Eat. Sleep. Work. Exercise. Repeat.

I found this list somewhere and I'm trying.

I'm trying to get more sleep. I'm keeping up with my water intake. I'm working out six days a week. I'm trying to read for fun. 

Damn, though, if it isn't exhausting. What do you think? Here's what I've got going on:

Monday: Work. PT. Eat. Sleep.

Tuesday: Work. Swim. Eat. Sleep.

Wednesday: Work. PT. Eat. Sleep.

Thursday: Work. Workout. Swim. Eat. Sleep.

Friday: Work. Bike. Eat. Sleep.

Saturday: Workout. Swim. Farmer's Market. Errands. Eat. Sleep. 

Sunday: Relax. 

Add in some nights when there's more work after exercising and it's just a blast. That list up there? Yeah, not everything gets done. But I'm checking off the boxes most important to me. 

So my house might have a little dust; my desk might be a little cluttered. Life's about setting priorities and making yourself happy. Right now, for me, my free time is exercising. Some days I might feel the urge to switch it up. But I make those calls and I do what's best for me. 

In the end, you can't be all things. In the end, all you can do is try your best. It's all we can ask of ourselves, right?

What's on your list? What are you working on this year?

The Best Boss

I must say I have the best boss. After six days of a mini Christmas vacation, I was not looking forward to going back to work today. 

Then I get a ping (think instant message) that we're going out to lunch. Always wonderful to get out of the office. Then I get the news that we're not going back to the office. What?! My prayers were clearly heard. THEN. I get news that we're working remotely for the rest of the year. Praise Jesus, hallelujah! Because who doesn't like to relax at home in their pajamas while working with the whole kitchen at your fingertips? Not me, I tell ya. 

Working from home also let's me get in extras that I wouldn't normally get. Like riding my bike at lunch, the shortest commute ever (besides my normal seven minute one), and the cutest company ever (Ryan, of course). Also a plus is having music cranked and singing loudly. Which may bother my "cube-mate" but he's usually a good sport. 

He's pretty adorable right?

While I'm working from home I'll be thinking about my New Year Resolutions for 2015. This past year I resolved to quit Facebook (totally did) and to buy gifts from local stores or craft them myself.(which I somewhat did).

I'll share my 2015 list when I finally have it together. 

Did you check anything off your resolution this year?

Top Five Thursday: Tunetastic

I've worked about 46 hours since Sunday, one being a 14 hour day, and had maybe a total of 25 hours of sleep since then, which for me is definitely not enough. I need a solid eight hours a night to be human. Ryan can attest. 

Seriously, today, at any given point, I would blink and have a mini anxiety attack that I was going to fall asleep. Then I came home and Ryan gave me wine. I'm surprised I'm not drooling yet.

What's getting me through is music. Here's what been on a loop recently:

1. Walk the Moon's "Shut Up and Dance" because, um, how fun is this song? Oh, and HELLO those dimples? Kthnxbye.

2. One Direction's "Steal My Girl" because I'm twelve and love them. It may be a problem. Ryan's starting to look at me funny on this one.

3. George Ezra's "Budapest" because I hope Ryan would give up everything for me, but let's be honest, he didn't have much to begin with. Whatever, I love him anyway. I know I definitely would, but that castillo might cause some pain.

4. Sara Bareilles's "Gravity" in honor of the fact that we landed on a freaking comet yesterday. Is that not the coolest thing ever? We launched something in 2004 that landed ten years later. Talk about crazy calculations.

5. Jesse Ware's "Say You Love Me" because I'm just in that R&B mood sometimes and I'm kind of in love with her voice.

How's your week going? Are you making it through?

It Must've Been My Lucky Day

I should've played the lottery, because I was batting 1,000 yesterday.

I hope you read that with as much sarcasm as you have in you. Yesterday was mean and cruel. But it definitely could've been worse, so thank God it wasn't.

It started with a headache from lack of sleep, coupled with a stomach ache. Recovering with some breakfast, I made it into work on time.

Only to find that my boss's computer had shit the bed. Blue screen of death. The kicker? IT was backlogged and my boss is less than cordial, so they brushed him off all day. I smile a little because he deserved it. Hearing him say, "I'm sitting here at ZERO productivity," was hilarious. Mostly because he's at 10% productivity otherwise.

I frown because I then had to make a presentation for him. One that I had to sit down with him to complete (even though I could've done it myself) but he wanted to see how I compiled it. HE DIDN'T EVEN WATCH. And of course, this presentation was part of a larger one, so while he was on his lunch break I brought it together (recreated one chart) and made it look better than his original one.

Sitting here, I was going to type, "after a day of doing my boss's job..." but then I do that anyway, it's not new. Sigh.

After I finally get home, Ryan and I get ready for our bike ride. Instead of packing it up on the car to ride along the Corning Preserve, we decide to head up Route 4 / 32. The day was finally turning around. Great pace, flying through Waterford. We get to 6 miles and turn around. Less than a mile up the road, a bird shits on my leg. Sigh. Yep, it got better and better. 

Me, not knowing that it was bird poop, thinking it was a bug, flipped out and tried to wipe it off my leg. Now my hand has bird poop on it.

Ryan wanted to stop and put air in our tires at the gas station on our way home. I was not stopping, I had a date with a chlorox wipe. 

On our way back we had some serious headwind and I was getting tired and hungry. EIGHT BLOCKS FROM HOME, there's a traffic light to go to the local Burger King and Price Chopper. It was red. I down shifted. Checked out the cars at the light, no signal lights, great. Light turns green. I shift up and keep pedaling through the light. The first car goes, puts on signal light, turns. INTO ME. 

Thankfully, she realized that she was starting to RUN OVER A PERSON and stopped her minivan. 

I couldn't. I just couldn't. She stopped and rolled down her window to ask if I was alright. My quick reply of "Fine, thanks," was probably not enough but I was more than ready to go home and I was truly physically okay.

When I finally arrived home, Ryan told me that she had put on her signal light after she started to go and turn. At least I wasn't blind. He also mentioned he yelled, "Watch out!" Which I didn't hear.

Today, I'm glad to have that behind me. Because one, I don't have to get shit on by another bird for another twenty-six and a half years, and two I'll be sticking to bike trails now. Any run-ins I can avoid with cars is going to be wonderful. 

Tunetastic Thursday - Ron Pope "Home Again"

Have you missed me? I've certainly missed you. Desperately, in fact. Every night I've been craving to write to you. Tonight I just so happen to have a free thirty minutes. Life is rough sometimes.

I've started listening to music on my phone at work. At my old job, I would either listen to EQX live or listen to one of my stations on Pandora. Since I work for a chemical company (even though the division I'm in isn't chemical related) they block pretty much everything that's fun. Including streaming media sites. The jerkwads. So I've been forced to download music and upload it to my phone in order to get into my work zone. This leads me to listen to the same few artists over and over again and songs get played repetitively. (As I'm writing this, the song this week has been playing about ten times in a row)

You might know Ron Pope from his song "Drop in the Ocean" or "I Believe." That first one makes me immediately skip it - he gets REALLY whiny in it. No thanks. I really enjoy this week's song. The music is easy listening, the lyrics are swoon-worthy (at least to me), and I love it when a song breaks down and I can clap my hands. Maybe I'm just still in that mood, but the song reminds me of how Ryan has been with me through ups and downs. No matter what - where he is, I'm home.

So Rye,

I'll be there when your days are long,
Hold you up if you don't feel strong,
Light your way when the dark comes in,
And when you're lost, I'll lead you home again.

Love you cutie.

"It starts"

Today's been the day I've been waiting for. I thought it was going to happen last Friday, but no. Today was the day. I couldn't have been more happy. It's almost like the perfect ending to an entirely shitty week.

Today, I heard Christmas music on the radio. And I loved it. It truly marks the beginning of my favorite time of the year.

This week has been one straight from hell. I was under the impression that the whole C&B deal would be done about two weeks ago. Unfortunately, everyone else had another idea and the request for changes just keep ROLLING in. I'm going to send an email out that says all changes must be signed, sealed, and delivered by falcon. Oh, and there better be a $100 bill attached to it. To top that all off, clearing entries I did at the beginning of the month apparently had like a million dollar impact on the P&L. And not in a good way. Joy. And the nasty emails were just pouring in.

Let's just say I'm glad to have this week over with. Now, on for the weekend!

Hopefully it's better.

How's your week been?

AOP, C&B, PI, PPE and Acronyms Galore

Sometimes, work just gets me down. It could be the fact that I get up and the sun hasn't yet. Waking up to sunless mornings is such a drag. I mean, if I'm up, the sun should be up. Am I right?! 

This week of work has been hectic. I work in the finance department at a chemical plant. Not only is it year end, planning time, it's apparently also time to take inventory. You can imagine my delight at the prospect of staying late on Friday and possibly going in on Saturday to finish up. 

For the past month, I've been working with leaders across my division to confirm headcount in their sectors - please pardon the business jargon. Oh lord, that rhymed. Anyway, for weeks I've been hounding people to get me their people and final numbers. In turn I give them an estimate of employee costs for next year's plan. Of course, I get a file yesterday from the second to last group. I had to wait until all groups were done in order to finish the last and final group. Now, on top of that I had to figure out what heads are being added, reach out to human resource people, and beg/plead for estimates on these new heads. That email went out today asking for it tomorrow...I will remain hopeful that they all come in. After I get all the information back, I have to put it into my massive spreadsheet and spit it back to the leaders in the form of a number. They'll then use it as part of their operating budget that's due Monday. Now, I mentioned inventory right? That's Friday. Which, if you're doing the math, leaves me just tomorrow to receive, analyze, and provide data back to the leaders. Good thing I have the formulas all set. I'm hoping that with the final touches and proper numbers dropped in, I'll be pivot tabling like a maniac and spitting out 2014 costs like a professional watermelon seed spitter. More than likely, it'll be another late night.

Friday morning, I'll be there bright and early at 7:45 to start counting until the cows come home. Except, it'll be later than that. Which means I miss Troy Night Out. HUGE BUMMER. BOO. BOOOOO. I literally passed on going up North this weekend (for my sister-in-law's 30th birthday), passed on going to New York City this weekend (with free hotel room), so that I could go to Troy Night Out. Then I'm told that I should plan to stay on campus until midnight...getting out earlier is just a happy coincidence. Shoot me now, please. To top it off, because I work in a chemical plant, we have to take necessary precautions to protect ourselves. This means safety glasses, work boots, hardhat, and lab coat. Not that I'm complaining - whatever keeps me safe, I'm just going to be drop dead sexy. Especially with my safety glasses over my glasses. Oh and if anyone asks, my name is "Andrea" for the day, as that's what my new lab coat says. 

Is it bad to say that I live for the weekends? Although, maybe not this one if I have to report in Saturday morning.

What are some of the downsides to your job? Do you have any? (If not, please don't make me jealous and say so.) What's the BEST part of your job?

In case you're wondering what the acronyms I listed are:

AOP - Annual Operating Plan

C&B - Compensation and Benefits

PI - Physical Inventory

PPE - Personal Protective Equipment