Where'd January Go?

I'm thinking this might be a similar post I do every year. I don't know - I didn't look back. But it feels like it... maybe... But seriously... where's the heck did January go??

I know I've been busy with a new job, and we've had some crappy weather. But I feel like it's flown by, and the wreck that is my house shows that, as well. You'd think I was never home, by the way there are some 'to do' stacks of stuff around. I'd say I wish I had a day off to catch up, but I think I'd just end up napping all day. Because when I AM home, I'm soooo tired.

Eric laughs at me, though he's just as bad, if not worse than me. It didn't take long for him to fall back into his bad habits of working too late and going into the office at least one day a weekend. He claims to need the time to catch up... but he over-committed to begin with, which is never good. So he's getting all stressed out.

At least I'm not stressed... just tired. My job continues to go well and while I'm not traveling out of state yet, I have that to look forward to. Which will only make the house worse?

I just want my garage to be built. Part of me feels like that will be the solution to everything. There will be more storage, no worries about cars getting hit, and maybe our lawnmower will finally be safe. No more saws in the bathroom or wood trim on the bed. Maybe we'll even be able to finish the master bathroom, once we have a place to act as a workshop.

But none of that can happen until the ground thaws. Stupid winter. I'm so ready for it to be over. I want some warm weather and can't wait to not have constant gloomy days. I really hate winter.

*sigh*

January is over. Here's hoping there are no freak storms in February and maybe even get an early spring. Maybe.

Deflategate

I am so sick of hearing about 'Deflategate' already. Not that saying 'already' means anything, considering it was a bunch of crap to begin with. Part of me thinks it was just a bunch of hype to begin with - we can't honestly have a slow news week for the NFL, which last week would've been without this going on.

So here's the thing. Living in Indy, I'm hearing about it even more. Cause, of course, everyone here thinks the Colts got the shaft. The fans here seem to completely ignore the fact that the under-inflated balls were discovered in the first half, corrected at halftime, and the Patriots still scored an additional 28 points to completely blow away the Colts. Go figure.

Everyone is so quick to want to see the Patriots punished for cheating. But yet, there's no proof they cheated. There's no evidence to support that this was done on purpose, or done by someone as part of an intricate plan. Who's to say there wasn't some rogue person that just thought it would help the Patriots... or in hopes the Patriots would get accused of cheating?

I'll be one of the first to say that the NFL has become to big for their own good. They need to fall, at this point - no organization should have that much control over the media, merchandising, and everything related to football, in general. Maybe this little incident will help in that. Though I doubt it. But maybe. In my eyes, the NFL has become about as evil and the ENRON corporation... and every giant seems to eventually fall. Maybe Deflategate was just a way someone decided to make to dominoes start to fall.

How's that for a conspiracy theory?

How's the Job Going?

So I've been at my new job 'for real' for a couple of weeks now. I say 'for real' because I can't really count the two weeks I was technically employed there, but not going into the office over the holidays. But now that I have two full weeks of actually going in when the office is fully staffed, I can finally say I feel like it's official.

It helps that I came into this job, working for a guy I used to work for (at Kite). So the comfort level was there from the beginning, which was a huge plus. I didn't meet most of my coworkers until after the holidays - they took off the few days I was in the office. It's really a fun group - everyone meshes together really well. Nobody's going rogue, thinking they know better. That's a nice change of pace from my previous development experience, as well.

I can already tell you that I love being back on this side of development - the client, rather than the consultant. I love being part of the big picture and not just a small piece that I'm not supposed to go beyond. I always felt so pigeonholed, like I couldn't comprehend anything out of my scope.

The company, itself, is amazing so far. I've heard companies say they're like a big family, and I even thought I was in companies like that before... but this one... wow. It really is a big family. No matter your title, everyone's just a family member in the office. And the respect amongst everyone is unlike anything I've seen before.

So yeah... I'm loving my new job. I imagine it's only going to feel more like 'home' as I get more into it and we get busier. It'll be a good wave to ride, regardless.

Annual January Deep Freeze

A few months ago, I downloaded an app on my phone called TimeHop that 'looks back' at your previous posts on social media. I did it, initially, just because I saw a lot of people sharing 'memories' from it, and I wanted to check it out. But as I looked at it, I noticed the weather trend that also occurred... I seemed to always have similar weather posts at the same time (ie - complaining). Sure, there were a few obvious 'warmer/colder that average' days... but in general, things seemed to fall around the same time.

I guess this should come as no surprise. Weather trends do tend to follow the same pattern. But the past couple of weeks have been quite interesting... they definitely showed a pattern of some of our worst winter weather, all falling in the same time frame. Last year was when we had the highs that were sub-zero. The year before that was a big winter storm that buried the City. This year, we've had some pretty good winter weather, as well, with snow, ice, and further cold temps (though not as bad as last year).

Everyone knows I don't the cold. This just makes me question my being here, at least during this time of year. Maybe I should convince my girls to change our cruise to one of these first few weeks of January? Or maybe I make it a point to travel with my new job for a couple of weeks straight in January? Or just leave the state for a vacation? Or forever?? I definitely can understand the snowbird perspective now. If you don't have to be in this, then why would you stick around?

Our temps haven't been above freezing for about a week now. I think they were close earlier this week, when we had a mix of rain/sleet/ice/snow... but we already had snow on the ground, so the 'warm' temps did nothing. In fact, it probably made it worse, because those few hours of melting (if there was any) just left behind a sheet of ice when we went back below freezing, which is where we still are. Sadly, I am looking forward tojust having temps above the freezing mark this weekend. I hate that I look forward to 40°F this time of year. I am not a 40°F type of girl.

Here's hoping we've seen the worst of the weather this year. Somehow, I don't think that's the case, though.

Happy New Year!

Here we are... the start of a new year. Wow. I think I said it before, but 2014 flew by. Why does time go by faster as you get older???

Eric and I celebrated the New Year at the IMA (Indianapolis Museum of Art) again. We had a great time with it last year and thought it would be another fun night. They just make it so easy! Of course, we started the New Years Eve celebrating a little differently this year... at a Pacers game. After we watched the Pacers beat the Miami Heat, we went to our favorite 'local bar' (Plat 99) and had a couple of drinks before going home to get ready for the real event. It made for a nice start to the evening, though.

In true form, we didn't arrive until about 10:30pm. As you surely know by now, Eric can't stay in one place too long, just 'hanging out' and we didn't want to get to that antsy point. Not necessarily a bad thing. Of course, when we get there, we almost immediately run into someone Eric knows. That never seems to take long when we go places in this City. And in all fairness, he knew of a few people that would be at IMA this year. So it really was no a surprise.

We ran into a few people, and all the side talks and catching-up only allowed us time to get into one of the galleries before midnight. That is one of the cool things about this event... all of the galleries are open for viewing, even special exhibits. And that was the one gallery we made it to - the special exhibit for Georgia O'Keefe. But before we knew it, it was time to grab our champagne for the midnight toast.

At first, we just tried to find a space to stand where we could see things, but then we saw some 'fashion friends' across the way, and went over to toast with them. Funny thing is, we never heard a countdown and not even sure if one occurred. We were on the second level, talking, and then everyone was yelling 'Happy New Year!' We were on the second level, so we may have just missed it... and we looked down and saw there was a glitch with the confetti cannons, so surely there was a countdown... right??

After the toast was done, we wander down to the main lobby, where Eric grabbed some food and we let some of the crowd disperse before leaving ourselves. It was cold outside - I was not looking forward to going back out in that! But we finally did and just went home to crash.

I hope everyone out there in my blog world had a wonderful New Year's celebration, as well! And here's wishing you a happy a prosperous year ahead!