No Work and All Play

Today was OBC's annual Health and Services Fair and Early Holiday Shopping day. This is always a fun shindig, that keeps us away from our desks for hours. Ok, maybe I shouldn't have taken all three hours, but it's a lot of stuff to see.

The H&S part involves companies that comprise of some of our benefits and employee perks. We can learn about changes to our dental plan and a first-year-only deal with our new company chiropractor. Shopping stuff is usually jewelry, cosmetics, and Christmas things. On occasion, local businesses like a nearby lasik center or spa will be there. This year they had free cholesterol screening (my good cholesterol is a little low, my body mass index is not so bad, and I've got an estimated 39 lbs of body fat, but I knew that part). Each table has a raffle, and OBC has its own raffle. My dad won a raffle for a free 30 minute Reiki session. He never cashed in on it, though.

Well, I didn't do a lot of work today because of this company-sponsored event (that they can't really get mad a me for attending, but I probably should have been more mindful of the time). Maybe I'll make up for it tomorrow.

Turn It Off

Here's a new point of annoyance!

We all know how annoying it can be when people talk on their cell phone in public places. How about this: I was waiting at the dentist's office today and someone decided to start playing Bejeweled on his cell phone in the standing-room-only waiting room. I know it was Bejeweled because I have played it myself and know the sounds it makes.

So, just as annoying as people talking on their cell phones with no regard to the people around them, people should really turn their sound off if they want to play a game in a public area too.

I have games on my Pocket PC and my cell phone. I also occasionally carry my Game Boy around when I go out. But I always always always make sure the sound is off. I don't want to subject people to the sound of my games any more than the sound of me talking on a cell phone. It's just polite.

Of course, right now, they're listening to me type away on my tiny little Pocket PC keyboard. But that's something they will just have to deal with!

By the Way

Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad!

Like a Magnet

Why do I attract these people?

WAM was off on Friday and yesterday. It was oh so nice without them here. I knew the instant WAM returned to the office, they would insist on telling me all about the wonderful long holiday weekend. Joy.

I was right, by the way, though so far I've been able to shake off most of it. I cleared my throat and WAM says "You sound almost as bad as I do!" Um, no. Coughing is not always an indicator of illness. A lot of people cough in the morning. I happen to be one of those who doesn't, so I made one little sound today and and suddenly WAM is trying to one-up how sick we are (for the record, not sick here!). WAM went on to say how much I should expect to hear them cough today. Who cares!

THEN! Then WAM pipes up and says they will be in training for a new application today. I'm not a senior rep nor a supervisor, I don't need to know when WAM has a meeting, and I don't care. Oh, but wait, that's not the half of it. I'm in that same training class this morning.

Shoot me now. Please.

What Light Through Yonder Window

Well, I wouldn't know.

I did ask Boss² if I can move into Adolf's now empty cube by the window. I could almost see thought process, like I was some small distance away from being told, "Sure, I don't have a problem with that!"

Alas, no, that was not the answer. But there is hope! Boss² said that we will have to move some people around to fit another group (WHERE???) and so they will have to think about it and get back to me.

I can accept that. I did say that I feel I work better with the outside light nearby. And I wasn't told no, just I don't know. That's ok. I have faith. There's no reason, really, why I can't have the window, unless they move my group out of this area altogether. That will be an adventure.

There is one more open window cube in our little area, but I don't want that one. It's right next to Boss²'s desk! No, thank you, I'd rather stay here and dream of windows.

It's only a matter of time until I can look out into the world once more. I know it.

Shape Up

I'm tired of being fat.

Before you start screaming your protests (you know who you are) let me give you some perspective. I have talked about this before.

When I started working at OBC, I went from a healthy 125 lbs to a not so nice 143 lbs in less than a month. It was the desk job, I wasn't getting nearly as much exercise as I did working retail. I didn't like that at all, so I got up early every day to do 15-30 minutes of exercise before work. I worked myself down to a happy 112 lbs in three months. And kept it that way until nearly two years ago.

So, two years ago today, I weighted 112 lbs, and wore a size 6 or 8. I was happy, I felt healthy, and the clothes I had fit me well.

I'm not going to go into what happened to make me stop exercising, but I did stop. And very fast, my weight climbed from 112 lbs to a choking 152 lbs. And no matter how much work I did or did not do, I could not get it to budge. Good-bye size 8, hello size 12. I've been reluctant to buy new clothes, because someday, those 12's will be too big. But right now, that means I've out-grown almost everything I own. Why, oh why, did I not get my brother's metabolism?

But that's ok! Today, I took a step towards being at a comfortable size. I bought my very own elliptical machine. If you've never seen one of these suckers, they're really nice. It's like a stair climber/cross-country skier machine all in one. The motion is fluid so it's not hard on your joints, and it gets your heart rate up in a few minutes.

See, we've got a lot of exercise machines and devices (I love my Bean!), but not a one of them is good for the cardio workouts that experts say is key to losing weight. I know the equipment I have is doing the job it was intended to do, building muscle, because I can feel them. Underneath those inches of fat are some good strong muscles. They're just all covered up by globs of fat right now.

I'm going to stick with my routine in the morning, and I'm going to add at least 45 minutes on my new elliptical when I get home from work. I'm not expecting to see 112 lbs again (trust me, I've got too much weight up top and that's not where I tend to lose it) but it sure would be nice to get back in the 120's by the time beach days come back around.

And while I'm at it, I'm not obsessed with size or what that scale reads or even how I look. My focus here is how I feel. When my gut folds over my jeans when I sit, that doesn't feel nice. When I can lift a 50 lbs kayak over my head an on to the car, that feels great.

Here's to your health!

Colors and Calcite

So, I've been saying it's been 14 years since I've been to Luray Caverns in Virginia. My mother said it was more like 20 years. I remembered quite a bit, and more came to me as we walked through the tour. It's really something amazing.

My friend was in awe the whole time. Every now and then, he would point to something and ask me to take a picture, like this one of Titania's veil, formed mostly of calcium carbonite, or calcite. It was amazing, the rock looked all smooth and fluid. If you've never held a piece of calcite, it has it's own texture that doesn't feel like the rock that minerals are at all. These caverns were full of these minerals and others.

Many parts of the caverns are still growing. It's so amazing how the slow drip of water can move rock. Of course, I took more pictures than this one (many didn't come out as well as I had hoped because of the low light) and I'll get them up on my website soon™.

And it's not very far from home at all!

Oh, I'm so Bored

This has got to be one of the worst days to be at work. I might have slept better if the neighbor's party ended before 0200. I didn't even get up to exercise this morning. Hardly anyone is here. And to top it off, my coffee was un-awakening. (is that a word?)

Traffic was great though! I love these days where most of the people are off and we can leave the house 20 minutes late and still make it to the office on time. By the way, we almost always leave 10 minutes late, so we really delayed leaving for another 10 minutes. But the time we usually leave the house is not soon enough to get me to work on time, but for some reason, I can't get my dad (and myself some days) to move any faster. Which sucks, because they can and will fire me if I'm late too much. But not today! There was no backup to get to the Beltway, no backup to the Wilson Bridge, and no slowing at Braddock Road (and we have no idea why we do that anyway). I wish every day was like today, as far as traffic.

I'm going to ask for the window seat when Boss² comes back on Tuesday. Maybe I can get most of my things packed up today so it will be a quick and easy move. I hope she agrees. Not being in view of the outside world really drives me crazy. I might be working better today if I had it (because, clearly, I'm not doing a whole lot of work right now!).

Tomorrow, my friend and I (the same one with whom I went to the beach and the amusement park this summer) will be going to Luray Caverns. This should be a beautiful time of year to be in the Shenendoah Valley region of Virginia. My family used to go every year for our Labor Day vacation, but we haven't been since I was 12 or so, when my dad started working at OBC and we started spending that weekend at the 'company party' in Lewes Delaware.

Lewes is a nice little beach town, but now the company is so big that all employees and their families don't fit in the CEO's beach house anymore. We never reinstated our Luray tradition, so it's been more than a decade since I've been there. I still remember some of it. My friend has never been, so it should be a great day trip.

Did I mention how much I'm not getting done?

At least I've got a good tomorrow to look forward to!

Food Food Food!

I spent the morning baking a cheesecake so that all the poor people in my office who have to go to work will have something to look forward to. This is actually quite a feat, my cheesecake takes 3 hours in the oven. At least the turkey was pre-cooked!

This year, we didn't go to the Rod'N'Reel Club on the Chesapeake like we have done for several years past. It wouldn't have been a nice day for it, it was all gloomy and rainy, though I did miss it a little. Instead, we bought the complete dinner from the supermarket, brought it to my grandmother's house and got busy nuking away while the turkey re-heated in the oven for a couple hours. There were nine of us, and our kayaking buddies were able to join us this year, which was very nice. Even so, I don't know what we're going to do with all this food!

Turkey sandwiches are the best, though.

And if anyone wants to know, I left the office at 1400 yesterday, made one stop along the way for about an hour or so, and got home by 1800. All in all, the drive home was doubled in time than usual. Holiday traffic + rain = no fun!

The Great Escape

If traffic around DC is bad every day, it's going to be positively horrid this afternoon. Not only will we have the regular commuters going home (me!), we'll also have get-out-of-town traffic, coming-to-visit traffic, just-passing-through traffic, and rain! AUGH!

A spokesperson for AAA said on the radio this morning a statistical number of people (that I have forgotten) will be traveling 50 miles or more from home this holiday weekend. I travel 50 miles every day! The traffic reports were mostly feeling sorry for the through travelers (who have no idea what traffic is like here). While I also feel for them, only one person said he was really sympathetic to the commuters who are just trying to get home after work.

This is the biggest travel day of the year, they say. I just want to give you, fair readers, a little advice. Particularly for this day, but it really applies to holidays across the board, don't come to Washington. Spare yourself and me some headache. No one wants to start off a vacation going 10 miles an hour for in a three hour back up. And no one wants to be sitting in that mess just trying to get home from a hard, pre-holiday day at work either. Stay away! Stay home! Go to the middle of nowhere! Whatever! Just don't come here! You won't be happy, I won't be happy!

Ok, other than hellish traffic, there are some pretty cool things to see here. And we never seem to have an off-season. Do come visit us some day. Just not for a holiday.