I had an epiphany this morning, which is the worst possible time to have an epiphany because there’s so much happening in the morning that most early epiphanies I have get lost in the shuffle of getting ready for the day. I do keep a notepad and pen next to the bed but, unfortunately, I rarely write anything on it. Or I wake up in the morning to find I’ve written down something like, “I tried my hand at gambling and lost an arm and a leg,” which is neither an epiphany nor particularly useful. Or there was the time I woke up to find I’d written down “Invention idea: DormWallz, a board students can put up in dorm rooms they can write things on or stick pictures to.” So apparently at some time during the night I’d invented the whiteboard, which seems less like an epiphany and, at best, more like a phany.
And it’s also a Monday and since I go in to work on Mondays I’m even busier and more stressed in the mornings than I am most other days of the week because I still have to get the dogs fed and taken out, then I have to get showered and dressed and in the car so I can get to work on time. Four days of working from home plus the weekend, I’ve realized, is just enough time to forget how much less flexible my schedule is when I have to be in the office. I have to be there at a specific time and it’s harder to do something like take a long lunch and then make up the time by working later in the afternoon because I also have to be home at a certain time. I could, once I got home and got the dogs fed and taken out, fire up the computer and get some work done. For that matter I could wake up in the middle of the night and go to work. First thing in the morning there are always questions waiting for me. But I like to keep my work and home schedules separate as much as I can and I know mixing them up would lead to madness.
None of this is this morning’s epiphany. What I realized this morning is that I like Daylight Savings Time. I like the time change. For several days now I’ve been getting up in the dark, doing most of my morning routine in the dark, and even starting work in the dark.
This morning I woke up to light. I left for work in the light.
I know it won’t last. The days will keep getting shorter and if it isn’t dark when I leave for work next week it will be the week after that. But gaining an hour made a difference today.
I get you, I feel the same. I was getting up not at the crack of dawn because that would suggest there was some light out. But it was before the crack of dawn since it was still dark outside and at time the moon was still out. I drove to work in the dark as you put it, I stressed over it even. And now its’ light outside and I’m less stressed. But then I realized I’ll be driving home in the dark, not an epiphany or even close. Just can’t wait for 2023 when this entire daylight savings time b.s will be history and we will all stay in the “Spring Forward” mode. Which means I’ll be driving to work in the dark again.
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There’s just no way to escape driving to work in the dark. Well, now that I think about it, we could all move to the equator where the days stay pretty much the same length year-round, but I could see that having its disadvantages as well. There’s just not enough land at the middle of the Earth to hold us all.
I like the idea of Dorm Wallz – but what if it were more of a campus resource – like Pinterest/Craigslist for college students? When I was a fossil, back in college, they had these sort of column shaped bulletin boards in the student center where people looking for rideshares, or tutors, or guitar lessons – whatever, really – could post a flyer. So, that, but online. I think the gambling line is quite clever – hang on to that one.
When I was in college–a fellow fossil–people often hung dry-erase boards on their doors where anyone could stop by and leave a message. It was hilarious to see a lengthy note on someone’s door of mostly Japanese characters with “Subway” right in the middle. And on the college campus where I work they still have some of those column-shaped bulletin boards, as well as bulletin boards in the student center. Amazingly even in the digital age they get quite a bit of use.
I had an epiphany yesterday when I was talking to somebody else who works at home some days and at the office other days. Transitions are difficult and we’re constantly transitioning now between two very different work modes, never really getting totally used to them. I’m writing this before I go to work on a Monday, so thanks for helping me feel less stressed, Chris.
I’m glad I could help you with your stress and although I’m at the start of a very long weekend I plan to carry that feeling with me forward into the next week. Of course I’ll start that week going into the office, but I think there may be some benefit to transitioning between different work modes.