A Little This, A Little That...

Our move to our new place was successful, no problems at all! And my new commute from my new place to my new job is pretty painless, I don't mind the bus nearly as much as I thought I would. We live off of the Columbia Pike, a major thoroughfare in Arlington, so there are ALWAYS buses going up and down it to the Pentagon and Pentagon City metro stations. I love my new job, although I miss my old co-workers and the fun we used to have in the office. But I really enjoy the stuff my new job is focused on. I actually feel like I'm decent at it too, which is a plus. I didn't realize how much I felt like a fish out of water at my previous jobs until I started my new one.

Anyway, back to the new place - we have so much space, I don't think we know what to do with it all yet. We have our big TV set up in the finished basement and our small one set up in our bedroom - we didn't want to have one on the main floor of the house. My friends Ryan and Christine, who I visited over the summer, don't have a TV on their main floor either, just a stereo, and there are so many less distractions. We found ourselves just hanging out and talking alot more than we probably would've had there been a TV present. So, Mark and I are doing the same thing and we don't miss the television AT ALL. We've watched it a little in the mornings and while folding laundry, but that is it. We eat dinner at the table like civilized people, and I think we talk alot more. Best decision ever.

We are still in the middle of unpacking, but the kitchen is pretty much done, as is our bedroom. We have the cable and dvd hooked up in the basement, and I have a little desk set up in the spare bedroom so I can shut myself away and write my final papers for school. The cats LOVE the stairs, they are constantly chasing each other up and down them. We couldn't be happier with the new place.

Switching gears to triathlon, I've been doing some light running post-Ironman. We are lucky enough to still live less than a block from the bike path, so I've been venturing out on that during most of my runs during daylight. This morning I was sporting my M-Dot visor when I did my easy 5 miles. I don't know if I was just imagining it, but I felt like people on the trail looked at me a little longer or gave me a second glance. I'm blaming it on my visor. Or the fact that I was shuffling kind of slow and perhaps they were wondering how such a slow person scored an M-Dot visor. I'm also trying to figure out the delicate balance between wearing no M-Dot gear and Ironman Apparel Overkill. I bought enough clothing and accessories to outfit a small army the day after Ironman - visors, shirts, socks, mugs (and I don't even drink coffee) and an awesome jacket. But I think wearing the jacket with one of the visors while sipping water out of my waterbottle might be a bit much. Brings back painful memories of being 9 years old and wearing my NKOTB (oversized) shirt, with my NKOTB hat, both covered in a variety of NKOTB buttons. Like I said, overkill. So, I may just stick to carrying the water bottle around and bringing the visor out for a run every now and again.

In other news, my final papers for school are trying to kill me. I can feel the hives of Summer 2008 coming back. Take a deep breath and repeat - it's all (hopefully) over in less than two weeks. I hate you, school.

We Interrupt This Race Report...

... for some big, yet non-triathlon related news! Over the next three days, life as I've known it here in DC will be changed. Within hours of my last day at the company I've been with for five years, Mark and I close on our first house. The next day we will move out of the neighborhood I've lived in for five years for a new one (I'm being overly dramatic - the new neighborhood is still in the same town, just a few miles away). And on Monday morning, not only will I have to figure out my new commute, that commute will take me to a brand new job in a totally different field than the one I've been in since 2004. Ironman and writing my final papers for school (just applied for next month's graduation - hooray!) has been a pretty big distraction so it just hit me today how much everything is going to change in just a few days.

Today at work they had a goodbye lunch for me. Even though I don't like to be the center of attention or have a big deal made on stuff, it was so touching to see everyone there who came to say goodbye. I packed up my things and cleaned up my desk at the end of the day and Aaron helped me carry my stuff down to the lobby (Mark was picking me up after work today, so I wasn't going to have to lug this stuff on Metro). And it was then that it really started to hit me that I was leaving. In my new job, I'll be working on stuff more closely aligned with the career path I want to follow and my overall interests - something I've been wanting for awhile, I will have my own office, I'll be right in downtown DC. All great stuff, but the team I have worked with over the past 1.5 years is the best group of people you could ever want to work with. Brilliant people, everyone understands the meaning of teamwork, no big egos, and everyone knows how to have fun. I consider many of them to be my friends, not just co-workers. I'm going to miss sharing an office with Aaron, it's just nice to have someone right there to chat with during the day. Having my own office is going to be strange. I'm going to miss working with Coy and Cynthia, and I'm going to miss everyone's sense of humor. My new job has some pretty big shoes to fill, my current group of co-workers set the bar really high. Saying goodbye tomorrow is going to be harder than I thought...

And on a final note, we did one last walk-through of the house today - 15 hours and it is ours! It was just as pretty as I remembered it - the crown molding is GORGEOUS, the lighting is nice, and the kitchen and bathrooms have granite countertops. We'll finally have a guest bedroom. We can finally store our bikes out of the main living space. Our new place is awesome and I'm so excited that Mark and I are going to be homeowners in a matter of hours! Once the madness surrounding school is over, I will be able to turn my attention to decorating! Thank goodness it's the off-season, more time for painting and picking out furniture!