Tag: day.in.the.life

A day in the life: 3 PM – 9 PM

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I try and tie up some loose ends before I stop working for the day, but today I might as well be herding kittens. I finally get out of the office at 4 PM and realize that I don’t have any water for the gym, so I pick up some water. I get to the gym and change, and then do my warmup on the elliptical. Bernard is not there yet and I soon discover that my appointment was set for 4:30 PM. He gets there soon enough however and we get started on lower body. Today the first set seems easy but as the session progresses, I find myself wishing it was over. I am beat, mentally, and just want to go home. I realize that I am not trying as hard as I might as this whole workout thing and that if I am serious about it, I should give it a better effort.

This was the last of the first session pack that I purchased so at the end of the session, I purchase 8 more sessions with Bernard and we schedule the first two for next week. I discover that purchasing 8 sessions earns me a free XM satellite radio and car kit. I only have to pay for service. Well, I have no radio in my car so it is really no use to me. I call Doug to see if he wants it, but he passes.

I return briefly to the office to pick up my stuff and then head over to Champps for our end of year softball bash. It turns out to be fun. There are 9 people that show up and we have a good time. Kristy awards the prizes and I am surprised to learn that I tied in voting for the “Golden Glove” award. I am even more surprised (and somewhat embarassed) to discover that I lead the voting for “MVP”. And so I win two cute little prizes.

I leave the restaurant at 8 PM and head home. Rob takes the same route as me so we rode together, talking about work most of the way and it makes the train ride go by quickly. I get home at 9 PM, skim through the mail, and then decide to update the blog before getting into the shower. I am very much looking forward to finally cracking open Dangerous Visions and getting a little reading done. There is no baseball game to watch tonight. And I decided to set aside my stress as work and try and relax. I can get through one or two stories before going to bed.

It has been a long day, but a more or less typical day in my life. It feels like one of those nights where I will have no trouble falling asleep, and will sleep really well. So I shall hope.

A day in the life: 11 AM – 3 PM

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I turn on the afterburners at 11 AM, trying to get done the remaining data configuration and testing out my training accounts to make sure they are working properly. By the time they are, it is nearly noon. I still haven’t eaten. I decide that I could use a break. I close my door, turn out the lights, and start to read the introduction to the first story in Dangerous Visions. I get no more than 2 or 3 paragraphs when I realize I am unsettled. I feel like I should be getting more done. I decided to create some slides for the training session. By the time I was done, it was time to get setup.

As is typically here, no one was on time to the meeting. We were supposed to start at 1 PM and we finally get started about 1:15 PM. Not 20 minutes into the training, some people in the meeting decide to arbitrarily add requirements that were never in the initial requirements. At this point, I get a sinking feeling. It is probably not as bad as it sounds, but it is certainly frustrating. Why couldn’t they have thought of this three months ago?

The rest of the training session goes smoothly, for the most part. By the time it is over I am starving. I quickly eat the energy bar in my gym bag and then discover that there is food left over in kitchen. I get myself a pastrami sandwich and a plate full of paste pasta. I have my workout session in less than an hour.

I am stressing about the rollout on Monday. Almost certainly I will have to do some work this weekend. I try and put it out of my head. I check the score of the Yankees game only to discover that Baltimore is winning something like 9-2 in the top of the 6th. This doesn’t help. I really just want to get away somewhere with my book and read for a while in peace. But I’ve got the workout, and then the softball party shortly thereafter…

A day in the life: 9 – 11 AM

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After posting my update, I debate in my head whether I should include the joke Karen told me in the post. I included it originally but ultimately decide to remove the joke not because it was not funny, but because I’m not sure Karen would want me attributing that joke to her.

I hear from Lisa in IM and chat with her briefly. Then it’s back to data configuration.

I’m moving along well and finish up the data configuration. I start to test and immediately run into some problems, which take me several minutes to troubleshoot. In the meantime, the clock is ticking and I am beginning to feel the pressure. The class is only a few hours away and I need to have this and the documentation done in time for the class. I decide to punt on the documentation; I will complete it later and send it out to people on Monday. Instead I focus on making sure I have what I need for the training today.

I finally get things sorted out and note two more minor bugs. I have about 45 minutes to correct them if I want to have some time for lunch. I decide to take a breath and update the blog, and then come back and do the fixes.

But the pressure is on!

A day in the life: 7 – 9 AM

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I start in on the meta-data updates and it goes pretty well and I am more or less focused. I get through the categorizations and then start adding summary templates, and finally move on to the creation of groups and sample users for the class this afternoon. In a Puckish moment, I decided to create two users: Sherlock Holmes and James Watson. After all, the class I am running is for the Security department and what better than some famous detective. I have given Sherlock an office number of 221 and I wonder if anyone will notice the relevance.

The server on which I am working is a little sluggish and I restart some services but that doesn’t seem to help so I decide to bounce the server. While it is rebooting, I figure I have a few minutes to catch up on other things. I scan the news and see that the suspect in the JonBenet Ramsey murder has confessed. He claims it was an accident. I find that I am glad it wasn’t the father after all and that this vindicates him and the family. I feel terrible for the family for what they have gone through all these years.

I scan friends blogs and see that thepopeswife has posted about cookies and neighbors and stuff, and I read through that entry.

My phone rings and it is a number I don’t recognize. I pick it up and it is Karen. She’s calling to ask about the softball party tonight. She says she’s going to be able to make it after all. I tell her when and where it will be. She asks how Zeke is doing and I tell her that since he’s come home, he has been doing great.

She tells me a very funny joke that relates to this.

This has me convulsing with laughter on the phone. It’s a good thing that I took cough medicine earlier this morning or this laugh would have set me off coughing for the rest of the day. I tell Karen that I needed that laugh, as this is a particularly stressful day. I forgot she was going to be coming to the party so I will see her later in the day.

I decide its about time to do the next “day in the life” blog entry. Then I’ll go back to the meta-data work. I’m hoping to have this finished by 10 AM. I’m also beginning to get hungry. I didn’t eat breakfast this morning.

A day in the life: midnight – 7 AM

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I wake up 1 minute before the alarm goes off at 5:55 AM. Zeke is sitting on the bed, staring at me and I scratch his chin and then shut off the alarm before I have to hear it and turn on the light. Both Zeke and I squint through the brightness, I toss back the covers and start to get ready for work. I have a lot to do today, a long day, and already I’m thinking that I wish I could have slept longer. I have a session with Bernard after work and even that is looking difficult from this early morning vantage point.

On the nightstand, I see Dangerous Visions and remember that I’d gotten through the two introductions last night before going to sleep, and some hope for the day is restored. Knowing that I’ll be able to dig into that book on the train gets me going and I make my way through my routine with a slight spring in my step: get dresses, open the blinds, brush my teeth, take the vitamin, feed Zeke. I don’t check mail this morning because the iMac’s BlueTooth keyboard needs new batteries and I am feeling too lazy from pulling the laptop out of the bedroom.

Driving to the metro station, I think about what I need to do this morning, and in what order I should do it. I decide that getting the meta-data finalized for the class that I am teaching this afternoon is the most important thing to do, and that is what I will do first. Depending on how long that takes, I will implement the notification workflow. Lastly, I will complete what is left of the user documentation. All of this needs to be ready to go by 1 PM.

On the train, I don’t get my usual seat but instead get a seat diagonally across from it. This isn’t so bad, though. I have pulled out Dangerous Visions before I even sit down and have started Harlan Ellison’s forward as the train doors close. I am so engrossed in the book that I almost miss the fact that we’ve passed the Shaw/Howard University stop and I switch trains at the next stop.

On the Yellow line, one of the regular riders I see sits next to me and says, “Yankees lost last night.” He knows I am a Yankee fan, and though I don’t normally talk to this guy, he must have heard me talking with some of the other regulars in the past.

“Yeah,” I say, really wishing to focus on my book. “They couldn’t seem to get in that last run they needed.” That seems to end the conversation.

I manage to finish the “Foreword” just as the train arrives at Pentagon City. I head upstairs and go through the new email I received since last night. There is one message in particular that I feel I need to respond to. Someone wants to use SharePoint to implement this projects database that I was pulled onto yesterday as the technical lead. I dislike SharePoint to begin with, but in this case, it’s an easy case to make that it is not an appropriate tool for this job. I write up a response, and then decide to hold off on sending it. Maybe I don’t have all of the facts yet. I save the draft, and accept the two meeting invitations I’ve been sent.

I’m doing this “Day in the life” thing today on the blog, so I do my first entry of the day. Now it’s time to get started on that meta-data.