Day 146/365 - Back to the Salt Mines

No more living the life of an idle vagabond. Today was my first day back at the office after my vacation in Venice. The scene above is of the tables and chairs on the small terrace in front of my office building, still bearing the marks of yesterday's snowfall. I spent the day going through my accumulated emails, catching up with clients, and telling my coworkers about my trip <cough> not to mention adding titles, tags, and descriptions to the Day One set of my Venice photos <end cough>.

Now it's back to making my own bed, fixing my own meals, being awakened by my alarm clock rather than church bells, riding the Metro underground rather than the vaparetto down the Grand Canal, hearing "next station stop, L'Enfant Plaza" rather than "proxima fermata, Ca' d'Oro," and not having prosecco and gelato nearly every day.

Like untold thousands before me and thousands more yet to come, I believe I may be smitten with Venice. La Serenissima, my carissima.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 61/365 - Office Away From Office

We have a Starbucks adjacent to my office building and when I need to really focus on something and blaze through my review of it, I take files down there and work. Today it was a grant announcement I'd promised to get reviewed and returned to the program office by COB. This is my favorite table. There were a couple kids sitting there when I entered, but by the time I got my chai they'd left and I was able to claim my usual spot.

I've always been one of those people who focus and concentrate better when there is stuff going on around them. I could never study in complete silence. My mind tends to start wandering if there isn't something going on in the background. Some people need absolute quiet in order to concentrate and others of us are just the opposite. In school I always had to have the radio or tv on when I was studying or doing homework and even now I listen to music in my office.

It seems counter-intuitive that you'd need noise and commotion in order to avoid distractions, but that's what works for me.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)