Sunday's end

And so here I am, minutes from bed to sum up yet another weekend.

The years like great black oxen tread the world,
And God the herdsman goads them on behind,
And I am broken by their passing feet.

- William Butler Yeats The Countess Cathleen, act 4 (1891). Last lines.

It was a very busy weekend with nearly every minute accounted for with a social activity or errand. Friday came and Kate arrived. We had a nice pot roast dinner, which I unfortunately forgot the left overs on the counter and ended up throwing it out. (sadness) Saturday Kate and I went to a local bowling alley/ pool hall. We played pool for about an hour and a half, and then had fun goofing around with some air hockey and video games after that. Kate beat me at Air Hockey as usual. I smirked as I watched Kate try her hand (or her feet) playing "Dance Dance Revolution". I had managed to forget my belt and my pants were barely staying up giving me an excellent excuse to sit that match out. Next time (ahem...).

Saturday night I walked Kate back to Oak Grove, and eventually headed to Southie to see John Madden. Jim Musson was visiting and we stayed up early into the morning talking about the past, the future, literature, music and philosophizing. It was a quality night, although a couple less "Pabsts" may have made the sunlight easier to bear when I left on Sunday afternoon.

Sunday Jason Duplissis and I went to see Oceans 13 which I actually really enjoyed. I was lukewarm on the first two but when Jason extended the invitation to check out the film Friday, I took him up on it. (I'm usually interested in seeing a film... although I'd probably pass on the latest trend in gore flicks... SAW and Hostel, because I get the impression they'd just make me fill ill about the state of humanity. I sort of felt that way after Sin City too) Anyway, Oceans 13 was quality.. the premise of sabotage and revenge against Pacino who was opening a new Casino built upon a shady unfulfilled business partnership. This movie was sharp, stylized, fun, and captivating. Multiple self-deprecating jokes softened the "egos" of Clooney and Pitt that I felt were often too unchecked in the first two. One of the funniest sub-plots was Casey Affleck working in Mexico on a portion of the plans.

Well... This week will be interesting. I have really, just one day of work. Tuesday and Wednesday I'm going to Milford to take a course on some Waters HPLC software which is used to integrate chromatograms. Wednesday night I'll meet up with Kate after the course. Thursday and Friday I have off, so I'm going to head to Maine... I haven't quite worked out my "schedule" of what to do when I get there. Saturday afternoon I'm going to head back to meet up with Kate and spend the remainder of the weekend with her.

I will admit that one benefit about squeezing a lot in to a schedule, is it makes the time expanses seem longer retrospectively. Work really steals my minutes. While work is structured and there are multiple tasks and different periods during my day, outside of the lab/office it is simply a block of work. It as though my time at work is almost non-existent, because I did what I had to do for the duties of employment, NOT what I wanted to do. The entire 10-11 hours may as well be one hour I spent cleaning my bathroom. I don't mind my work, and feel lucky to have my job but it doesn't elate me, and I'm only occasionally excited about it. I'd be intrigued to find someone who truly enjoys their work in a manner that elevates it to a "favorite" time of the day. I'd like to discover if the passage of time still seems to accelerate exponentially for them.