3-Year Anniversary

This weekend represents the anniversary of my move up to New Hampshire. Three years ago I left my office at my former company, where I had worked for 16 years. I said goodbye to NYC and moved into a corporate apartment up here in New Hampshire. I started work at New Company on Tuesday, just three days after leaving NYC and Old Company. January is a rough time of year to transition to living here and my transition was made even tougher because I didn't have a car, or even a license at the time! I was also right away thrown into a high-pressure project for a difficult customer at New Company, where a lot of responsibility and weight of the work was immediately on my shoulders. The first half year here was pretty stressful and tough, but I came through it all okay and never, even for a second, regretted my decision.

I'd say that my first two years here were really transitional for me. In many ways I felt pretty settled in immediately, and in others, well, I think sub-consciously it was a little harder on me than I was willing to admit. It translated to my gaining a bunch of weight during the first two years, weight that I really couldn't afford to gain. But after those two transitional years, I really felt like things started to settle more comfortably for me. I finally came off that first, high-pressure project and my job has been allowed to move forward. I took control and lost the weight that I had gained, and then some and started putting down roots that make me truly feel like this is where I belong.

In many ways these past three years have flown by, but I also sort of feel like I've been here forever. I look back on my NYC years very fondly, and sometimes a little wistfully. I'll never, ever regret living there, that experience is so much a part of who I am now. But I can never see myself going back to live there either. I am so happy that I was able to have that experience and now I have been so, SO happy that I was given such an excellent opportunity to move on whole-heartedly to a place that I love.

Cozy

Is there anything more comfortable or delicious than to be home, tucked inside on an unexpectedly snowy, snowy day? Dogs piled on top, fire going, movie channels galore and books all around and no where you have to go or be? Bliss.

F*ed Up

Well, it started out as a nice day anyway. Very sunny, warm, ideal Summer Saturday. I had my lovely massage this morning, then ran to Target, stopped at a local farm stand and then was driving down the road back to my house when a little light rain started hitting my windshield. It was still completely sunny out, so as strange as it was, I figured that it was just passing through. Nope. Since then the weather has gone from a light Summer sun shower, to thunderstorms, to severe thunderstorms to now (about three hours later) the latest development, HAIL. Big freaking ice rocks of hail! And normally weather wouldn't freak me out all that much (I actually enjoy a good occasional thunderstorm) but hail makes me worry about tornados -- TORNADOS! Which is my ultimate big irrational fear -- I have crazy recurring nightmares about tornados. Freak. Me. OUT! I need chocolate! Hold me.

WTF???

So, it's a lazy Sunday and I've spent most of the day milling around. (Sleeping late, sitting out on my deck in the sun finishing my book, watching the dogs play outside, etc.) I've been wearing some running clothes around for about an hour or so now and finally got off the deck figuring that I would put my running shoes on and go drive to find a trail that I haven't run on before. So, I'm sitting here writing down directions to get to Mine Falls Trail in Nashua when I start hearing thunder rolling around outside. Again. A peek out the window and it is almost as dark as night! I was just outside in the blinding sun 5 minutes ago! WTF is going ON with the weather this Summer??? Sheesh! So I guess I'll wait around a bit and see what happens, maybe it will blow over. Or maybe it'll be a treadmill day for me. Whatever it ends up being, it's the start of my new training week and I have to do SOMETHING. I've been a bit lax about getting back on the training wagon since surgery and it's time to step it up. Tomorrow I see the trainer for the first time in about six weeks -- ACK!

Update: 2:55 PM

And now it's pouring down crazy rain. I suppose it could be worse, I could have been ON a trail somewhere, a couple of miles away from my car or something.

Finally!

A nice day. And on a weekend to boot. We've had such consistently terrible weather for the past month or so. Even the occasional day that has seemed to start out reasonably nice always ended with terrible storms rolling through. And it should be mentioned that I sure am glad that my neighbor had the two ginormous and completely rotted 50+ foot pines that were towering over my roof removed at the beginning of July. With the many severe storms we've had, I sure wouldn't have wanted to be worrying constantly about one of those trees ripping through my house all this time.

Déjà vu

Wow. I heard a car alarm today in a parking lot for about three seconds and I suddenly realized that I hadn't heard one in a very long time. I very quickly had a flashback to living in NYC and being held hostage by that kind of noise pretty much on a constant basis. It's amazing how much lower my levels of stress and anxiety are these days. The funny thing is, I don't even think I realized how stressed and anxious I was all the time back then. But the constrast to how I feel now is astounding. And it's not just the way I feel either. The last time I had my blood pressure checked, it was on the low-end of normal. Back in NYC it was approaching "high". It's amazing what stress can do to you.

Lunar Eclipse

I was able to stand out on my deck at around 10 PM last night and witness the lunar eclipse. It was pretty amazing! I stood there in the dark (once that I determined that the view would be more effective if I turned off my outdoor lights) with my mouth agape just staring off into space for about 15 minutes. It was a crystal clear night too with all the constellations in attendance. Of course the dogs were a little weirded out by the silence and the dark and had to make some of their own noise as accompaniment.

That sure is something that you don't see everyday, I'm glad that I got the chance to.

What do you do if

you stupidly buy a frozen pizza on special at the grocery store, but when you get home you realize that there is no way it's going to fit in your freezer? Well, if you live in New Hampshire in December, 2007 you bury it under a big pile of snow that is sitting outside on your deck. Sheesh.

Some Pictures

First, a picture of the Orange Rock Thing (ORT) or, if you prefer, the Hunk of Orange Salt (HOOS):







Some pictures of the incredible snow we had over the past week and a half (the snow is up to almost my waist in some places -- and I know because I had to go out and push through it to drag Fitz out from under a bush the other night. Lovely):

A bit of a blow

Well, it looks like we are in for a bit of a blow for tomorrow. A good nor’easter is making its way up the coast and due to hit New England by Saturday. Happily it will be a weekend and I have no hair appointments, no pedicure scheduled, nowhere I have to be. So it will be lovely and cozy to be cocooned at home with the dogs while the weather rages outside. Most people pray for great weather weekends and that sure is nice, but once in a while it’s wonderful to have a weekend where it’s in your best interest to stay warm and safe inside. I’ve got stacks of movies and books around the house, and plenty of beer and beverages. One last stop at the grocery store tonight will ensure that I will be fully prepared to enjoy the time-out forced by the storm.

Oh ... GOD Help me!

I somehow just volunteered myself to be put on the election list for my HOA board of directors. WTF was I thinking? Well, I probably won't "win" anyway as I've only been here a year and no one really knows me. But still, sheesh.

Life in the "Country"

As much as I really have been enjoying living in the "country" (well, I'm not exactly rural, but where I live is not the type of suburban as one would encounter in metro NYC), once in a while I am reminded that perhaps I had lived in the City for far too long. I can handle the moose & bear sightings and sitting out on the deck at dusk and watching the bats come out and fritter above eating mosquitoes (I actually find all of that pretty cool). But last night when Fitz wasn't waiting right at the back door with the other dogs after a pee break, I knew that something was up. I went into the yard with a flashlight calling him and there he came shooting out from under the deck looking guilty and carrying something in his mouth that I immediately knew he shouldn't be carrying. As I chased him and got closer I realized that it was a dead chipmunk -- ewwwwwww! So there I stood in my backyard screaming & yelling at him and swinging the flashlight as I freaked out (the neighbors must think I'm insane). I finally managed to grab a hold of the dog and carry him struggling inside. I then had the lovely job of going back out into the yard with a papertowel so that I could pick up the corpse and deposit it over the fence -- ICK!

Spring is about change

What is it about Spring that makes you want to get organized, clean up, get rid of clutter? Why do I start feeling restless this time of year, tired of being cooped up inside, sick of TV? I guess it's the opening up of windows and the fresh air -- still fresh even if it's raining outside.

I woke up on Saturday morning and felt invigorated to unpack some more boxes, go through papers, throw a lot of crap out. Last week during our impromptu, unseasonable "Summer" weekend, I very much enjoyed sitting out on the deck reading and listening to music. I've been taking the dogs for walks around the neighborhood after work and Fitzie and I are on week 3 of obedience training at the Nashua Petsmart. It's great to get out of the house on a weekend, but it's especially been a hoot just to go there every week and socialize with all the dogs and let all the people we encounter admire and fawn over him. Anyway, more and more as Spring burgeons I'm enjoying cleaning up and getting out more. During the Winter it was lovely to be cozy inside with the dogs piled on top of me with a fire going and the latest Netflix delivery, or "Grey's Anatomy" installment playing. Not that I don't enjoy these things during this time of year too, but I also feel motivated to clean up and get some fresh air.

There have been some recent changes at work as well. There was a big personnel change on the project where I am assigned. Basically, all the major business project managers and sponsors have left the group or moved into different roles. This has been stressing me out quite a bit over the past couple of weeks just with the uncertainty with everything and what this was going to mean for me. But I finally had some information about who I was going to be working with and had a meeting first with the head of the tech group I'll be aligned with and then with the entire group later in the week. They all seemed great, very open and with good communication and I really feel like I will be integrated with the daily workings of the business and with the end users like I never had the opportunity to be before. So, I came away from last week encouraged and excited about these new changes and the opportunities they represent.

This is what is happening in my yard RIGHT NOW

(You can't really see it falling all that well in the pictures, but trust me, is is!) Crazy snow on April 15th. Woo!

It's April 12th

Can someone tell me why there is about 3" or so of fresh snow in my yard? This is some crazy shit. Seriously.

Spring Snow April 5th, 2007