Saturday, September 29

Today I am in London. I am flying home to Chicago today and as of now, don't have to be anywhere next week. Amazing. I know that will change.

I woke up around 9am today and thought, "hmm....should I go for a run? should I go the Tate Museum? so many choices!" But the best choice of all is the one that I took, which was to lounge in bed watching TV, take a leisurely shower, and sit here geeking it out on the computer. I can spend hours doing nothing like nobody's business. I think in some ways I use my job as an excuse for not being more active...I work 80 hours a week and travel around like crazy, so I should be able to sit around on a Saturday and do nothing, dammit. (Right??)

I'm going to India in about a month and I'm kind of nervous about it. It sounds awful. I was talking to a colleague of mine who has been there and he said when you are on the plane home, the flight attendants come through with these "misters" that emit puffs of some industrial strength germ killer/disinfectant throughout the whole plane. Wow, with stories like that who wouldn't be dying to go.... One thing that's making me a bit more excited about it is that I'll stop through London on my way home to hang with Wayne - he just received his entry clearance to work in the UK and is moving to London at the end of October.

I'm shocked that it's the end of September. At what point in your life do you stop feeling like time is flying by??

Friday, September 28

Today I am in London. It has been a very busy 3 days and I can't believe I'm going home tomorrow. I slept about 5 minutes on the way over so I was super tired but actualy managed to get some good sleep the first night and got into a normal routine pretty fast. It's chilly here - about 20 degrees cooler than when I left NY. It's mostly been work but tonight I did go to dinner with one of the client folks. We went to The Grill Room at the Savoy Hotel - it's now run by Gordon Ramsay of TV's Hell's Kitchen. I don't watch the show, but I hear it's mostly scenes of Ramsay yelling at people and making them feel like little pieces of poop. The food was pretty good, so he must be doing something right. We went out as a team last night - about 20 of us including my colleagues and the client team. Had Moroccan food and about 20, 000 glasses of champagne. This morning (and most of the afternoon) was, to say the least, extremely painful - the only consolation is that everybody felt the same way so we were pretty sympathetic to one another and were able to get through the day.

Happy belated Anniversary to my mom and Gary! 21 years - wow! Who rocks the house? Mom and Gary rock the house! Woo hoo!

Monday, September 24

Today I am in Paramus, NJ (Exit 165 on the Garden State Parkway, for those of you who keep track of these things). I just found out today that I got a nice bonus for a deal that I worked earlier this year and for which I thought I was getting zero bonus. So....now I'm trying to decide what to do with my windfall - right now all I have on the list is to buy the cats some gold-plated catnip and donate a substantial portion to Rep. Larry Craig's Exodus enrollment - God's tapping his heels for you, Congressman! Any other thoughts?

Thursday, September 20

Today I am in Paramus, NJ. Earlier I was in Atlanta, and tomorrow I'm going home - yay! I really miss my kitty cats at the moment. My cat sitter's blog keeps mentioning how happy the cats seem to be when she visits, and it makes me sad to think of them sitting there by themselves the rest of the time. :(

I completely forgot to wish my sister and brother-in-law a happy anniversary! Woo hoo! Go, Rachel! Go, Randy! Twelve years on the 17th! Yeeeeeeeeeah, baby! Woo hoo!

My friend Adria is going to be on the season premiere of Cold Case this Sunday night. She has this cool promo thing where you can view all of the TV work she has done. Go to: http://www.speedreels.com/talent/atennor/atennor.html

Well, I guess I'd better get to bed so I can have some sleep tonight. I have to be back in NJ Sunday night and then it's off to Ye Jolly Olde England for a few days! Sigh.....I would think this was all very glamorous if I didn't know the truth....

Monday, September 17

Today I am in Chicago but I'm leaving for Atlanta later this afternoon. We had gorgeous weather over the weekend - for the first time, it felt like the beginnings of fall. I've always loved this time of year - my favorite two days of the year are the first cool day where you have to wear a jacket and the first warm day where you can go without one.

I made some major home purchases over the weekend, including a dining room set. I spent way more money on it than I planned, but what the hell.... I also bought two leather ottomans (with storage inside - essential for condo living) that I am using as a coffee table of sorts but that can also be used as additional seating. I'm extremely happy with them because they are exactly what I wanted.

I went for a great 5-6 mile run over the weekend. I hadn't run since the half marathon so it was nice to get back out there and feel good. I had a much different recovery experience with this race - I was really sore the day after the race (going down stairs - ouch!) but that was about it. I kept thinking the 2nd day would be worse but it never happened. I would really like to do another half marathon before the end of the year and then do a race in Cabo San Lucas that my Chicago running group is planning for the end of January. I felt so good about last week's race even days after - I'm riding this high of endorphins that I still don't think has ended. What a wonderful feeling.

I watched the Emmys last night but was so annoyed when Alec Baldwin, Edie Falco, and James Gandolfini didn't win that I turned it off. The thing that really annoys me about the Best Actor - Drama award is that all of JG's competition play essentially the same character in every episode - cocky doctor/lawyer/intelligence agent who realizes at some point that other people may actually have something worthwhile to say, and then resumes being cocky doctor/lawyer/intelligence agent. Tony Soprano, especially the way JG played him, was never the same guy - he would lash out when you didn't expect it, react calmly when you thought he would blow....all the reasons that show was great are all of the reasons that JG should have won. And to me, it was minor vindication that the show itself won. Sigh.

Today I ran my third half-marathon

Today was a great day. I finished the Chicago Half Marathon in 2:36:18. Not a spectacular time, but it was such a special experience because up until about Mile 5 I wasn't sure I was going to even run it. I was unprepared for the distance (my longest training run was 10 miles), it was hot and extremely sunny (great weather to be a spectator, NOT great weather to be a runner), and I had about 30 seconds of sleep last night (probably due to anxiety about how unprepared I was for the race). But....I did it. Around the aforementioned Mile 5, I started thinking, as I often do during long runs, of my stepbrother Bruce. September 5 was the 5th anniversary of his death, and since he died I've often thought of him when I need a little extra inspiration. Quite simply, it's important for me to run because he can't. Nothing magical happened - it wasn't like I saw him standing in the crowd or anything - but I did feel close to him today and it really helped me get through the tougher miles (which, after Mile 7, were pretty much all of them). I wound up walking about 2 miles out of the 13.1, and I feel no shame in having done so because it was so important to me to just finish. While I was running, I also realized that in a few days time it will be the 2nd annivesary of my divorce. I thought about how far I have come in that time - to where I own a home all by myself, am truly financially independent for the first time in my life, and am RUNNING HALF MARATHONS! It was an emotional day thinking about Bruce, and also about my own journey - and I feel extremely lucky that I got to play it out over 13.1 miles of Chicago streets that left me feeling so strong, proud, and thankful.

Tuesday, September 4

Today I am in Atlanta. I am officially extremely bored with my job. You know you need a new job when you find yourself getting angry in a contract negotiation - not because the client has asked you to accept some term or condition that is completely ridiculous, but because you can't understand why anyone would ever care about this stuff.

I wish I was home with my cats.