While Fridays at Hulk's may be Free Train days for our Hulkies, a day they train at their own pace and own free choosing, they are work-overload and catch-up days for me with computer work, filing and reporting to do. Today was no different in that sense except for the fact that I had two social engagements in the evening -- a coffee shop fellowship and a charity event -- so I had even less time to cram all my work in.
Fridays are also usually my day off training but today I trained. Waking up to the fact that I had just entered in the single digit countdown to my first marathon and had slept in too late, consequently missing my morning run, meant I spent my morning trying to digest not only my breakfast but also butterflies and anxiety. So less work hours plus the same amount of catch-up work as a usual Friday plus a boxing workout and some weight training meant I kicked my own butt.
By the time 6:20pm rolled around, I had done as much of my work as possible, got in a solid workout, and was practically shovelling in my post training meal while getting dressed and ready for my first social outing of the night. Snickers surprised me by driving me to the coffee shop fellowship and one of our Hulkies was super enough to manage the club while he did so. This meant I got showered with compliments about my outfit and new style of make-up while scoring some extra time to enjoy my post training meal in our jeep instead of having to totally one-shot shovel it in my mouth...because that's never pretty, having to rush a meal, or never good either.
After the coffee shop fellowship I then had to race back to the club for the charity party -- Global Friends Party at Dolce. I really had anticipated more of our members attending it but knew many of our Korean members as curious about it as they were that they probably wouldn't attend. Dolce is a popular foreigner's bar and though there are many Koreans who visit it, it's regarded as a mainly foreigners kind of bar.
The event was great, really great actually and I think what made it so great was the use of name tags. Everyone got a name tag as they entered. It was a pretty simple idea, just write your name on it and then wear it, but it really helped to build a certain level of comfort among those who were in attendance. There was no asking people their name and so in a sense, at least for me, it felt so much more comfortable to talk to random people because you just skipped the whole awkward introduction part of learning each other's name.
I would have stayed longer at the party had I not got a call telling me that one of my sponsors was waiting and wanting to speak to me. Ten minutes later I was gone and in the car, headed off with a sponsor for a late night meal and talk.
I joked to a friend earlier this week saying that I'm trying out this thing, "it's called being sociable", I had told him. "How's it working out for you?", he asked. Well tonight, it worked out pretty good. It would have worked out great if I didn't have to rush work and put so much of an effort to get things done before hand, plus wearing heels on a Friday night as supposed to my training runners or boxing boots always adds in extra effort required. But no complaints. My attempts at being sociable worked but I don't think I'll do this every week. Running the club and juggling my training eats up enough of my time and effort as it is, anything beyond that isn't exactly a priority.
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