(no subject)
Well I've been doing a poor job at updating my web log but I'll try to do a quick update to cover the past month or so. In fact, good lord, I just noticed how long it's been since I've published anything of substance.
After my Caribbean cruise vacation with the family I had a couple of weeks to get back into the swing of work before leaving for a work trip aboard ship. I had the chance to spend a full weekend in San Diego before boarding the ship for the week. I was able to hang out with an 'ex' from Chicago and his partner in their condo. It was a fantastic evening of catching up and getting to know his other half. We really had a good time and any concerns that I had had of awkwardness went away after the first few minutes .... or was it few glasses of wine? Yeah, it was a crazy night overall. lol
The work trip went well save for the fact that it ranked up there as being one of the roughest ship segments I've been on in a long time. We didn't experience white caps, per se, but the swells were enough to keep the ship in a constant pitching motion (forward and back) versus rolling (side to side). It even began to wear on me after a while as my stateroom was toward the front of the ship. At least I was in a verandah stateroom. There is nothing quite like hanging out on the balcony in my pajamas for a bit before going to sleep at night! By the second full sea day, THEN the white caps began and it was full out rockin' and rollin'. It was really interesting in the night club watching those (who made it that long) trying to dance and getting tossed from one end of the lounge to the other. It was a successful trip, though, and I made my presentation, hosted the dinners, hosted the cocktail parties, and even made new friends to boot!
Since being home from that trip I've gotten back into the work schedule full swing as well as my gym routine. I'm pretty proud of my progress at the gym and am starting to do more effective weight sets and not necessarily just piling the weight on. My workout partner tends to kick my ass a lot, though, too so that helps. I've been regularly going to my massage therapist, too, which has been wonderful on the stress levels and back strain. Stress tends to go directly to my shoulders and back. I also dedicate one day a week to working just shoulders and back so after a week or two of all of that, he's a very welcome sight to the weekend.
I am now also studying Norwegian full-time for our upcoming trip and I feel very accomplished in that regard. I've been going to the coffee shop nearly every weekend morning with my friend Chris and hitting the books. I study so much more effectively when I'm out of the house versus being slopped on the couch or sitting at the dining room table. For those of you who know me, I tend to pick up new languages very easily so don't be too too impressed! heheh I am also having to blow through my Dutch course from over a year ago to brush up on that for our few nights in Amsterdam. I thought it would be difficult to pick up again but it's all flooding back. The really interesting transition will be when we fly from Amsterdam to Oslo, Norway and I have to change my mind set to Norwegian. I've just loved getting back into languages and do feel that it is a huge part of my life I've missed out on for quite some time. I think once our trip is over I might throw myself back into Italian and try to become more proficient in that. Some of my good friends speak Italian and are very much immersed in Italian culture so it would be great for when I'm hanging out with them
So, yeah, in exactly three weeks from now we will be boarding our SAS flight to Copenhagen and then continue on to Amsterdam. I have a couple of friends over in both cities we'll be seeing so that is great. I've finalized all of our inter-Europe travel plans which also consist of taking a train (and then boat) from Oslo to Bergen on the West coast of Norway. We spend one night there before taking the train back to Oslo through the mountains. I've heard that it is very scenic and a photographer's dream.
Tonight we're going to Dragonfish in downtown Seattle with some good friends. A week ago we hosted a taco bar party here at our place and had a pretty good turn out. It was a great chance to catch up with some friends I have not seen in a while and also chat with a lot of our ongoing good friends. I have to say that I think a lot more lately about just what great people we have in our lives. Some of our friends I see nearly ever weekend and some just occasionally. It just seems that every time we have a get-together, though, everyone just mixes very well and all tend to get along. That tells me so much about the consistency of my friend group and is a really, really good feeling. Some tend to say that we're "always going out" or "always going to dinner" but I it is always just a prime time to all socialize and catch up. I do also like the times when we host friends over at our place but I'm sure that you some of you can relate to the maintenance involved in preparation and clean up. It's all well worth it.
So yeah I'm really mellow from my massage last hour and I'm just about to get ready to go out for dinner and drinks!
After my Caribbean cruise vacation with the family I had a couple of weeks to get back into the swing of work before leaving for a work trip aboard ship. I had the chance to spend a full weekend in San Diego before boarding the ship for the week. I was able to hang out with an 'ex' from Chicago and his partner in their condo. It was a fantastic evening of catching up and getting to know his other half. We really had a good time and any concerns that I had had of awkwardness went away after the first few minutes .... or was it few glasses of wine? Yeah, it was a crazy night overall. lol
The work trip went well save for the fact that it ranked up there as being one of the roughest ship segments I've been on in a long time. We didn't experience white caps, per se, but the swells were enough to keep the ship in a constant pitching motion (forward and back) versus rolling (side to side). It even began to wear on me after a while as my stateroom was toward the front of the ship. At least I was in a verandah stateroom. There is nothing quite like hanging out on the balcony in my pajamas for a bit before going to sleep at night! By the second full sea day, THEN the white caps began and it was full out rockin' and rollin'. It was really interesting in the night club watching those (who made it that long) trying to dance and getting tossed from one end of the lounge to the other. It was a successful trip, though, and I made my presentation, hosted the dinners, hosted the cocktail parties, and even made new friends to boot!
Since being home from that trip I've gotten back into the work schedule full swing as well as my gym routine. I'm pretty proud of my progress at the gym and am starting to do more effective weight sets and not necessarily just piling the weight on. My workout partner tends to kick my ass a lot, though, too so that helps. I've been regularly going to my massage therapist, too, which has been wonderful on the stress levels and back strain. Stress tends to go directly to my shoulders and back. I also dedicate one day a week to working just shoulders and back so after a week or two of all of that, he's a very welcome sight to the weekend.
I am now also studying Norwegian full-time for our upcoming trip and I feel very accomplished in that regard. I've been going to the coffee shop nearly every weekend morning with my friend Chris and hitting the books. I study so much more effectively when I'm out of the house versus being slopped on the couch or sitting at the dining room table. For those of you who know me, I tend to pick up new languages very easily so don't be too too impressed! heheh I am also having to blow through my Dutch course from over a year ago to brush up on that for our few nights in Amsterdam. I thought it would be difficult to pick up again but it's all flooding back. The really interesting transition will be when we fly from Amsterdam to Oslo, Norway and I have to change my mind set to Norwegian. I've just loved getting back into languages and do feel that it is a huge part of my life I've missed out on for quite some time. I think once our trip is over I might throw myself back into Italian and try to become more proficient in that. Some of my good friends speak Italian and are very much immersed in Italian culture so it would be great for when I'm hanging out with them
So, yeah, in exactly three weeks from now we will be boarding our SAS flight to Copenhagen and then continue on to Amsterdam. I have a couple of friends over in both cities we'll be seeing so that is great. I've finalized all of our inter-Europe travel plans which also consist of taking a train (and then boat) from Oslo to Bergen on the West coast of Norway. We spend one night there before taking the train back to Oslo through the mountains. I've heard that it is very scenic and a photographer's dream.
Tonight we're going to Dragonfish in downtown Seattle with some good friends. A week ago we hosted a taco bar party here at our place and had a pretty good turn out. It was a great chance to catch up with some friends I have not seen in a while and also chat with a lot of our ongoing good friends. I have to say that I think a lot more lately about just what great people we have in our lives. Some of our friends I see nearly ever weekend and some just occasionally. It just seems that every time we have a get-together, though, everyone just mixes very well and all tend to get along. That tells me so much about the consistency of my friend group and is a really, really good feeling. Some tend to say that we're "always going out" or "always going to dinner" but I it is always just a prime time to all socialize and catch up. I do also like the times when we host friends over at our place but I'm sure that you some of you can relate to the maintenance involved in preparation and clean up. It's all well worth it.
So yeah I'm really mellow from my massage last hour and I'm just about to get ready to go out for dinner and drinks!