Moments — 86,400 seconds

I’m not sure she meant to be so loud when she lamented, “There is just not enough time in the day”. She was though, and I heard her from the other side of the room.

One day. 24 hours. 1,440 minutes. 86,400 seconds **. This is all we get to work with. This is all the time we get each day to do everything we believe we need to do.

And everyone is equal in this regard — there isn’t someone who is getting a second more or a second less.

I can’t be sure what was causing her frustration with time but I can only assume she was juggling number of things she needed to get done. Had she just been overly optimistic with what she could get done, was it poor prioritization, or maybe she’s just not very efficient at getting things done. The only thing I can be certain of, no matter what the reason, she wasn’t very happy.

Every day we allot time for what we have to do and manage our 86,400 seconds accordingly; it becomes one of the purest examples of opportunity cost… If I go out with friends for drinks I suppose I can’t go to the gym, unless of course I get up two hours earlier, but then I won’t be able to see the kids off to school…

It’s a constant exercise of juggling these 86,400 seconds, and more importantly, using them efficiently to get done what you want to get done. Sadly, they are one use only.

And hopefully another 86,400 seconds comes along.

iamgpe

** I really hope my math is accurate

Moments — a moment in time.

It was hidden in a box and forgotten. Correction, some people knew there was a box and generally knew what was in it — although arguably, this did mean it was forgotten. I only found it through happenstance when I was looking for something else.

If I was to guess I’d say the photograph was taken circa 1956. I would also say it was taken at a Christmas party, and if I was to imagine…

It was their first Christmas party since they had gotten married, and everyone took the opportunity to get out of the cold and celebrate. With cocktail and cigarette in hand, people were laughing, talking about getting the family together for the holidays, and speculated what the new year will bring. Beside the tree a playful conversation was happening about what would be under the tree on Christmas day, although no answers were forthcoming. The playfulness would continue, people would kiss under the mistletoe, and they would dance the night away listening to Elvis Presley.

It’s a moment in time that was captured, was forgotten, and then rediscovered — it’s a fortunate opportunity to glimpse into the lives of others, their stories, and ultimately to celebrate who they are (and were). My mother, god rest her soul, won’t be able to tell about what they were talking about, but my father is still sharp and should remember.

Alas, our stories are really so very short.

iamgpe

The quirkiness that comes with business travel...

It’s a lot easier to simply say you are going to Boston for a business trip instead of Newton (which is a suburb of Boston) — it’s simply more recognizable and comes will less explanation; although disappointing all around when you clarify. I don’t travel as much as I used to but every so often I find myself heading to the airport with carry on luggage in tow. A recent trip had me going to visit a potential client, and with it, offered up an opportunity to explore all the trials and tribulations that come with such trips. In other words, it was an opportunity to deal with all the quirkiness that seems to inherently be part of business travel.

As I look back on this, the first hint of the quirkiness yet to come occurred when I attempted to book my hotel room. When I went to reserve a room I was told the hotel was full but an alternative hotel had vacancies. This was particularly disappointing because the hotel I wanted to stay at was an easy five minute walk to my client — alas, I needed a place to sleep so I took the alternative. The idea of not having a convenient five-minute walk (and needing to rent a car) started to fester so I called the front desk of my preferred hotel to see if they could find me a room. I was informed that there were a number of rooms available and was passed onto “reservations”, and as you might guess, I was informed that the hotel was all booked up (but there was an alternative hotel available). After explaining I was told differently, I was again informed there were simply no rooms available. Spurred on by the idiocy of this, I hung up and called the front desk, explained what was happening, and eventually they took my reservation there and then. With that done, all I had to do was call and cancel the reservation for that alternative hotel. I was off the hamster wheel. (Persistence)

A 5:00 am start had me at the airport with lots of time to make my way from one side of customs and security to the other.

After a couple of attempts at the check-in kiosk, I was informed my identity couldn’t be verified and I needed to see an agent — twenty minutes later I handed my passport to an agent and explaining that the kiosk “doesn’t like me”. With boarding pass in hand, I was told that the reason for the uncooperative kiosk was because I hadn’t included a “Mr” when I booked my flight; as a result the kiosk removed a letter from my name to solve for the missing tile, but in doing so made my name unidentifiable. (Learning experience)

Because of my boarding pass issue, I found myself one of the last people to get onto the plane and had to check my carry on — a little inconvenient because I would have to wait at the luggage carousel but none of this mattered because I was on the plane and we were on time. That was until we were informed the pilots had missed their “connecting flight” and new pilots would be here in about twenty minutes. (Patience)

It was a smooth flight.

Some other quirky highlights of my short trip — I could get onto the guest password, the network, but not my email (I would have to access emails at the hotel); I thought I had lost my wallet and was moments from making the dreaded call to cancel my credit cards when I finally found it (my new bag has many, many, places to put things); I lost my umbrella (I still have no idea how that happened or where it could be. And yes, I went back to the hotel to look for it.). (Adaptability)

It was a smooth flight back home after a productive couple of days (with only a slight delay).

It was nice to be back home — that was until I started to get a sore throat, a cough, and a fever. I’ve been under the weather all weekend, and you guessed it, the weather outside was beautiful. (Stoic)

iamgpe