all things me

I’ve been quite busy — to put it mildly — at work for about a month now. It all escalated when I received a massive project to finish in half the time that was originally scheduled for it. That was because I received it a month late…

I’m usually good at forgetting the stressful work stuff outside of 9 to 5 (or 9 to 6/7 which is often the case) but when I’m extremely busy (“don’t know if I’m going to manage this” kind of busy) I find myself thinking about schedules when I’m trying to fall asleep. I suppose it’s not all bad since I often have good ideas then. (During the day I only have time to do not think.)

But last night I had apparently had enough: I dreamt about working! It was as if my hectic day continued all through the night. If that’s not a sign of proper stress I don’t know what is.

This story has a happy ending, though. Just this morning (perfect timing! Although I could’ve done without the dream…) I received a message letting me know that the schedule had been extended by a month. Finally!

I’m tired and freezing! Let me tell you why:

I left work a bit after 6:30pm (started at 9am), having had a headache for a few hours by then, and when I got to the bus stop it said 6 minutes to the next bus. Great!

6 minutes went – the bus didn’t.

Next it said 20 minutes to the next bus. All right, I’ll wait.

20 minutes went – the bus still didn’t.

Next I decided to take any bus that would take me closer to home. I only had to wait for 4 minutes more.

The next problem was figuring out what next: It was around 7:15pm at this point. I wouldn’t make the train at 7:30 and the next one went at 8 (and then I’d have to stand on it for 7 minutes and walk for 10-15). I was also thinking about going to the very last stop of the bus I was on, which would’ve taken 30-40 minutes and then I would’ve had to wait for 15 minutes at worst (if I was lucky) for the next connecting bus or just walk straight home for 20-25 minutes (but do I have to mention I was freezing at this point).

Luckily right before the train station I realised I have several possible trains to get to a station where I could take a bus that should run at 10-15 minute intervals. I quickly checked the trains on my mobile and there was one going in 3 minutes, so I jumped out and ran to the train.

During the 4 minutes on the train I checked when the bus might be going next: 2-3 minutes after the train arrived. Excellent! Again, I jumped out and ran to the stop.

The bus was late — but only for about 7 minutes, so after a while I was at home. Home!

Boy, I feel like sleeping in tomorrow… (not going to happen) Well, at least it’s Friday then.

This morning I got some tummy workout on the bus as I was doing my best not to laugh out loud at two guys sitting on the back seats. They were speaking very loudly — sitting on the opposite sides of the bus (why?!) — about computers.

They talked about graphics cards (one had melted a card by playing Crysis Wars on highest quality setting), CPUs (AMD vs. Intel), and video formats.

One said he was thinking about getting a new computer and told the other that he’d seen a good-looking deal in a web store. He said it was an HP Pavilion.

The other replied, “I have an HP Pavilion as my secondary computer. It’s crap.” The other then started listing the specifications for the computer he’d been looking at: 8 GB RAM, Nvidia GTX220 graphics card, 3 CPUs, 1.5 TB hard drive…

You won’t believe what the other one said! “Oh, I see they’ve evolved since 2003.”

The other, very knowledgeably said, “Yeah, with desktop computers it’s not the name that counts, it’s the components.”

I was trying my hardest to focus on the book I was reading but after they got on the bus, I didn’t manage to read a single paragraph.