Just Another Friday

So.  It's Friday.  It's the day after the winter Solstice.  It's the second last Friday of 2011.  It's Christmas Eve Eve.  That seems like a lot of "stuff" for one day to bear.  For me, it's just another day.

I don't say that in any kind of morose or sad way.  I suppose it'd be easy to read that into it although it's certainly not meant that way.  What I mean is that I went to work today, I went to the gym and did a good 5 mile run in 46 minutes 37 seconds.  I went to Costco and even stopped at Best Buy this evening and neither seemed overly busy to me. And other than lighter traffic on the roads but craziness at the malls I really don't see much of a difference from other Fridays.  Like I said - just another day....

When I left the house this morning it was 67 balmy degrees and it was in the mid 70's by lunchtime.  I take no shame in admitting that I'm loving that.  The weather forecast has changed so that rain this weekend is far less likely than had been predicted earlier in the week.  Right on.

I've decided to stay at home over this weekend which I'm actually looking forward to.  I haven't had a relaxing weekend in a while and hope to do a nice, long bike ride on Sunday if the weather cooperates.  Speaking of biking - I made the mistake of "trying on" some newer road bikes this week.  The bike I've got is a hybrid bike good for a number of things but I really don't think it's meant for 50-mile road trips.  Road bikes have come a long way and I tried one of the newer silky smooth road bikes.  What a difference!  I've narrowed it down to a couple of them.  The 2011 models are being sold for 20% off   Although I can find several reasons to try to back away from it I can see that a bike might be my Christmas gift to myself.  So, I've been doing some research.

What else am I putting under my tree?  A pair of new wrestling shoes, a new heart rate monitor, and some new clothes.  And a backpack.  REI has a sale going on saving 30% on REI gear.  I got a backpack that originally had almost 40% off, so adding another 30% made it a crazy good deal.  Now I just need to find an opportunity to use it.

I do want to say how much I'm enjoying my new work.  I suppose I've been pretty vague on a number of things lately but one thing I'll share is that my job is in Charleston and I can honestly see it keeping me here for a long time (as in, 3 years or more).  I'm at the point of beginning to consider what it would take to bring all of my "stuff" here from Phoenix which is a fairly big deal. 

I look forward to getting to work in the morning, and days just fly by.  I haven't felt that way about a job in a long time.   Although I don't want to get into too many specifics about what I'm doing (for various reasons) I'll share that I'm managing a very large multi-year IT project and am part of a pretty cool team.  We bond over food, and yesterday's adventure was to head out to lunch at a local burger/brewery place.  My team is a mix of civilian workers, military folk, consultants, and others which provides a unique kind of environment.  Anyway - I've been there a month and am still enjoying it.

I recently signed up for benefits and for the first time in my life I accepted the Vision insurance coverage.  My eyesight is actually pretty good, but I can tell that things are a-changing.  I can't read a thing without my reading glasses but I can sense that other "stuff" is going to need checking too so it's probably wise to recognize that....

There was an article in Huffington Post today that I found interesting.  It was by Lance Bass titled Why We Shouldn't Use the word 'Tranny'.  I agreed with most everything he said including the part about the gay media sensationalizing things.

I'm hoping tomorrow turns out to be just another Saturday, and that Sunday follows suit.