Up for air

Joining the throngs of Americans in a daily slog to and from the office has really thrown me for a loop! I thought working 10-hour days at home was rough, but back then I had no concept of a daily shower, a morning commute, or an alarm clock that rang before 7AM. Riddle me this: how does an eight-hour workday last six months when a five-hour evening lasts 10 minutes? It’s like I get off, get home, change clothes, and BAM! bedtime.

When I was working from home I would regularly tisk tisk Sean from my high horse of veggie burgers and P90X for not eating right and working out consistently. Now that I’m a commuter, however, I’m lucky if I even get to sit down to dinner, let alone figure out how many Points are in it. And exercise? Forgeddubouit. 

Sean and I get off around the same time every day, so we usually call each other to chat while we’re sitting in traffic. After a particularly tiring day last week, Sean mentioned that he was driving past Canes on his way home and OMG chicken fingers, Texas toast, Canes sauce! Ho boy, did that sound good! Freelance Sarah would have rolled her eyes and whined about fat, calories, and a 12-mile run for dessert. All that 8:30-5:30 Sarah whined about, however, was how unfair it was that none of that tasty comfort food was available in her neck of the woods.

Of course, diet and exercise aren’t the only things that have fallen by the wayside since I got my big girl job: gainful employment has also set me back about 20 years, technologically speaking. I haven’t logged into Twitter in nearly three weeks; I’m lucky to make it through my News Feed every day and even luckier if I can muster a status update; I’m equal parts annoyed and worried by my email inbox, so I avoid it; I frequently forget about Google Reader until it’s so full that I have to set aside 45 minutes to just get through it; and (perhaps worst of all) I’ve become a bad blogger. I used to take great pride in my ability to rattle off three posts per week. Now all I feel is shame that I’ve barely felt compelled to post since I arrived home from NYC.

I hope that in the coming weeks I’ll settle into a routine that’ll allow me to return (at least in small part) to my former glory. Perhaps then I’ll finally be willing to eat cabbage and climb up on the treadmill. Perhaps then I'll finally be able to respond to messages and friend requests on Facebook (hi, Facebook friends, I haven’t forgotten you!), check emails and Google reader more regularly, and blog about something other than how I never blog anymore. If I’m really feeling crazy, perhaps I'll even set up mobile Twitter so I can update my followers with important deets about my day: “I am sitting in my cube.” “Man, Keurig hazelnut coffee is good!” “My co-worker is fluent in barrio.” Until then, please forgive my negligence. Growing up is hard to do.