It's Alive!!!...even if not exactly kicking

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, to quote immortal Mark Twain, "The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated." It's true I've been MIA for over 4 months. There are several reasons for that, I guess. But the main one is that I simply didn't think that anyone was really all that interested in reading my musings. (none of you comment, like ever... [she said in whiny voice]). But, to my surprise, several of my friends brought up the fact that I stopped blogging. From which I (oh the brain power) deduced that people were, in fact, reading this stuff. Hey, it beats working, eh? Well, be careful what you're asked for, 'cause you just got it!

So, to reiterate, I am alive and still in possession of all my limbs and extremities. Though, some of those limbs, as you may already know, are not exactly 100% as of late. For the ones that don't know, let's just say that "Thou shalt not listen to your husband when he suggests you try downhill skiing for the very first time on a seemingly innocuous bunny hill while nasty, arrogant snowboarders are snowboarding ACROSS that hill when you are trying to go down and it being your first time don't even know how to stop in time to avoid collision with the aforementioned nasty and arrogant snowboarder resulting in two ligaments of your right knee being sprained or maybe even strained and God forbid possibly torn!" 'Nuff Said!

So here I am a month later, still nursing the knee that seemed to only temporarily have gotten better with PT. After prolonged and exhausting fights with lovely HMO, I finally managed to have an MRI done last week and am due at the orthopedic surgeon's office this coming Tuesday to get my results. I ended up seeing two orthopedic surgeons initially and neither one of them seems to think I actually tore anything (read, no surgery required). However, my knee is "paining" to quote my physical therapist who's fresh "off the boat". So, keeping fingers crossed...

Meanwhile, having a non-operational leg has really put a dent into my lifestyle. As many of you know, I'm quite a workout junkie and usually work out for about 11 hours a week, lifting weights, doing Yoga, taking step and hip-hop classes and teaching cardio kickboxing three times a week. Now, all I can do is abs and upper body weight lifting (and trust me, I don't even feel like it). The whole thing is really bumming me out :(, and I hope and pray the Fitzone gym at which I teach will hold onto my class. I found a sub for some of my classes, but am not sure how long she'll stick it out. Oh well, one day at a time. At least, I got a handicapped parking sticker, which alleviates my misery, somewhat...

But, enough with moping. In other life news, I have "sold my soul to the devil", so to speak and went back to work at a company I used to work for a couple of years ago. That was my job for two years before my last short-lived horror stint as a programmer of the worst ERP system known to man ever... But I digress. The reason I left there in a first place was threefold. First - my utter boredom with the actual work. Second - a sense of waste when a lot of work any of the programmers did there was being scraped into the "trash can" due to "not in a budget" and "we're not ready for this" excuses. And third - a pretty exasperating boss, who wasn't a "techie" (a big minus in a technical manager position) and was overall quite lazy and bureaucratic. I felt, I was in a big swamp working there. So, why am I back, you ask? Well, it's not that simple and I am still ambivalent about the whole thing. Since losing my job back in September, I've decided to change the kind of programming I do professionally. That meant, I needed new skills before I was to look for another job. I took a course in the new chosen field (.NET) at an IT training school and have been studying at home as well to prepare for a Microsoft Certification Exam on it. Now, I'm not the world's best student when it comes to studying on my own without some authority hanging deadlines for projects over my head. So, it was quite tough to stay focused. I learn best in a formal, scheduled environment, but, alas, that wasn't an option. So, the time was passing, the unemployment check had just a few months before it was going to disappear into nothingness, and the studying wasn't going along fast enough to have passed the exam AND acquire a new job in the field I have no experience in. Frankly, the whole thing was stressing me out quite a bit, when, lo and behold, I was tracked down for a year long (at least) position back at that old job. First, I refused, remembering the swamp-ish feeling. But restless recruiters have finally broken me down by offering quite an attractive hourly rate. Also, and that was quite a deciding factor, I was to work for a different boss. The new boss was actually a guy I used to work closely with back then and quite enjoyed professional relationship. He's much more of a techie and got a good head on his shoulders. And, frankly, he was doing all the work of a manager before he (deservedly) got promoted. After conferring with DH, we've decided to take the bait with the plan being to still study and pass the .NET cert exam during this year. Thus, the search for a new direction in my career has just temporarily been postponed. Right now, I'm planning on taking the exam some time during the summer and then, maybe, building a small application for home use, that I can present in lieu of experience when I'm interviewing for a new job a year from now. Now, the hardest part is to make myself study while working.
Wish me luck! 'Cause, God who knows perfectly well what a horrible procrastinator I am, I'll need it!

Well, this has been long enough of a post, and for that I am sorry. Hopefully, you didn't nod off somewhere between ligaments and ERP systems. I promise, I'll be like the wind next time!

Peace out,
H