Happy New Year and all that shit
I get a little thoughtful when I consider the year as a whole. You know, the idea of accomplishing things, making goals, tallying up what I've done, as well as failures, and what I didn't do...
The best and most positive thing is with my relationship with Sarah. She's become my partner in every sense of the word, and I couldn't ask for more. She's even taken up running, which I daresay, her views on running are not dissimilar to my own. I.e. neither of us like it, but I like being able to do it, and the other benefits can't be denied.
Work: I've become a critical component of the team, and while I enjoy my status, it's a HUGE pain in the ass. I'm holding my own, but the amount of work that must get done (all before 8 in the morning), means a lot of pressure, and getting in early reduces the pressure slightly - I can get it all done, but it doesn't mean I can leave any earlier, and I'm often staying later to get some of the next morning's work prepped. I honestly don't know what would happen if I couldn't make it in for whatever reason. The client would not be happy and I need to remedy that. A backup plan needs to be made and I'm sort of working on that as I type this out. Overall, if things go well, work will continue in this vein until the middle of summer. After that, I just might get to work on other things. One thing I'm pretty certain about: they'll be making me a full-timer if for no other reason than to stop paying me overtime! Amusingly, I understand conversations with the client about employment with them, is a real possibility. I'll believe it when it happens.
Training: My schedule makes training a little tricky, but I've managed to keep up, with the exception being with aerials. As I tweak things at work, I should be able to change things enough to make getting to class, less of a challenge. Duo acro-wise, Sarah and I are progressing (she's definitely getting more confident and stronger), and we're working on making our transitions more graceful, and adding more dance to the routine. We'll be working more on aerial duo things as well, and as she gets stronger, we're looking forward to creating routines with several apparatuses. She's definitely getting the hang of things in general, and we'll be working with Jackie to create a workshop to generate more interest in all things acro.
My other training, at the gym and with running, have progressed to the point that the weights I now use are the ones I used at my strongest (with the exception of legs. Ugh.) My running continues to improve, and I'm looking forward to seeing the speed increase as well as the distance, enough to compare favorably to my best times some 10-15 years ago. It's been so long, and I really want to improve on everything I'm training in, and seeing it happen is really rewarding in ways I can't express. A deep sense of satisfaction that my consistency and discipline are paying off and who knows? Maybe by the time beach season is here, I'll look good in my speedos! (Okay, they're not speedos - they're from Tyr. :) Hah.)
Anyway, the year is shaping up nicely, and everything appears stable enough to actually plan things, with some flexibility of course.