A Day in the Life

Internet,

Sometimes, at the end of the day, I wonder what I've done all day long. Many times I don't think I've done much. Sometimes I can't remember at all. So to help myself with my old-aged-ness, I've decided to track one of my days. For example, yesterday.

7:29a Drag myself out of bed. (In an unusual twist this year - in contrast to the last four or five years - I will no longer be rowing in the mornings the last two months of the season, thereby allowing myself extra sleep. One would think extra sleep would mean I just jump out of bed, ready to take on the world. One would be wrong. It seems to be harder to drag myself out of bed after an extra two or three hours of sleep than if I drag myself out of bed before 5am when I'm not really awake enough to realize what I'm doing and how agonizing early mornings are.)

8:29a Leave for work. (Wonder who on earth all of these people are still on the freeway - they are all obviously late for work. Don't they know it starts at 8am? If they were on time, they wouldn't be in my way.)

8:39a Arrive at work, only nine minutes late (unlike those other people, who should've been at work by 8 o'clock, allowing me to arrive only seven minutes late instead of nine). (I'm on flex time through the end of October. I don't know how I'm going to get to work 39 minutes earlier on November 1st. See 7:29a above.)

8:39a Find only 1/4 cup of coffee left in the pot at work. Make more. (Wonder if it's worth getting up earlier in the morning to make it to work in time to not be the last person getting coffee each day. Quickly determine there's a whole fresh pot in front of me, and no longer care.)

8:41a Boot up computer, check email. Think about meeting I must attend that morning, and wonder how much prep I have to do for it. (Wonder, like every other time I've dealt with the meeting's subject, if orange is the correct color highlighter for the project. The subject is a criminal one, so I'm thinking orange = corrections = correct color. (At least, this is what the TV machine has told me: all people in prison either wear orange or black/white stripes. I don't think they make black/white striped highlighters.) Then I end up using a pink highlighter accidentally, and then wonder who even thinks about that kind of thing? and if I really am that OCD.)

8:41-10:25a I must have done something during this time, but one day later, I can no longer remember what that is. I'm pretty sure it involved pink highlighters, because I showed up at the meeting with pink highlighted documents instead of orange, even though orange = corrections = correct color highlighter.

10:30a Attend meeting. Discuss a subject that I now discuss every. single. day. with some of the same people. Feel extremely bureaucratic as we discuss how to properly discuss said subject. Discuss how to plan meetings to discuss said subject with other people who must be brought into the discussion. Discuss whether we can actually get said subject into shape and if it's feasible to get a working product done by...well, done by sometime. Sooner rather than later, I guess. Throw out dates and ideas and such.

11:48a Talk to a co-worker about another issue that came up this week. Decide to research and discuss that one more thoroughly tomorrow.

11:50a Eat lunch. (This is late for me. Usually lunch is at 11. 11:30 at the latest. This allows for maximizing the time for a proper two-lunch approach: one at 11, another at 2, and arrive home just in time for dinner. My day has been totally shot as I realize I never ate breakfast, and now lunch is late. Figure I probably am kind of OCD.)

11:55a Realize that you can, indeed, make grapes taste way better (and I already like the taste of grapes) by liberally coating them in a cool whip/sour cream/brown sugar mixture.

12:22p Contemplate the morning's criminal subject. Feel slightly overwhelmed.

12:23p Wish that orange highlighter policy subject wasn't in my research area.

12:24p Work some more on that. (The subject itself. I don't think I can get rid of the subject being in my research area.)

2:00(ish)p Take a break from all that contemplation and orange v. pink highlighter business. Eat a Snickers because that lunchtime "dessert" (grapes smothered in cool whip/sour cream/brown sugar combo) really can count as a "salad." 'Cause that's how we Minnesotans roll. (Some of us literally.)

2:20p Consult with co-worker. Encourage her to go home for a) her health, b) her sanity (are they not the same thing?), and c) our own health and sanity. (She does not go home...but I must confess, her not going home really doesn't affect my own sanity, really.)

3:12p Consult with co-worker. Encourage her to go home (again). (She eventually does.)

3:37p Computer crashes. (This is an almost daily occurrence, and it's generally at approximately the same time of day...I should probably call our IT dept, but don't, because then they would force me to upgrade to a new operating system that I was supposed to have converted to last fall, only have somehow managed to escape that up 'til now. It has almost become a game: how long can I get away with operating the old system before they catch up to me? Please don't tell on me, Internet.)

3:43p I've learned how to reboot quickly, and am back online.

4:29p Realize everyone else is going home now, and I can probably leave, too. Except I was 9 minutes late, and I'm not quite done with the work I had in progress (trying to find the end of the internet), so I stay a few extra minutes.

4:40p Wonder if I will ever get to leave the parking lot because the road construction in the area is causing traffic jams all up in my exit strategy.

4:48p Ponder why the guy in front of me is not going the speed limit when there are no obstructions or cars in front of him.

4:49p Am going slowly enough to stare with awe at the beautiful maple trees and their (turning) red leaves. It's definitely fall.

4:52p Stop for gas. (Think to myself, "Wow! $3.49 a gallon is a bargain! Yesterday it was $3.54..." and realize how sad that sounds. In pretty much every context.)

4:59p Arrive home.

5:02p Consider practicing my violin. Realize that my thumb still hurts from hitting it while docking during rowing practice on Monday night. Properly use readily available excuse to not practice. Figure maybe I can stretch that excuse out the rest of the week.

5:03p Watch an episode of the Simpsons. (Which I then used this morning at work. Sadly. Or not so sadly. Using Flanders-isms causes others to use them, too, which can be quite entertaining.)

5:30p Eat "dinner." ("Dinner" because it was just chips and salsa, and some ice cream. I don't know if that counts as "dinner.")

6:02p Brush teeth.

6:05p Realize I can stop wandering around in the kitchen and living room with the toothbrush still in my mouth. Stop brushing teeth; rinse. (Rinse in the bathroom, not the kitchen. Or living room.)

6:07p Gather stuff, leave for Bible study.

6:12p Realize there is really no traffic to be found.

6:31p Arrive at church for Bible study 14 minutes early. This so rarely happens, I don't know what to do with the extra 14 minutes. Send some text messages to people. (And then it dawns on me that if they text me back, my phone will vibrate throughout the entire Bible study, which is true, and it does. And I very properly and good-manner-ly-like ignore all of them...and just now realize a day later that I never really read or responded to any of them.)

6:45p Start new Bible study for the fall. Meet some nice people, eat some good cookies and pineapple (oooh, I wonder if you could make pineapple cookies?!), and drink tea (herbal, of course; it's after 5p, and I'm an old lady now).

8:56p Leave study, head for home.

8:59p Get stuck in traffic. Traffic is worse going home. Road construction. Apparently MnDOT has just changed the traffic pattern on the freeway, because everyone is slamming on their brakes, trying to merge, and traffic cones are flying everywhere.

9:09p Call my mom to talk. Talk talk talk. Dad wants to talk to me also. Talk talk talk. Good talk. Hang up.

9:27p Having arrived home, I wander around, wonder if I can eat "dinner" again. Decide that yes, this is an excellent idea because - as mentioned above - I never ate breakfast, I didn't eat a second lunch, and technically dinner was more like a snack with some dessert. Heat and eat some fake garlic bread. (This probably still doesn't count as "dinner," either, but whatever.)

10:02p Consider going to bed. Realize I don't have to wake up at 4:45am the next day (see 7:29a above), discover that I'm not totally wiped out because I slept in that morning (7:29a), and opt to look over new Bible study and lesson for next week instead.

10:09p Decide to listen to some music during study.

10:33p Hit replay on song "Call It What You Want," and realize my favorite line is "Who cares?" Indeed. Who does care?

10:57p Phone rings. Most people do not call me at this hour. Wonder who it is. It is Attorney O'Dell, calling me from California. Haven't talked to Atty O'Dell in a long, long, long time. He asks me if it's midnight where I am (it is not), and after congratulating him on his recent nuptials, we chat for a while. I sadly let him know that I only just received an announcement and summons related to the wedding (in true fashion, mail sent to my work moves very, very slowly through the bowels of the system...), and won't be visiting California in the super near future to meet his bride. Continue chatting. Think maybe I should visit California again sometime soon (but probably not next weekend).

11:10p End chat. Put things away so as to find bed. Brush teeth again. Realize it's probably not even going to be in the 40s tonight, so open window wider (perfect sleeping weather, those 50s!).

11:21p Pick up book. Reading Hugh Laurie's novel. (So far at 30 pages into it, I can't figure out if I should hear his Bertie Wooster voice in my head or his Gregory House voice whilst I read the narration. All I know is that the language in the book - but probably not the storyline itself - is more mature than either BBC or Fox audiences could handle.)

11:49p Turn out light. Instantly fall asleep.

My sport is going mainstream.

Advertising. Complete with guinea pigs.

Stickmen

How to waste five minutes online: interactive stories. I am a terrible drawer, Internet. But I am easily amused.

Well, duh.

I recently read this piece in your version of the NYTimes, Internet.

It's definitely mind over matter! (I mean, isn't that why the saying is "mind over matter" in the first place?)

And it's not just sports: I remember my violin teacher used to tell me that it wasn't that my fingers weren't physically fast enough to play a particular passage; it was usually that my brain was slowing down my fingers. If I just did it without thinking so much, I could usually play faster than I had previously. (And she was right.)

When I'm out rowing or biking or running or doing anything athletically challenging (but usually rowing, since that's what I actually push myself at), it's almost always a matter of getting my mind to cave in to what I want my body to do. Sure there are times when the body is tired, but not nearly as often as I allow, and probably not nearly to the degree I believe myself to be tired.

It also explains how it is so much easier to push myself to get better when I have competition (and also explains to me how it is so much easier to push myself on the water when I'm facing other real people in actual boats on existent water in live races).

In other news...

...I guess I'm just a little bit ... [I don't even know what word should fit here] ... about this:

North Korea is seeking to expand its tourism with cruises.

Most obvious: "We admit that we have a lot of shortcomings to overcome."

Not really comforting: "You're in North Korea here...You're completely safe. The North Korean military is protecting you."

If you can't find a job in the U.S., never fear - there is hope for you: the cruiseline can "even hire Americans.”

Whilst on board, you can get a history lesson: “In 1950, there was a war, the Korean War, started by the United States.”

In the running for advertising slogans are:

1. "Now we’re in a military zone; if you stay behind, you get shot"

2. "It’s like the Titanic"

3. “Of course, North Korea can’t rival tropical Cuba as a tourist destination"

So book your tour now! You, too, can enjoy "cramped cabins, cut-rate cuisine and foul, water-deprived bathrooms" and save $$$ by sharing a cabin with 8 new friends.

Japan: Six Months Later

Courtesy of the Atlantic, you can see some incredible before and six-months-after photos of the tsunami-hit areas of Japan here (click on the pictures for the after shots). Quite incredible, really.

iRow, iRide, iHurt: Version 2.0

Dear Internet,

It's been a busy September thus far - back to the whole "I-don't-want-summer-to-end" thing. The weather has been beautiful - sunny, gorgeous. I've been out and about attempting to enjoy as much of it as possible.

For example:

My dad and I went to a baseball game. I shan't talk about the score (talk about painful!). But I shall say "Hi, Dad!" and mention that it was fun to take him to his first game at Target Field as a belated Father's Day present.

I went to two games in a week and a half, and the lineups were almost completely different both times - but, similarly, they both contained people I'd never heard of. Oh, end of season woes.

Then this past weekend, I did something I said last year I'd never. do. again. Do I listen to myself? Apparently not. Anyway, the Pike Island Challenge was a good time - 13 miles with 3 delightful friends, all in 90 minutes. There was bacon at the end of it, so you know I was rowing a little harder to get to it before everyone else. Highlight of the day: when one of our teammates decided to turn the challenge into a biathlon, and swam over the finish line with his boat in tow.

Then on Sunday, on to the St. Paul Classic. It started out in a, uh, ahem, rather entertaining way. I - quite dumbly - wasn't really awake in the morning, and right outside my friend S's house, I clipped in, leaned too far over, and fell over. While at a complete standstill. So my first visit after pedaling a mile or so to the start was hitting up the first aid tent to get a bandage before I registered.

Entertaining facts: they only provided the nurse one large band-aid, but since I was the first person to visit her, I got it! And yet she told me that every year, she runs out of all of the sizes of band-aids...BEFORE the tour even starts! This year, with 7,000 registrants, I can see how that would happen.

D'oh! Here is the part that I can show you - after I got back home and scrubbed out excess gravel and skin, and once the bleeding had stopped (other parts involve bruising and some more road rash in unmentionable places, i.e., the entire right side of my body, apparently):

Here are the two lovely ladies I tried to keep up with for the last 10 miles or so: A & S. Unfortunately, one of our quad had to bow out with a back injury (we missed you, K!), but I ran into all sorts of rowers, fellow orchestra musicians, fellow government peons. It was great good fun.

We did the same 39 miles as last year, but this year, Internet, we stopped at more of the tour's rest stops to enjoy delightful music and treats. Oh, the brownies with chocolate frosting that I missed last year at the Lilydale stop - how could I have gone by those in 2010 with nary a thought to their deliciousness?! Well, I know they're there now, so I'll make it a point to stop next year. (Yes, I've resigned myself to the fact that I'll probably be dumb every year, and will continue to do these two events for quite some time to come...never mind how much my rear end hurts by mile 10 of each event...)

And finally, I have decided that since I'm on Twitter a bit more often lately, I am now feeding it onto this blog so people will know I'm not dead. (Yet. I haven't biked or rowed in a few days, so that probably helps my chances of not keeling over from tiredness.) It is unlocked, and the people may rejoice and read it if they so desire.

xoxo,

Minny LinnEy