February 5, 2005 Healthy Living Steph and I walked in through the Consulting Company garage this morning, and there was a yellow sign with "Caution! Wet Floor!" sitting in the middle of the doorway. Since my boots were already wet from the melting snow, I didn't think it'd be a big deal to walk through a puddle, until I realized that there wasn't a puddle there, it was a big pile of broken glass. Now, I can see someone putting up that sign as a quick stopgap as he picked up a broom and a dustpan, but the sign and the glass were both there all day long. Tamra and Laurie went out for McDonald's in the afternoon, and Tamra joked with Laurie by saying, "Which one of us should fall down on that and sue for a million dollars?" At the end of the day, when I went down to the garage to get Stephanie's bag out of my car, the glass was still sitting there, glinting in an evil, pointy, sharp way. I wrote to the maintenance manager and said that I would have cleaned up the glass, had there been a broom and a dustpan nearby, but all the janitors' closets are locked in the building. And isn't it a bit of a hazard to have great big slivers of razor-sharp glass piled up in the middle of the only door in from that side of the garage? Actually, I was very assertive today. One of the color printers totally shat the bed yesterday, and someone called in to schedule a great big printing job for Monday morning, with a very quick turnaround time. The rule seems to be: if one printer goes down, the other gets jealous of the sick time the first one is taking and fakes an illness to get attention too. I called for an after-hours service call, which costs more money, but I just couldn't risk having both printers down with a job waiting on Monday. The answering service took my call and told me that the dispatcher would be giving me a call back. When he called back, he said that the manager told him that we'd have to wait until Monday to get the copier fixed. Both technicians, he said, were booked solid. I asked what the manager was doing, and the dispatcher told me that the manager didn't make after-hours calls. "Well, he's going to have to today," I said. "We need that printer up and running, so you have him give me a call." The guy got flustered and said that wasn't the way things were done, and I told him that I didn't much care for how things were done; if the manager was going to tell me that his tech guys were too busy to service the machines that we constantly need to have fixed, then he'd have to break his own rule and show up his own damned self. The dispatcher said he'd "try." Fifteen minutes later, I got a call from the manager, saying, "I understand you have a copier down?" I told him what had happened to the copier (for those who care, the web got caught in the gears and basically tore itself to pieces), and he said, "I'll be there in a couple of hours or so." Funny how being a little agressive can get you what you want. I think I'll practice doing it more. So I went to the company's gym today! I had to dig around to find my wind pants and my gym bag, but I got everything packed up this morning, with the intention of doing some cardio work on my lunch break. I brought some clementines with me, so I could start my whole "healthy living / get in shape so I'm appealing to someone" lifestyle. Of course, much of that went out the window when Laurie announced that she was making a McDonald's run. I got cheeseburgers, but didn't eat many of the fries (which I'm sure saved me a ton of calories). Usually, I don't like to work out after having eaten anything heavy, so I waited three hours before heading downstairs with Tamra, who started working out late last year. She says she doesn't sweat at all (I guess she must pant, or something), so she didn't need to change, but I made use of the Glamorous Locker Room of Glamor, changed into my fat-boy workout gear (when I'm in really good shape, it's long shorts and sleeveless t-shirts. Nowadays, it's the wind pants and a large short-sleeved t-shirt), and made my way to the gym. I got on the elliptical trainer and started it up, thinking I'd start out with 30 minutes for today, and then work up to a longer period of time. The gym has a whole bank of TVs, so we watched The Soup on E! and chugged our way up imaginary hills. Tamra only did fifteen minutes on the elliptical trainer, which I felt all superior about until I hit the 19-minute mark, and decided that 25 minutes would be just fine for my first day. She was still fiddling around with the weights when I said that I would meet her back up in the office, because unlike her, I sweat quite a bit when I work out (which is kind of sexy on someone in shape, but kind of sad for someone who's avoided the gym and existed on Ding Dongs for two years), and had to take a shower. The shower stall isn't a stall at all, it's an entire room containing a sink, a bench, and the shower itself. You can take all your stuff inside with you (it's about the size of a guest bathroom) and avoid the whole "walking around the locker room naked" thing. Not that there was anybody there, mind you. I'm still self-conscious. There is something about being naked at one's place of work that's a bit disconcerting, even behind a locked door in a designated shower area. I kept expecting Bernice to knock on the door to discuss a document, or something. At any rate, my workout plan (for the time being) is to go to the gym on the four days I work, doing heavy cardio (when I get up to the point where "heavy cardio" doesn't kill me) two of those days, and a cardio-and-weights session on the other two days. Time was, I went to the gym every single day, but I don't think I'll ever get back to that. Besides, with the gym being free and all, working out when I go to the office will work for me just fine. I plan on going in an hour early each day, and working out for about 45 minutes, then showering and shaving, getting dressed, doing the hair (which needs a serious cut), and then heading up to the office. My current weight is 206, which isn't terrible for a man slightly over six feet tall, but I tend to gain weight in my face and around my middle, so I like to stay at least 20 pounds less than that. I'm hoping that through a better diet (not a diet, per say, just healthier choices) and working out, I can lose those 20 pounds before I have to show up in a bathing suit in Cancun this June. After work, Laurie (who had worked on a really taxing document, setting up a PowerPoint presentation to be populated by an automated computer survey) and I (who had worked on proofing the taxing document, so not so taxing after all) decided we were both too beat to head to the movies, even though we could have made Million Dollar Baby with time to spare. Her love for Clint Eastwood knows no bounds, and the same goes for me and Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman. Still, sitting on the couch and watching TiVoed episodes of The O.C. and Enterprise (which Carol Elaine has pointed out is going to be canceled after this season...no Captain Archer! No Trip! How sad!) sounded just great. We ordered and picked up some Chinese food (again, the "good eating" part of my healthy living resolution will start sometime in the near future) and plunked ourselves down on the couch for a good night's worth of nothing at all. And it was good. I took off early because I was feeling sleepy (those 25 grueling minutes of cardio really took it out of me), and I had to stop at Walgreen's for some supplies to fill up my gym bag (like a lock for the locker, and some body wash and deodorant and a tiny hair dryer). When I got home, I told Mom about a possible opportunity to work in another office for awhile (I can't go into details yet, because nothing's solidified...but you might want to look in the source code for a hint), and she looked at me like I was crazy. The last time I tried moving far away from home, I suffered from two MAJOR panic attacks, once in a mall in Ohio, and a second time just before I was to head to the airport for my first sales call for the Publishing Company. However, I feel like I'm a much stronger person these days, and the internet has improved so much that I wouldn't be out of touch with my friends and family all that much. If it does arise, I think I'll go for it, because I really have been pushing the boundaries I've imposed on myself in the past. I'm getting really involved at work, I'm writing a lot, I'm starting new projects, and I'm feeling generally more confident these days. I don't live my life in fear anymore. I didn't realize how much it ruled me until it was gone, and I'm glad to have it off my back.