personal

Ah, Friday

I went to work early this morning, arriving at the office at 8 o’clock. I do that sometimes, mostly to enjoy the quiet and my breakfast, though by the end of the day I’m usually tired enough to be wondering why.

Glad the weekend’s here, all things considered. It wasn’t a rough week, by any means, but I’m still so unused to getting up and going to bed at a reasonable hour.

I am, however, reading and writing more than I did over the break, so that’s nice. This evening on the train, I finished reading Roger Zelazny’s Lord of Light, which had been recommended — I believe to the audience at last year’s Selected Shorts show — by Neil Gaiman, and it was quite good.

And that’s it for Friday.

January 5th

I’ll admit, I slept late again this morning, despite yesterday’s train delays suggesting that was maybe a bad idea. But my 8:15 train was actually an 8:15 train, without delay, and even the weather seemed to be cooperating. I’m not sure it’s a good thing when the temperature jumps a good twenty degrees in a single day, but I was pleased to walk outside without a hat — or, even with that hat, without feeling frozen. Although, really, the ice cream truck I spotted outside Grand Central at lunchtime was probably a little too optimistic.

Beyond the weather and the commute, today was a pretty typical Thursday.

It’s cold outside

I woke up in time to catch the earlier of two trains this morning…and then proceeded, very deliberately, to go back to sleep for about an hour. But not to worry, the universe decided to make me regret that decision — I was just sleepy, c’mon! — by giving me an hour of weird dreams and a fifteen-minute delay on the Long Island Railroad.

I arrived at work close to ten than nine o’clock, and I guess the only saving grace is that it was much, much too cold to go anywhere at lunch, and I made up some of the time then.

Seriously, though: they claimed the temperature was hovering somewhere in the low twenties all day, but that quite frankly seems like wishful thinking or plain miscounting. I’ve found it often a brutally cold couple of days, not least off all because it’s been so sudden. I was walking around outside, not uncomfortably, in short sleeves or a light jacket just this past weekend.

Winter, I tells ya.

In a word: brrrrr!

I woke up an hour earlier than expected this morning, and so of course I used that extra time to watch an episode of The Vampire Diaries. What, like I’m expected to do anything productive before seven o’clock in the morning? I am enjoying the show, not least of all for Ian Somerhalder’s evil vampiric turn, but I’m only halfway through the first season and I feel like I’ve watched several years’ worth of television, so much plot has happened. It’s all sort of crazy, never exactly brilliant, and sometimes a little too “CW-y” — generally, I like the music, but there’s rarely a scene doesn’t have a corresponding music track you can download to go with it — but it’s about as much fun as friends and reviews suggested it was.

So why not watch an episode in the early morning before I actually, fully, wake up?

If nothing else, it was an excuse to stay in bed even though I couldn’t get back to sleep. I mean, it’s gotten really cold lately. Windchill and everything! The less I have to go out in that — and today I was dumb and forgot my hat and gloves — the better.

Meanwhile, New York City was back to its crowded self today, which was kind of a let-down, really. Yesterday’s commute was a whole lot more peaceful.

They still have work in two thousand and twelve?

It was a cold and quiet day in Manhattan, since most everyone had today off as the New Year’s holiday. Our office was closed on Friday, so we didn’t get today, but I’m not complaining. Without Friday, I wouldn’t have had enough vacation days to carry me through to the end of the year, and I would have had to go in the office that one, lonely day, which just would have been silly.

I’m also not complaining about today’s commute, which was pleasantly quiet and empty. I managed to get an early train this morning — amazing, given that I haven’t, really, had to set my morning alarm since the middle of December — but I think any train I was on would have been relatively empty. It was a pleasant way to ease back into work.

Which, for better or for worse, wasn’t too overwhelming all by itself. A couple of projects I had hoped would have gathered some momentum while I was out are still momentum-less, and I’m still largely where I was when I closed up shop two weeks ago. Hopefully soon. The two projects are books publishing near the end of this month.

Other than that, it was a fairly quiet day. In some ways it was good to be back. In others…when did it get so cold? I’m definitely going to have to start wearing the new winter coat I bought last week. Winter seems to be kicking back in with a vengeance.