34 posts tagged “football”
Again, long time no write. Or read. I'm behind as behind can be.
I'm not letting this blog die, I promise. But I most likely will be sporadic like this through March, maybe into April. Our go-live is rough. My schedule is basically:
Mon-Thurs:
4 am - drag ass from bed
5 am - leave for gym
5:30 am - 7 am - work out, get ready for work, get to office by 7, hopefully while avoiding naked locker room lady and finding time to grab a Starbucks on the way.
7 am - 7 pm - Work. Work. Work. Fast and furiously. Train people like a mad dog on what is live while scrambling to bring up everything else. Try not to let head explode. Scarf food in my face when I can.
7 pm - 9 pm - Get ready for the next day, try to spend a little quality time with Lee.
9pm - crash out hard. Or fight insomnia, depending on the night.
Wash, rinse repeat.
Fridays are better with the work at home arrangement. I still usually work until at least 6, though, and start when Lee leaves at 7 am.
On the weekends I try to cram in all the living I've missed during the week, and usually still have to work some, even if it is just testing conversions or system moves from home.
I've promised myself that if things don't get better within a month after go-live, I will re-evaluate my life.
There is some fun on deck this weekend. Tonight, a happy hour for another co-worker who is leaving the insanity for what I hope will be a much better work situation for her. Tomorrow night, a concert with some friends. We're seeing the Young Dubliners. I've seen them twice before, and they're awesome. Lee passed on going because they're not nearly heavy metal enough for him : ).
Oh, and remember how Lee told me he'd never touch me again when I had my Palomalu jersey on, after the interception that sealed the Ravens/Steelers deal? Well, this was taken last Saturday:
Caught him in the act, didn't I? : )
I'm behind on reading blogs too, so if I haven't commented lately, please forgive me. I will catch up as soon as I can, and am thinking of all of you! I do keep up a bit more on Facebook, since it is so quick and easy.
So, Lee and I went out to dinner last night, and then to a music store to stock up on some used CDs. Since they were uber-cheap, I chose a few that I normally wouldn't think about getting.
One of them was Blink 182's "Take off Your Pants and Jacket." I like Blink 182. I always sort of bop around when their more maintstream stuff comes on the radio. I just never think about them when I'm building my own music collection. But last night, I did.
We came home and put all the music on our Ipods. With room for 2,000 songs, we don't exactly have to be too choosy.
At the gym today, I decided to force myself to listen to some of the non-mainstream songs I'd put on the list rather than just choose all my favorites. So, midway through my treadmill workout, I'm off in a zone and listening to some really awesome music.
Then "it" came on. The song was a Blink 182 one, called Happy Holidays, You Bastard. It was so short it was over almost before it came on. It was that boppy punky kind of stuff that keeps you in workout mode if you're kind of a freak.
Sounds good, right? It was, until he started singing about how his Grandpa ate 7 hotdogs and shit his pants, and dammit, Grandpa ALWAYS shits his pants.
That's not funny, really. But at the moment, deep into a workout and dripping sweat and having those words hit me totally unexpectedly and out of the blue, I had a hysterical laughing fit. Deep, gut-busting laughs, tears streaming down my eyes, the whole nine yards.
I think the people on the nearby treadmills thought I was either insane or having a seizure.
Lesson Learned: Know what's on your playlist when using it for a workout.
Now, onward to the Superbowl! We're heading to the pub where Mom and I will most likely be the only Steelers fans in the house, in full regalia and ready for a win. Lee is a self-proclaimed Cardinals fan for the evening, so Monsoon, he's on your side : ).
Enjoy the game ya'll. Or if you aren't a football freak, the commercials. If the commercials don't get you, there's always the food!
There couldn't be a better combination in my book!
The game last night was amazing. I ended up just watching it with Mom and Dad, drinking wine and eating chicken alfredo pizza (yum!) and texting back and forth with Lee and all my various buddies who were out and about in the pubs watching the game.
Lee went up to "our" pub, but ended up leaving at half-time and coming to watch the second half with us. He says it was because everyone was getting drunk and since he couldn't because of having to go to work so early today it wasn't as much fun as he thought it would be, but I think he missed me : ). Either that, or it was the thought of getting some of the pizza!
So we were together when it looked like the Ravens were going to come back and then Palomalu intercepted Joe Cool and ran it in for a touchdown. We were snuggled up on my parents love seat, and he just looked at me and shook his head and said "I can't believe I'm sitting here hugging a chick wearing THAT jersey while this is happening ..."
He must really love me!
My phone bleeped off the hook at the end of the game. Even my Floridian consultant, who was probably off watching the game somewhere warm, sent his congrats. This was a good thing, because I got to banter with my buds rather than gloat at Lee. I really did find myself wishing for a minute that we were for the same team, even though our rivalry is fun. This was a BIG game, and the fact that me being all happy meant he had to be sad kinda sucked. I think it would have felt the same in reverse for him.
I was off today, and have spent most of it doing a lot less than I should. I did dye my hair - the roots were getting pretty obnoxious. But that was my biggest accomplishment of the day so far. I've mostly been watching the flurries that have come on and off throughout the day, enjoying them while I can get'em:
The way our winters have been, this may be the most snow I see this year, so I'll take what I can get!
Since our consultants all had trouble with flights and hotels this week due to us being so close to DC and the inauguration, they're all working remotely this week. So I'm taking a work-at-home day tomorrow so I can watch election coverage while I work. So instead of getting my usual "back-to-work-tomorrow" blahs I get at the end of a long weekend, I'm feeling all relaxed and content.
It isn't my WORK I don't like ... sometimes it is just getting up and going to it!
The Steelers and The Ravens will meet again!
If Lee and I make it through this football season, we can make it through anything : )!
It has basically been a relaxing weekend around here, with the exception, of course, of football.
Yesterday morning we took down the Christmas lights outside. We'd tackled the tree right after New Years Day, but with Lee being sick we put off the outside job that required him climbing on the roof. Neither of us wants me - The Poster Girl For Clutziness - up there! So that was Saturday morning, with frequent warm-up coffee breaks.
After that I pretty much just did laundry and cleaned the bathroom. We had been planning on watching the game at home, but as it got closer to kickoff Lee realized he really wanted to be around the crew and share in the moment with a bunch of other rowdy Ravens fans. So we went to the pub.
I'm glad we did, because he really had a blast. The bartender who was working generally only works daytime, so we don't see each other much and don't really know each other. She noticed that I was one of the quieter people in the place, and said "You don't get into football much, do you?"
Lee and four or five others immediately ALL chimed in with "Oh, yes, she does. She's just (and here they leaned in and whispered for dramatic effect) ... a STEELERS fan."
During a Ravens playoff game, this is kind of like being the person who shows up to an AA meeting with a bottle of vodka!
We left pretty much right after the game, and I still feel sort of run-down today. I should have stayed home and rested as I'd planned, but I'm a dumbass.
Lee got up and went to the grocery store this morning and is now making a pot of his delicious chicken chili. We'll eat that and watch the Steelers game this afternoon, and that's about it. Next week, we drag our butts back to the gym. We took this week off between him being sick, me teetering on the verge of feeling sick and working such long hours, and neither of us wanting to deal with the "New Years resolution" gym crowds. But we're jumping back in this week.
We'll have to adjust our schedules and be more on top of our game to keep caught up with things around here now. We got spoiled by his old job, where he got off for the day at 2. He'd do most of the erranding and chores and figure out what we were doing for dinner all before I even got to leave work at 6 or so. Then we'd go to the gym, and even though I was pretty much gone from 7 am - 8 pm or so most days, I didn't have too much to worry about once I did finally make it home. He works almost as late as I do now, so we'll have to get ourselves adjusted and organized!
At the moment, I'm feeling an overwhelming urge to curl up on the couch with a blankie and re-read the first Harry Potter until the Steelers/Chargers game comes on. I'm not sure why I'm thinking about Harry - I actually have 2 new books to start. Maybe I just feel like I need a little childhood!
Everyone knows about mine and Lee's little Ravens/Steelers football rivalry. But he's not the only one round' these here parts who thinks along those lines. We ARE in Baltimore, after all.
In fact, our family is pretty much divided down the middle. My mom, my niece and I are the Steeler die-hards. Sis, Dad and Lee are the Ravens all the way. Well, Dad is more anti-Steeler than pro-Raven. He doesn't really have a favorite team as much as he just enjoys watching all the games and critiquing them!
Christmas morning, I showed up at my parents' house wearing a Steelers sweatshirt. Sis, whose apartment is the bottom level of my parents' house, rolled out of her bed and trudged up the stairs wearing this:
Nothin' like a little family football feud on Christmas morn, huh?
If nothing else, being a Steelers fan in Baltimore helps you get a real thick skin!
We get A LOT of weird looks when we run out to the store together dressed like this. Especially this weekend ...
Seriously, though, we aren't watching the game together.
I think I mentioned that years ago, my parents owned a different pub than the one they do now. At the time, they housed the Pittsburgh Steelers Fan Club of Baltimore. They sold their share of that place back in 2001 and bought the smaller place they have now - right across the street from the old place. Dad's new bar is a Ravens hangout. With the Steelers bar right across the street, Ravens/Steelers games were always a rowdy time, but in a good way.
So I was sad when the current owner of the Steelers bar decided last year that he wanted his place to become a Ravens bar too. It didn't take the Steelers club long at all to find a new roost.
That new roost is where I'll be watching the game tomorrow. The Steelers club Prez and his wife are still good friends with our family, and when they came by the pub this week offered to take all of us Steeler girls out to the new place with them tomorrow. So my mom, our friend Deb and I will be heading to Steelerville. As heated as the rivalry is this year, I am more than happy to watch the game among friendlies, and I'm really psyched to see the Steeler club crew again. I've missed them!
Lee, of course, is NOT interested in watching this particular game at a Steelers bar any more than I want to head up to the family pub and watch it amongst the Purple Birdies. So he's opting to go there and be amongst our Ravens friends, while I pack up with our Steelers crew and head up the road for the day.
Trust me, it is much better this way! One of us will sure as heck be sulky when we get home though.
I hope it isn't me!
... there were many things I wanted to blog about and didn't, because time ran away from me.
1. There was the act of kindness that made my day and saved me a lot of aggravation. Lee and I commute to work together when I go in really early, and have a ritual of stopping at the same convenience store every day for coffee on the way. Since it is so early, there's rarely many other people there, and the 2 morning shift clerks have come to recognize us and know our habits. The guy double-checks that we haven't just forgotten something if Lee doesn't grab a banana or I don't pick up a pack of gum. He always jokes with us after game days because he knows about our divided football fandom.
The other day, we were pulling out of the parking lot after being in the store and the clerk came running out after us, waving something in the air. It turned out that in my early-morning foggy-headed state, I had gotten money out of the ATM while going over a presentation I had to give later in the day in my head. I got so into thinking about the speech that I forgot to get my bank card from the machine.The clerk realized it and came running after us just before we pulled back out into the street.
I think I should get him a little Christmas gift for that. He saved me the hassle of having to call and cancel my card and get a new one, which was definitely a chore I didn't need added to my list!
2. Lee has a job interview today - actually, he went in to talk to the company informally yesterday and goes back this morning for something more formal. He's miserable at his job. This one would be more interesting work, and they seem to really be biting on his resume. Even better, his shift would be 4 ten-hour days and he'd get every Friday off in addition to the weekends. Keep your fingers crossed for him, please.
Heck, if I could afford the pay cut and was capable of doing the heavy lifting and mechanical type of work he does, I'd apply there too, just for the 4-day-workweek!
3. I am hosting a holiday party for our project team at my family's pub on Monday. So when I haven't been working this week, I've been planning party details. Having co-workers at the pub is always an adventure, because I never know what kind of characters they'll meet.
4. I am learning that even in today's economy, some companies make it downright impossible to buy something! As an early holiday gift, my parents bought my grandparents one of those heaters that is designed to look like a fireplace. It was something my grandmom really wanted. The heater was delivered last week. We decided that I would order one of the hand-crafted hearth stands the company makes for the heaters to sit on as my gift to them, because Grandmom really wanted that too. I called them Monday to place the order. They told me I couldn't order it without a number that came on a letter that was sent to my family with the heater. I guess they don't sell the hearths to people who haven't bought one of the fireplace heaters or something, I dunno.
So I call my mom to get the number. Like me, my family is not the best at remembering where they store paperwork. We all just tend to throw it in a storage space somewhere and forget about it. So it took Mom a day or two to dig up the receipt, and she couldn't find the letter. She called me with what she THOUGHT was the number on the receipt, but when I called the company back they said that was an order number, but not the number they needed, and they couldn't help me.
Ummm ... if I have the name under which the original order was placed, AND the order number, why can't they just pull up the info in THEIR system and give ME the "special confirmation number?" Ugh. I mean, these heaters and hearths aren't cheap. You'd think in this economy they'd be bending over backwards to make a sale.
If it wasn't for the fact that my grandmother REALLY wants this thing, I'd give up and come up with another Christmas gift idea just on principle. As it stands, though, I'll be calling Mom and sending her back on the mad hunt through her paperwork chaos to try to find me this letter with the magic numbers on it.
5. My neck of the woods is all about the upcoming Ravens/Steelers game this weekend. My Ravens fan co-workers have been ribbing me all week, both in the office and on Facebook. Of course, I rib right back. And you can only imagine what it is like at home with Lee and I!
Yesterday I forgot to take my phone to work with me (I've been forgetful about A LOT of things this week - I guess I'm just overloaded!). When Lee got a call about coming in for the first step in that job interview, he decided to grab my phone and drop it off to me, since my work is on the way to where he had to go. He knew I would be working late and didn't want to wait to tell me about the interview. My consultant and I had gone to lunch, but my ex-boss-now-part-time-teammate was working in the office that he and I share when Lee came by. When I got back from lunch, he said "Hey, Lee brought your phone by, it's on your desk. And by the way, he was wrapped up in so much Ravens gear I couldn't even tell who it was at first!"
Too bad I wasn't there when he came by. I could have taken him around and introduced him to the other Ravens guys, and they all could have picked on me together!
6. I have that Blink 182 "I Won't Be Home For Christmas" song completely stuck in my head. Funny thing is, I didn't even hear it on the radio. My division at work had a holiday reception yesterday after work. One of the boy's choral clubs came to sing for us, and that was one of the songs they did.
There's something REALLY funny about a group of young men who look and sound like they should be singing religious Christmas carols in a church singing a song that includes lines about being sent to jail for freaking out on Christmas carolers and having "Bubba unwrap my package." Gotta love the holidays!
Happy Friday ... I am sooooo ready for the weekend!
When you are working too much to blog OR go to the gym!
I just realized that it is already Wednesday night and I never even thought about "Things on Tuesday!"
In addition to blowing off my two favorite mental health outlets (the gym is good for the mind as well as the bod, in terms of helping me de-stress, relax and sleep better), I also feel like I've spent next to no real quality time with Lee, and I'm falling way behind on holiday stuff.
Heck, I even blew off a ceremony today where I was one of the people getting an award. Instead of accepting my award, I was giving a project related demo to another group.
All work and no play is making me tired and cranky.
But I did get to see the Steelers turn it all around on the Cowboys Sunday, and that was good. Lee and I went over my parents' house to watch the game with Mom and Dad, and ended up having to watch the game in separate rooms because Dad and Lee were getting on mine and Mom's nerves with their anti-Steelerism! They were sooooo sure it would be The Cowboys' game. There was a 5-second-or-so delay on their TV, so Mom and I were seeing what was happening moments before them. When they heard us squealing and screaming at the interception that won the game, they just looked at each other and said "uh-oh, this can't be good ..."
But it was good, for us anyway!
I finally got to catch up on blogs tonight. Glad to see that most of my Vox friends are well!
Off to collapse in my nice warm bed, and snuggle my guy for a while.
What could turn a rainy Sunday from something dreary into a wonderful, cozy day?
Well, football of course. But on this particular Sunday, we didn't just curl up to The Ravens and Steelers games (actually, at this moment it looks like the Ravens are gonna leave the Bengals with some very bruised butts, and I'm anxiously awaiting the Steelers game). With the Ravens delivering this butt-whooping in the background, we put up our first Christmas tree together. We've done outside lights and some indoor decorations over these last two years, but this is Our First Tree:
I just love this time of year! Now, to go curl up and watch my tree twinkle as the Steelers hopefully add another win to their arsenal!
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