Pooped Out

It's been a long couple of days and I have several things I want to catch everybody up on.  My trip was good - I had every intention of snapping a few pics while I was in NY, but it was just entirely too hectic.  I owe Traci an explanation of what I do.  Hmmm.  It's always been kind of hard to explain and it kind of changes from time to time, but here goes.

I'm the Chief Financial Officer for a real estate fund sponsored by a Wall Street bank.  Before the market went to pot it was about a $10 billion dollar fund.  Our investors are mostly pension plans and my day-to-day job changes based on what is currently going on with the fund and what is going on in the market.  Sometimes I travel a whole lot and sometimes not as much.  The last two years travel was awful.  This year my one and only focus is keeping the fund liquid and replacing a line of credit.  Well, that might be a slight exaggeration, but that is primarily what I spend all my time on.  It's a pretty crappy assignment in this environment.  This trip was to meet with a bunch of lenders.  A colleague and I were zig zagging all over Manhattan.  Nothing like getting up it 4am to go and spend the day groveling.  

NY is a very depressing place right now.  It has been hit disproportionately by the recession and the outlook of people I work with is quite negative. It is also very empty right now.  It would be a great time to visit if you want to go when it's not so crowded.

So, after getting home after just a slight delay out of LaGuardia (there's always a delay out of LaGuardia), I wanted to eat a little dinner, maybe do a short trainer ride, and have an early bedtime.  (I'll get to why last night was a semi-late one even after a 4am start.)  James decided he really didn't want to do the 50 tomorrow so he was going to ride 50 miles on the trainer.  I figured I would get on the trainer and do a short ride.  He was 30 minutes into it when I started, and by the time I was ready to stop he still had over an hour to go.  I told him I would stay with him until he finished.  BIG mistake.  Have you ever seen a bike seat on a race bike?  It is a small metal triangle with a piece of leather stretched over it.  After 45 minutes, sitting on that wedge is your behind is very uncomfortable.  After an hour and a half, it's painful.  As you approach two hours, well, you can just imagine.  I cannot imagine what my behind and legs are going to feel like tomorrow.  I asked CBT if he wanted to do a short trainer ride with me tomorrow - James immediately offered that I would be in no shape to ride tomorrow.  Oh, ye of little faith.  My favorite was when he told me this week to watch the riders in the Tour of California and try to do what those of riders were doing.  Right.  He sees no link to that comment and the fact that he constantly tells me that I need to change to a heavier gear.  I do think he feels like he made progress because I did feel like I was going to throw up.

Now, to last night.  I was in the office in NY trying to finish up a few things when I got a phone call from home.  It was James.  He said Daddy had taken his medicine and had fallen asleep.  (The result of the CAT scan was that he has two cracked ribs so he got a muscle relaxer to help keep the muscles from spasming.)  He and Christopher were hungry.  We figured out what James could fix for them.  He was so grown up.  He called a few times to discuss various parts of our nighttime routine.  A friend was coming by to drop something off so I asked him if that would be an issue.  He assured me he could take care of that.  Later, he called to ask me to walk him through setting the alarm.  It was precious, but it also reminded me of how much he has grown up, especially when he told me he would make sure that Christopher would brush his teeth and get in bed on time.  In was worth delaying my schedule a bit.