A Good Day

Ever have one of those days that leave you with a warm fuzzy feeling on your insides?

Today was one of those days for me.

The weather was perfect. Not a cloud in the sky, a cool mid-70s with a touch of a breeze.

Work was busy - in a GOOD way. The day flew by, from the second I clocked in to the second I clocked out. I love days like that - I feel so accomplished! I had a solid handle on my workload. I was confident, I knew what I was doing. (I can honestly say that I'm still such a long-lost newbie at Honda, that this confidence does not come often. I'm usually always putting my brakes on, being cautious, and asking for one, two, three different approvals or guidance. I play the stupid card often, asking obvious questions and making no assumptions.)

I have been making some new friends - this girl named Kelly in Weld Shop, who is at a similar point and age in her life that I am in mine. We hit it off well, we have much in common. In just one lunch period in the cafeteria, we introduced ourselves to each other, and ended up trading advice on apartments and hooking our significant others up with job searches.

I've also been doing a good job laying down framework for friendships with five new hires into my department - they're all recent college graduates, and even more ripe of a greenhorn than I am. Today I emailed back and forth with this guy named Todd. He is VERY quiet, composed, but almost in a shy way. (Surprisingly, he initiated the email volley by emailing me first.) I figured to try to reach out to him, because out of all the new hires, he is the only one that is working at my plant - he may feel left out while these others are all off at the other plant, meeting and building a camaraderie together.

Besides Todd, there's another one of these five new hires that is from Wisconsin!! His name is Chance and he is from Minocqua. He went to Michigan Tech and graduated in May. (Scott, he is a mechanical engineer.....too far removed from you, to know each other??) Anyway, I walked up to him today on a walk to a group meeting and just started talking to him. It was cool talking to him about all of these little Wisconsin towns, landscapes, and northwoods-y feel that I have only ever known as 'home.' To tell you the truth it felt GOOD to actually have a living, breathing being to walk and talk with out here about all of these places and actually KNOW them. (He even joked about trying to get others to pronounce 'Oconomowoc,' Zach - even though he has no idea I am already connected to that city through you living there!)

Plus after work, I actually took the time to measure out my exercise plan. Since April, I've been going running outdoors every day, or every other day, weather pending. Today I finally marked it out. I have two running routes: a standard route, and then an extended route.

The standard route is 2.1 miles, and with the extension it is 3.3 miles. I can tell this to Jon, my running buddy at work, tomorrow. (He and I root each other on and check in with one another.) I was pleased to time it today that I ran the long track 3.3 in about 27/27.5 minutes. My first mile clocked in right around 7:45/8 minutes and my second one around 16:30 minutes, which I feel is pretty good for a long distance type of running. PLUS, I am so majorly uncoordinated and never ran cross country or track in high school - so I think I level up pretty good.

I felt good after the run, too. Sort of like I still had a ball of energy left in me, but that could have been the "runner's high" doing the talking.

Either way, Mom, it looks like those running shoes you donated to me are getting broken in - FAST! :-)

I ended the day with munching on some dry roasted pumpkin seeds as a bedtime snack and having a good chat with my brother on the phone. :-)

And here I sit, 11:30 at night at my desk, staring out my open apartment window into the black night, listening to crickets in the grass and semis on the highway. I know I should be going to bed, and I will at the end of this writing.

But it is at night like this when the mystery and wonder finally comes out of Ohio. I like it.

Overall, a good day today. :-)