Wednesday, October 7, 2009

First Day

Wow, it's been almost a week since I've been able to post. HECTIC! I've been everywhere, all over the place. The weekend flew by. Friday I was supposed to finish the old job work projects and be done with it. That got hectic and I didn't finish. Saturday and Sunday we were slamming out home repairs. Kelley has been working her tail off (bless her heart) to get the house ready to list. Cleaning, decluttering, we got a storage unit and moved a bunch of crap into it. Then clean and declutter some more. Then clean some more. Then declutter some more. So now half of the house is clean and ready to go. I had to skip the saturday long run and sunday bike ride to work on the house. It was exhausting!!!

Monday I almost finished the old job stuff. I think I'm abandoning the rest of it, but I might try to finish something when I can. Still, I worked. and cleaned some. and decluttered. and had no training.

Tuesday I packed up for the week and drove to Raleigh. Got all the paperwork filled out so I was actually an employee again. Went and checked out a house that looks promising. Planned my commute from Mickey's house (kelley's dad - staying with him until the fam can move up), and rode around town some just to get myself oriented. I don't know all of the back roads yet, heck I don't even know where most things are. But I know where the major roads are now, and how to get back to Mickey's from there.

I also joined up with Gold's Gym here. They have 5 locations including one that's really close to the office. And that one has a pool! So the plan is to cut over there for lunch and swim (Thank God), then head back after work for the run/bike workouts as normal. And the membership is good with all 5 locations, so wherever we end up buying a house at there is one near there. Going to have to get all of the workouts in while I'm here; when I'm back in Greenville I want to spend that time with Kelley and the kids. It's only been one night and I already miss my girls something fierce!

I never really thought Greenville was lacking in anything. It's not really a small town, there's over 1 million people there. You can get anything you want, get anywhere you want to go. Raleigh has 1.1 million people. But there are 3 major universities here (NC State, Duke, UNC) within a 12 mile radius, and Raleigh is the state capital. The ultra-conservatives in SC - which is 90% of the genpop - hates paying taxes. Now I can see why. They don't see any real benefit. Greenville county has one public access indoor pool. It's open from 9 am to 11 am 5 days a week. I've been paying taxes to support a pool that's only open for 2 hours a day while I'm at work? Gimme a break. The city of Raleigh has four public access pools open from 5 am to 10 pm 7 days a week. Pools might be just one example, but the NC government actually does something! Something that people can see and use! It's amazing. It really is a night and day difference that I am quickly developing a real appreciation for.

So last night I got in my first workout at Gold's after checking out a house and getting some dinner. Did 3 miles on the treadmill at a decent pace. Hip is still kind of tight. This pain has been going on long enough to make me concerned. But whatever, I'll just deal with it.

Today was my first day on the new job, stiff hip and all. First, I sat in on a meeting which was a great introduction to the product I was going to be working on. Felt great about the environment and the people. Then I got to look at the code behind the project, and it looked like spaghetti. And it was primarily built on two pieces of technology that I have never used before. Immediately I felt overwhelmed with the learning curve I was currently at the bottom of. But I remembered that they hired me out of hundreds of other applicants because I am capable of learning this technique, not because I already knew it. This new stuff is only about 10% of the total job, so I have to keep that in perspective. They only hire the best, I only get to work with the best. As long as I can keep my confidence up the gaps will all be filled in soon enough. Still, today started out great and ended up giving me a bad stress headache. Hey if it was easy then anyone could do it. At least my co-workers are really fantastic people.

Then I went back to Gold's for another workout after work. Wanted to get some time on the bike, and I walked in right as a spin class was starting so I jumped in. Turned out to be a fun class. Maybe not as many miles as I would have clocked by myself, but it was at least more fun.

So tomorrow I'm going to try the lunchtime swim, followed by some elliptical time after work. Might have to skip the gym after work to pick up supplies for the new living/work situation. Need some web cams for the fam, a new pillow for the bed here, and to meet with a realtor about the house I drove past yesterday.

But to summarize, Raleigh is awesome, the new job is killer but really tough, and I'm loving the new gym. Y'all have a great day!

18 comments:

Adorable Girlfriend said...

Raleigh is fantastic. Great restaurants, great city, great people! Durham is nothing to shake a stick at either.

Unknown said...

Sounds like good stuff all around. yay!

Amber said...

Awesome!! Sounds like things are going well so far.

1 million people, wow, that is a lot haha! Kamloops is the biggest city I've ever lived in and it has about 80,000 people. Big cities intimidate me!

That's sweet about all the Gold Gym locations there, too! Sounds like you have a great routine figured out already!

Missy said...

That rocks! Sounds like you'll be much happier there. Yes, manage the hip as best as you can. We're getting close. You will be fine come race day. Adrenaline is an amazing drug!

Jess said...

Glad the move is proving to be so great!

Greenville has 1 million people? I drove through there once and it seemed pretty small to me!

Wes said...

Hang in there bro! It will settle down. We'll have to try to say hi to you when we come up this year for the soccer tournament....

RockStarTri said...

CJ,

It must have been hard to leave your girls even though you'll talk to them often and see them soon. I personally hate webcams but I'm sure it will help.

My wife commented once that one of the benefits from training is that when I was with them, I was focused on them rather than thinking of the gazillon other things that were going on.

I'm excited for you with this move. It'll be hard at times but it will be worth it(doesn't that sound applicable to B2B too?).

Rock on.

Jess said...

Glad to hear things are falling in place so well for you. I've been to the Raleigh/Durham area many times on various sports road trips. Except for the fact that I strongly dislike all three universities there, it seems like a good place haha. Now don't go becoming a Duke or UNC fan or me or we might have some problems lol!

Georgia Snail said...

CJ, Glad to hear the move is going off without a hitch. Raleigh/Durham is one of my favorite places, the wife and I go up every so often for her schooling. There are some great trails along the Greenway to run...

Manderz said...

Yay for the new job & new gym. Hope your hip starts to feel better!

The Enthusiast said...

I'm liking all the pool availability. A good pool is hard to come by up here :-P

I'll be heading down to the Raleigh/Durham area soon and I'm really looking forward to running in a different city!

Unknown said...

Moving-terrible!
Gym with pool-fantastic!!

Mike G said...

Congrats on the move and the new job - sounds like you're doing what you need to do to maintain forward progress in you life

Mel-2nd Chances said...

So glad you're liking your new stomping grounds and have a gym with a pool! The pool hours in SC seem pretty crazy! Hope you had a good weekend with the girls, i bet they miss you like crazy too ;)

Alisa said...

Sounds like things are going great for you in Raleigh. My good friend whose wedding I just attended lives in Raleigh and LOVES it!

Keep taking care of the hip!

sarah said...

I am super jealous you have a pool at your gym.

healthy ashley said...

Gosh you've been busy! Sometimes being busy is great. All your hard work will pay off! I'm glad you're loving Raleigh!

under my own steam said...

yay! I'm glad you like Raleigh. I love this area. And, it'll be totally awesome to have another tri-dude nearby! If not before, then I'll see you at the B2B!