Work and work out

Last week and this week so far work has been super-busy, to the point that I have needed to work past 5:00 and I even worked for 2 1/2 hours on Sat. This is very unusual for me.

I don't believe in working overtime or on weekends unless there is a specific, limited reason. A special project with a short due date or something similar might cause me to make an exception, but I do not want to be known as a person who checks their work email after hours or does any work on weekends. Once you become known for either of those two things people will expect you to do it all the time, and I'm not trying to open that can of worms.

But one of my existing clients has this huge project on Wed & Thurs this week, for which much work and preparation was required by not only me, but several other people in my company. Thank god that'll all be over by Fri.

Recently I've also had 2 brand new clients who've required more than the usual amount of training and hand-holding. I don't mind doing it at all, in fact I enjoy the feeling I get from being so helpful and useful to my clients. Its just that the timing has been such that the huge project for the existing client AND the 2 new clients' extra work have all been happening at the same time.

I've really felt the stress in my body. A few times I've gotten up from my desk to go to the bathroom or get a cup of coffee and I feel all the tension in my neck and shoulders. I try to 'shake it out' with limited success. I actually took an anti-inflammatory one night to help relieve my knotted muscles.

But by far the worst has been that I've had almost no time to keep up with my favorite blogs! Fortunately things should be calming down soon and I can resume my usual, relaxed pace of work.

Work out update: week 14
I got to my work out 15 minutes late yesterday, thanks to 1 of my new, needy clients. Rick had me do a nice combo (upper and lower body) work out which included a new exercise where I sat on a bench and raised dumb bells from under my knees out and up as high as my ears. This was harder than it sounds, and got harder each time I did it. But because I complained, he switched the dumb bells for heavier ones for the 2nd set! I told Rick "You're killing me!!!", at which he simply laughed. No 'elbows and knees' this week. I think Rick has figured out that these are not challenging enough for me, so instead he's making do floor exercises that require me to keep both feet up in the air and do sit ups. Dear god! My hamstrings are too tight to hold my legs up in the air like that. (That sounds like the trigger for some off-color sex jokes.) But as Rick tells me, you have to vary your work out to be effective.

Drag Queen name of the day: Carrie Onbag