Random observations on a Sunday morning

Springing forward is possibly humankind's worst invention EVER. Of course, it doesn't help that I was so tired that I slept 10.5 hours Friday night and then took a 2+ hour nap later in the day, rendering me entirely uninterested in sleep until 2 in the morning. Which magically became 3 in the morning. And I woke up at 9 - which is technically sort of late for me to get up, even though it was really 8 - because I couldn't sleep any longer. That is not enough sleep.

Middle Cat is walking around YELLING at me. I think this is in protest against the new flavor of canned food we thought we'd try. It has not gone over well. Thing is, she's not starving - as always, she has crunchy food available to her. But, you know, I get upset if what I'd been planning to eat turns out yucky, so I guess I can't really blame her.

I had all sorts of grand aspirations to get up and leave the house and work at the cool coffeeshop I used to go to all the time back when I was still teaching, and during 1L year before I started internships. I did this last Sunday, and I was SO productive. But the problem is that this place gets incredibly crowded on the weekends, and when I woke up at 9 I figured I had a snowball's chance in hell of getting a table I liked. And I need to do laundry and make a Target run, neither of which can be done from the coffeeshop. So I'll just have to be productive at home for a change. (I actually like that this place gets crowded, because I really don't like being the only person sitting working in a coffeeshop - I feel too conspicuous, and self-conscious about parking myself there for hours on end. But it's a fine line between enough people and too many.)

I was a little sad last night, though, when I realized that my days of working at coffeeshops are numbered. I can still pull that off while I'm in school, but once I'm out, any job I get (assuming I can find one) will expect me to be there, at the job, from 9-5 (at least). And since the whole point of being in a 9-5 job is NOT taking work home with you (though yes, I may well end up staying at the office longer than that), there will be little opportunity or incentive to work in coffeeshops. Which reminded me of my revelation, last summer, about why on TV shows/movies/etc., getting the corner office is such a big deal: when you're in that space at least 8 hours straight, M-F, being able to work there happily is a BIG deal. A lot of academics I know seem resigned to not getting "real" (e.g. writing/research) work done in their campus offices - which just doesn't fly when you have to be in that office all the time!

Okay. Off to accomplish things. I hope!

Comments

[Another Damned Medievalist]

You can go to coffee shops to read and blog!

[New Kid on the Hallway]

Oh, sure, but if I've spent 40+ hours at work, I'm going to want to read and blog at home in the comfort of my pjs! :-) (for me, going to coffeeshop = way to get work done because I only go there to work.)

[Thoroughly Educated]

Funny, I LOVE daylight saving time. Extra daylight at the end of the day makes a huge difference to me, since my tendency is to shut down when the light goes. Plus I find it reassuring, even if misleading, when the dogs' unreasonable wakeup time reads on the clock as a reasonable wakeup time (e.g. 7:30 instead of 6:30). I got somewhat less sleep than normal last night, but even so, today has been my first nap-free day in ages. I didn't even feel tempted to nap! Now let's see if I can keep this up.

[Kelly in Kansas]

Good analysis on how we use our offices. Academic productivity usually occurs at all hours of the day and night. I remember one colleague saying he was glad he didn't have to punch a time clock but also noted that he worked an average of 60 to 80 hours a week, too. I agree.