My non-Instagrammable Life: a day as meep
One of my colleagues came across this piece, the point of which none of us can make out. Also, we originally thought it was a parody... You can read it if you want to see why we thought this.
I'm thinking now it's intended to make working at HSBC look appealing. It definitely looks like somebody took a bunch of very carefully posed Instagram pics to stitch it into something that Millennials found attractive.
My workday life is quite different.
This is my usual day:
~4am
I wake up in the middle of an MST3K playlist...this morning, it was Fugitive Alien (not to be confused with Fugitive Alien 2, which would have played right after.)
I stay prone while I pick up the Macbook and play some conceptis puzzles.
~5am
I put on water to boil, which will be used for oatmeal and tea.
Here is how I make oatmeal:
First, I melt butter in a small saucepan, and then dump in 1/2 cup of McCann's Irish Oatmeal
I put in as much cinnamon as I want, and then use a nutmeg rasp to grate about half of a nutmeg.
When I'm smelling the oatmeal get toasty, I add 1/2 cup of kefir. Then I add 1.5 cups of boiling water (remaining boiling water from the kettle goes to make tea). If there's some overripe bananas in the dining room, I add one to the mix, and mash it up a little. Sometimes I put in leftover fruit of all sorts (pears, apples, blueberries) from our CSA box... it's more the kids won't eat the "old" stuff.
I cover the pot with a lid, and cook on low gas for 20 minutes.
After cooking, I lift the lid, and pour a bit out for myself.. I eat it in the little Japanese rice bowls, so I usually get two full bowls' worth of oatmeal. Usually some oatmeal is sticking to the bottom of the pan, but if you turn off the heat, replace the lid, and let it sit for about 5 minutes, it unsticks itself a little. I use the handle of a spoon in place of a spurtle.
Yum.
~6am
In the interim, Bon has been making D's food for breakfast and lunch, as well as her own lunch. I yell at D to come eat breakfast. If he needs a shower, I throw him in right after he finishes breakfast (D's every home-cooked meal: grilled cheese sandwich, 4 nuggets of some sort... sometimes he also gets fries.) Otherwise, I'm taking a shower at this point.
~7am
Kids are on the bus (Bon & D go together), and I'm hitting the highway. I have 70 miles to drive. I usually listen to an audiobook using hoopla -- I get 5 downloads through my library per month. I generally pick audiobooks about 15-20 hours long, though it really helps to get something like Dostoevsky. I'm listening to The Moon Maze Game right now.
~9am
I'm at the office. I usually have my desk in standing mode when I get in. I tend to stand for an hour, and then sit for a half hour, and switch. I'm mainly staring at my screen all day. I look at my emails first thing, but I'm generally not reading them as they come in. I rotate between tasks.
Today's schedule was a little different - I left home ~6am, picked up oatmeal at Panera along the way, because I needed to be here for an early meeting.
I generally have only a few meetings per week. Most of my time is calculating in Excel, writing articles/longer pieces in Word, and putting together presentations in Powerpoint.
Today, I'm working on one Word doc, and three Powerpoint decks. Envy me.
~11am
I eat lunch - usually a frozen meal. I stop by a Hartford grocery store about once a week to pick up frozen meals. Stu has bought me shelf stable meals like this Devour Creamy Alfredo Mac & Cheese with Bacon (that's bacon bits). It's pretty good.
We also have a leanbox fridge, and sometimes I get something from there. It's okay.
5-6pm
Start the drive back. I gas up the van on Mon, Wed, and Friday every week, usually. I fill up when I hit half a tank.
7:30pm
I hit the wine shop and/or Trader Joe's on my way home.
8pm
Dinner. Sometimes the kids are already in bed when I get home.
9pm
Sit in the living room with Stu, watching MST3K or Rifftrax or Depeche Mode videos on YouTube.
That's my very glamorous life.
Back when I worked in Manhattan, it wasn't too different, except I would be on the train, and I usually got a beer on the trainride home. Also, I walked from my house to the station and back (we're <.25 mile from the station). I used to get studying for actuarial exams done on the train, but not much in the way of other work. I usually read or listened to podcasts. Sometimes I wrote letters (yes, by hand, on paper).
Also, I had far fewer Word and Powerpoint files to work on back then. AAAAAAll Excel.
Come be an actuary!
I'm thinking now it's intended to make working at HSBC look appealing. It definitely looks like somebody took a bunch of very carefully posed Instagram pics to stitch it into something that Millennials found attractive.
My workday life is quite different.
This is my usual day:
~4am
I wake up in the middle of an MST3K playlist...this morning, it was Fugitive Alien (not to be confused with Fugitive Alien 2, which would have played right after.)
I stay prone while I pick up the Macbook and play some conceptis puzzles.
~5am
I put on water to boil, which will be used for oatmeal and tea.
Here is how I make oatmeal:
First, I melt butter in a small saucepan, and then dump in 1/2 cup of McCann's Irish Oatmeal
I put in as much cinnamon as I want, and then use a nutmeg rasp to grate about half of a nutmeg.
When I'm smelling the oatmeal get toasty, I add 1/2 cup of kefir. Then I add 1.5 cups of boiling water (remaining boiling water from the kettle goes to make tea). If there's some overripe bananas in the dining room, I add one to the mix, and mash it up a little. Sometimes I put in leftover fruit of all sorts (pears, apples, blueberries) from our CSA box... it's more the kids won't eat the "old" stuff.
I cover the pot with a lid, and cook on low gas for 20 minutes.
After cooking, I lift the lid, and pour a bit out for myself.. I eat it in the little Japanese rice bowls, so I usually get two full bowls' worth of oatmeal. Usually some oatmeal is sticking to the bottom of the pan, but if you turn off the heat, replace the lid, and let it sit for about 5 minutes, it unsticks itself a little. I use the handle of a spoon in place of a spurtle.
Yum.
~6am
In the interim, Bon has been making D's food for breakfast and lunch, as well as her own lunch. I yell at D to come eat breakfast. If he needs a shower, I throw him in right after he finishes breakfast (D's every home-cooked meal: grilled cheese sandwich, 4 nuggets of some sort... sometimes he also gets fries.) Otherwise, I'm taking a shower at this point.
~7am
Kids are on the bus (Bon & D go together), and I'm hitting the highway. I have 70 miles to drive. I usually listen to an audiobook using hoopla -- I get 5 downloads through my library per month. I generally pick audiobooks about 15-20 hours long, though it really helps to get something like Dostoevsky. I'm listening to The Moon Maze Game right now.
~9am
I'm at the office. I usually have my desk in standing mode when I get in. I tend to stand for an hour, and then sit for a half hour, and switch. I'm mainly staring at my screen all day. I look at my emails first thing, but I'm generally not reading them as they come in. I rotate between tasks.
Today's schedule was a little different - I left home ~6am, picked up oatmeal at Panera along the way, because I needed to be here for an early meeting.
I generally have only a few meetings per week. Most of my time is calculating in Excel, writing articles/longer pieces in Word, and putting together presentations in Powerpoint.
Today, I'm working on one Word doc, and three Powerpoint decks. Envy me.
~11am
I eat lunch - usually a frozen meal. I stop by a Hartford grocery store about once a week to pick up frozen meals. Stu has bought me shelf stable meals like this Devour Creamy Alfredo Mac & Cheese with Bacon (that's bacon bits). It's pretty good.
We also have a leanbox fridge, and sometimes I get something from there. It's okay.
5-6pm
Start the drive back. I gas up the van on Mon, Wed, and Friday every week, usually. I fill up when I hit half a tank.
7:30pm
I hit the wine shop and/or Trader Joe's on my way home.
8pm
Dinner. Sometimes the kids are already in bed when I get home.
9pm
Sit in the living room with Stu, watching MST3K or Rifftrax or Depeche Mode videos on YouTube.
That's my very glamorous life.
Back when I worked in Manhattan, it wasn't too different, except I would be on the train, and I usually got a beer on the trainride home. Also, I walked from my house to the station and back (we're <.25 mile from the station). I used to get studying for actuarial exams done on the train, but not much in the way of other work. I usually read or listened to podcasts. Sometimes I wrote letters (yes, by hand, on paper).
Also, I had far fewer Word and Powerpoint files to work on back then. AAAAAAll Excel.
Come be an actuary!