I've been working a lot of hours the last couple of weeks, so my boss strongly encouraged me to take a half day on Friday. Even though half days are usually more trouble than they're worth (in this case, will cause a crazy Monday), I did my best to comply, both because I actually had been considering taking a half day before he'd mentioned it and also because I appreciate having a boss that actually believes in a work-life balance and think that ignoring his suggestions might get him to stop making them. Besides, there's sort of a diminishing returns situation with a technical job like mine, where the longer you're present, the less efficiently you use your time. Sure, you might get some extra work done, but rarely equal to the number of extra hours you put in. Last week, I beat my head against a wall for several hours before giving up and heading home, only to solve the problem just after exiting the plant.
I missed my target of 11:30 by an hour, but since I would have been there at least three and a half more hours, still consider it a small victory. I took myself out to a late solo sushi lunch date (even wore a dress). Cody came home and, seeing me looking nice, decided to take me on a date. After vetoing several options, we decided to go out to dinner at The King's Kitchen, a non-profit restaurant that benefits the hungry of Charlotte. Based on this experience, I'm guessing we'll probably be "donating" again. It's such a sacrifice to eat good food for the hungry...
On Saturday, I got up early to go to a girls spa day with some of my coworkers. Because I already had a good masseuse at a 2/3 of the price of this spa, I elected to try out a body polish and a facial. The all over body polish was a very good experience and something I'd consider doing again. There was a tiny massage element but mostly it was an exfoliant and a moisturizer, but for some reason my muscles seemed more relaxed afterwards. The facial was good...but felt easily replaceable by an at-home face mask, although she did have some nice things to say about my skin that reassured me that a decent face scrub (Lush Angels on Bare Skin), nice moisturizer (Lush Gorgeous) and regular use of sunscreen were working just fine. But the important part of the whole experience was feeling pampered, which certainly happened.
After the spa, we went to lunch as a group. I'd gotten there early and ordered before they did. I just finished up my meal as they were ordering theirs, so elected to get dessert. I also tried out the peach bellinis I'd heard another table order...yummy! By the time we were done, I felt like I should have rolled out of there. I went home and took a nap...which ended up rolling right into bedtime. Cody was more than happy to join me in sleeping the day away.
Sunday morning, we decided to do our first double-digit run in over a month. We were supposed to have been training for a marathon this whole time, but a cold that transformed into a sinus infection sidelined me and the husband probably had a similar thing going on, although he never went to the doctor. Despite twelve hours of sleep, we still had trouble getting up in the morning to go running. We finally got on the trail about 8:00 and it was far from a perfect run. I walked at least a quarter of the 11 1/2 miles and ran extremely slowly most of the rest of the time. But we did it and we can improve the next time...which may be up a mountain in the dark.
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