Bringing the outside in

The exciting news this week was confirmation from “upstairs” that the office I was hoping to get in the targeted move for our area is indeed mine.

Which means – something within the next month or two, I will no longer be a basement dweller! Do you know it’s been 10 years at least down there? Crazy how time flies. I was able to go into the room and really look at it finally and take some photos so we can start planning on who sits where and what kinds of file storage we have to work with. It’s much less than what we have currently, but we can make it happen. So, here is what my desk area will look like – picture taken at around 10am so the sun was streaming in as the office looks due East:

There is a balcony area just outside the windows, and then the trees are in the hillside just behind the building which is part of a nature preserve attached to the Torrey Pines Reserve across the street to the west. The actual desk space will be the same thanks to that granite shelf to the left which extends all the way along the wall behind me:

Yes, it is a funky suspended sort of shelf area. Not terribly functional except as a storage unit for things like printer paper, toner and other office supplies. That one set of doors right next to the end of the desk don’t even open all the way. Very odd. But the granite is pretty and there is plenty of room for everything I currently have on my desktop. The communal office printer and fax and water cooler will have to be directly at the end of this shelf and behind me, but since I will be angled a little to the right it’s not like it will feel as if anyone is sneaking up on me. Plus, there are only three other people in the entire office with me! It is a four person office with it’s own set of double doors tucked in a corner well off any main walkway.

Yes, the flooring is a funky combination of deep royal blue carpet and dark granite. Luckily all of the walking surface is carpet so, again, very quiet. Of course, that back wall there is adjacent to the kitchen for our main cafeteria and when I was standing back there I could hear the chef and crew talking, but HEY – I’m coming from a basement set of over 50+ cubicles! There are 9 just in the one corner I am in now so quiet….is nothing we know about! We are all happy about the new space, and at this point I just want to know WHEN it will happen because damn – did you see that gorgeous window??

Meanwhile, this weekend was a rare opportunity to run both days. Saturday I run a looping route to and from Starbucks, stopping for 45 minutes to sip my frappucino and read on my kindle that I had packed into my camelpack instead of the actual liquid container. Then this morning I joined the girls at Torrey Pines. We ran up the big hill which I can still run up with relative (slow paced) ease which floors me. I did a loop around the Guy Fleming Trail on my route. Five hilly miles a day after 2.5 was more than I have done since April so it was a real treat! Afterwards, we soothed our tired feet in the surf and enjoyed the nature surrounding us on a gray morning.

Egrets sharing the surf with us as well as some fishermen off in the distance with their poles propped up in the sand.

Ah, that feels better!

Looking south from the Guy Fleming overlook. It wasn’t cold – the air was around 70 and there was no real breeze at all. Perfect running weather is what I call it. Here’s the view to the north. Beautiful despite the cloud cover!