Two Down, One to Go

Tuesday in the office? Check.

Wednesday in the office? Check.

Thursday in the office? Still to come.

I drove the 70+ miles to Foxborough this morning. I attended a couple of meetings, one of which was in person and the whole reason I made the commute. When it was over I packed up my stuff and drove home and finished the day here. Literally right here at this desk that I am sitting at as I type this masterpiece of a blog post right now.

Tomorrow might be different. The in person meeting I am driving the 70+ miles for runs from 12-2:00. Is that too late in the day for me to drive a little more than an hour to work from home for the last couple of hours of the day? I’m definitely not staying in Foxborough, but I could drive to my actual office building in Westwood and finish the day there. I don’t want to do that, but from a self guilt stand point that might be the way to go. I will see if I can bring myself to run the two options (home or Westwood) past my boss and see if he even cares which choice I make.

All of this means that I have one more day this week where I have to get up extremely early so that I can get my morning exercise in before I leave, and still leave early enough to drive the hour and a half it takes to get to where I need to be. It is stressing me out big time, but at least I should be back to one day in the office each week for the next few months. Come March though… mandatory two days. Shit.

Okay then, it’s 8:00pm. I finished dinner about half an hour ago. I am still feeling pretty full in my little tiny faux stomach gastric bypassed pouch. Today is supposed to be national ice cream day. I can’t eat real ice cream anymore, but I have a sugar free ice cream-esque thing in the freezer that I can have. That will allow me to get in on the ice creamy celebration, and it also has five grams of protein! Bonus!

I think I’ll watch an episode of Deep Space Nine and then see if I am hungry enough for a snack. I probably will be. What I should do is try to write some music, but I don’t think I have it in me tonight. It was a long day in what is amounting to a very long week.

I’ll survive… somehow… day by day.

Two Additions to the New Workspace

Two new additions were made to the workspace in my step son’s room today. 

First: Groovy wooden cup holder that clamps to the desk. I actually bought a pack of two but I can’t decide where to put the second one, so we’ve just got one of them for now…

The second thing… cat, lounging on the day bed. She didn’t stay for long, but she was definitely welcome.

First Days

Daily writing prompt
Tell us about your first day at something — school, work, as a parent, etc.
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First day at school was 10000 years ago, so that’s too long to remember anything useful. 

First day at work… the last first day at work was July 12, 2004. I spent the whole day in new hire training with about 20 other people. Months later I learned that others in the new hire group referred to me as “the old guy.” Nice.

First day as a parent… I can give you a couple along that line, but I am not actually anyone’s parent. I’m Bellana and Harry’s step parent, so that will have to do. I’ll give you a snippet from the first time I met them and the first official day as their legal step father.

The first day I met them was September 2007. Jen and I had been dating for about six months and that made me eligible to meet the kids (according to the rules agreed upon by Jen and her ex husband). Jen prepped me by saying that Bellana (age six) would be outgoing and social, while Harry (age four) would be shy and probably wouldn’t want to have anything to do with me. We met at a Chuck-E-Cheese’s near my office in Framingham (pour one out for our Framingham building which the company sold a few years ago). 

Outside of the building, Harry came running up to me to show me a paper he worked on at pre-school that day. He was very outgoing and wanted to share everything with me. The exact opposite of what we expected. Bellana hid behind her mother and barely said a word. Again, the exact opposite of what we expected. By the end of the night I realized that these two kids were more important to me than just about anything on Earth. 16 years later that is still 100% the case. That was a really good night.

The first day as their official, legal step father was, of course, our wedding day. Harry (now age six) was a Junior Usher. He hung out with me all day before the ceremony. He wore a tuxedo and he looked like a million bucks. He was very nervous about the whole thing, but he did help give Jen away during the ceremony and it was pretty much the most adorable thing ever. Bellana (now age eight) was a Junior Bridesmaid. She spent the pre-ceremony time with Jen so I didn’t see her, but she wore a bridesmaid dress and she was absolutely adorable too.

At the reception, they had fun like the rest of us. They danced, they ran around, they were pretty much the stars of the show. Bellana twisted her ankle near the end of the evening so that was the only negative. Everyone circled around her to try and make her feel better. After the reception was over and Jen and I were about to leave for the honeymoon, Harry had a tough time. He didn’t want his mom to leave. He was very upset. Eventually he came around and he handled the separation well enough. It was tough leaving him behind though. It was tough leaving both of them behind. 

There you have it. A few first from my recent past. Well… the first day at work was over 19 years ago, and the first day with the kids was 16 years ago, and the wedding was 14 years ago… so not that recent, I guess.

One Down, Two to Go

I am home after a long day at work in the office. I drove the 13513533752 miles to our Foxborough building this morning (actually, it’s 73 miles, it just feels like a zillion and a half) for our group’s holiday party/meeting. Yankee swap and then lunch. After that I drove about half way home and finished the day in my regular building in Westwood.

Tomorrow is day two of three straight Foxborough days. This time it’s for my manager’s monthly meeting with his staff. Since I only have to be in the office one day each week, when this meeting ends at around noon I will probably be able to drive home and finish the day here. That only works if nothing pressing comes up tomorrow morning. Finger crossed.

Thursday brings me back to Foxborough for a third straight day. This time for a training in the morning, followed by my manager taking his direct reports out to lunch. I didn’t check everyone’s calendars to see if there was a reason why the group meeting and the group lunch aren’t both happening on the same day, because I am sure there is something going on to keep everyone from being available. It’s not a big deal, really. I have three long morning commutes in a row, but that’s still better than going in to my usual, closer to home, office five days a week, right? Again, if nothing goes wrong I will be able to head home for the second half of the day following the group lunch. Fingers crossed again.

In reference to a post from yesterday, the collared shirt I wore to the office today has been washed and hung up to dry. It should be ready to go on Thursday. That will do for today.

Yankee Swap

I won a cup of hot chocolate with Baby Yoda at my work’s yankee swap today. Best. Yankee swap gift. Ever!

Of course it has 30 grams of sugar and if I drink it, it will trigger dumping syndrome and I’ll feel like I’m going to die for a few hours so… I’ll save it for Jen or the kids. Maybe one of them will enjoy a beverage with Grogu.