top, throwaway t-shirt, long sleeved shirt, hat, sunglasses & tossable gloves. Only thing I’d do differently next time is grab a trashbag as a windbreaker while waiting for things to get started. We head on down to the start, I get in corral 5 (aka, the slow group), just behind the 2:30 pace group and stand around and bounce and try to stay warm. We got a flyover for our start. The entire crowd went absolutely apeshit for that. Took between 5 and 10 minutes to actually get to the start line once the gun went off. Great race, and yes, I cried when I was finished.

Finished and went and slept for a couple hours. Then we went and got lunch (Guinness and french toast. Recovery brunch of champions) and I kinda felt guilty realizing there were still people out there running the full and I had run my race, showered, slept and had lunch. :) Walking to and from lunch was…interesting. On the way back, he asked, “Where are you going?” (I’d gotten turned around and was not heading back towards the hotel…) “I don’t know - I’m just sort of trying to go in a straight line.”

Got Matt back on his way home, cheered in the 7 hour marathon group and then went and slept some more. Hit the bar for dinner, watched the last runner come in there, and then was sacked out again by 11, and slept until 8 this morning. Leisurely drive home and yet another nap upon arrival. Like I said, sleep is a recurring theme this weekend. And I still can’t get the silly grin off my face.

Oh, and if I can get a race number, I will be doing the MCM this fall.

Will do a full update/trip report tomorrow, but it’s late & I’m tired - but this was of note:

Why it’s good to hang at the race hotel for an extra nite:

You go down for a couple beers & dinner and then find yourself outside on the boardwalk, screaming in someone that has done TWO marathons in one day. (Today’s race was for a great charity and this gents goal had been ~8K and he came in around ~20K in donations…)

And oh, yeah, he’s old enough to be my grandfather. Watching that finish, with a police escort, was pretty amazing. I seemed to be the only one in the little circle of people around me that had run today - I had to do a very quick explanation of how Very Important it was to scream this guy into the finish at the top of our lungs. And we did. And I went and tackled him and gave him the biggest hug I had when he finished. And another one a couple minutes later, too. Cause damn, that is hard core.

Mason is going to the Sweet 16.

It was FANTASTIC.

Unofficial time: 2 hours, 39 minutes, 12 seconds, with one incredibly sweet sprint into the finish that came out of nowhere.

Have race number - 8798. Went out and yelled for the 8K race this morning, then the 1 mile kids run - absolutely adorable - talk about NO concept of pacing yourself. :)

And, my Marine buddy didn’t get sent to Iraq so I told he should come down here and watch me slog through 13.1 miles. :) And he is!