Week three on the new gig - can it almost be half over already? I'm back at the first hotel again, in a much better room, and actually like it this time around. Not that I'm here that much - there's a lot of work to be done. ;-> But I'm appreciating the better location, and the great healthclub too.... while also trying to eat a bit better so I don't go all Jabba the Hutt.
One casualty of the travel is my fitness instruction: My Bodyattack Class was canceled just before the gig started due to low attendance, and I'm dropping my Bodypump teaching for a while too: Can't really justify that time away from the family right now: I can keep in shape while on the road, and not disappear for hours to teach or practice teaching. It has been a fun thing to do these past 9 months, but I have other priorities that need to take precedence. Sorry Les Mills.
On the home front: Bella finished Kindergarten on Friday - she's officially a "first grader". I think that the excitement wore us all out a little... plus Isaac has some molars cutting right now, so he's pretty ornery. The upshot is that while Saturday was the usual fun, Sunday was a very crabby day for the kids, and Pamela and I were completely at a loss as to what to do. Even TACO night wasn't able to break through it! Even good guy Zinsser was a bit peevish.... After everyone was off to bed, Pamela and I just stared at eachother in disbelief.
Fortunately, the tide turned somewhat yesterday, and Pamela hasn't been exactly besieged.... she's handling things pretty well and I'm grateful. Last night Bella played Soccer again, and she told me on the video chat this AM that she "actually kicked the ball this time". I'm so proud!
Ah the Video Chat - it's a valuable lifeline to home. It's no secret that while one huge driver for my career change was the rewarding work (and I really am loving it), it can't be denied that there was a financial element to it: Things really hadn't panned out as expected with the new sales role, and I needed to make a change. Well, last night I was doing some financial modeling to budget things out.... and did a model of what things would have looked like if I had stayed the course with the same revenues... It wasn't pretty. I sat back and took a look around my Residence Inn room and said "Yeah, this'll do. This will be ok."
Besides, I love South Jersey. I'm catching myself imitating the cadence of the speech patterns here... and am terrified that I'll come home and start sounding like mobster. A problem of having a "neutral" accent (since my MN accent isn't very strong) is that really strong accents are "contagious". "Do you want more coffee?" "Nah, we're good here. Tanks".
One more detail: Uncle Ant of the Scotch Avengers leaves today for a 5 day trip to Scotland - a first class ticket paid for (by miles) from another scotch aficionado who wanted to see what sort of tour Ant could whip up of the Isle of Islay. So we'll have some great stories I'm sure... We're all jealous!
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THERE you are! Well, I was hoping the surreal had not upped and bit you. I so appreciated the photos Pam sent of the last Kindergarten days and the dog club and all. Sent them to Denver and all are delighted to get some images of growed kids - yours are such amazing people already. Jan especially can't believe how they have grown. So lots of love to you from the mountains. After the Xmas Xrisis (trademarked under "kilgore") Mary insisted the folks upgrade 5620 and get WiFi so if I send slide shows one of the sibs can open a lap top and it's a thrill to mom and dad.
Finally, anyone who loves language like you do will pick up on the many vernaculars and cadences of the local speak. It really is fun.
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