A day in the life (read on) Apr15 '04

I am having a great time at my new job, and I hope it continues.

This week flew by, and tomorrow I must accomplish a lot. Friday’s are important days. The more you can complete, the better you feel leaving the office at 5:30 PM. And the less you have to worry about over the weekend.

My days are filled with hard–nose coding of CSS and XHTML, while I occasionally stand up to stretch my legs and browse through books on Java, XML, and Defensive Design. (It’s always good to take your eyes off the computer for just a few minutes here and there.)

And for my "on screen" reading, I have my news alerts at Bloglines ready to tell me about web log updates at mezzoblue, stopdesign, zeldman, MacMinute, photomatt, and tons more. RSS news feeds are the king’s goblet. I don’t know how I ever lived without RSS. It brings the updates to ME, instead of me having to check each and every site. I have it set up so it checks for updates every 5 minutes, and it alerts me when someone updates their site. It’s just like email alerts.

Although I put in long hours, and it looks to grow longer, I enjoy every second. I couldn’t ask for anything more. You practically have to pull me out of my chair at 5:30 PM every day. I just keep thinking of another thing to do.

With that in mind, I want to share with you a typical day for me at Hewitt, after my second full week:

I leave the house no later than 6:45 AM. My route to work involves a few expressways, and some light morning suburb traffic.

I hop onto I–90 West, then swerve over to 294–North. As I cruise through the I–Pass lane, I most recently have been listening to the greatest hits of R.E.M. I just can’ get enough of the song Animal.

My exit is Deerfield Road, and I make a left onto to that street. I take that to Milwaukee, and then there’s work.

As usual, I am one of the early birds. I stop in the cafeteria to get my usual breakfast – oatmeal with a little butter, and a carton of chocolate milk. I take that to an empty table in an empty lounge, and eat slowly while reading something that I am carrying with me, whatever that may be.

I head up to my office around 7:25 AM, and sometimes the lights are not even on yet, but the sun shines brightly through the corridor windows. A few others are early birds too, making phone calls, and checking email.

I sit down, and throughout the morning, I rarely stand. I try to stand and take a walk as much as I can, but most of the morning and afternoon, I am hunched over the keyboard.

Good stuff happens on my screen, too. I use CSS, XHTML, PHP, and anything else I can get my hands on, that Windows XP is friendly with. I miss my Mac, but I am really becoming efficient with Windows. (Plus I don’t have much of a choice.)

Around noon, another worker in my area always asks if I am ready for lunch. Heck, yeah. You bet. I take a quick second to check the menu online, through Hewitt’s extensive informational sites. Mmmm, today is lemon pepper chicken. I can’t go wrong.

In the cafeteria and lounge, the picture is the opposite of the early morning. The place is mobbed with associates, and I quickly grab a table with some co–workers, being careful not to drop my tray of food.

Lunch is great, simply because it’s nice to get away from the computer, and actually have real conversations. It such a nice treat.

As the clock approaches 12:30 PM, we head back up to our offices. On most afternoons, the Cubs are playing at 1:20 PM (if they are at home). I quickly sit down at my computer, and check to see the starting pitchers, as well as lineups, etc.

The game keeps me excited all afternoon, while I work.

I work hard until after 5 PM, and although I am happy to be done with work, I still wish I had just a little more time to do some things.

But nothing beats going home. I head for my truck, and for the evening rush hour traffic.

Traffic stinks in the evenings, so I usually don’t get home until 6:30 PM, which is just enough time to go for a jog, and see what trouble Cameron, our beagle, is up to.

At home in the evening, I sit down and begin to write about everything I did during the day!

Note: This entry was "spur of the moment," while holding nothing back. That is why it is so long, unedited, and probably contains many spelling or grammatical errors. I guess I just felt like spilling it all. (Well, most of it)

Categories: Life , Offbeat

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