It's Party Time!

Yep, miracle of miracles - I have the weekend off, including at least half a day on Friday! What to do with all the time?! It'll be my first day off in over a month!

Things actually significantly lightened up yesterday when I passed off our Staten Island job to our sub-consultant. I went home on time, actually got a short run in, and watched a Netflix movie (V for Vendetta. It was pretty crappy, but I really dig Natalie Portman. With or without hair, she's awesome). I also got eight hours of sleep last night. Eight hours! Oh, the decadence!

Anyway, despite that fact that I don't have to come in this weekend, there's still a lot of work I need to do. I have no groceries... so I need to spend a day at Pathmark. I also need to clean my apartment: yesterday I thought to myself "hmmm, when did I get carpeting?" and then realized that the cat has just been shedding a lot. Plus I have a bunch of Flyers stuff to attend to... posting meeting minutes, and starting the July issue.

I'm supposed to go out to Long Island with some friends on Saturday, something I committed to some time back, just to force myself to get the day off work. Earlier this week, when it looked like I might not get these drawings out, I though I'd have to cancel it, but I can have some fun after all. Friday night brings me, likely, to an event at Bohemian Hall. Alternatively, there's a Flyer event, but considering that the Beer Garden is one of my favourite NYC hangs, and the Central Park Boathouse is... not, then there isn't much of a contest.

And -- as amazing as it is -- I'm running again! Granted, I've only gone twice this week for a total of 8 whole miles, but it's still running... It came to my attention earlier this week that Chicago is only 17 weeks away, and I went into a mini-panic and did a 4 miler on Tuesday morning. It felt terrible, like I hadn't run in a month (I hadn't). I still intend to do the marathon though, and even if I don't need a Boston Qualifier anymore, I need to start building mileage again... I'm also planning on doing the Father's day race Sunday, but only as a training run (not by choice, given the shape I'm in). The downside to all of this is that I'm still going to PT, and my left hip and back are still bugging me, although minimally compared to how they were. Fingers are crossed.

Okay, need to remind myself that I am still employed, and blogging is not part of my job description...

More boring talk about work...

Things have lightened up somewhat. But just barely.

It's Saturday and I'm at the office working again. I've moved on from the big (Brooklyn) project that I was working on, which I got out the door on Wednesday to a small Staten Island design that technically was supposed to go out yesterday. Realistically, it only needs to be sitting in our sub-consultant's inbox when she come in Monday morning. Tomorrow, I'll still be back at the office, but it'll be a whole lot of personal junk that I need to get done and have entirely neglected during the past few weeks.

I've been so out of it lately. I was planning to get out and cheer on our Flyers chicks in the Mini... tomorrow, until I looked at NYRR's site today and saw the results up. Sheesh!

I did manage to get a 4-mile run in on Thursday, and I plan to do the same tomorrow morning. I've also been doing my PT exercises for a change, and getting enough sleep. I even managed to go out on Thursday and Friday nights. Thursday I went to another event at the Boat Basin and Friday I went to the roof garden on the Met for the first time. It's nice up there, but of course, pricey to drink.

Anyway, tonight I'll work late on Staten Island, and take it as far as I can before sending it off. What I'm working on isn't inherently difficult, but I'm finding it extremely so, if only because I haven't had a day off in over a month. It's just so hard to keep focused.

I am not coming in next weekend. No sirree!

The Return to Normalcy

This has been my schedule for the last two weeks:

6:00 AM Wake, shower, shave, brush teeth, feed cat, get dressed.
6:30 AM Leave home, hop on the subway
7:00 AM Work
12:30-1 PM Lunch
6:00 PM Dinner
10:30 PM Leave work, hop on the subway
11:00 PM Home. Change, feed cat, brush teeth, go to bed.

That's basically been it, with a few days that varied from that routine.

Tuesday night, though, I stayed at the office until 1:15 AM. I was making good progress, and it was the last night to work on the project. I didn't get to sleep until 3 AM, though, and just got 3 and a half hours sleep. But it was the final day, so I pushed on and sent the drawings off to our prime consultant at 6:15 PM. I was out the door at 6:22 PM. It was daylight. Tonight I bought groceries and did laundry, two things I'd deemed unnecessary in the last couple of weeks. An then I came home, looked at my e-mail and checked out a few things on the web.

So for now, that major deadline has passed. Things can get back to normal, finally.

Tomorrow and Friday will be another push for another project I've neglected, but it won't be as bad, and this time I know I'll have a weekend free - something that actually hasn't happened in about a month.

I also expect to go for a run, albeit a very short one, tomorrow. I received my hotel reservation confirmation for Boston '08 yesterday, and if that's not inspiring, I don't know what is.

The Zombie in Me

This really really sucks. Today I reached the point where I no longer feel like I've been making any of the choices of when to work, and when not to work. Welcome to the 70-hour workweek, folks. Basically I've been sleeping for 7 hrs, waking up, commuting to work, working 14-15 hrs straight, and commuting home to go to sleep again. It actually got worse on Wednesday when the deadline for the project-at-hand was pushed from Thursday until the next week. While this meant that I had more time (and needed it) I really didn't want to drag this thin out into the next week. But here I am again. I left work early that that night, got home at about 7:30, and discovered that it takes me almost exactly eight hours, starting completely from scratch, to hammer out the Flyers' newsletter, having all my submissions in. I finished at 3 A.M. and, as horrid as that sounds, it was actually a welcome break from office work. And at least it wasn't New Years Eve.

I actually reached the point on Friday morning where I considered how much time I could save if I didn't have to brush my teeth. I shit you not. By that afternoon, I was fully 'zombified': that state where decision-making ability is severely diminished and you realize you really just need a break.

So I went to the Flyers' Happy Hour on Friday night. Twisting my arm to leave the office was the fact that it was at arguably my favourite Manhattan venue, the 79th Street Boat Basin. I came straight from work and it was a relief to see all the fresh, friendly Flyer faces. I stayed for a full three hours and three very good beers, and headed home.

Yesterday, I slept in, but it was a restless, stressed-out sleep. I went to the office and discovered just how much work I had left on this thing. I worked for a few hours, and then switched focus for a few hours and concentrated on updating my resume. Today, it's back to office work, and this blog entry is my morning break.

I canceled my PT appointment midweek because I didn't have time, and really hadn't been doing any of my exercises anyway. I have another appointment tomorrow, and it seems pointless to go, for the same reasons. I also am out of food at home, but given that my breakfast is a bagel, and lunch and dinner have been accommodated by the local delis, I don't feel like that's urgent until the cat runs out of food or litter.

I do, however, need to do laundry. Badly. I may just get the drop off service, though, which is something I've never done before.

I had promised myself that I would start running again on June 1st, but it didn't happen, so I figured that my first run would be Sunday's Japan Day Run in Central Park. I came to the office instead. I also canceled a first date today. We were supposed to meet at a museum this afternoon. It's probably not a good time for me to start a relationship anyway.

And did I mention that on weekends, while it's been beautiful 90-degree weather outside, my office isn't air-conditioned? So despite not running, I've still been wearing shorts and a singlet on Saturday and Sunday at my computer, with two fans pointed at my desk. Sweaty.

And now I've got a cold, too, so I've been popping Dayquil with my coffee to get me through the day.

Speaking of which, it's good to vent, but I need to get back to work.

I think I may need a new job, too.

Everybody's workin' for the weeked...

To quote a fine Canadian band. Okay, perhaps calling Loverboy "fine" is a bit of a stretch.

Anyway, it's not so. It's just me, apparently. I have two deadlines next week, and one of the projects has really backed up on me. I was in the office from 9 A.M. until midnight Friday night, and it's looking like today, Saturday, will amount to much of the same thing. Tomorrow's plan includes a lot of work, but I do intend to step out to see a friend at some point for a beer, pending my progress up till then. Monday, Memorial Day, will be another 15-hour day. If you're a Flyer, don't hold your breath at the start of the month for the newsletter. It would take a miracle at this point. Even my cat hates me right now.

All that said, I figured I deserve a blog break.

My back is much better, but not great. It only hurts on the odd occasion now. I had a second appointment with the PT this past week, and he gave me some more exercises to do, but I've been too busy to do them for the most part. I haven't run at all in nearly three weeks, and as of tomorrow, I'll have only put in 9 miles in the four weeks since the marathon. I keep planning to start but time is at a premium right now. Maybe tomorrow...

I'm not especially stressed over any of this. I've just kind of numbed myself to it all, as every time I foresee the workload lightening up, someone pulls the rug out from under me. What's the use in hoping anymore?

But I do hope everyone's spring is going well. I hear the weather has been beautiful lately. Anyway, time to get back to my numbness...

Taking a breather

Cool out tonight. A little too cool for short sleeves; I should've brought my fleece to work with me to wear home.

Things have lightened up at work considerably as of yesterday. Still, I have a few things that need tending to, so I'll be going in briefly this weekend. Yuck. I may also be getting my just desserts next week after what I submitted today to a client; one of my projects is much farther behind where it should be. I expect to see something unpleasant hit the fan soon.

As for running, my last pre-marathon run was this morning. Unfortunately, I've had a pain in my left hip since Monday night. It's not the hip I previously injured, and it doesn't hurt really bad, but it's been causing me some discomfort all week. This morning I only did three miles, and it's been bugging me all day. Hopefully it's just a minor strain and won't act up during Sunday's race, but if it does get really bad, I'm prepared to drop out, unlike at Vermont. I'd rather just lose a couple of weeks recuperating than to miss Chicago for a second year in a row. I've been stretching and icing all week, religiously, hoping for the best.

Last time I looked, the weather at Long Branch was calling for a 51 low, 63 high, which is pretty good, but also with a 30% precipitation forecast: "a few showers" is what it says. This doesn't seem too bad, but again, I'm crossing my fingers.

Otherwise, things have been going well. I do feel that I'm ready for the marathon. Work is progressing well enough, and I've been pretty generally in good spirits all around.

Not much else to report...

Happy Easter.

It's also my mom's birthday today. Happy birthday, Mom! My mom doesn't read my blog, but it's the thought that counts, right?

I had a pre-Easter dinner at a friend's place in Greenpoint last night. A good time with good people, but I have to say I always feel like a bit of a freak when people are talking about fine wine, restaurants, and theatre - topics I generally know nothing about - and all I want to talk about is running. Runners are freaks. Well, I speak for myself, anyway. I need to go to a museum or something, sometime soon.

That aside, today I'm up for my last 20 miler before the NJ marathon. Actually, 20.65, by my calculations, which I hope to be more accurate than last week. Three and a half park loops, and then home for dinner. Normally, I'd have done this in the morning, but I have lots of work to do today, and I'd be too brain-fried after such a long run to be productive, so better to leave it for later in the day. Plus it's so freakin' cold out that I'm waiting for the high to go above 40 before I get out there.

I'm at work, trying to get some fairly monotonous drafting done. There are too many people (three of us) here in the office for an Easter Sunday. Aside from the blog break, I'm getting stuff done, but not enough. And I gave up caffeine a few days ago, so that's impacted production in a negative way. I actually had my last cup o'joe on Thursday morning, so I'm doing pretty well, but the real test will be tomorrow morning when I get into the office. I'm dreading it already. I did inadvertently cheat a bit this weekend, when I unknowingly consumed caffeine in a cup of green tea. I thought green tea was intrinsically decaf. Apparently not. I really don't like tea, whether green, black, blue, or turquoise.

No Brooklyn Half for me next weekend. It's my favourite Half, so I'm kind of bummed about it. I was originally thinking that I'd do it as a long run, but one of the reasons it's my favourite is that I always set a PR in it, so the temptation to race will be way too high. I'll save the long run for Sunday instead. Would've been nice to get in on the post-race Flyers' Brunch, but I figured someone running the race would be more deserving, so I unRSVPed today. If you're going, have fun.

Anyway, that's all for now. Need to get back on MicroStation again.

Feel the Love

Better late than never... Happy Valentine's Day!!! Hope all the couples out there are keeping each other warm on this blustery evening.

Me, I kept myself warm by doing just short of ten miles in Central Park after work. I psyched myself up all day for the run - thinking of it as a challenge! The next two days may be similarly challenging, given the forecast of wind and cold. I have to say the footing in the park wasn't great, but not as bad as I expected, and the nighttime scenery was picturesque, with the covering of fresh, white snow. This was unlike the rest of the city, which has quickly turned into a slushy grey mess.

But slushy mess or not, I'm in a good mood, and with good reason.

I've always held the rather cynical belief that wherever you (or I, as it were) work, there's always going to be someone you just don't get along with. This has been true at the last three places that I've worked at. Some of these people are better than others, but regardless, when it comes right down to it, they always bring a dark cloud into the office and rain on everyone else's parade. That person, in my current office, is the a*shole I spoke of last week.

Anyway, there's also an offshoot belief to the above one, and that is this: That person will never leave. S/he always seems to stay at his/her job forever, a constant pain in the ass.

But those beliefs were turned upside-down this week: the a*shole gave her two weeks notice. When she announced it, my colleagues and I could barely keep from jumping for joy at the awesomeness of the news, while sitting there saying, "Awww, I'm so sorry to hear that you'll be leaving us." I truly cannot tell you how happy I am, after having to work with her for the past three years.

Now granted, my colleagues and I have also discussed the "be carefull what you wish for" phenomenon. That is, there is always the possibility that someone far worse replaces her.

But for now, I'm just focusing on the positive. Good riddance to her.

Feel the love, kids. Feel the love.

Deadlines, deadlines, deadlines!

The last few weeks; the last month, has been unbelievably busy. It all culminated with 3 deadlines this week, on Wednesday and Thursday: two projects at work and the Flyers' newsletter.

It has been harried, to say the least. For the last week, particularly, I've been getting 6 and a half hours sleep a night, max. This has been partly due to time constraints, but also due to that stress I've been feeling over the deadlines.

At work, my Wed. deadline was for a seriously boring project: the redesign of the Belt Parkway Bridges for NYSDOT. Our part was basically the construction documents for the planting along the highway exchanges. The project has been entirely uninteresting, but subject to an intense schedule as of late that resulted in all the aforementioned stress. That said, in a few years when you're driving along Rockaway Parkway and notice the lovely Crataegus crusgalli and Quercus Rubra out there, well, that's all me. Part of my stress level can also be attributed to my colleague, the the project manager, who is a real a*shole. Really, she just has absolutely no people skills whatsoever. Everybody hates working with her.

The other project, which was due the following day, was not as extensive. It was just a progress meeting for the redesign of a park & ride in Staten Island, also for DOT, and we just brought in a few sketches that the client hardly looked at. People tend to think that us landscape architects are all busy all day designing creative and artistic parks and gardens. Then they hear that I'm doing a highway right-of-way and a park and ride and it pretty much blows 90% of the romanticism away. The other 10% disappears completely when they find out how little I make.

Okay, so maybe that's not all quite accurate. I have also been working on the Bronx River Greenway, and that has been an interesting project, along with the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway, which we were working on awhile back. And the work I was involved with on West Street last year was also interesting and somewhat enjoyable. So it's not all bad. Unless you look at the paycheck.

Anyway, the meeting with DOT on Thursday went alright, especially considering how little time we invested in the project, since we'd been so busy on the Belt Parkway Bridges. However, the next couple of weeks on that project look like hell, so we'll see how that goes.

I do realize that writing about work is a risky business, but given the size of my income, getting fired from my job could be a blessing. Don't get me wrong - I do acknowledge that my current position/company has some serious advantages over other firms, which is why I'm still there. However, I just don't particularly care that much, and if someone gets a bee in their bonnet about the general crap I write, well then I'm just happy enough to move along.

The last deadline this week was a self-imposed Wednesday night deadline. I had promised myself that I'd get the Flyers' newsletter out within the first week of February. Being as finicky as I am, I ended up putting way too much time into the redesign of the layout, not to mention that my two final submissions came in on Feb. 1st and Feb. 5th. So getting it out on the 7th was a lofty task indeed. I attempted to proof-read the thing myself with much failure. Not only did I miss a lot of grammar and general spelling mistakes, but I spelled over a half-dozen members' names wrong in the document; two of them both the first and last names. I did tell a fellow club member that I'd use her as a proofreader, and have had offers from two others whom I will totally use as backups (thank you very much!). The proofreader is a former newsletter editor and club secretary and I connected with her on doing the March issue today.

The redesign, as far as I took it, seemed to go over well. Most people gave me very positive feedback. That said, negative feedback, in my experience, tends to come either after someone's had a few drinks, or when you specifically ask for an opinion. I'd say the best compliment I received was from a fellow architect who said the layout reflected that I was a designer. This sort of surprised me, since I really didn't feel like it was finished. The awards page and calendar still look like hell, so stay tuned for some graphic improvements next month... if you do actually read the thing, that is.

I also changed the name. It used to be called the New York Flyers Newsletter, until the last couple of years when editors have changed the name - first, to News on the Run, and then to On the Fly. I called it The New York Flyer to give a nod to the original name, and also I liked the play on words... "flyer". Of course I had to explain the double meaning to someone already, so I think it might be lost on readers.

And so my last couple of weeks have basically been going to work at 7 AM until 6 PM and coming home to work on the Flyer until midnight, sometimes with a run and some eating in between. Even when I went to bed, my mind was still spinning over what needed to be done.
And technically I did miss my Flyer deadline, as I finally sent it off to be posted on the website after midnight... so, the 8th. Oh well. At least the template is done for future issues, so that they won't be so labour-intensive.

And at least one of the benefits of editing this document is that it guarantees that my photo will not appear in it this year, and I'm sure we can all appreciate that. Don't all thank me at once!

Having those deadlines out tof the way has left me with an unusually unplanned weekend, which is nice. I stayed home tonight and watched a DVD after grocery shopping, mostly for beer and junk food to accompany the movie. I was going to go to the Flyers' impromptu happy hour, until they put forth the venue. Take note: do not let Flyers women decide on happy hour venues... I'm only teasing! I'm just not fond of the bar they selected, and it's a bit out of the way, in Manhattan geography, for a Harlemite.

So it was a quiet evening at home, and hopefully a quiet weekend to come, ahead of the maelstrom of work that will hit me once again this week, and the March Flyer production later in the month...

This Body is Busy

I actually had intended to get all my friends really drunk on Saturday and get them to promise to help me move this weekend, but that plan entirely backfired. Instead, my friends got me really drunk on Saturday and I ended up moving myself temporarily to Brooklyn that night. Anyway, I was going to write a whole post following up my birthday week to summarize what I ended up getting up to and how great it was to see all my friends, and how much I appreciate them, blah, blah, blah... I was going to make it really heartfelt and sappy. Really. But this is a bad week to try to pen those thoughts in the meaningful way that they deserve, so my blog will have to take a rain check on that one.

Work this week has suddenly unleashed a fury on me unequalled in recent months. I've gone from strictly focusing on just a couple of projects, to being stretched in six different directions. First, the West Street reconstruction job is winding down, so I've got to be on site to see that it's finished off properly, and there are a few issues with that one. Then, suddenly I'm involved in a very important proposal, which is new for me, and I'm expected to make a very short presentation tomorrow, and we're having a rehearsal meeting with the other consultants this afternoon. On another project I'm involved with, we have a drawing package submission on Friday, so I'm up to my eyeballs in CAD work as well. I also have two physiotherapy appointments, which unfortunately cannot be rushed through, and the 6-week follow-up appointment with my orthopedic sports doctor today to find out my status on the injury front. I tried putting that one off for next week, but they can't fit me in before August if I postpone.

That probably doesn't sound that busy, but top all that off with the fact that I am moving Saturday, fitting anything in between packing boxes is nothing less than a challenge. There was a social event tonight that I was going to go to strictly with the intentions of meeting women, which after recent events, I have decided it is important for me to do. I do think I need to start dating more, but making that kind of social time this week is a pipe dream for me, so once again the potential for me to build a love-life is sacrificed for work and other crap. Instead, tonight I'll try to finish the bulk of the packing, so that I might socialise with friends later in the week, even though no romantic prospects are involved.

And I've missed the last two nights of running. I don't want to fall too far behind in rebuilding, so I might try to fit a short one in tonight before packing... Oh, I forgot - they're all short ones now.

I'm excited about the move. It looks like I might actually have enough help to get it over with quickly. Medley, however, is not excited at all. With the chaos surrounding packing, she retreats to the bathroom, the only unchanged area of the apartment, and curls up under the sink, unknowing of what lay ahead in her life.

So I'll likely have no more blogs until the move is over. I might chime in briefly about what the doctor says, though. I've got my fingers crossed on that one.

Rain Day

Well, as I was getting ready for work this morning at 4:45 AM, the contractor called me. He was cancelling because of the rain in the forecast. And, if the landscaper doesn't go in, neither does the architect (me). So I slept in, and am finally able to have a full weekend off, for the first time in awhile. Nice.

The Reconstruction of West Street and Battery Place

On top of not running during my off-work hours, which is a drastic enough change by itself, life has also recently markedly changed during my work hours. Both of these changes have turned me into more of a hermit than usual, and made me feel a bit like I've dropped off the face of the earth.

Most people think that as a landscape architect, I have this great outdoor job that involves moving around greenery into position to create attractive, appealing environments. Unfortunately, the truth is that normally I sit in an office all year staring at a computer, save for the odd monthly visit to a project sites for a field meeting. Lately, however, I've been given the role of a site inspector, overseeing the construction of the landscape design of West Street (known as State Route 9A) and the new urban plaza across from Battery Park, at 17 Battery Place. Suddenly, I fit the landscape architect stereotype!

First of all, I didn't design any of it - so if you don't like the new configuration of streets, public walkways, and the new bikeway - I don't want to hear it. My job is to make sure that they're putting the soft landscape materials (trees, shrubs, perennials) in the correct placement, according to the plans and specifications, i.e. making sure the plant goes in the right spot, green-side-up. There are other inspectors on site in charge of the hard landscape materials (Paving, lighting, retaining walls, crosswalks, etc.).

Early on, this change in routine was pretty stressful, as my time was split between this new role and the office, as I had to juggle the demands of a many different projects. This is not unusual, but doing it between two geographic locations is. However, in the last few weeks, though, due to on-site staffing, I've been solely dedicated to the West Street project. This is good and bad. The bad is the 60-hour week that starts at 6 AM, which means I have to pry myself off my mattress shortly after 4:30 AM. It's been very exhausting, just because I haven't kept up with my sleep needs. Twelve hour days four times a week, and two days of eight hours. No wonder this blog's been so inactive.

On the other hand, being outside has been a welcome change from my cube and its flourescent lighting. Overseeing construction is not extremely demanding, but you do have to be on the ball to catch anything that's not happening according to the drawings and specifications, and it's such a large project that can at time feel like you need to be in many different locations at once, and then at other times, you're just standing around waiting for the workers to finish planting a certain area just so that you can inspect it and check it off your list.

It also brings some of my personal experiences full circle. Putting myself through university, I did a lot of landscape construction, and being back on a worksite watching others work is a strange turn of the tide. I'm a physical, hands-on kind of guy, and sometimes I'd rather just be doing the construction.

Obviously, I'm not at liberty to go into the decisions made about the design or construction of the project. I can tell you, though, that there are 22,937 trees, shrubs, perennials, and annuals on the site, and that I've had to account for each and every one of them. I also foresee some good running in the future, as the bikeway/promenade is further constructed during the next phase, north from West Thames Street along 9A. And in the meantime, I'm just happy to be working outside in such beautiful weather.

The official ribbon-cutting is on July 5th. Hope you can get down there to enjoy it.