Rainy Wednesday

To say it rained today would be an understatement. I mean, I’m lucky not to live on the banks of a flooding river, or directly in the path of the worst of the season’s tropical storms, but from all reports we won’t really see the sun again until the end of next week.

This morning I woke up rather early when my alarm clock, which is also my cell phone, fell underneath my bed. Or at least I thought it had, and by the time I discovered that it hadn’t — that it was, in fact, just on top of the bed, hidden underneath the covers — I was more or less fully awake. So, rather than reset my alarm and go back to bed for about an hour, which is my usual plan, I got up and caught an earlier train into Manhattan. I stopped for breakfast, again thankful that the subway cuts out the need to walk far in the rain, and arrived at the office at about ten after eight. I ate my breakfast (an egg-white veggie omelet) and read my book (Walter Mosley’s Devil in a Blue Dress), and then went to work.

We had a short presentation this morning about the “basics of estimating,” specifically as it relates to the profit and loss calculations for a particular book, the calculations we use to determine if a book will be profitable, given a certain print run, price, discount, production cost, etc. It wasn’t groundbreaking stuff, and I actually have less use for it than I used to when I was an editorial assistant and creating P&Ls all the time. But it’s good to know, and it revealed that I’ve probably been doing one not-unimportant thing wrong all this time.

Other than that? Mostly just your typical Wednesday.

Wednesday various

Tuesday is as Tuesday does

Nothing much happened today. It rained until it stopped, and that’s about it. My first train this morning was late, and then the connecting train at Jamaica was flooded. Not exactly underwater, but it’s one of those double-decker trains, and I was on the bottom level. Luckily the seats themselves are elevated off the floor, because the floor itself was one giant puddle.

Oh, and it turns out I didn’t win the Geist Literary Postcard Story Contest. That’s too bad, as I really liked the piece I submitted. I definitely think I’m going to rework it a little, expand it just slightly from the contest’s (maddening) 500-word limit.

And, yep, that was pretty much my Tuesday.

Monday

Today had all the trappings of a Monday, though not much else. It rained, quite a lot in the morning, and I got soaked through — well, from toe to shin, anyway — on the single block between Grand Central and my office. Some mornings, I kind of miss my old commute, with the fifteen minute walk from Penn Station. This was not one of those mornings.

I decided not to take advantage of summer hours at work this year. The approvals were due today, and my boss is away at a conference, so it was unlikely I’d be able to get the paperwork squared away. But, more importantly, I just don’t think it’s worth it, this year especially. I like the idea of leaving work three hours early on Fridays, but not so much the idea of spilling those hours into the rest of the week. Especially this year, in the new office, when I have fewer trains to choose from in the morning. Maybe if they continue the option, and after I’ve moved out — I haven’t been good about it, but I am in theory still looking for an apartment — but not this year.

So it’s Sunday

There’s not a lot to say about today. My friend Maurice still isn’t feeling well, so we didn’t meet for our weekly writing group, or to see Thor, like we’d planned to do last week. Maybe next. I spent the day not doing a whole lot beyond the Sunday crossword, some television (I loved Neil Gaiman’s episode of Doctor Who), and a walk after it rained. That’s about it.