Head Above Water

I'm finally doing something I haven't done in a long, long time. Not just writing a blog entry. I'm sitting on the sofa watching The Barefoot Contessa make granola. Or granola bars. Not sure but they look good. I used to spend a lot more time watching people cook on the Food Network. Then it was too much time. I could watch Giada, Rachel, this barefoot lady and an hour and a half would be shot. But today it's a treat.

Before I got my job I had signed up for 2 programming classes in the hopes of getting my skills up to date. I was half way through when the job came up so it didn't feel right to just give them up, so life was incredibly busy until mid-December when the classes were finally over. Between homework and trying to keep up my running I didn't have much time for anything else on the weekends. I would like to see my kids sometime!

It was a relief when those classes were over, but Christmas was only 10 days away. We had a great Christmas season, but somehow we ended up with more parties to go to rather than less, so there was more to do than normal - a few more cookies and appetizers to make. Most of my shopping was by click or at Target. Good thing they donate money to our school!

I don't get much time off. Just the market holidays. It's strange to be rationing 3 weeks of vacation time when I'm so used to having freedom. It feels like I'm getting a very small allowance that I have to be very careful with. Very big adjustment.

My first few weeks of working were hard in many ways. The job itself is pretty stressful, confusing, and is the epitome of the craziness created by humans. I mean really... why are stock symbols so complicated. Why does data come from so many different places over so many different lines. It sounded so simple, but is overly complicated. So in some ways I think that the fact the job exists is just plain silly. And yet it made my head hurt things were so complicated. I'm finally getting it though, so I don't dread going in each day. And the time flies because we're so busy. But I've been putting in extra hours trying to come up to speed, so the weekdays are pretty tough. I've had to cut back a little on the running since it turns out I don't like to run at night that much. But I still get about 18-20 miles in a week along with a couple of exercise classes. I feel like I have to jealously guard my exercise time because it's easy to feel like taking that time is selfish. It's NOT! But it does impact the sleeping in on weekends.

Today I finally got to sleep in. It felt so good not to be jarred awake even though my zen alarm isn't as jarring as some. Then a yummy bacon, pancake, and waffle breakfast with the family, who I don't usually see until 6pm. Along with my latte in my at-home cup (no travel cup today!) and it was a nice start to a holiday day off! The R asked if I wanted to do anything today and my answer..."I'm doing it!"

Well...Sandra Lee is making some slow cooker recipes. That means I've probably been parked on the couch just a little too long!