It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times

Charles Dickens' epic first line from the book, A Tale of Two Cities, sums up how August has gone for me so far. I feel like I've packed about a month's worth of activities into the first two weeks of the month and am definitely ready for life to slow down a bit. Here's what falls under the best/worst category for the month!

The Best of Times...
- My month started out great with a girls weekend getaway to a cabin up north with 5 of my college friends. We did some shopping, ate great food, put together a 1,000 piece puzzle, caught up on each others lives, soaked up the sun, and laughed a lot. We had so much fun and are committed to getting together on an annual basis going forward!

Posing by Babe the Blue Ox, who is the side kick of the American Fok Hero, Paul Bunyan.

- We spent the second weekend hosting Alli and Chris and showing them the sights of Minneapolis. Neither one of them had been to Minneapolis so we did our best to show them the best that our city has to offer. We were gifted with absolutely beautiful weather! I did a terrible job of taking photos of all the things we saw and did, but some of the highlights were walking through the Rose Gardens by Lake Harriet, checking out Minnehaha Falls, walking through my old neighborhood, and eating dinner at one of the best restaurants in Minneapolis.

Alli & Chris by Minnehaha Falls

 - My garden has been producing a ton of fresh produce! I came home from a business trip and picked everything in the picture below, plus a bag of green beans. I already had quite a few tomatoes that I had picked the week before, so I need to figure out how to can stat! My goal is to try to make salsa and spaghetti sauce next weekend.

The Worst of Times...
- I have been so sick. Like the sickest I have been in a very, very long time. After hacking away all weekend during my girls weekend getaway, I ended up going to urgent care last Monday as I'd been sick for a week and hadn't made any improvement. It turns out I had a nasty case of bronchitis. I went to urgent care the morning before leaving for a 3-day business trip to northern California, so the timing was terrible.
 

Starting off my Monday with an urgent care patient bracelet.

- Being sick while traveling for work is HORRID. I coughed through presentations. I was constantly hot/clammy as my body couldn't regulate its temperature and it was so hot in the Central Valley of California where I spent most of my time. The low point of the trip was when I made the mistake of taking my antibiotics on an empty stomach and ended up throwing up one morning. I had to quickly rally as I had 4 different client meetings that day. I was on my own for the first two days and on the final day, the sales rep I was traveling with said I sounded so awful and said he would have understood if I wanted to stay in the car while he went in and did the client meetings. I opted to go into the client meetings with him as I figured I might as well contribute to the conversation since I was already there.

- To top things off, earlier in the month I found out that there was a water issue in the building where the condo I own is and because the connection between the dishwasher and kitchen sink in my unit wasn't properly installed, water backed up in to the kitchen. The laminate tile got wet and warped, so the flooring has to be replaced and I had to get that connection between the sink and the dishwasher fixed. And the oven element stopped working, too, so that is getting replaced.  When it rains, it pours I guess. Anytime I have to shell out money for that condo, it annoys me because I would LOVE to sell it, but it's STILL worth less than the balance of my mortgage. Le sigh. Luckily I have a property manager that deals with stuff like this because clearly I would not have had time to deal with it this month.

So there you have it. It's been a month of insanity. There have been good times, but there have been some tough times. I'm hoping that calmer waters are ahead because I feel like life is totally and completely kicking my *ss right now. Luckily, I have a mostly plan-free week. Thank God. I feel like I've barely seen Phil for the last 2 weeks so we really need some quiet time to just be together. And, his birthday falls this week so I'm glad I'll be around this week so I can help him celebrate it!

What's going on in your world these days?

Left Behind

Last Friday, my boss submitted his resignation.  That (and some other things) is the work stress I have been referring to this month.  I knew it was coming and part of me was ready for him to resign as I was tired of carrying the weight of knowing he was leaving; another part of me was extremely sad as it made me face the fact that he really, truly is leaving.

I know I had an atypical relationship with my boss, and I am lucky to have worked for someone like him.  But I am sad.  Both of us thought we would work as partners for years upon years. I don't fault him for leaving - I'd be doing the same thing if I was in his shoes.  I know he will continue to mentor me from afar, we'll meet for the occasional lunch, and I'll have dinner with his family, but it's just not the same.  I'm losing my daily support system, mentor, and confidant.

I feel pretty down about my work situation right now, but I also know that things have a way of working themselves out.  I know this case of the 'sads' will fade with time and I will rise above and make the most of it, but right now - I'm sad.  And scared. I leaned on him quite a bit and partnered with him on so much, it's a bit daunting to think of doing it all alone.

But our lives are so impacted by our outlook, so I am really trying to keep things in perspective.  We both have long careers ahead of ourselves, so maybe our paths will cross again in the future.  Also, I am very thankful that this is not happening in the midst of CFA study season.  And at the end of the day, there is so much more to me than what I do for a living.  Years ago, I learned to not let work become too big of a piece of my identity.  There are lots of other wonderful things in my life that define who I am, and bring me joy, so I will just intentionally turn my eyes towards those things. Things like my health, great family and friends, and my love of running.

And when I feel pulled down by my situation at work, I look at this quote, and feel a bit better.

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Je suis fatigue!

So...  I said I would take a couple of days off from blogging.  But here I am! 

The test is over.  Finished.  Finito.  I feel good about it - or as good as I can feel.  I am resisting the urge to analyze how it went.  I have an idea of what my score could potentially be and am pretty confident it should be in the passing range (whatever that is, it's not published and is determined every year).  I don't want to jinx it and say I definitely passed.  Instead I will say, the odds of me passing are good.  I will find out in August.  It's out of my hands now! 

It was pretty funny to see the guy to girl ratio on test day.  I am going to say it was probably 80% men.  Possibly more.  I was definitely the only girl in a dress (it's what I feel most confident in).  I definitely developed some test rituals.  Besides wearing a dress, I wrote the exam with a pink #2 pencil.  And I decided it would be good luck to eat lunch at a French restaurant (Nicoise salad, fresh squeezed lemonade.  Mmm).  If I pass the test, I will repeat those rituals next June when I take level 2 (here's hoping I am taking level 2 and not re-taking level 1!!)

Oh and the CFA institute should totally host some sort of speed dating event.  There were some good looking guys there!  Ha!  Maybe they could hold it over the 2 hour lunch break.  ;)  Although as I used to say in my math program when I was totally the minority, it might be another case of "The odds were good, but the goods were odd."

When I walked out of the exam room, I felt about 100 x's lighter.  I wanted someone to high five me!  I wanted to skip!  I headed to my aunt & uncles where I was greeted with wine!  And then a champagne toast!  And then a yummy Mexican meal with margaritas!  It was such a fun night - lots of laughter, lots of sighs of relief on my part.

Yesterday, the exhaustion set in.  I don't think I let myself really feel exhausted until the test was over because I didn't have time to think about how tired I have been lately or to re-adjust my schedule. 

I sat down and thought about all the things that have happened this year.  Since January 1st, I...
- healed a broken heart
- visited Abby in Tucson
- visited Nora in St. Louis
- started a new job
- celebrated my 30th birthday with a fabulous French-themed party
- spent a week in Paris and chronicled my adventures here
- visited Becky in DC, ran a horrible race with Charbelle, and met Jess, another DC-area blogger
- studied for and passed the Series 7
- found a tenant to rent my condo and a condo to rent downtown!
- studied for (and hopefully passed) level 1 of the CFA

Le sigh.  That is freaking lot to pack into 5 months!

It's no wonder I am exhausted.  Looking back, I may have slightly over-scheduled those first 5 months of the year.  I can't say I would change a thing.  I'm just really, really tired. 

I have to get through the next 4 weeks of packing/moving/settling in...  (luckily some friends have offered to help.  My friends rock!)  And I have plans to go to my parents lake cabin every weekend this month, so I will get some much-needed R&R on the weekends. 

But after the move?  I need to take time to do things I enjoy instead of doing things I HAVE to do.  I plan on doing a whole lot of running.  I want to watch all 6 seasons of SATC whilst knitting (not in one sitting, of course, but over the course of a couple of months.)   I want to take walks with girlfriends around the local lake or along the river.  I want to try new recipes.  I want to dine al fresco and drink wine on my balcony.  I want to check out my new, fun, vibrant neighborhood.   

I think when it's all said in done, I will look back on the first 6 months of this year and think - "I don't know how you did it, but you did it.  Now let's not do it again."

Is there a period of your life that you look back on and wonder how you fit it all in?