It's None of Your Busy-ness

Somebody once asked me if I'd rather be stressed but not bored at work or be bored but relaxed. I picked the latter, thinking about how I've had jobs that have left me so stressed I can hardly sleep at night for worry that something will go wrong the next day. Currently, things are pretty calm for me at work. Yesterday, my mom said to me, "You must have had a lot of free time at work today; you emailed me three different links." (see below)

I thought to myself, "Time flew by today. Actually, I was pretty busy ." But then, was I? Yesterday I had about three hours of free time at work, mostly spent cruising online news sources and chatting via GoogleChat. But three hours out of eight didn't seem like much.

Flashback one year and I am sitting in the Union Project main office, so busy my eyes could have been looking in two different directions and no one would have noticed. Three hours of free time? Unheard of. Somewhere along the line, my standard for busy-ness got thrown way off. And it's not just my subjective judgment of what constitutes a busy day, it's something about how my body reacts to it.

A year ago, a day with three free hours sprinkled throughout it would have dragged on into infinity. These days, it seems to fly by without waving hello. I think the turning point for my perception of time happened sometime in Mexico. There, I was working six to seven hour days, but I had a solid six hour chunk in the middle of the day that was totally unoccupied. I think the bizarre pattern that emerged in my life through off my concept of time; I can now easily pass four or five straight hours -- with a book, a computer, or someone to chat to -- without a worry. Time sails by smoothly, towing me along happily. I am never wont for something to do. In other words, I have become an expert at entertaining myself.

I'm not stressed, but I'm not bored, either.

How is this newfound ability to entertain myself (and what I think I am finding to be a craving for time to do so everyday) going to affect my life once I go back to school, back to the hustle and bustle that accompanies life in a big city, research projects, class presentations, meetings, etc.? Readjusting to that is going to be one of the major challenges of life at SFU. I know I am a good student and pretty damn adept at adapting to new environments, but adjusting to a new pace of life, that is a battle I had not yet considered.

* * *

The Good Links From Yesterday:

• Rove Taunted at University of Iowa (pay attention to the quote in the third paragraph)
  
• Meds Lurk in Drinking Water (remember, this is just part one)
• Garfield Minus Garfield (posted to Small Wonder yesterday)

And for good measure, a great link discovered today:

• A New Hope (the words I wish I could have found first)