Perks of Not Working for THE MAN

As my time as an engineer draws to a close, I find myself getting even more nervous, excited, and anxious about our big move and my massive career change. I will spend today cleaning out my office and clearing off my work laptop. Reality is setting in big time. To keep myself from focusing on the anxiety associated with such big changes, I need to highlight some of the perks that will come along with my new position!

BLUE HAIR
I am 100% serious about this. Throughout my college years, I experimented with many different colors of hair…some natural…some notsomuch. My favorite hair experiment was with the color blue. I absolutely LOVED it. As soon as I find a stylist in Greenville that I feel is capable of giving me such a dramatic color, I will be dying some (possibly all?) of my hair navy blue. Imagine comic book hair…looks almost black when inside, but is obviously a deep shade of blue when the sunlight hits it! Or maybe I’ll go with a lighter blue? Either way, I cannot wait!

FLEXIBLE SCHEDULE
Run at 6AM? Run at 9AM? Run at 11AM? Run at 1PM? Run at 3PM? Sure…why not! The perks of having a flexible schedule is that, barring important meetings and/or conference calls, I will be able to schedule running and workout time when my body is ready for it. No more awkward crack of dawn runs or runs in the dark of night…unless I feel like it. As I have said before, my body most enjoys running around 8AM but, like most people, I have always had to be at work at this time. In addition, if I want to take group exercise classes that fall during the daytime, my schedule will now allow it. Since I will be directing/managing/timing races, many of my work hours will fall on the weekends anyway, so I will not allow myself to feel guilty for taking a mid-morning run. I will have to get used to this, since I can tend to be a workaholic, but I am sure that it won’t be *too* hard of a routine to break into.

!! TREADMILL DESK !!
Oh yes, you read that right, friends! Mama is gettin’ herself a freaking treadmill desk! I need one of these…I mean NEED. And I don’t mean “need” like “want”…I mean “need” like I NEED food and water. Okay, so maybe the situation isn’t *that* dire, but I have wanted to have a job where I could utilize a treadmill desk for YEARS and I am determined to make this happen. With the expenses of a new house and moving so far, I don’t know how we are going to afford this yet, but trust me, I will make this a reality. Can’t you just picture me…planning races, making big stuff happen, all while burning calories and getting fit? That’s the ultimate in multi-tasking! I’d be able to keep the longest run streak EVER with a treadmill desk!

Being an engineer, I had originally planned on crafting one myself, until I saw the TrekDesk. I still think I could design and make a pretty awesome treadmill desk, but I do not have time for those shenanigans right now, so TrekDesk it is! Now I just need to figure out how to pay for it…and pay for a treadmill. To that end…

ANNOUNCEMENT! I am now taking financial backers for katieRUNSthis! Ha! I kid, I kid. But seriously, if you have a wad of cash lying around and you want to help me invest in my health, I would be more than happy to let you buy me a treadmill and treadmill desk. After all, I just want to be like Bart Yasso when I grow up.

As far as treadmills go, I think this one from Cybex is pretty fancy. Plus, it helps raise funds for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF).

I also like this one from ProForm. I mean, with the Boston Marathon logo smack dab on the side, how could you NOT be inspired daily? Get me to Copley Square!

In all honesty, I will probably end up with a used one from a garage sale or Craigslist. There has got to be someone who is tired of just hanging clothes on theirs, right?

Do you have a job that allows you to not work for THE MAN? If so, what are your favorite perks? If you do still work for the man, what would you change if you could?