My Work Day

I wake up to my dog Tiger at 3am. After letting him out and back, I toss and turn until at least 3:30 into a light sleep.

I wake up again at 4:30. At 5:30. At 5:55. I rub my wife's back.

A watch beeps at 6 and so I leap out of bed. I feed the dog. While I eat two or three bowls of cereal as part of my weight gain diet, I check out a quotes of the day web site.

By 7 my wife and I are in the car, driving to work. We listen to the morning morning crew with Captain Mike Casper until I change the station to the classical station. My wife says she likes classical music, but it must grow dull on her by the time she drops me off as the next day the station will again be with Mike and the mix morning crew.

By 7:15 I am at work. I review the tasks I have to do. I panic. I read my email. Add them to my to do list. I then pick someplace to begin and start at it; phone calls and emails interrupt my train of thought and often provoke a change in the focus of my work from moment to moment.

At 10:30 I take my first break of the day with two very nice coworkers. They are both very good listeners and, as they are older than me, provide a good example for me to follow. We walk outside down the green belt path, talking about safe subjects for the most part.

At 12:00 I work on my personal projects while having some lunch. All these projects include writing in some degree or another.

At 1:00 I return to work; at 3:30 I take my second break with the same coworkers as the first; again, outside for a fresh breath of air (though lately it has been inversion fog air).

Somewhere between 5 and 6 I clock out of work and do some more writing.

I am back home by 6:30. I spend five or ten minutes focusing on picking up the obvious eye sores in the living room or kitchen. Someone feeds Tiger. Someone lets Tiger out.

In the next few hours, in random order, I make some dinner, eat some dinner, find snacks to get my caloric intake up to my goal, I do 30-35 minutes on the cross trainer exercize device, and have watched at least an hour of television.

At 10 I brush teeth, take my blood-pressure reducing and mood-smoothing medications, and set down to sleep. By 12:30 I am actually asleep.