Early is on time

The conductor of the youth symphony I was in during high school loved the saying "Early is on time, on time is late, and late is unacceptable." He was speaking with regard to getting to rehearsals in enough time to warm up before we actually started playing, but I find that the philosophy applies to most of my life. If I am scheduled to work at 8 AM, and I arrive at 7:59, I feel late. I feel rushed, sometimes for the rest of the day, even if there is nothing going on, and my day consists of sitting at the reference desk reading a book. I desperately need the extra 10 minutes I get when I arrive at 7:50 to get myself settled, to get my head in the work space for the day. Arriving early is a lot easier to do when you don't live 30 miles away on a busy freeway. I wish I could walk to work.

In elementary school, I would panic if the bus was running late enough to make me late to class. It wasn't like it was my fault, or anything I could have controlled, but still, I felt culpable and out of sorts. When my dad and I would go see a movie, especially if it was popular (which it usually was, since we only went to movies around the holidays) we would go really early, and then stand in line reading books. I sometimes think our family motto, were we to have one, should be: Never leave home without a book (because you will probably be early and need something to keep you busy!)

Monday/Wednesday

So, after a day off yesterday, I head back to work on a Monday/Wednesday. A day at home is a lot more enjoyable when it is an occasional treat than when it is your normal way of life. I went to the gym, baked bread, cleaned off my desk, did laundry, and enjoyed being home on a week day. Now I am returning to work on Wednesday, a day that also sort of feels like Monday after my day off. Time is interesting that way - how we perceive it is so often based on the structure of life that we build around it. Because I was off yesterday, today feels like a new start, but since I was at work on Monday, it also feels like the middle of the week. When I wasn't working, I still created a bit of structure - doing certain errands and chores on certain days. When you are on vacation, and I mean really on vacation, time loses a lot of its structure, and it can be difficult to get back into the flow of work and day to day life as the vacation winds down. Time really is relative!