My health - things are pretty stable on the health front, which is a blessing I forget all too often. It was around this time of the year back in 2006 when I thought life as I knew it was going to be permanently miserable as doctors advised me to have my colon removed. I fought that idea tooth and nail for years and thought life was going to be awful if that happened. One thing led to another and on April of this year it'll be six years since the procedure. It wasn't an easy road to stability, but I've gotten comfortable enough both physically and mentally to be OK with it. My little buddy isn't going anywhere in the near future, and there's still an option out there that would involve some significant time away from work and enjoying life. I have set monthly goals with robin around workouts (8 rigorous sessions per month), which may sound easy to some of you...but when I describe my work situation you will understand why. Let's not let perfect be the enemy of good people!
My relationships - first and foremost, I've moved in with miss romeo sierra. We've been cohabitating for the past few months and the transition has been great...even the dogs are getting along just swimmingly! More important than the logistics has been knowing we can peacefully coexist and have fun doing it. Romeo turns 32 on Monday and we've got lots of fun plans to get her year off to a good start!
Still see plenty of my parents, siblings and their kiddos and am extremely pumped to be taking my nephew to his first Blackhawks game in a few weeks. I wish I saw buddies and friends more often, but all of us have busy and complex lives so that isn't so easy....but I will say that Super Bowl sunday this year was one of the best I've had (and I've seen my fair share of Las Vegas sportsbooks on the big day).
My career has been a wild ride, to say the least. All of the activity has challenged me, but in a really good way. After leaving the lab, I joined a medical clinic in a role that had some parameters but would be a new position for them. As things within the organization evolved (people moving to different jobs) I've been taking on a pretty significant amount of responsibility for the organization's process improvement/lean efforts. This work is mentally, physically, and even emotionally challenging but I'm pushing myself in new ways that are exciting and fun. I would say the work/life balance has not been great--I drive a total of 84 miles a day which means there are less hours for those other things I'd like to do. Like spending time with romeo sierra, exercising, seeing friends, reading, you get the idea.
My hobbies - As the demands for time increase, its not as easy to find the time for the fun stuff, but when possible I'm getting to shows (Megdaeth/Motorhead last week!), plays (American Idiot), and sporting events. I wish I had more time to blog about the bulls and my thoughts on this year's squad. In a nutshell; I'm very grateful to Tom Thibodeoau for his commitment to making the Bulls the most prepared, disciplined team in basketball. Rose is great, and he's a huge part of their success, but this is a team full of B players with the best record in basketball. I've only been to one game this year (the fighting Kardashians), but the bulls haven't been home much and I'm not the only guy who likes a bulls game. Travel-wise, Romeo and I were out in California in January and it was great to get away from it all for a few days. There's a trip to new orleans on my horizon for my cousin's bachelor party (he's getting married to one of romeo's best friends) and I'm certain Romeo and I will find some time to get away for a weekend down the road. On the arts and sciences front, I will give a quick movie plug to a film we watched last night called The Interrupters. If you can find it via netflix or your local movie theater you should check it out. The community engagement around a shared problem (murder of youth in chicago's worst neighborhoods) really had me thinking about our reward system for those who are discharged from facilities/jails following bad crimes. I ended the film and turned to Robin and asked: What if we paid these guys based on their ability to prevent gun-related deaths in a geographic area/zip code? We could calculate the cost for all of the healthcare that is provided to those kids who have been shot and put this in a shared account. If they perform well in their area, they're eligible to receive a payment out of this shared account. Yes, we'd have to think through parameters and ways to gather good data, but if these guys can't get jobs working IN the system they can work to help the system. I'll get off my soapbox, but think about it people.....would we rather pay to keep folks in jail and kids killed???
Finances - some of the above requires money, as do other things. I wish I had more cash, but who doesn't. I can live comfortably and that is a blessing in this economy. Watching that film last night gave me a smack in the face that I live very comfortably. I can help with my time and/or cash more than I have been.
So that brings me full circle to the blog, which is one of those activities I lump under "hobbies." I like to write and I like to reflect about what is working well and what could be better. Writing for some kind of public consumption helps me step back and see the big picture. I would LOVE to write as a profession at some point, and the blog is an outlet for me to see how I like it. It's hard for me to find the time to do it, so when there are small windows of time (like this morning), I'll try to hop on Romeo's computer with an opinion, an update, or a thought or two!
