Sometimes it just takes one...

Life has been seriously crazy recently.  A lot has been packed into the days since last Sunday.  I was involved in an accident yesterday on the interstate on my way home from work.  I won't say much more other than both the other driver and I are all right.  I also participated in my first corporate 5k, a road race in Middletown.  It was really fun and I was able to run with 33 of my co-workers and we even managed to take home the team trophy!

It was warm and hilly, but I optimistically estimated that I'd be able to run about 17:15 given the shape that I'm in and the conditions.  The race started out quickly: the leaders passed the first mile in 5:05 and I was about 12 seconds behind.  I thought that was a bit too quick but at that point it's too late.  I gritted my teeth against the imminent crash.  The second mile was hillier and quite a bit slower, as I passed it in 11:07.  At that point, I decided that I felt quite a bit better than I really deserved to, despite the burning in my quads from the previous hill.  I started to pick it up and managed to pass another runner in the last 1.1 miles to finish in 17:07 and 5th place.

What did I learn?  I am in better racing shape than I expected which I think is due to the fitness I built up in the past couple years rather than any training I've done (or haven't done) recently.  I missed running yesterday due to the accident, but I am still confident that I can hit 50 for the week.

My life is crazy and busy and things are always cropping up but I know that if I keep my nose to the grindstone and try always to do the right thing that everything will always work out.

-Lane

Vacation's Almost Over...

I guess I should come back and give another post...it has been long enough anyway. Since I have generally been sitting on my butt and enjoying my time off, I haven't found that I had a lot to write about.

But, that all changes soon. Lane, and some other friends from college are coming up this weekend for the Vermont Brewer's Festival. Basically, we all get to go to the waterfront of Burlington, VT and sample beer brewed by the many Vermont brewers. We went last year and it was a blast, so we are all looking forward to a repeat. But, after that, I drive to Connecticut and prepare to enter the Real World. My new job starts on Monday in New York City, and with that my days of lounging around screech to a halt.

As my start date approaches I've been thinking about what it means and what new things I will encounter and experience. I've realized that it has been really cool to be able to read Lane's posts on this blog and follow his adjustment to life in the working world, and I hope to be able to follow a similar process of documenting my transition here over the next few weeks.

The strangest part of this approaching change has been the fact that I don't actually start work on Monday...I know, it sounds strange, I start my job but I don't start work? Well, as with most jobs (especially entry level positions), there is orientation, but unlike many jobs, mine is three weeks long. Three Weeks! The whole process sounds like it will be a bit like school where I am basically attending training sessions all day and some networking sessions on some evenings. The nice difference though should be no homework (at least I hope not). I suppose it is all well and good though; since I am starting a job in finance, and have little to no experience in the field, it will be a good way to get up to speed on securities trading and the like. Besides, I get paid for it anyway, which is good.

I hope to have much more to share in the coming weeks as I adjust to work and life in New York City. But, until then I will be spending the last precious days of vacation celebrating the many wondrous varieties of beer at the VT Brew Fest.

Bottoms Up!

~Alex

A Very Long Day!

Today was a long day.  I got to work a bit before 8am and left around 7:30pm.  I spent nearly the entire day in the "flow lab" which is actually not a bad place to work except that it's uncomfortably warm and the radio was on all day and I noticed that "Edge of Glory" by Lady Gaga played at least 5 times.  It's a good project and the data collection part is over (for now) and I can get back to my regularly scheduled projects at work tomorrow.

Luckily I ran before work and made enough dinner for tonight when I was making dinner last night!  I try to act like an adult and it feels like a major triumph when I see far enough ahead in the future to make my life just a bit easier!

A Very Busy Day!

Today was a very busy day but I'm very excited about the results.  First off, I went for an easy run in the morning to get loosened up and put some mileage in for the week.  I'm planning on an 18+ mile run tomorrow so I wanted to go easy to get ready for that.  Then I headed to the bank to deposit some graduation money, a paycheck and my signing bonus, which pushed my bank account in a direction I like to see it going.  Then I started the really fun stuff.

First I went to Michael's, a store that I rarely have a need to go into.  For those not initiated into the wide world of craft stores, Michael's is a craft store and more importantly, they have custom framing, which is pertinent to this particular story.  When I was younger, my dad gave me four comic books about dinosaurs.  These are cutesy, cartoon dinosaurs but instead a series documenting a bloody feud between a pack of velociraptors and a clan of T-rex's.  In any case, I thought they were awesome then and I think they're awesome now.  So I brought them to Michael's and talked for probably half an hour with the framer there about matting and she made some suggestions and I ended up leaving them there to get matted and framed.  It will take about two weeks, but I can't wait!

Then I went to BestBuy.  I have been considering an extra monitor for some time now and I decided to at least go and look at them.  I ended up buying a 23" Acer monitor which I'm very excited about.  I can now multitask like nobody's business and enjoy movies and TV shows posted to the internet even more.  It looks a little silly next to my laptop because it dwarfs the screen, but I figure I'll get used to it!

Then I headed out the door to go to the grocery store but locked myself out.  Luckily I hadn't put on the dead-bolt and was able to credit-card my way in (with my old Price Chopper card... I knew that would come in handy!).  This just reinforces the need to use the dead-bolt all the time because by and large the regular door lock is not very secure.  I eventually made it to the grocery store and the rest is history and not very interesting.  The crazy thing is, despite everything I did today, I still didn't get everything done!  I have an oil change and a long run scheduled for tomorrow plus a long day of cleaning around the kitchen and apartment in general and doing laundry.  I will need to go to work to rest from this weekend.    A grown-up's work is never done!

-Lane

New Bed and Some Big Changes Around Here...

First and most exciting, my new bed was delivered this morning!  I'm very excited because up until just now, I've been sleeping on this:

It's an air mattress with slightly too big everything!

It hasn't been too bad but I know the sleep quality hasn't been what many would term "awesome".  Fortunately, that's all in the past!  My new bed looks a little like this:

New bed!

In fact, my new bed looks exactly like that.  I'm very excited to sleep in a bed that doesn't require an air pump.  It came just in time, so I can have a good night's sleep before the big race tomorrow!  As far as that goes, I'm a little nervous but I know that I'll do just fine and hopefully walk away with a couple extra bucks.  I just hope that if I get a check, I'll be able to cash it instead of framing it and putting it up on my wall.

As you may have noticed, there have been some cosmetic and structural changes to the blog recently.  I have been trying to find a suitable picture-font-color combination for this blog to replace the ridiculous map theme that existed here previously.  The Don Quixote picture is a favorite of mine for a couple reasons, so I'd like to keep it as the background but a black and white picture presents challenges when choosing a color for the text.  I like the Don Quixote picture because I have always seen the friendship between Alex and me as something like that of Don Quixote and Sancho in the first part of the story and since this is our shared blog, I thought it a fitting background.  Also, there has been a structural change to make editing and creation of mathematics a little better, as mentioned here.  The major problem with this is it makes the use of the dollar sign nearly impossible but I think that I can survive that.

Finally, I finished my first full week of work, got bills, and got paid and then paid my bills!  What a good feeling to get something, get the bill, and be able to pay it.  On the other hand, I saw how much Uncle Sam was taking out of my paycheck and that was a little less inspiring, but I suppose I'll think about that while I'm driving on the roads and enjoying the freedom made possible by our armed forces.  On the other hand, I'll probably think about it when I see satellite dishes on every unit in a government subsidized housing complex.  In any case, this was a good week and it's not even over yet!

-Lane

The Past Week at Work and the Week Ahead

Today was my first Friday as a "real person".  For three days in a row, I got up, shaved, put on nice clothing, and drove to work.  There were other real people there and I learned a lot.  I found out about my future responsibilities and met my co-workers.  I'm super excited about it all!  My new job is pretty much what I've wanted to do for a long time and my co-workers are really nice and accommodating of all my questions.  I've mostly been trying to absorb as much background information as possible and will hopefully begin analysis next week.  I've been working towards it for so long, I can't believe that real-world engineering is so close!

Running-wise, I just signed up for a road mile on Sunday.  This race is going to be special for a couple reasons.  The first is that it's my first post-collegiate race and it's a mile, probably my specialty.  It's rare that they're offered on the roads so I'm looking forwards to taking the challenge on.  It's also going to be neat because it's the first race that I'll have entered with cash prizes for finish placement.  The top three places take home cash and there are still age-group prizes, so as long as I don't blow it, I'm pretty much guaranteed to take home a prize which is exciting.  Races with cash prizes are few and far between and until recently, it was against NCAA policy for me to accept them, so this is going to be an exciting opportunity.

Everything is just so exciting right now!  I know that the novelty will eventually wear off, but hopefully I will have matured into a really strong appreciation of what I am doing, both as a runner and as an engineer.

-Lane

First Day At Work!

Today was my first day at my new job!  I got up at 5:30 to go for an easy run before work and was out the door and in the car by 7:25 at work by 7:50.  Did orientation-type things for a couple hours, learned some brief history about the company, and then headed out for my new office.  Got my new cubicle, met my co-workers, and found out what I'll be working on... etc.  Everything is so cool but it's weird and not yet quite comfortable to be a "real person".  I felt strange walking out of work at the end of the day without "checking out" with anyone like I've had to at every other job I've had.

Still, I think that I'm really going to love working at this job and can't wait to get up and do the same thing all over again tomorrow!

-Lane

Moving Out, Moving In

No internet at home means no serious blog posts for a while.  Fortunately, that has passed and I should hopefully be posting regularly again.  Why haven't I had internet?  In case I didn't mention it, I moved out of my apartment in Worcester to be closer to my new job!  The process looked something like this:

Morning of May 30th

Around noon, May 30th

Afternoon, May 30th

Morning, May 31st

Just before I left on May 31st

All moved in to the new apartment!  Thanks to my sister (pictured here) for helping!

What a crazy time!  Getting everything moved out of an apartment and into an new one in two days!  Since I moved in, I've been discovering all of the things that I'm missing.  Silverware has been a bit of an issue.  I'm lucky that Brianna gave me chopsticks for our anniversary!  I've been very busy trying to get my apartment ready to be lived in for the next year.  I will have to repeat the process again next year (to move in with Brianna) but after that I will hopefully be able to stay in one place for a while.

Unfortunately, my start date at work, which was set to be this Monday has been pushed back to Wednesday because there was a mix-up with my drug test results and I have to retake them.  As if I wasn't already nervous enough about starting at my new job, things needed to get more complicated.  Regardless, I'm still really excited about starting!

Shopping for the Internet on the Internet

I moved into my new apartment yesterday.  Everything is great and there will be a much longer post later for reasons that will soon be clear.  However, I am currently sitting at the local public library, using their internet (not to mention enjoying their air conditioning!).  I have air conditioning at home but no internet yet.  I've been researching internet companies in the area and this is how I feel:

The Experience of Shopping for Internet on Public Internet

It's not that I don't appreciate the ability to walk into a building I've never been to, hunker down, and utilize the greatest information sharing system without being molested by bills, but I think one of the other users put it best when she suggested that I "pray to the internet connectivity gods because the connection speed is frigging slow".  Also, there are parts of the internet service provider's website that don't work, specifically the "order now" button which takes me to a page filled with indecipherable html.

In any case, once I have my own internet I will write something more positive about my moving experience.

And then when you get married...

I was talking to the mother of one of my high school friends today when she said something that really surprised me: she said "and then when you get married..." Holy crap!  I'm going to get married!  It's one of those things that I know but is strange to hear from somebody else.

I have been dating my fiancée for nearly five years and have been engaged for about a month but it still seems strange to me that I'm getting married.  I think it might be because I've thought of myself as a kid for so long (my whole life, in fact) that it's hard to believe that things that happen only to adults are starting to happen to me.  We've even been considering places to have the reception and have started trying to put together a guest list.

I am super excited for the whole process of planning the wedding!  It's amazing to think that as young as I am, I have found somebody that I want to spend the whole rest of my life with; Brianna is definitely one of the biggest blessings in my life.  In a tangentially related vein, you might be wondering what rocket surgery and knitting have in common?  I don't know, but my fiancée writes a knitting blog!  If you are at all interested in arts and crafts, you should check it out.