A day in the life...

I am tired. It has been a long day. It has been a long week to tell the truth. But it is a good tired. It is currently 11:33pm Pacific Standard Time. It is late. And I am tired.

I woke up this morning to a cup of loose leaf Smoked Earl Grey Tea in bed. I like to sip on it every few minutes and fade in and out of vivid early morning dreams. Around 7:00am Lauren comes back into the room (she is much more active than me in the morning and gets up right when the alarm goes off) and turns the light on. I grunt in displeasure. After a minute or two of that I give up and get ready. Get dressed. Put my lunch in my back pack (we pre-make it out of dinner leftovers the night before. I throw some nuts in a sandwich bag and grab a banana and an avocado for breakfast. I check the weather, brush my teeth make sure I have everything, kiss Lauren goodbye and head out.

I cross the street to my bus stop. I generally get there about 2 minutes early. The time is now about 7:20. Sometimes the bus is earlier. Sometimes it is later. Yesterday my bus driver saw me walking out the day and waited for me. You get to know your bus driver. You don't really talk to him (though some do). But you do get to know him.

I read some of Woody Guthrie's Autobiography on the 25 minute bus ride into downtown. I got off of the bus this morning, as I do every morning, at the corners of 5th and Stark. Time is 7:45. I walk directly to work. No fooling around. I have to be at my desk at 8:00am sharp. And I have work to do before that.

I always get to work a good 10 minutes early to make the first pot of coffee for the office in the morning. It is a big machine and it takes a few minutes. I get the impression that some of my coworkers think that I am being nice or generous. But that's not really true. I just like to ensure that the coffee is brewed and ready to go. Makes things easier. And I don't have to deal with angry clients without a nice bitter cup of Starbucks (office supplies us with Starbucks grounds).

I do my thing at work until 10:30 when I take my break. Today I went into the break room and enjoyed a banana, half of a large avocado, and some mixed nuts for breakfast. I cleaned out my mug and filled it up at the water cooler.

More work until 1:00. At 1:00pm everyday I go on lunch. I went into the break room today to eat. Today was a tad unusual in that I was not having leftovers for lunch. Lauren's birthday yesterday and, accordingly, we got take out and watched Cabaret (I still have no idea what this movie is about). So today I had a few pieces of sushi (spicy tuna roll, shrimp tempura roll and a roll with tuna, salmon and cream cheese) and a salad with mixed greens, locally grown kale, red pepper, onion and local cheddar. I brought a bottle of Annie's Goddess dressing with me from home. The dressing does not sit well over night. I ate with chopsticks. I felt hip.

I generally get done eating around 1:15. At this point I generally go for a walk, go to Powell's or go to the Library. On nice days eat in a nearby park and take if from there. Occasionally I meet up with Lauren.

Today I decided to go the library. My book on birds of the Willamette Valley was due and i had a cd waiting for me. The library has really been a great resource. I have been building my old timey music collection. I have taken out the complete works of Robert Johnson and Woody Guthrie, Son House and Skip James. We have also rented numerous books, several season of the Simpsons, Fiddler on the Roof, Cabaret, Unforgiven, Curb your Enthusiasm, Sesame Street Old School and The Festival Express.

On the way to the library I gave Lauren a call. I talk to people at my job all day long and not a single one of them really wants to be talking to me. There is not too much that can make you more lonely than that. It is nice to speak with someone who is interested in talking to you. En Route to the library I came across a building demolition. This was the real deal. I'm talking a crane ripping huge chunks of building off and tossing on the ground. Brick flying everywhere. One of the coolest things I ever seen.

At the library I went over to the computer and tried to decide what I should read next and if there was any music I wanted to put on hold. I ended up placing holds for James Joyce's 'Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man', A 4 disc compilation of Elvis performing in Las Vegas and the complete studio recordings of John Coltrane and Miles Davis (together).

At this point I was running late and headed back to work. I was sure to walk by the demolition.

I worked without incident until 3:30. Took my 10 minute break. I ate a Marzipan cookie and read some Guthrie.

More work until 5:00. I decided to head over to the gym downtown after work today. I put in about a 45 minute workout and headed for the bus. I used the bus ride home to catch up on some more reading.

I got home to a house full of wonderful smells and Lauren doing some serious cooking. We said howdy do, I searched for jobs and checked my fantasy team. Pretty quickly after that I started working on my second job.

At about 7:45 we sat down to a beautiful candle lit dinner. We had homemade pan fried seitan lentil loaf, braised carrots and a broiled asparagus casserole with homemade bread crumbs and local extra sharp cheddar aged 3 years. On top of it all was a delicious mushroom nutritional yeast gravy.

We ate. I had seconds. We sat there and chatted well after we finished eating. Just enjoying each other's company and the Son House CD I just rented from the library.

Eventually we got up, cleaned up the kitchen and prepared the leftovers for lunch tomorrow.
I hopped back on the computer and got some more work done. I listened to some Mike Gordon and Leo Kottke, Robert Johnson and James Taylor's one man band.

I took a break from work, spent some time with Lauren, saw her off to bed and came back out here to wrap up the work.

And now I am off to bed.