Month: August 2013

the annoying hum and sterility of the office

So ... I have no windows in or near my office space. I spend most of my day under fluorescent lights and the sounds of the ventilation system. I've also fallen into a habit of eating at my desk. I think it's causing some stress.

But I can change that. I can go outside on my lunch break and take a long slow walk to nowhere. I did that today.

There isn't much to see here. Today I walked around the outskirts of the parking lot. I listened to the sounds of the cicada mixed with the traffic from the busy two lane road nearby.

I came upon the asphalt remains of some building, now overgrown with grass and some sort of purple flowering plant. Bees, butterflies and other insects flittered about the purple flowers. It was a bit of respite from the annoying hum and sterility of the office.

Smoking

I smoked cigarettes in my youth but now find the habit disgusting. I quit -- cold turkey -- in graduate school and I have not touched a cigarette since.

I also find highly hypocritical to see people in the medical field who smoke. The nurses who are studying at the nursing school near my office take a regular smoke break right outside the building. Whenever I got outside for a break I often have to move from where I'm standing or sitting to avoid inhaling a wall of second hand smoke.