Okay, that was a long pause between posts!
Quick update while I'm at lunch. I'm no longer working for my old employer, I'm at a new place in the city that is awesome. Really great people, wonderful location two blocks from Central Park, and an awesome boss. I'm commuting on the bus and it's a little more expensive than the train, but there's no transfer so it's a straight shot into Port Authority, two less stops on the subway and voila, I'm there.
Okay, I'm too hungry to go on any more.
What the hell was she thinking?
What did I do to deserve this? Was I good in a former life? Did I win the relationship lottery? Man, sometimes I just don't know. For some reason, this woman has decided that I'm worth spending her life with because before internet dating, well, before INTERNET, we started playing a role playing game online based on some books by Anne McCaffrey and more than 19 years later, she's still putting up with me.
Has it been easy? Nope. Have we had good times and bad? You bet.
But this exceptional woman has grown and changed and struggled and celebrated with me for a while now and I just want everyone to know that she's the best.
And, it's her birthday today 
Happy Birthday baby.
New Chapter
So I've been thinking of looking around for something new for a while, but just never really got out there to see what was available. I updated and cleaned up my resume and put it out there, but I wasn't really looking that hard. And then a job literally jumps off the page and in less than a week, I'm in an interview, and in less than a day I have an offer.
Very excited, nervous, sad, happy all at the same time. I've been with the company I work for since March of 2006, so it's been just over 6 years. In IT, that's FOREVER! When I interviewed, the first guy I talked to had been there 6 years, his manager 17 years, and his manager 28 years. The CIO has been with the company for 41 years! Stability? Yeah, I'd say so!
The work will be similar in that I'll be meeting with internal users, determining what they need, and building a plan of action. Then after figuring the return on investment and budget, if it's feasible, I'll build it. The IT dept is 10x the size of the one I work with now.
It's been a rollercoaster ride and I have learned a lot and met and worked with some excellent folx. I'm sad and sorry to go, but it's definitely time for me to make a change and do something different.
The funniest part is, it's in NYC, and I'm SO not a city boy. I grew up on Long Island but I never liked going into the city. Now I'm going to commute 5 days on the train, wear a suit 5 days a week. Weird!!!
Here's to new beginnings.
Day 72/365: I got off my….
well, you get the picture, trying to keep it clean
One of the things I use on an hourly basis for help in programming is Twitter. I ask and answer questions all day long and it's wonderfully helpful. I tweeted something the other day about getting in shape without running a marathon day 1. A friend of mine posted http://www.c25k.com/podcasts.htm back and said it was instrumental in getting him out there and keeping him going.
They're podcasts dictated by a guy named Robert Ullrey - just a NOCal guy getting off his ...well, you know ... and sharing his experience with the masses.
They....Are...EXCELLENT! I have always had problems pushing myself, but when I'm with someone I feel like I have to go their pace, and I don't know what mine is.... This is cool because you do a 5 minute warm up, then intervals of 60 second runs with 90 second brisk walks for about 20-25 minutes. Just having him in my ear saying "Here comes your next run, ready? GO!" and the music jumps up and a faster song comes on.
Me? I'm part sloth, but when I do get into something, I tend to do pretty well. I think this is the thing I've been looking for to get me moving. It also didn't hurt that it was BEAUTIFUL outside today. Going out during lunch on Thursday, keep me honest!!!
Day 64:365 Deep breaths
I've had a day of running around today. I sometimes wonder if I could invent a transport device that would allow my kids to go to all of their crap without me or Fae driving. I'd probably save a lot on gas if I could invent something like that
okay, I'm blogging because I want to blog.
Today was a day of really deep breaths, I managed to wrap some of what was bugging me, and let go of some other stuff as well. This week is going to be busy as hell so I'm glad my mind is a little clearer now. I have a lot of studying to do this week because we're going to being an implementation this week of some stuff I'm just scratching the surface on, plus I have been meaning to dig deeper on some of the things I know pretty well so I can know more pretty well.
Hope this finds everyone with some relative peace in their lives. Deep breaths.
Day 62:365 missed me?
Wow, okay, so that plan didn't work out as well as I would have liked. A lot of things got in the way and I just didn't feel the need or want to write about things.
It's been pretty rough lately, and mostly for the reason that I keep complaining about - no outlet. I keep complaining that I don't exercise so physically I feel like garbage. Today I realized I had been stuffing all of my feelings down and not really having any release or avenue to explode. I had a mild freak out which luckily Fae was able to talk me down from. I've never been prone to panic or anxiety, but lately, it's been feeling like the glass is filling up slowly but surely.
I've been so busy and so stressed out in the last few weeks that I didn't realize that things were that close to the top and whatever triggered it, something pushed me off the edge and I couldn't breathe.
What a paralyzing feeling, not feeling like you have any control, or avenue of escape. Small things build up until they seem like mountains. I didn't want to hit Fae with any of this, but I'm always about keeping things in and not sharing. I called her when I couldn't breathe and she talked to me until I got myself under control. We talked for a little while and I gradually reasoned out what had been bothering me. It's work related, and I don't want to go into it, but I realized that I'm really grateful for the people I work with and for, knowing they all had my back. And that I am very lucky to be in the situation that I am in, being able to learn so much and also work from home so I get time with my family.
So do yourselves a favor. Take a deep breath and a step back. Look at what you have and can be grateful for. I texted Fae afterwards, thanking her for saving me. She sent back "You save me every day".
Day: No Clue/365
One of our cats died, we got a new one, I've been sick, <insert other life altering event here>
I need to get back into writing, but I'm about to start a 3 day training class. Oye.
Day 26/365: Seeking professional help
On November 4th 1999, a week after my daughter was born, we moved into our condo. "It'll just be for a few years, then we'll move into a house". Yeah, said with the best intentions. Due to some bad spending, debt that needed to be paid off, and a housing crash, by the time we were in a position to really move, Aidan was going into 8th grade, and we knew it was going to take time to sell, and with the economy in the shape it was then, we decided we were here until the kids were done with High School at least.
One of the things we did when we moved in was repaint the whole thing, and have since repainted the whole downstairs and upstairs hallway since it's all the same color about 6-7 years ago. Our place is about 25 years old at this point, and so while we've been living here, some settling has taken place which is pretty normal.
So we've been thinking of doing another repaint to get the vibrant yellow back that we had, it's kinda washed out in two places that get a lot of direct sunlight. One of the things we've noticed has been on the corners, there is a metal strip that is on both sides, and there's a crack that runs up one side, and some corners are worn down to the metal because of being hit or wear, and there are a LOT of holes in the walls. One of the things that happened over the last two years is Fae has lost both of her grandmothers and has inherited a lot of pictures, so the pics in the upstairs hallway have been needed to be shuffled and moved, and this actually affords us an opportunity to rethink the whole picture plan. It's nice, it's like a whole family wall up there.
The problem is, I am not that great at the repairs to begin with and after talking to a few friends and family, we decided to bring someone in to do the repairs. We've got some molding that we tried to caulk and it looks like crap, lots of holes (like I mentioned), the corners, and some other stuff that just needs someone who knows drywall.
So I'm sitting here while he's scraping and repairing things and so totally excited that it'll get done right instead of me having to do it 3 times because it's 'just about there'. Plus, if it's messed up, we can call him to come fix it YAY
Nice thing about it is he's gonna clean up one of my other semi-failures - the bathroom showers. I've recaulked those things like 10 times over the years and they still look like crap and leak. My wife is so good, she finds someone who can do it all
I just peeked at some of the stuff he's already done. He's good After prime and a coat of paint, you won't be able to tell diddley. YAY x2
Day 25/265: Oye, the commute!
So my normal routine is 4 days home, 1 day in the office, usually Wednesday. This week was no different, it's just the 6 accidents that slowed everything down.
Bridgewater, NJ to White Plains, NY is about 86 miles. Takes me roughly 1.5 hours each way. Yeah, I did that commute 5 days a week for about 4.5 years. Oye Honestly getting into the car, I usually go into autopilot and just listen to my audiobooks.
Today it took about 2 hours, but it wasn't super bad on the way home thankfully. I just forget how long it takes sometimes.
I have to admit tho, I do miss being in the office sometimes. Just being in that atmosphere is invigorating, mostly because I get my best work done when I'm bouncing ideas off my co-workers and just get a better feel for the flow of things. Today was no different - couple of meetings, a nice long tech-chat session with the guy who works for me, and lots of tying up of loose ends on a few projects that kept getting pre-empted by more priority stuff.
The other thing that happened yesterday that was great today was my understanding level of some of the stuff I work with. I was really baffled by this one issue (I won't bore you with what or the details), but I ended up banging my head against a wall for a long time and felt down about my level of understanding. Turns out it was just a stupid user error on my part and once I figured it out, I felt great. Not only that I had finally solved my issue, but with the fact that my understanding of how it worked was right, I just had something I left out and it made it not work for me.
I had been posting some stuff on a tech forum that I use from time to time, and after several back and forths with someone on the forum, I mentioned that I felt dorky for making such a basic mistake. I got two responses that made my day:
| No need to feel dorky. There are a lot of good DBAs who don't go where you are now. |
| Yeah, forget dorky. If we all knew how to do everything perfectly, it wouldn't be near as fun to get that feeling of SUCCESS!!!
I can't be alone in wanting to learn new stuff, and I accept that failure is often the first, and annoyingly persistent, result. I am thrilled that there are forums like this for when I'm stuck on something that I KNOW has got to be tiny and a stupid mistake on my part. |
It just made day to hear something supportive like that. Anyway, I feel a lot better about reformatting and updating some stuff I've wanted to play with for a while now, so I'm excited again