OUCH!

So I’m back in the gym this week, after my lengthy diatribe about discipline last week. Admittedly, it’s Wednesday morning and I’ve only been once so far, but there’s a trip planned for this afternoon prior to heading up to Northbrook for Christmas Eve with the family. Work is slow enough that I don’t think I’ll be missed if I sneak out for a half hour on the elliptical. Of course, I say that and the hour I’ll be gone will be the hour things go to hell. Although considering the way things have gone lately, everyone should be used to it.

As you can guess, things at work are weirdly busy, but dull. December in years past has been a month of frenzied fifteen hour days at the office, busily trying to get expiring loans booked, or new loans put in place for companies who have a year end deadline. This year, not so much. We’re all about risk avoidance, and closely monitoring the loans we do have, and for some reason, none of them are expiring on December 31st. It’s made for a quiet month, but intense, as I’m trying to keep as close an eye on my companies as possible without seeming like I work there. Last night this stuff kept me at work until 7:30 or so. This was a bit later than I intended, and there was a break for dinner around 6pm that took twenty minutes. The good news, as it relates to working out, is that at the end of the work day I went straight over to the gym and worked out for about an hour. I lifted weights for the first time in ages, and it was great to be back on that side of the gym floor.

There are a couple reasons I enjoyed myself so much last night. The first was that at 7:30 the week of Christmas, there was no one there, or almost no one. It’s just much easier to get a workout done when there aren’t any other people using the machines you want to use. This seems obvious, I know, but there aren’t many times where there aren’t several people in the area, and I just prefer to be alone over there, taking care of business and getting out of there. I’ve got a few post-workday lifting routines for different sets of muscle groups, and if there’s no one there, I can get each one done in about a half hour, while breaking a pretty good sweat and feeling it the next day. Last night was chest and triceps, for those you curious few, and I took it as a good sign when I woke up this morning that I was already a little sore. Just means I did my job efficiently last night. I also spent twenty minutes on the elliptical after the lifting to keep my heart rate up at an aerobic pace. Supposedly, twenty minutes a day is enough to improve your cardiovascular activity, though I usually prefer thirty minutes.

The second reason it was a good trip is a bit less practical, and a bit more personal. The staff at the Equinox where I work out are generally pretty cool, though there are a few who go out of their way to be nice. I’m sure there’s a corporate policy in place mandating that every member be greeted and bid farewell, but one woman in particular has made it a point to know my name and ask how things are going. It’s a small gesture, but it makes it easier to show up there, knowing that at least one person seems genuinely interested in my welfare. Last night, if that wasn’t enough, I had a nice conversation with another of the staff who also happened to be pretty damn cute. More on that later in the week, though don’t get your hopes up, it’s going to be more of this interminable self-reflection on the conversation we had, rather than anything juicy, as my life is far too boring for anything like that to happen. Signing off for now. Cheers, kids, and Merry (or Happy) Christmas!

Blake