A Quick Trip to Pennsylvania

Some of our best friends from Virginia visited recently. We spent two days relaxing, talking, and just getting back in touch. Then, last Saturday, both of our families headed to Pennsylvania. The three families are all great friends, and that really came through as soon as we got a chance to relax. I have a great deal of respect for Bill, for multiple reasons I won’t go into here. We always have a great time together - totally laid back with lots of laughs.

Debbie is just amazing. She came up with games, variations that we have played previously but always with twists that were only Debbie created. Take a ton of adults, most drinking, and the games are always a great deal of fun. For example, the first game started with two teams (partners were always on opposite teams), and each person had to pass the string with clothes articles attached through their clothes. It was interesting, and a great ice breaker for those of us from out of town.

The trip was relaxing, fun, full of friends, and very hard to end. Monday when the Ps headed back to VA and we headed back to CT, and the T’s headed to an appointment in Phila., it was the hardest goodbye we have said in a long time.

Wrapped up in Work

Work has been very interesting lately. And when I say interesting, I really mean a great deal of time is spent cranking through the increasingly overwhelming volume of work. I currently have 30 projects assigned, and am dealing with many things outside of projects as well. To top it off, August is my month to cover for the the team for many different topics - collecting and reporting the weekly metrics, attending the weekly Monday morning meeting to discuss those metrics, and both preparing for and attending the project “triage” meetings. I’m simply not sure how I can get this done.

To add icing to the cake, life at home has been somewhat challenging as well. Because of the number of hours I’m working, I come home stressed every single day. Knowing I have more than I can possibly accomplish at work means that I’m really thinking about work almost 24x7. Sue has been managing everything around the house - all cleaning, cooking, and kid duty. She has been doing a fantastic job as what has basically turned into being a single Mom. Sure, I’m there occasionally and do mow the law on weekends, but she’s really the captain of the household ship. I don’t give her nearly enough credit for all that she does.

To help keep my sanity, I continue to run and train for the two fall half marathons. Perhaps this is the one area that I am doing okay. The running actually does clear my head (even though it hurts the body), and has allowed me to continue my 5 - 6 hours of sleep most days. The problem is that I need to be up at 4:15 many mornings to get in my run and get to my desk by 7:15 - 7:30. So, when I stop at night, I drop. If I sit in front of the TV for a few minutes, I am asleep in minutes. I have to get my work clothes out for the next day, so I have things to do. While I know that the running / training takes a good amount of time, I understand that this is the only real way to keep my brain from just exploding.

Is it September yet?