A little of this, a little of that.

It feels like it was just February, now it's almost April. I feel like I blinked and I missed March... but I didn't.

I went to Vieques, Puerto Rico to vist a favorite friend with another favorite friend and we had an amazing time.

(How could you not have a good time with this view?!)

My friend, Janna, is the proud owner of the Bravo Beach Hotel , if you're looking for an island escape, go stay there! 

I got promoted last week to the fancy new title of Senior Brand Sociologist. I also moved departments from Consumer Engagement to Brand Planning. 

I've also been reconnected with some old friends, and it didn't happen through social media! It happened the "old fashioned way", via conversation. As it turns out, my childhood best friend and a college roommate both work together across the street from me, and they just discovered that they both know me. I'm looking forward to the in-person reunion to take place soon and the small world feels just that much smaller this week. 

My head's still on vacation.

Adam and I took a trip to Miami last weekend. It was a perfect 4 days of doing absolutely nothing. No alarms. Reading and swimming at the beach all day. Relaxing Dinner. Repeat. Of course, now I'm back to work. My body is here, but my head is having a little trouble focusing. I'm trying to engage, but everything feels more interesting than the work that I need to be doing.

The funny thing is, it wasn't a vacation that I needed a vacation after the vacation. I made a comment to Adam that I was totally ready to be home and get back to work. Perhaps I was looking forward to the social side of work and not the actual work part. Either way, I'm sitting at my desk struggling to focus on my projects. It's frustrating, but at the same time, I'm still so relaxed from vacation that it doesn't bother me. Sigh. I don't think I'll be victorious in this battle.

I'm also struggling with the break of schedule vacation causes. I tend to eat fairly healthy. Considering a co-worker has taken to calling me "Vegetable" because of my daily bag of vegetables I'm eating at my desk, I'd say I'm doing alright. Of course, I eat junk food and drink beer with the best of them, but overall, I'd like to think I'm pretty healthy. But on vacation, anything goes. And after, I don't want to eat healthy anymore. Or go to the gym. I just want to eat chips and be lazy. Hopefully as my head gets back in the work routine, it will follow suit for eating and running. Maybe?

Lastly, my lack of focus on work has got me thinking more about writing. Last June for 30 days of creativity I took a picture everyday and wrote a short story to go along with it (all posted here). I want to do that again in June, but I don't want to just do it one month out of the year. Ideally, it would be great to do it weekly. I know daily is just too much, but I think I can handle weekly. I loved going out and taking pictures each day and it was amazing how quickly the stories came to life with the photo inspiration. I always liked photography because I could just capture what I saw around me, but I wasn't overwhelmed by a empty roll of film, or in modern age, an empty memory card. A blank page however, frightening. I like writing, but it's hard for me to find an idea to write about. Anyway, the pairing of photography and writing worked well for me and I'm going to try to do more of it more often. We'll see how it goes. I'm sure I thought I would continue doing it after June was over (and I had recovered from my June 30th surgery). But I'm actually quite surprised that I haven't even gone back to my posterous to even re-read what I wrote. The only reason I had even thought about it was because I wanted to look at my day 9 picture because we're having a photo contest at work.

Here are the two photos I submitted for the work contest.
Title: Jumping Bean (taken in Chicago at the "Cloud Gate"- aka, "the bean")


Title: Evening Twilight (taken in NY at the "Top of the Rock")


The theme for the contest is Luck. My rationale is an "action" photo is always a lucky photo. And I was lucky to get to have that view of NY at sunset, and lucky to actually get a decent photo since my point-and-shoot camera doesn't have the best luck with night photos. Not that I have to defend my photos to anyone, but felt the need to do so now.

But, back to my 30days thoughts. I really didn't think I would abandon it all so quickly. I was consumed with my knee and recovery for most of the summer, but it's sad how fast I let it all go and didn't look back once. But enough of what I didn't do, I'm going to start now. And I think I have the perfect picture to start with.

And going full circle, I'm going to stop forcing my head to think about work and going to go home and write.

Tension

I can't state a source for this fact, but I've heard from more than one that money is usually a main source of fighting within a household. Since Adam I generally have some, we've been ok. But now we've gone from a DINK (Double Income No Kids) to SINK (Single Income No Kids) and I don't like it. I liked knowing that I had a pay check and brought money into the house. It made me feel like I didn't have to justify my expenses because I earned it. Now, I feel like I can't spend money on anything because I'm not helping bring any in. The worst part is Adam and I had a trip to Vegas planned to celebrate my graduation and our anniversary. He wants to cancel it. He doesn't even want to entertain the idea of still going. I don't know what the cancellation policy is (I'm dreading looking into it) but if we're out some money, I would rather we just go because if we're going to throw money way, why not just spend it and sort of enjoy it.

It doesn't help that everyone around me is telling me to travel. Believe me, if it was just me and I had money, I would. But since I am part of a unit and the other half has a death grip on the bank account, it probably won't happen. Does this frustrate me, yes. But I also need to remember the reason said unit has savings is from the death grip on the bank account. I love that Adam is a saver because it means that we plan and think about the future. The problem with that is that you can't be spontaneous. No impromptu trips happen. Nothing spur of the moment. I know others that live their lives saving up and traveling until they run out of money. My heart is there, but my body lives in a high interest savings account.

It has been 3 weeks of unemployment. I have had a couple interviews with a second round interview happening tomorrow and more meetings set up next week, so I'm trying to find something. But when is the next time I will have free time again?

I've also been sick all week with what I'm hoping are just allergy issues, so I haven't been running since my sinuses were driving me crazy- so that is also a major source of my frustration. I haven't been able to vent all week and I think it's all just building up now and I'm taking it all out on a soon to be canceled vacation. AND I have my FINAL paper due in 6 days and let's just say it needs A LOT of work. (I'm trying to remain calm and realizing that I still have more time to devote to it than any other paper I have written in the last two years). Sigh.