Time

I try to be efficient. Which means keeping good track of time.

But of course everything you do takes time. You have somewhere to be, like I do in a half an hour, you need to space it out -- your duties, hobbies, tasks -- to make sure that you get them wrapped up and are able to leave in time not to be late.

I'm always thinking about time, it seems. Even when I'm not conscious of it. There's plenty of times when I wake up about a minute before my alarm is set to go off. Some of that might be from habit. But since it's so close, some of it might also be your mind just mentally going over the time it is. Like there's some kind of internal counter, or little sands going through an inner timer.

I get up in the morning and go to feed the cat. And I'm thinking how much time it takes to do that, how much time (40 seconds) it takes to warm my bagel, how leisurely I can go to the bathroom while a cup of tea is brewing (3:20) and so forth. If I get back up to my computer at 7:10 a.m., that's good time, and so I have time to get a few things done...before the time comes when I have other things that I need to leave for.

I was looking at the baby book my Mom made when I was first born. Just the cards that people sent in honor of my birth. She has in there the exact time I was born. So maybe that's where I got it, out of her milk. But it's been my constant thing. Seconds here, minutes there, getting things done. Hoping time will go slowly, hoping it will go fast, depending on what I'm doing.

Time's up. I have something else I need to do .... now.