Alrighty, then

I have been rather slack in writing new blog posts, lately, which is generally attributable to work, good hockey games, Battletech, and general laziness, as well as the fact that nothing truly memorable has happened the last few weeks. The new work project is almost fully ramped up, and it is work: some good times, some frustrating times, some good staff, and some less-than-good staff. In other words, it is the same as always. The faces may change, but the game stays the same. The one new twist is that our project team here in St. Louis includes a large number (eight, if memory serves correctly) of people from out of town, who are in town on long-term assignment for most, if not all, of 2007. Because of this, there are multiple planned activities during each week, as the partners and managers want our out-of-town friends to enjoy their time in St. Louis. There is at least one bar/drinking event per week, as well as other things, such as tomorrow's team trip to the Blues game (assuming we don't get snowed out on that one). Since I desire to be a "good team player," I am participating in some of the events. I am not used to doing mid-week events with coworkers, so this is new for me. As my friends and family know, I am not exactly Captain Excitement, and I don't generally enjoy long, meaningless conversations with people I don't know, so these things can be essentially slow torture for me. Nothing against my coworkers, I am just not a "people person."

I will enjoy the hockey game tomorrow, though. Over the next seven days, I will be attending three different games, on Tuesday, Friday, and Sunday. The Friday game is the only one for which I purchased my ticket myself: Tuesday is the work event, and Sunday's ticket is complements of a coworker who I will be joining for the game. I don't know Randi real well, but when I am offered a $100 ticket for free, I am not usually going to turn that down. That being said, after this week I will probably enjoy not going to a game for a little while.

The only thing that is going to keep me in shape during this period is the fact that I have changed my workout schedule. I used to go to the gym right after work. However, due to my new project's schedule being driven by people in the Pacific time zone, I have changed my standard workday from 7AM to 4PM, to 8:30AM to 5:30PM, so that I have more of my workday matching up with my west coast colleagues. I am still getting up at 5AM, but rather than showering and getting ready for work immediately, I am going to the gym at 5AM. The first couple weeks of this, my body was quite upset with me, as it was not used to having to perform hard labor before the sun rises. Now that I am have established it as a new routine, however, it is going much better, and I have noticed that my body is waking up a little before 5, ready to go. In fact, this morning was the best Monday I can remember, as far as actually having energy and avoiding hitting the snooze button multiple times on my alarm. Maybe I will get used to working hours like a normal person!