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June 16th, 2006

A Day in the Life of Rob Becker

On a whim I decided to report on everything I did this past Thursday, a seemingly typical day in my life.Â It was an interesting exercise.Â At times I found myself over-analyzing every little occurrence as potentially noteworthy.Â Other times I completely forgot I was supposed to be keeping track of what I was doing.

The most interesting part of this experience wasÂ noting all the odd littleÂ things that happen in a day.Â Â On anyÂ other day they wouldÂ beÂ quickly forgotten, but on this day the little laughs and little quirks were recorded and seem to give the dayÂ an unexpected pizzazz.

I keep asking myself, was this a typical day?Â The truth is that I don’t know what typical really is.Â At this time in my life typical seems to change so quickly that it never has a chance to become typical.Â And so in that sense, yes, this was a completely typical day.

And so I present, all the things that happened on Thursday, June 15, 2006:

8:00 am - Riverdale, NY
My alarm rings for the first time. I hit snooze.

8:55 am - Riverdale, NY
The third alarm prompts me to get up. I feel more rested this morning than I have all week and I’m glad I finally got to bed at a decent hour last night.

9:20 am — Riverdale, NY
I’m showered and dressed. I spend a few minutes strumming the first five chords of “Don’t Look Back in Anger” on my guitar.

9:25 am — Riverdale, NY
Their is a large construction crane blocking my normal route to the highway, so I take another street. Although only two blocks out of my way, it forces me to drive under the elevated subway, navigate around large support beams and get through a chaotic merge. Once I get back onto my normal route a sense of calm comes over me. I am truly a creature of habit.

9:35 am — Henry Hudson Parkway Northbound, NY
I note the time and think to myself, “Man, I’m making good time.”

9:55 am — I95 Northbound, CT
I note that I haven’t yet reached Stamford and think to myself, “god this is a long drive. This sucks.”

10:10 am — Norwalk, CT
I arrive at work. I’m greeted by a group standing in the hallway that includes my boss (who has also just arrived), my work “mentor” and another co-worker. I smile and pass by quickly. I’m not a very sociable creature in the morning.

10:20 am — Norwalk, CT
I settle down at my desk with a cup of coffee and start reading email. I have six unread, most of which are scheduling and status information. I click “mark as read” six times.

10:30 am — Norwalk, CT
I’m at nytimes.com reading about the Mets victory over the Philadelphia Phillies last night. Sure I watched most of the game the night before, but reading the report releases all sorts of good endorphins into my blood stream.

11:10 am — Norwalk, CT
I stumble upon an article in The Morning News that chronicles a day in the life of several of its writers. I’m always curious to read these things and compare how a day in their life compares to a day in mine. I decide to start chronicling my day.

11:40 am — Norwalk, CT
My work this morning involves trying to isolate the source of a problem I’m having in some code. This involves running a compile over and over that will take a minimum of 8 minutes to run, or could run indefinitely (herein lies the problem). As these compiles are running my computer gets very slow, which frustrates me.

11:55 am — Norwalk, CT
I’m giving up my lunch hour today to take part in a meeting on facility improvements. I hate to give up lunch because it is often the highlight of my work day and one of the few opportunities I have to see natural light and the outside world. Yet I feel that this meeting is important enough to do so. I arrive 5 minutes early to the 12pm meeting and see that only a few people have yet arrived. I recall how lunch meetings work: if lunch is provided people will show up at least 10 minutes early. If no lunch is provided, people will show up at least 5 minutes late. No lunch is provided at this meeting. I return to my desk for 10 minutes to read more of The Morning News.

1:00 pm — Norwalk, CT
I leave the meeting feeling a mix of hope and dejection. I am also feeling hungry. I chat with several co-workers for 5 minutes in the hallway.

1:05 pm — Norwalk, CT
As I’m walking to the bathroom I run into two friends and exchange some more friendly banter. My boss eventually joins in. A guy who works here walks by. This guy wears a wig that resembles hair only in the broadest of terms. In my head I marvel at how ridiculous he looks.

1:15 pm — Norwalk, CT
I go outside on my way to Stew Leonardâ€™s to buy lunch to bring back to my desk. I discover that this morning’s clouds have cleared and it’s now a beautiful, sunny day out. It makes me feel worse about skipping lunch.

1:45 pm — Norwalk, CT
I’m back at work with a dish full of Capri salad, hamburger macaroni and cheese and two samosas. I realize these three foods have no earthly right to be together on the same plate. My compile times are now running about 20 minutes each.

1:57 pm — Norwalk, CT
I start the following email exchange with Joe and Mike:

ROB: You guys didn’t come to the facilities meeting?

JOE: Well, me, I got caught up in my project spontaneously deciding to not work anymore after working perfectly, and I was goin too nuts t take a break t stop t fix itâ€¦honestly, I donâ€™t think I even had lunch at all tday, yikes!

MIKE: Yeah me neither. Anything interesting happen at today’s meeting?

ROB: You two really need to re-evaluate your priorities!

So we spent an hour collecting votes (which could have been accomplished by email in less than 5 minutes). Ultimately we’ve narrowed down to 4 improvements:

1) HVAC System
2) HVAC Air filters (not sure why this is separate from #1)
3) New furniture and carpeting
4) Fixing up the bathrooms

You guys should have come — we needed your votes — the meeting was full of moles who don’t like daylight!

BTW, I heard today that Gibbs College is installing skylights in their part of the buildingâ€¦ I’ll just let that sit thereâ€¦

JOE: â€¦I know, I know, Stan told me about what happened, that they chose the stupidest, most unachievable crap to go and doâ€¦sigh…

MIKE: Did all the groups get assigned a task, cause it seemed like our group did.

ROB: Just the 4 groups who volunteered. I volunteered to do HVAC. BTW, how’s the temperature in your area?

JOE: Ah, already hard at work, that’s good to see! =)

MIKE: It’s been better.Â My group has furniture…How is yours?

ROB: Old and busted

2:26 pm — Norwalk, CT
I get this email from my manager:

During a recent Facilities Department ISO audit it was found that some departments are still using an outdated Work Request form. The update is very similar but has a different form number. Please inform all employees in your department that Command Media Procedure N504-NOR must be used. This Procedure also has forms N504-F01-NOR for Work Request/Capital Equipment Move and N504-F02-NOR Facility Planning and Design Data Request.

Has my life really become Office Space?

2:33 pm — Norwalk, CT
I regret eating those samosas.

3:05 pm — Norwalk, CT
My boss walks by my cube, stops and looks in at me, steps into my cube, sits down and starts reciting a passage from an Edgar Allen Poe poem. After discussing the poem, conversation turns to my compiling problems.

3:25 pm — Norwalk, CT
I excuse myself from my cube, where my boss has now struck up a conversation with another co-worker; I refill my water bottle and then drop by a co-workers office and strike up a conversation of my own.

4:25 pm — Norwalk, CT
I leave work early on account of meeting Karin down at Battery Park at 7pm tonight, and the great distance I must traverse to get there.

4:26 pm — Norwalk, CT
Leaving the building I remember what a beautiful day it is. I’m glad I’m leaving work early.

4:44 pm — I95 Southbound, CT
Meet the Mets, Meet the Mets, come to the park and greet the Mets… I’m signing along to “Meet the Mets” on the radio as I listen to the recap of today’s afternoon game in which the Mets defeated the Phillies. More endorphins are being released.

5:25 pm — Riverdale, NY
I arrive home and think that my apartment is a mess. I write out a check to pay a bill that arrived in my mailbox.

5:40 pm — Riverdale, NY
Dropping the check in the mailbox, I wonder why my bag is so heavy and discover a sweatshirt and an umbrella in the bag. I run back up to the apartment to get rid of the excess weight.

5:55 pm — 1 subway southbound, 225th St.
On the subway now, I pull out my copy of Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut and start reading.

6:08 pm — 1 Subway southbound, 116th St.
“What time is bedtime at Michael Jackson’s house? When the big hand touches the little hand.” So says a pan handler on the 1 train.

6:58 pm — Bowling Green, Lower Manhattan
I sit down in Bowling Green park, where I’m meeting Karin. It’s completely different from how I remember it — how long has it been since I was here last? Waiting, I pass the time watching people take pictures and do various other odd things with the ass of the famous Wall Street Bull statue.

7:20 pm — Bowling Green, Lower Manhattan
Karin calls, wondering where I am. I say, “I’m at Bowling Green, where are you?”
“I’m by the water, I was at Bowling Green, I didn’t see you.”
“Are you sure you where at Bowling Green?”

7:25 pm — Bowling Green, Lower Manhattan
Karin and I find each other and walk into Battery Park in search of an old wall recently uncovered during excavation for the South Ferry subway line extension.

8:00 pm — Battery Park, Lower Manhattan
Karin and I are watching the Turkey that lives in Battery Park and theorizing as to its possible lineage when Mike and Michelle walk by. How random!? We talk to them for a short while.

8:20 pm — Battery Park, Lower Manhattan
Having been unsuccessful in finding the old wall, Karin and I give up our quest and go to the Battery Gardens restaurant for dinner.

10:10 pm — Battery Park, Lower Manhattan
After dinner Karin and I walk along the Battery Park City promenade. It’s a beautiful night for a walk outside.

11:08 pm — 1 subway northbound, Chambers St.
I’m back on the subway. I consider reading more of Cats Cradle, but I’m too tired, so I just sit and veg.

11:38 pm — 1 subway northbound, 103rd St.
“Why is Michael Jackson always late? Because he likes to come in a little behind.” So says the same pan handler I ran into earlier, who is back to entertain us weary travelers.

12:09 am — Riverdale, NY
I arrive back home. My apartment is still a mess.

12:35 am — Riverdale, NY
I look up the wall in Battery Park on the internet and discover that the wall is on display inside Castle Clinton, which was closed while Karin and I were on our search.

1:00 am — Riverdale, NY
Mets highlights on SNY!

1:11 am — Riverdale, NY
Realizing I’m falling asleep on my couch, IÂ go to bed.