Tuesday

Sept 4, 2001

the working life

I suppose going back to work shouldn't be so disheartening. It's a good job and very interesting from time to time. Lots of folks don't have a job. The Amercian Statesman is running articles on people who were laid off and examining whether they are leaving Austin or managing to stay. The downturn is evident everywhere, really.The Houston's restaurant was not as crowded as usual yesterday (nor on another day, a normal work day, according to Forrest). I hope for the sake of the businesses around town that people came to the UT blowout (how do they get a patsy team for that first game?) and spent lots of money.

I didn't want to get up. Ever since I got back from Portland I seem to be off. Trying to hold on to the vacation and be on Pacific time? Of course, I have been staying up late, too. But I tried to get to bed at a fairly reasonable hour last night. I think it was a little after midnight. I started thinking about going to bed at 10:30, though.

But I go to work. And make a list of all the things I need to do. Mostly work on presentations. There is an internal one where I need to make a little presentation and then conduct a round table. There are internal and external ones for the trip. I try to make an agenda for a meeting I've called Friday. And I try to get my mailbox under control. I seem to get 'your mailbox is over the size limit' every day now. I am trying to organize all this boring stuff but I get drawn into a interesting technical discussion and a discussion about the marketability of an idea. I am only too willing to be drawn away from my real tasks.

I have lunch with a Nancy and SuRu at Koreana. They have Korean food, I guess, and some Japanese things (sushi, sashimi). I have a lunch box with spicy pork, rice, shredded radish, cucumbers and bean sprouts and a dumpling. Oh, and tofu miso soup. It's pretty good. The place isn't very crowded.

When I come home, we talk about going to play tennis. But FFP is already cooking when I come home (asparagus and fish). After eating, I don't feel much like going out and the weather is a little threatening. That's my excuse. I always have one. After I ate my fish and asparagus, I did have some cheese and green onions. Am I obsessing on cheese more than ever? Well, yeah, of course. I had a cup of coffee from the Capresso after dinner, too. Then two drinks.

What else? Well, increasingly I am noticing the extreme randomness of things.

We were sorting FFP's CD collection tonight because he got a new shelf for them. I was trying to help him organize them as he saw fit, alphabetized and arranged by category and such. And I was wondering how this all really mattered. We listened to some nice jazz while we did it.

All day, I was struck with the choices we make. Of when to get up from the desk, who to have lunch with, what to work on, when to get a cup of coffee, whether to stop and have some potato chips while in the kitchen and then, how many? One makes so many seemingly unimportant choices every day. What to wear, how to groom, how to spend one's time, who to talk to. It adds up to something, I suppose. As the world gets more complex, there are more and more choices of everything from how to get nourishment to how to entertain oneself. We make them without thinking. Except, some days, I do think about them!

rejected pears...by Nancy Hise Lilly

"La plupart des hommes emploient la meillure partie de leur vie à rendre l'autre misérable."

Jean de la Bruyère

JUST TYPING

I enjoy putting in French quotes and typing the HTML to get the accents and such. I think this one translates as "The majority of people use the best part of their life to make the rest of it miserable." But my French quote book translates it as "The greatest part of Mankind employ their first Years to make their last miserable." French scholars? Cheryl? Is that a good translation?