Back In The Office Again...

 

May and early June are months of graduation and even though my kid isn't graduating, that's a good thing.  Parking costs rise and traffic congestion becomes even worse and that's a good thing.  WHY?  Because when all of this is going on in Newark, I don't have to go into the office.  And I LOVE that!

However, graduations are over and from what I hear the big brass is in the office this week, so you know what that means!  It's time to go back.  Now normally, I'd have come back on Tuesday, but yesterday would have been my dad's 88th birthday and I was "having feelings" about that.  (To be honest, I'm haunted by memories of his last birthday.  It was on a Sunday last year, and the summer church that he attended had just opened for the season.  So I made sure to fill his pew seat at the early morning service as one of his favorite ministers was filling the pulpit.  And later in the afternoon, I went to the care facility where he was and brought him a chocolate donut to celebrate.  He barely touched it.  It was no celebration and I still feel sad, guilty, awkward, frustrated, etc. about the whole situation.)  As a result I took half a day off (and hence didn't go into the office.)  

When I checked my email last night (which I shouldn't have done, but...), there was a lot.  (There hadn't been much in the morning; of course everything comes in the afternoon!)  So I knew I was in for a busy day.  There would be no sleeping this morning.  (When I work at home I "sleep in" till 5 or 5:30.)  I was up and ready for my walk by 4:30 this morning and back at the house by 5:35 (give or take.)  I moved quickly through the routine that I hadn't done in several weeks; getting ready for the commute and a day in a physical office requires more preparation than a day at home.  Because I knew that it was going to be a busy day, I decided that I would take the really early bus, the 6:33.  (Although there are earlier, I usually take the 6:47 or the 6:56).  

I ran out the door with 15 minutes to pick up.  Of course, since I rushed down (and got blown away in the wind), the bus was actually delayed by a few minutes.  (But it wasn't as late as the non-transit bus to NYC.  A woman was waiting for the 6:20 and it came just before my bus did at 6:35.).  I was surprised at the number of people on the bus when I got on.  The later bus usually doesn't have as many people.  And a lot of people got on between my stop and the city subway stop; all before 7 AM.  I thought there would be less people at that hour; I was wrong.

Of course it is also a Wednesday and I know that is a popular day for commuting to the office.  (Remember, it used to be the ONLY day that I had to go in.)  The city light rail was pretty packed as well.  Again, this surprised me, as I thought there would be less people earlier and maybe less people as we are heading into the summer.  Guess I was wrong on that one.

None the less, I made my way through Newark Penn Station and over to my office building.  In the weeks that I have been away, the Korean restaurant has opened and the cookie place has closed.  (How could the cookie place close?  People in my office were always buying their oversized/overpriced cookies.  I usually saw people there when I was making my way home.  I guess not enough people were buying oversized/overpriced cookies after all.  Of course with my allergies, I couldn't eat them anyway, but it was nice to smell on the way home.)

I was at my desk by 7;15.  (I would rather have been on my couch watching the news with a cup of coffee, but...)  The email list was even greater than when I'd last checked. And so the day will officially begin...

I think it’s going to be a long one.  I think the commute home is going to be a long and crowded one.  Sigh.  The graduations are over, summer is (unofficially) here and I’m back in the office again…