January 22, 2009: Back to Warren Today

I was really exhausted this morning when I pulled myself out of bed.  Alternating shifts are hard to handle.  I would prefer always being on one shift or another.  Work started today at six thirty in the morning.  The basement is very cold all day long but first thing in the morning it is positively freezing.

I worked for several hours and then, at ten thirty, I hopped into the Protege 5 and drove out to Warren, New Jersey to work from that office for the day.  This is my first time driving to Warren from Peekskill.  The trip took ninety minutes.  A pretty long commute to do by car.

I discovered when I arrived in Warren that it has been so long since I have last been out that way that my badge had been deactivated.  So I had to be signed in for a change.

I was at the office for about half an hour before the team went out for lunch.  I have not seen my team is almost three months which is crazy.  This is the longest that I have gone without seeing the people with whom I work.

For lunch we drove down to Houlihan’s which has awesome stuffed and fried mushrooms and fish tacos that I really like.  It is a common food destination for us.

Overall today was not too busy.  As I always do when in Warren, I spent a bit of the day just going around and catching up with everyone.

We had a pretty major re-organization at work today.  Re-orgs only affect me minimally since I am not an employee but a consultant.  It’s times like this that being a consultant is so much less stressful.  In reality, this particular re-org is probably good for my long term career in the financial industry because it gives me an opportunity to work with the equities business in addition to fixed income in which I have been working for the last three years.

I left Warren at five thirty and got to Peekskill around a quarter after seven or maybe a little later.  The trip back in rush hour was not nearly as the drive in.  On the way home I stopped at Stop and Shop to pick up ingredients for Oreo’s food for the week.

After I returned home we cooked Oreo’s food, ate dinner and watched some of the Mary Tyler Moore show’s third season.

Liesl was excited to see me when I got home but it was not too long before she was asleep.  Oreo was so excited that I had to play with him for several hours.  He really misses me when I am gone.

This evening we finally set up the Wii Fit balance board and tried using the Wii Fit.  We probably put an hour and a half into it between Dominica and I.  In addition to learning how to use it we each set up our profiles and did thirty minutes of exercising.  They do a good job of making the Wii Fit actually give you a work out.  We were both sweating by the time that we were done.  I am going to be soar tomorrow.

I am working the early shift again tomorrow and then working starting at seven in the morning on Saturday.  Later, on Saturday, Jenn and Angelo are coming up from Philadelphia to visit us.  They have not seen the new house or Liesl yet.  Angelo and I have not even had a chance to meet yet.

It was realy late by the time that Dominica and I finally got to bed.  It was probably one in the morning or possibly later.  Another night of practically no sleep for me.