The blog does not seem to be publishing out to people correctly... that sucks.
My job is going well. Lately I have been getting a lot more responsibility and freedom within the company. I'm now recognized as probably having the best writing skills (though 2 out of 5 of us are english as second language), being careful and precise about things (though I fear that reputation may not last....!), and knowing the right thing to do sometimes (I call this skill 'common sense' but the boss seems impressed for now). I'm being asked to become the expert on residential projects, which are sort of boring but known for being the most difficult/dangerous part of our work here. It's just a whole different world to what I was doing at Arup, and I'm enjoying the change.
I'm still in the sublet I moved into. I get along well with my landlord and his fiance who comes over sometimes. I expect I'll make a decision whether to move out in the next few months-- perhaps when she moves in full time after the wedding and brings her dog (who tried to bite me) it may be significantly less good. For now I like that it's extremely easy living (little sharing, little commuting, all of the modern conveniences I could ever need).
I've been making some musical connections through church. Last Sunday I played for a 'Lady Gaga mass' (words of Lady Gaga songs changed to have words like hymns... yes they're pretty weird there), and then was asked if I'd play for another service on Saturday and play gospel singalongs for prison inmates. And then there was a concert at church afterwards and the guy sitting next to me was a piano/percussionist who has musical afternoons on sundays in a victorian house in sf. Not sure if I'm going to participate in all of those things, but it's cool to start having connections!
I'm giving up alcohol for Lent..! It's much easier to do here, what with having to drive everywhere, I drink much much less. I've been drinking a little more than usual in the lead up to gibing it up, and I've found my tolerance is down to like one beer already. After this experiment I'll be such an incredibly cheap date. Ugh but Friday I'm invited to a karaoke piano bar party which is the first big excuse I've had to drink in the past month. I can probably pretend to be drunk a little to do the karaoke.. I'll think back to my early college days, before I drank but people would accuse someone of having spiked my drink.
I've been exercising 5-6 times a week and watching what I eat more. I've lost 7 pounds (there's a scale in the gym) and I can do more pullups than ever before in my life. I just found out I can do a headstand/handstand pushup! I don't know where it came from all of a sudden, this full on exercise regime, but I just feel better when I exercise in a given day, and it's really easy to do because there's a barely used exercise room at work, like my own private gym with shower and about 8 machines. I also don't have that much else going on, so it's easy to make time for that everyday. Weekends the gym is closed, so whichever day is nicer I go for a bike ride around the little bike paths by the bay shore, which is beautiful.
Well I was typing this on my phone so I don't have a sense for how long this is (probably very...), but I need to get ready for work anyway. Glad I got to summarize life here. It's all staying fairly positive for now so I think I don't need to password protect the blog yet, that's a good sign :) Talk to you all soon!
Love,
Stephen
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