I wake up 1 minute before the alarm goes off at 5:55 AM. Zeke is sitting on the bed, staring at me and I scratch his chin and then shut off the alarm before I have to hear it and turn on the light. Both Zeke and I squint through the brightness, I toss back the covers and start to get ready for work. I have a lot to do today, a long day, and already I’m thinking that I wish I could have slept longer. I have a session with Bernard after work and even that is looking difficult from this early morning vantage point.
On the nightstand, I see Dangerous Visions and remember that I’d gotten through the two introductions last night before going to sleep, and some hope for the day is restored. Knowing that I’ll be able to dig into that book on the train gets me going and I make my way through my routine with a slight spring in my step: get dresses, open the blinds, brush my teeth, take the vitamin, feed Zeke. I don’t check mail this morning because the iMac’s BlueTooth keyboard needs new batteries and I am feeling too lazy from pulling the laptop out of the bedroom.
Driving to the metro station, I think about what I need to do this morning, and in what order I should do it. I decide that getting the meta-data finalized for the class that I am teaching this afternoon is the most important thing to do, and that is what I will do first. Depending on how long that takes, I will implement the notification workflow. Lastly, I will complete what is left of the user documentation. All of this needs to be ready to go by 1 PM.
On the train, I don’t get my usual seat but instead get a seat diagonally across from it. This isn’t so bad, though. I have pulled out Dangerous Visions before I even sit down and have started Harlan Ellison’s forward as the train doors close. I am so engrossed in the book that I almost miss the fact that we’ve passed the Shaw/Howard University stop and I switch trains at the next stop.
On the Yellow line, one of the regular riders I see sits next to me and says, “Yankees lost last night.” He knows I am a Yankee fan, and though I don’t normally talk to this guy, he must have heard me talking with some of the other regulars in the past.
“Yeah,” I say, really wishing to focus on my book. “They couldn’t seem to get in that last run they needed.” That seems to end the conversation.
I manage to finish the “Foreword” just as the train arrives at Pentagon City. I head upstairs and go through the new email I received since last night. There is one message in particular that I feel I need to respond to. Someone wants to use SharePoint to implement this projects database that I was pulled onto yesterday as the technical lead. I dislike SharePoint to begin with, but in this case, it’s an easy case to make that it is not an appropriate tool for this job. I write up a response, and then decide to hold off on sending it. Maybe I don’t have all of the facts yet. I save the draft, and accept the two meeting invitations I’ve been sent.
I’m doing this “Day in the life” thing today on the blog, so I do my first entry of the day. Now it’s time to get started on that meta-data.
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