All Nighter
Day is breaking, and I am in my office, having spent the night working on materials for a conference at the end of September for a deadline tomorrow. Or, today.
It's an amazing feeling. This feeling--this feeling of being an unconquerable machine chugging away throughout the night, this kind of bizarre freedom-in-labor--is something I've missed for what must have been the entire year that I've worked here. It's absolutely thrilling to rediscover the possibility of that experience in my new life. It changes all kinds of potentials.
I don't think I've mentioned it, but this office--if you could call it that--where I work had filled essentially the same function in my life that the CIT used to fill in college. It is a place that I have access to that is always equipped the ways I need it to be--better equipped than my own home, sometimes. It is a place of work which also has places to escape and rest and things to do to entertain oneself in distracted moments. It can be crowded during the day but it is precisely what you want for a night of lunatic work.
Some improvements that this place has over the CIT:
- Nice speakers that you can hook up to a computer. I've been pumping Pandora through the sound system all night. Sometimes I get up and dance. Realization: most music is not meant for me. There is an act of appropriation in my appreciation of a lot of music. I don't feel guilty about it.
- The tea is much, much better. The tea in the CIT was total shit, and I drank cups and cups of it. Terrible. Here, we've got all kinds of fancy loose leaf teas. I've been over-steeping it, like I do, in a metal strainer thing in a mug. Then I've poured the tea into a glass full of ice. Fresh brewed ice tea by the cup. Amazing. Lapsang Souchong is amazing as an ice tea. Who'da thunk?
- I am not alone here. While not necessarily an improvement over college--there were times when I would meet friends in the CIT who were also pulling all-nighters--it is nice to know that somebody else is around. Specifically, JA has been hard at work in the other corner of the office all night as well. We pass each other some times, have conversations that help me keep my grip on reality.
My nocturnal self is a different part of myself than what normally shows during the day. I feel reacquainted with him. Meeting him again is another in a series of recent events that make me think that I may be rediscovering myself as a complete being after a tough year of striving and adaptation. A kind of freedom reclaimed.
It's an amazing feeling. This feeling--this feeling of being an unconquerable machine chugging away throughout the night, this kind of bizarre freedom-in-labor--is something I've missed for what must have been the entire year that I've worked here. It's absolutely thrilling to rediscover the possibility of that experience in my new life. It changes all kinds of potentials.
I don't think I've mentioned it, but this office--if you could call it that--where I work had filled essentially the same function in my life that the CIT used to fill in college. It is a place that I have access to that is always equipped the ways I need it to be--better equipped than my own home, sometimes. It is a place of work which also has places to escape and rest and things to do to entertain oneself in distracted moments. It can be crowded during the day but it is precisely what you want for a night of lunatic work.
Some improvements that this place has over the CIT:
- Nice speakers that you can hook up to a computer. I've been pumping Pandora through the sound system all night. Sometimes I get up and dance. Realization: most music is not meant for me. There is an act of appropriation in my appreciation of a lot of music. I don't feel guilty about it.
- The tea is much, much better. The tea in the CIT was total shit, and I drank cups and cups of it. Terrible. Here, we've got all kinds of fancy loose leaf teas. I've been over-steeping it, like I do, in a metal strainer thing in a mug. Then I've poured the tea into a glass full of ice. Fresh brewed ice tea by the cup. Amazing. Lapsang Souchong is amazing as an ice tea. Who'da thunk?
- I am not alone here. While not necessarily an improvement over college--there were times when I would meet friends in the CIT who were also pulling all-nighters--it is nice to know that somebody else is around. Specifically, JA has been hard at work in the other corner of the office all night as well. We pass each other some times, have conversations that help me keep my grip on reality.
My nocturnal self is a different part of myself than what normally shows during the day. I feel reacquainted with him. Meeting him again is another in a series of recent events that make me think that I may be rediscovering myself as a complete being after a tough year of striving and adaptation. A kind of freedom reclaimed.