Poking My Head Out

First things first: Happy Independence Day! Here in the US, this is the single most important national holiday that we have, celebrating our declaration of independence from a tyrannical king and his unjust laws, and the birth of a new nation founded upon the principles of the Natural Rights common to all people: Life, Liberty, and Property. I could say a whole lot more on that topic, but I'm not going to... today.

The Big Project went live on Monday, and we survived. In fact, we not only survived, but we thrived. As with any Big Project, there were several last-minute challenges to overcome, and several challenges that surprised us over these first few days. But we're tracking them, prioritizing them, assigning resources to resolve them, and seeing them get resolved. And the best part is, while there's still a certain amount of stress among the team, we're over the hump. No one is shouting or losing their tempers, no one is pointing fingers or making accusations. We're working together as a team - and that includes not just the project team, but the team and the business together. It's a thing of beauty. Most importantly, the business hasn't suffered any major setbacks. We're still ordering materials, moving inventory, manufacturing product and shipping to customers. I call that a success.

I also got a big promotion at work, something I've been waiting for over a year to see. There were good reasons for the wait, Big Project being at the top of that list, but I'm really glad to have it finally, officially announced to my colleagues. And having Big Project behind me, I can begin to focus on the new job, responsibilities, and projects that have been lined up and waiting for me to tackle for a long time.

On the more personal front, I've gone into "maintenance mode" with my exercise. Actually to be fair, I have skipped my workouts for the past week and a half due to the long hours I've been working on the Big Project. But as of today, I am back on the exercise wagon. What does maintenance mode mean? It means that I'm working out 5 days a week, mixing resistance training with cardio. On the resistance days, I am doing the first half of each P90X resistance workout, where you apparently get 80% of the benefit. On the cardio days, I'm mixing Tae-Bo Advanced with some of the P90X cardio workouts. Basically whatever I feel like doing, since they all seem to burn a lot of calories, kick my metabolism up, and give me a good workout. I especially like Tae-Bo because it gives me a good ab/core workout right in the middle of the routine, whereas the P90X cardio workouts (Plyometrics and Kenpo) generally don't focus as much on the core. The flip-side is, I don't really want to do Tae-Bo two or three times a week, so that's why I'm mixing in the P90X cardio stuff.

Turning back to writing, today I get back to the story. My plan is to re-read a significant chunk of the story, to remind myself of the full context of everything that has happened recently, where the characters are, where they've been, and where they're going. After I'm comfortable with that, I'll be ready to start writing once again. Maybe today, but more likely this weekend.