work

I overslept this morning, and how.

Though I did discover, much to my surprise — and just seconds before it wouldn’t have mattered, and the train doors would have closed on me — that there’s yet another, later train from Jamaica to Hunterspoint Avenue in the morning. I probably shaved a few precious minutes off of my commute by hopping off when I did, at the last second, but I would have gladly traded the revelation that there’s a connecting train later in the morning for having been awake in time to catch one of the earlier ones.

I have a lot of work to get through at the office.

But before I could do any of that, I had to run our monthly development team meeting, shortly after I got into the office. It was a slightly strange affair, considering that everyone else on the team in New York was away on travel, as was my counterpart in the UK who had suggested our topic of discussion in the first place (author care), and I was sitting alone in our larger conference room talking to everyone else over video. But I think the meeting went reasonably well; it didn’t drag on, and nobody had any true horror stories of dealing with difficult authors.

I spent most of the rest of the day pulling together and typing up my notes from last week’s campus travel, except of course when I was on the phone talking to another professor I wasn’t able to meet with in person. I still have two phone calls lined up for Friday, one with a professor and one with the bookstore manager. But at least then it’ll be done. I just have to finish typing them up, distribute them to the appropriate team members, input them into our system, and then start getting in touch with people for my next campus visit. (This one will be closer to home — even closer, I think, than the office, but it still is going to take some investigative and e-mailing legwork.)

And let’s not even talk about all the other work I still have to do. Reports and reviews and reviews and reports. I will say this much, however: today just flew by.

But boy did it still feel like a Monday.

Today was so very Tuesday.

I had a phone call scheduled for noon, which…well, let’s just say it wound up being considerably shorter and less productive than I had hoped it would be. Any fears that I’d run up a hefty cell phone bill by calling from home dissipated pretty quickly.

I’m back in the office tomorrow. Hopefully the phone call I have scheduled then goes a little better.

They tell me today is Thursday, although I’m not entirely convinced by the evidence before me. In some ways it felt very much like a Monday, with me just returned to the office after a five-day (including last weekend) absence, and in other ways it feels like it ought to be much, much later. After driving all day yesterday, the last thing I wanted to do was get up early this morning and face my regular commute.

I drove to Maryland on Sunday afternoon, despite a GPS that thought getting there by way of midtown Manhattan and the Lincoln Tunnel was a good idea. (It wasn’t.) I had dinner with my sister and her husband, hung out with them and their pets — that’s their cat Sebastian up top — and then spent most of the next couple of days at the University of Maryland, meeting with instructors and talking to them about courses and books.

I will say this much about UMD: it is rather hilly. I don’t think it’s any more difficult to find your way around than with any other unfamiliar campus…but it also isn’t any easier. And while there appear to be any bike paths, there also doesn’t appear to be any shortage of bikes. Who says sidewalks should just be for walking?

My campus visit was kind of a mixed bag, but that’s usually the case. I spoke with some professors who were really nice, genuinely informative, and seemed to be understanding when I only had a small handful of awkward questions to ask them. (I try to understand the markets I’m working in, and I’ve been exposed to psychology topics more than I might have been otherwise, but I’m still no expert. I took Psych 101 in college and that’s it.)

On Tuesday night, I watched the Presidential debate. You can dig through my Twitter feed if you’re actually interested in what I think (or the jokes I tried to make). Sebastian watched with me, curled up at my feet, although I’m pretty sure he actually slept through most of it. I’m also pretty sure his was the way the go.

And then on Wednesday, I drove back home, stopping at Towson for one meeting — I’ve got a couple more more by phone and still hope to connect with the textbook manager, who wasn’t in when I stopped by — before heading home. The GPS really wanted me to take the Tunnel again, but weeknight rush-hour traffic in Manhattan is a whole different kettle of annoyance, and I was having none of it. Following the paper maps I’d made sure to bring as well, I made it home sometime after 5 o’clock.

It was a good trip, but it’s good to be back. That said, it would have been better if today had actually been the Saturday it felt like it really should have been. (If that makes any sense.)

I think my next campus visit will be a little closer to home. Unless I could get them to spring for somewhere much further and not have to drive. (Washington, D.C., traffic? Not a fan.)

Although it’s not how I’d choose to spend my Sunday afternoon, I’m off on a road trip to Maryland shortly. I’ll be there for the next couple of days, staying with my sister and visiting instructors at the University of Maryland (and at Towson on my way back on Wednesday). I don’t expect to be fun — chatting with people I don’t know, negotiating all the travel with my lousy sense of direction (though with a GPS, thankfully), all the business of work but separated from the ability to do a lot of it — but it will be a different sort of work week.