CafeChatNoir

Nothing quite like rolling into the Oceanfront at midnight on St Pats day - just a few drunk people out there. Made good time getting down here, no problems with the directions, and I am glad I came down tonight instead of tomorrow morning - I needed the road trip - I’m already more relaxed.

The room is terrific - microwave, fridge, coffee maker & a double bed, even if it is a murphy bed (it was the last room at the cheap weekend rate, the lady on the phone had initially thought it might be a single…)

The kitchenette of sorts is a very GOOD thing seeing as how the kitchen won’t be open early enough to even grab toast on Sunday, so I’ll hit the 7-11 down the street for bread or bagels or something tomorrow so I can snarf something down before going out.

Work status in limbo until next week, but boss is OK w/what I presented, we just need upper management to bite. I win no matter what, so it’s all good, just would have been nice to have it finalized before I left today.

Well, looking in the mirror, I still have a hint of red in my hair, and frankly, have a bit of an Irish thing going with my look tonight, so I’m gonna go snag me a beer downstairs - the front desk clerk was quick to point out that the bar would be open til 2AM.

Slaìnte. :)

It’s been a screwy, screwy day on many fronts.

By this time tomorrow I’ll know if by 4/1 I will be unemployed or just part time. I attempted to put in my resignation today, they countered with the possibility of part time, we will discuss tomorrow.

News of my potential departure went through the building surprisingly fast and folks were rather distressed. Had more than a few people from other departments saying, “But you’re the only one that knows what you’re doing!” To be honest, that surprised me - my buddy J said, “Honey, you’re a celebrity here, didn’t you know that?” Um, no.

However, because I have to be in the office tomorrow negotiating my employment status, I have to get everything together for leaving tonight and that’s a pain in the ass. Really ready for the weekend to get here. (Well, as soon as the laundry is done…) Have made arrangements to meet up with some folks for dinner Saturday night down at the beach, so that should be a lot of fun.

Well, the important things are done today. Got my NCAA picks in, 2 sets, one with somewhat realistic picks, and the other taking Mason all the way to the championship. :)

Was asked over on BT if I have a race plan for the weekend. Like said, “Don’t die!” Actually, I do have a plan of sorts, and it’s basically just “it’s not 13.1 miles, it’s just 2 miles to the next water stop.”

I have also called Verizon and bitched them out properly for attempting door to door sales at night. That’s just really stupid, and the woman I talked to agreed. I pointed out that all you would end up with is a pissed off, rude person on the other side of the door and definitely not a sale.

Looking at a high of 49 on Sunday… low 30s at race start. No shorts for me! Also kinda wondering if I should mess with gloves or not. We’ll see.

Does anyone know ANY way I can get hold of an actual live person at Verizon without having to wait until tomorrow morning??

Edit: Damn, y’all are quick - I got through on the repair line, and I’ll be calling customer service again tomorrow anyway. So, yeah, 7:30 at night, the doorbell rings, I do my normal open-upstairs-window and ask who is it. “Verizon” I say, “You’ve got to be crazy if you think I am opening the door, go before I call the cops”

Then I call Verizon, they say they don’t do that and tell me I should call the police. Nice. Call the cops, they said they’d be on the lookout in the area. Of course, I have no description or anything of this idiot.

Seriously, I think it was someone selling Verizon crap door to door - someone came by today when I was working and I didn’t even bother to ask who it was, but I saw a college aged kid w/a clipboard walking off - I bet it was the same person. And Verizon saying they don’t do door to door? Bullshit.

In prep for the weekend. I think I had less stuff to go to the beach.

Gonna head down Friday night, and watch the 8K Saturday morning and putter around the Expo in the afternoon for packet pickup.

Still waiting on brightroom.com to get the pics uploaded from Sunday’s race. That is driving me a bit nuts.

I’m quite paranoid about forgetting something, but really, short of my wallet, running shoes & chip, anything I forget, I can buy down there if I have to.

They’ve republished the course map with the water stations marked on it. :) Within about 10 seconds I had that little bit of info committed to memory. 1.5, 3, 4.5, 6, 8, 9.5 & 11.

Totally forgot in my post race delirium yesterday. Beezer totally gets the good sport award for getting up at the crack of dawn on s Sunday morning to go run 5 miles with 4,700 other people. (He also kicked ass with a 43:28 time.)

I had an absolutely fantastic weekend, and nothing brings it to a screeching halt like Monday morning back at work.

My first client of the day is disgruntled, patronizing and generally unpleasant. The disgruntled part I do understand. The rest is simply not necessary.

There’s a lot going on that really has me shaking my head.

We received a rah-rah email from one of the VP’s. While it was an admirable attempt, it doesn’t actually address any of the issues, such as why we were so short staffed in the first place and how on earth they are going to keep folks from continuing to bail, and if they do, how to prevent the 6 month gap in getting replacements in.

The newer folks have all been assigned to a senior person. In theory, they now have one person to direct their questions to. In reality, it has turned into, “Work my calls for me.” So, despite being near fully staffed, the senior group is still doing their own jobs and half of someone else’s. This has been going on for a year now.

We have a user conference coming up and our “showcase” product just isn’t quite ready for prime time. This is causing just a bit of mass hysteria.

Upper management is also mad that there have been no referrals from the support group for said user conference. Isn’t that why we have this crack marketing team? Frankly, I think it’s also just stupid to expect anyone to “refer” them - we’ve sent out tons of stuff about it, the clients already know it’s happening and will go if they want - it’s really not something anyone has to pester them into.

Just a little nuts around here.

Race Report is up!

Quick product review of two things I tried out today:

Nike DriFit hat: LOVE it. Super lightweight and exceptionally comfy.

TYR Tankini: We have a winner here. Perfect if you’re not exactly well endowed (aka, me), just enough support in the chest without feeling like you’re being strangled. Also got a thumbs up from B. :)

That was really fun - unofficial time 55:07, for a pace of 11m7s - super, super pleased with that, I’ve been doing so much slow training for distance (talking 13+ minute miles), I didn’t think I remembered how to go faster. :-D

Race report to follow soon, but I think I am going to take a nap first.

My wallet has gone missing. The last place I had it was at the grocery store a couple hours ago, and now it’s nowhere to be found. I even went back to the grocery store and double checked the parking lot and checked w/the office, and no one has turned anything in.

Thing is, I am pretty sure I remember having it when I got back to the house, but damned if I can find it anywhere.

Fortunately, I have enough cash for metro tomorrow, but after that, I’m screwed.

I have checked the car half a dozen times, the fridge & freezer (thinking maybe somehow I’d put it in there when I was putting the groceries away), under the chairs in the living room, the couch cushions, the laundry room, the office and the bedroom.

I’ve pretty much resigned myself to the fact that it’s gone, and that I’ll get to spend some fun time this week trying to replace everything before I leave town.

Any ideas of weird places I might have put it would be greatly appreciated…

Edit: The lost is found. I need to post when I lose things more often. Apparently I had already put it in my bag for tomorrow and forgotten I’d done it, and then to top it all off, it was in the one pocket of the bag I hadn’t checked multiple times.

We’ve got race numbers & t-shirts & timing chips!!! It’s gonna be a GREAT day for the run tomorrow. (Which is indeed tomorrow and not today…the fact that I can’t keep my days of the week straight is a bit of an indicator of how fried my brain is these days from work.)

Went over to Bonzai Sports for their Tri road show - no big purchases, but I absolutely fell in love with the Cervelo bikes. I can’t get over how flipping LIGHT they are. Also picked up some more socks and a hat to run in. It’s quite badass and I’m pleased. The obsessing about what to wear tomorrow has begun in earnest. The race shirts are really too heavy I think, I’ll take it along to have a dry shirt at the end, but gotta figure out what to run in. May go w/ my DCTri club shirt, it’s a good lightweight one. Which means I have to find it…and probably wash it.

Hit Macy’s for Clinique bonus time - yay for free lipstick.

A great day, and I’m totally stoked for tomorrow.

Made it to Friday, thank god.

Done with the NyQuil, woohoo. First race of the season is SaturdaySunday, 9 AM. :-D And the weather should be absolutely GORGEOUS for it. Packet pickup tomorrow.

And a week from now, I’ll be winging my way to Va Beach for the half mary! Holy crap, what have I gotten myself into?

OK, must jet, late for work. It is SO time to retire…

Race season starts in less than a week and I am sitting here hopped up on NyQuil.

Happy Birthday, !!

OMG, race season starts in ONE WEEK. Despite a crap run today, I am stoked. However, in future years, I don’t think I will schedule any half marathons before say, June, because distance runs on treadmills absolutely suck.

In the past 48 hours, I’ve gotten two separate emails complimenting my photography - kinda cool! I need to get the camera out more though, I haven’t taken any pics in forever. Definitely taking it down to Virginia Beach with me.

Would I have guessed that the words, “and frankly, I miss the smell of grey paint and jet fuel” would result in a marriage proposal.

When I have a flag up on my IM that says, “I am at lunch until 2:15″ and you IM me and get the auto responder, do NOT then AIM me 10 minutes later asking if I have any suggestions on your problem. I AM AT LUNCH.

And no, I am not going to wait tail I have 0 calls to quit, just an amount that can be reasonably closed in two weeks so there is as little as possible to dump on my coworkers - and I am actually getting there, 30s now vs over 60 at one point week before last. (Yes, I know, it shouldn’t matter, but I am a dork that way.)

and I’ll say it again. BeginnerTriathlete.com is just an excellent little corner of the internet. All sorts of good training logs and stuff, but more importantly, a bunch of really nice people.

Well, the good news is I’m down to 35 calls. The bad news is that we have two people out on vacation next week - this is not going to help things. Former coworker gave me hell today for not quitting yet, but I’d really like to minimize anyone getting screwed over if I can help it. And of course, one of the people going on vacation is one of the newbies assigned to me, so I get one less person’s worth of questions, but I get her calls, too.

The madness WILL end soon.

Despite the fact that 34 so far doesn’t feel any different than 33, I’ve decided I’m just going to stay 33. (Or better yet, just knock off the years I was married and be 27 again.)

In other news, amazing the political intrigue that can pop up between the time you go to bed and the time you get up: Video Shows Bush Warned Before Katrina Hit Nice.

Truly very little of note going on at the moment.