This week I did some more traveling to the Garden State, AKA New Jersey. My big project is wrapping up and I was needed onsite for some consultations. Now that we have made our home a fair distance from Boston, my travel days go something like this: Night before pack bag, get in bed around 9-9:30 and try to sleep. Wake up at 11 pm, 2am, 3am and stare at alarm clock until 4:30. Shower in spacious but unfamaliar girl shower and come out smelling like a rose (literally). Get dressed in freezing cold (heat does not come on until 5:30 or so). Then I try not to make any noise on my way out and hit the road. Get through check-in and security by 6 and get a nice close seat to the gate to avoid the inevitable gate-creep. I'm usually able to snag about half an hour of sleep before we land. Then it's a 40 minute cab ride to a subway station and then a 20 minute ride from there to New Jersey. Door to door it's about 4.5 hours and I could probably drive it faster.
I got to the subway Tuesday morning, walked by a few of the fuller cars for one I was sure to get a seat on and rolled in with my suitcase. I took my seat and started to get comfortable when I noticed a distinctly warm feeling underneath me. I didn't see who was sitting there before I got there, but I was hoping for a relatively cool seat. I think I grabbed a yeti seat, because this thing was on fire. By now the car was full and I had no chance of switching seats. How big was this guy? How did he get the seat so damn hot?? Why is the seat still hot? It had a few seconds to breathe and cool off before I got there. I had a topcoat underneath my legs and the warmth was still incredible. Now the NYC subway system is a great place to see the potpourri that is America, but I have never seen the person who could make this happen. I took off one of my gloves to check that I wasn't wet or anything and that's when I felt it... the warmth was everywhere. It took me a minute to realize I was sitting above a heater and it was blowing underneath me. This is what 3 hours of sleep will do for me. Good thing I'm about to go to work and be relied upon for providing accurate and timely information...
Speaking of work, this weekend I am going to be working from home. Aside from being able t0 watch clips of teenagers maiming themselves trying to impress their freinds on demand, this has to be one of the best uses of the internet yet. I get to wear a robe and slippers, put the radio on and grab a pot of coffee. Everyone on my project is also working from home, so the conference calls are filled with barking dogs and screaming children. I know a lot of people 'work' from home and end up watching TV all day, but I find that I get a whole lot more done in the quiet and isolation of my loft than at my desk with random people rolling by and wanting to chitchat all day. Big advocate of this working from home thing.
I read this week in the NYTimes about a $20,000.00 coffee machine. I know the euro is crushing the dollar right now, but I don't think we're approaching that kind of exchange rate yet. Now I love coffee. Actually I am physically addicted and on the weekends M makes me drink it to stave off wild mood swings and debilitating headaches. I used to work at a Dunkin' Donuts and have snobbed my way up to being able to order 5 and 7 word coffee drinks at various coffee shops. At home, I grind my own bean blends (not roasting them myself...yet) and use a couple of different ways of brewing it. But come on... You have to prove yourself worthy to the importer before they will let you buy one. It was designed by 3 Stanford graduatesand it's pretty myuch completely customizable to all of your unique coffee parameters. I feel a little like Rome is already tipping over when people are thinking this is a good idea. I'm not going to get all political about priorities here, but unless this coffee is going to get me 55mpg, they seem to have wasted their time. I may just have to rig one of these up myself and see how good this coffee is...
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