Quite often I get asked to explain what I do for a living. Whether it's to a family friend, a complete stranger, Bob's next door neighbor's uncle's cousin (who's dog I really want), or even to my own family for the millionth time, I still struggle to explain it. Over 2 years into this job and the best I can do is mumble about how I fly a lot and I help a hospital change it's computer system. So, this past Thursday, I wrote down many of my thoughts about the overall flow of the day.
6:07 AM Eastern Time, Boston Massachusetts: Alarm goes off. I roll over, grappling with the nightstand to find where my phone ended up, and turn it off. Immediately I think about when I need to be onsite for the first meeting of the day (it's at 7:30). I check my calendar on my phone, realize I could make it on time if I left at 6:45 (even though we decided yesterday we would leave at 6:30), I flip my phone off, roll over again and am out, almost as if this never happened.
6:32 AM, Same location: I wake up again, look at my phone, panic, and am in the shower within the minute. I dress quickly, putting on the shirt I should probably have ironed, forcing on my always colorful dress socks, and am out the door with one final check of my room. Since I fly out today, I'm not returning to the hotel, so everything comes with me.
6:46 AM, Hotel Lobby/Parking Lot: After hasty apologies, filling up a quick cup of hotel coffee, and grabbing a muffin (carefully avoiding the lemon ones), we load into the rental car to drive the half hour or so to the IT building for the day.
6:50-7:25 AM, on the road: It's usually a pretty quiet ride in the morning. Everyone's still mostly asleep. Inevitably, someone will mention how they're still amazed that Boston traffic is as bad as it is going AWAY from the city in the morning, and how the people headed into the city probably don't get to work until 10am.
7:30 AM-1:30 PM, Onsite: The days onsite tend to pass quickly, except Thursdays. Tuesday and Wednesday are full 8-5 days, but they seem to fly. Thursday is almost always a half day, but it just drags on. First meeting involves everyone drinking coffee and still struggling to get their brains on the subject of how we will bill for our non-employed providers. Meetings such as this one progress throughout the course of the day.
In between meetings, I'll check my email to see that my other crew in Philly are wide awake and actively emailing me questions, and even though I'm in Boston, I have quite a few email chains this morning from them as well. Wondering for a quick second when I'll get to all of these, I answer the easy items, and then check my calendar quickly for the location of the next meeting. Coffee in one hand, laptop in the other, I head over to that room, grabbing along the way any other people who need to be in it.
About halfway through the morning, people start figuring out their ride to the airport situation. When are the flights, who has rental cars, who can stay late while I finish up my meeting, are we getting lunch here, on the way to the airport, or eating at the airport, etc. These tentative arrangements sometimes stick, but other times you just hop in the first car you find.
As the time gets closer to leaving, I head to each of the analysts on my team and check-in with them about progress made this week, items outstanding and who we're waiting on, make a joke or two, talk weekend plans, complain about the weather getting colder, and set the next time we'll be out there.
1:40 PM, Trying to leave: Who are we taking in our van? The people I thought I was driving are nowhere to be found. Without putting a lot of effort into it, I look around once, then decide everyone who needed a ride got one, so we head out.
2:00-2:45 PM, road to airport: We hash out how the week went down, the good, the bad, and every time it ends up with how exhausted we are. I ask Alex to check to make sure our flight hasn't been delayed. It shows on time, for now. Thank goodness. Talk turns to what kind of soup we think the Delta Sky Club will have today.
3:00 PM, arriving at airport: As we return the rental car in the garage, I begin the mental battle of do I want to take 5 minutes and change into comfier clothes for the travel home, or do I just stick it out in my business casual. Lately, I've been doing a combo where I just change my shoes, laziness at its peak.
3:10 PM, shuttle to terminal: The next battle in my head commences. Do I check my carry-on to Madison? Pro here is that I don't have to carry it around with me for the next 5 hours or so. Con is that if my flight gets delayed or I have a tight connection, my bag might not be there for me when I arrive in Madison. Lately, I've been keeping my bag. It's so defeating to travel all day and then deal with a lost bag.
3:30 PM, in terminal: Jake you need to remember to bring your passport so you can sign up for TSA-pre check. The priority lane is fast, but not fast enough, and I deserve to keep my shoes on! Next time for sure. Why is that guy trying to put a tree through the security checkpoint, I don't think it can fit? How does this lady not know by now that your liquids need to come out and your laptop needs a bin by itself? Bro, you need to take your belt off, it has metal on it. Spoiler, the tree ended up fitting.
3:45 PM, Delta Sky Club: As I'm checking in I start scanning the room for open seats nearby a plug. I find a table, set my stuff down and head to the food. Bummer, they don't have their mini cheesecake bites. Oh but they do have the best soup on the planet. I load up my plate, grab a beer from Sal at the bar and sit back down.
4:00-5:30 PM, Delta Sky Club: More of my team file in, we end up taking an entire table, except for one poor soul who was there before any of us, and probably spent most of his time there wondering what on earth we were talking about. We chat about follow-up from the week, try to get some more emails answered, discuss weekend plans, and collectively plot ways to get our 7AM meeting back in Madison cancelled or rescheduled for tomorrow (we succeeded).
5:45 PM, Terminal A: People start leaving the sky club, looking for some dinner options before our flight leaves. We waited too long for sit down at Legal Sea Food, so our choices are Wendy's or this generic deli place. I brace my arteries and heart for a Baconator and Frosty and then head to gate 7.
6:00 PM, Gate 7: The portion of my team on this late flight are slowly gathering around the gate. One person pulls out their phone to check where they are seated, and then suddenly we all have our phones out, checking to see if we will get upgraded, comparing mileage status, and complaining if we are in the back of the plane. Why we play this sick status game with ourselves, I'll never understand, but I'm fully immersed in it, and it's a big deal.
6:45 PM, seat 26C: I forgot to check in early, so I'm towards the back of the plane. Carry-on goes above me, backpack below the seat in front, headphones go in, I check my layover time in Detroit, see that I have a little under an hour, I pull open my Sudoku app, play a few games, and then fall asleep on the 2 hour flight from BOS to DTW.
8:55 PM, Landed in Detroit: Airplane mode goes off, and immediately I check the Delta app to see what gate I'm arriving at and what gate I'm departing from. For those who don't know Detroit airport, it's one long line spanning 78 gates. So if you land on one end, you have a long run to the other. Thankfully my gates are only a few apart from each other, so I start factor in some time to get a snack. It's incredibly sad, but before I even get off the plane, I already know what shops are in between my two gates, so I know where I'm stopping to get my snack.
9:10 PM, Getting my snack: While in line for getting my snack, I check email on my phone and stress for a second about how many things I need to do tomorrow. I pay for my Fig Bar, put the receipt in my travel envelope for reimbursement, and then head to the gate.
9:30 PM, Gate A33: My team plays the game of comparing seats again, and then we are boarding. People from Epic take up the majority of the 10:05 PM flight from DTW to MSN, so I'm often running into friends from other teams as we board the plane. I always think for a second how sorry I am for the roughly 4 people on this flight who AREN'T Epic people. We tend to take over planes.
9:45 PM, seat 38C: I'm paying again for not checking in early. I'm in the second to last row of seats, right by the bathroom. Repeat steps from the flight out of Boston and I'm mostly asleep before we even leave the ground at 10:10.
10:30 PM Central Time, Madison Airport: Finally in Madison. We went back an hour to central time. Everyone shuffles off the plane as quickly as possible and then there's a mass exodus from the airport parking lot as people race home, trying to get as many hours of sleep before Friday morning meetings arrive.
11:15 PM, my apartment: Roll into my garage, take the elevator to the 5th floor and walk into my apartment. My roommates have all already gone to asleep, because what responsible adult isn't asleep before 11PM on a weekday? Not me on a travel day. I pull my toothbrush out of my suitcase, brush my teeth halfheartedly, plug in my phone, set my alarm, plop into my bed, and am asleep in seconds, with only enough time for me to think about how tired I am, knowing that tomorrow morning when my alarm goes off, I'll probably snooze it a couple times just like I did today.
