Time, but no gods, and other ways my day was not Dunsanian

[mrissa]

I have been both a virtuous and a spoiled Mris today. I sent out queries and sent out manuscripts and hunted markets and wrote cover letters and did revisions-to-request and revisions-for-myself and jotted down a new story idea and made notes on an old story idea and mopped the moose and fed the bear and painted Uncle Abner's underwear.

Also, none of you have better people to love than I do, though I will concede that some of you may be in a dead heat with me on this point.

Our household rhythms are syncopated and weird, with timprov's sleep disorders, but ordinarily they're present, at least. When markgritter is home, we have a fairly consistent pattern of when I go to bed, when he goes to bed, when I get up, when he gets up. Within the day, we know it's suppertime because markgritter is off work; within the week, we know it's the weekend because markgritter is off work. We have other milemarkers in the week and sometimes even in the day, but most of the regular ones are around his work schedule. And now he's gone for the second week in a row, and I'm feeling weirdly cut off from time itself. I had spontaneous bonus lunch with dd_b and got home at 1:30 -- I almost never have lunch with him on Mondays (I initially typed "Wednesdays," just to show you how messed up my sense of time currently is), and usually they're much later, and I rarely get home before 4:30. It was overcast, and the mail had already gone, which doesn't usually happen until 3:00. They're such small, mundane things, but they left me thinking at 2:00 this afternoon that it was 5:00 Thursday evening.

Naturally, this gives me the sense that I've hardly accomplished anything at all this week: here it is 11:00 p.m. Thursday, and most of the list remains!

Brains are weird, weird things. On what do you hang your time-markers? Anything? Do you get lost in time easily, or with great difficulty, or do you take steps to make sure you don't? Does it feel like Monday night to you, or like some other time completely?

Comments

[roadnotes.livejournal.com]

I lose days. Some of my markers lately have become the piano bar outings, which I usually do Tuesdays with Greg, Thursdays with Clare and Robby, and Sundays with Terri and Kelly. Not every week, but most weeks I do at least one and often two out of the three. This week I'm already out of kilter, because I didn't go out Sunday night to Rose's Turn, and won't be out tomorrow night (as Greg's in Mexico).

And I stopped in at the local Bar BQ place by myself tonight, so it's now Wednesday night. I am confused.

[(Anonymous)]

Well, normally I would mark things with work and around the kids' school, but now I'm down the work, so it's only the kids' schedules that mark time. I think I lose time easily, but am forced to remember occasionally due to responsibilities of the family.

Since you and I are both having a somewhat time shifted week, though, we should get together for some lunch. Any times you would prefer?

Heathah

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I'm e-mailing your orsermail.

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

I has been easier to keep time since returning to university. Time is the space between papers due. When I was staying home all day, being full-time writer-guy and cabana boy - err - house husband, time lost all meaning. I had to ask careswen what day it was, and set alarm clocks to remind me to stop and cook dinner before she got home.

[ellarien]

I keep track of days, mundanely, by the rhythm of the work week and to a lesser extent the TV schedules. Three-day weekends tend to throw me off, though, because Tuesday takes on some of the attributes of Monday.

I don't usually loose track of time within the day unless I'm really absorbed in something, though around the equinox I sometimes get caught out because it stays light too long or goes dark too soon.

[ksumnersmith.livejournal.com]

I just about wrote to tell you that no, silly M'rissa, it's not Monday at all, it's Wednesday ... and then realized that you were right. I think that says everything about my current ability to tell the days apart right there.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Perhaps the Psychic Illness Link is shifting to a general Psychic Weirdness Link? That would be nice.

[elisem.livejournal.com]

It feels like some other time completely, but I have things to blame for that ranging from travel to life-passage-stuff. By the way, I just cited you as a useful resource in understanding how Minnesotan is spoken, so thank you for that.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I do have more to say on the subject, but not today, most likely.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

Most of the year I know what day it is because my job requires me to be rather precise about time. I carry a calendar in my head; I know what time it is by the quality of daylight or the sounds of the street; I have a steady internal clock that wakes me up at six every morning whether I want to or not. What I love about traveling is not needing to know all that and allowing myself to drop the vigilance.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I, too, wake early whether I want to or not. (I wish it would limit itself to 6:00. Sometimes it does, sometimes 5:00, bleh.) But I don't think it's vigilance for me, and I've been remarkably unsuccessful at dropping it either way.

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

I'm a student at the moment, so there are Several Specific Days I need to know about.

And in general, I'm pretty good at knowing which day is when.

But Calluna's doing overnights lately, on weekends (when more of my time is free), which means she works when I'm asleep and sleeps when I'm awake and there's very little overlapping time, so I've been discovering that a lot of my time sense is tied into being aware of other people, and lo, I'm losing whole swathes of time, left and right. And not knowing which day is which.

Must needs develop better coping skills.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

When I lived alone and worked at home, I would easily lose track of the day of the week.

B

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

But now it's Tuesday so this must be Estonia?

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

It must seem like that sometimes.

From here, it's actually kind of nice. This is my natural rythm of travel.

There's a Finnish bank with branches in Tallinn called "Sampo (www.sampo.fi/english/)," by the way.

B

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Isn't it great? I'm really amused by the tendrils of Kalevala all over Finnish culture and commerce. (Also it makes my life as a Finnophile fabulist much easier.)

[scottjames.livejournal.com]

I shave on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. If I miss a day or do an extra day, my whole week is screwed up, at least until I can get back on schedule.

Also, if I have a day off work, that screws me up, too. But not as bad as the shaving thing.

[mkille.livejournal.com]

I have pretty set time markers now. Monday is book group day. Tuesday is soup and psalms night. Wednesday is Bible study day. Thursday is staff meeting day. Friday is I-don't-work. Sunday is I-don't-work-but-I-will-tomorrow. Sunday is Short Day. But I generally have to consciously match the marker with the day: "book group day" is a more meaningful concept to me than "Monday," now.

I'm very shaky on weeks and months, though. I have recently thought it was November already, and also recently thought it was September still.