I try to go into work 3 days a week (Tuesday through Thursday). There is something about going into the office, dressing up like a real professional and sitting in a cubicle that appeals to the kid in me that wants to pretend he is an adult and has it all together. My commute to the office is 12 miles and usually takes me 25 minutes. Over time I have noticed something about my commute time. As a rule of thumb, for every 5 minutes AFTER 7:15 that I leave my house it takes an additional 5 minutes to get to work. So, if I leave at 7:10 then I can get to work by 7:35 but if I leave at 7:20 then I arrive at 7:50. Leaving at 7:25 puts me in the office around 8:00. The extra time takes place in my neighborhood (more foot traffic as kids head to school thereby causing me to catch the school guard’s large stop sign more often) and also takes place on the frontage roads before I get onto the 121 toll road (more people heading to work and clogging up the free, frontage roads). So, I try very hard to leave by 7:15 if at all possible. Due to this early departure time, some times I have to choose between breakfast or leaving after 7:15.
If I opt out of breakfast at home, I get breakfast from the cafeteria at work. My favorite breakfast is a bowl of cream of wheat and a large coffee (the cafeteria brews Starbucks coffee so I pay for it rather than getting the free, substandard coffee near my cubicle). I can get a 12 ounce bowl of cream of wheat for $0.62 or a 16 ounce bowl for just over $1. Because of the price per ounce is better for the smaller size, I usually opt for (2) 12 ounce bowls. They provide brown sugar, raisons, dried cranberries and granola to put on your breakfast (they also offer oatmeal for the same price). Over the months I have found the perfect combination of brown sugar, cranberries and granola. I have also discovered that the later you get breakfast, the thicker the cream of wheat is. There are days that I did not get to the cafeteria until near 10 and the stuff would almost not come out of the ladle (still good though). Recently they made a change though that cause the circumstance that is the subject of this blog.
About a month ago the cafeteria switched from styrofoam bowls (with form fitting lids) to cardboard bowls that had lids that more or less just rested on top of the bowl. Due to the lids not snapping to the bowls I had to take extra care when trying to balance the 2 bowls and the cup of coffee. Last week I could have used the old bowls and lids.
I have to take the down escalator to get to the cafeteria as it is located in the basement of where I work and I sit on the 1st floor. Consequently I have to take the up escalator to get back to my cube. I have blogged before about the escalators at work and I tend to walk while on them rather than ride. The only time I stand still and just ride up or down is if someone is in front of me and they are not walking. Last week, with 2 bowls of cream of wheat in one hand (balanced on top of each other) and a large, hot cup of coffee in the other hand, my foot caught one of the steps right after I got onto the escalator and I fell forward. I had enough sense to keep the coffee upright and I guess my other hand was thinking back to a time when the bowl lids fit better as I used the cream of wheat hand to stop myself from falling. Due to this, the granola and cranberries toppled onto the escalator stairs. Now I had an issue and I had to act fast. I only had 15 seconds or so to get my toppings (that had spilled due to the lose lids) cleaned up since the top of the escalator was coming soon. I also had no way to clean then up. I froze for a second or two and then sprang into action by sweeping the toppings back into the bowls as best as I could (some of the toppings were too close to the wall of the next step and given that the steps would soon collapse I did not want my fingers to be caught. This was the only option I could think of and even now I do not think that I had another option other than just leaving them there. In the end I did not get it all cleaned up so the smaller pieces of granola went to wherever the stairs go when they disappear and the larger pieces kind of rolled and toppled at the top of the stairs (still too close to the finger crushing section of the top of the escalator to be rescued) and I had to leave them there.
I will leave it up to you to guess if I ate the cream of wheat or not (hint, I am a guy and I was hungry). I still think about what I could have done differently other than not trip. There was just so little time to react and I am not a person to react well under pressure. I have been extra careful this week with my balancing of the bowls though I have not taken to riding the escalators like a normal person would.
Jon
