Because you really wanted to know.

On Thursday I logged my day just to give you an idea of what I do all day here in College Park, MD. It wasn't a completely typical day. Here's the run-down:

7:20 alarm
7:28 get up, shower, get dressed, check e-mail, pack up
8:15 leave for the metro station
8:22 board bus to archives
8:26 bus leaves the station
8:30 see Canada Geese on a lawn at the university
8:39 get off bus
8:42 arrive at archives, go through security, get new property pass (because I forgot my old one)
8:49 enter cafeteria, eat breakfast (muffin, banana from home)
9:06 done breakfast, head to locker room
9:12 leave locker room, head to main floor for more security
9:15 enter research room
9:20 sign out documents
9:25 start working
9:47 time out to vent

When I went up to the desk to get permission to take photos, I was asked (as usual) whether any of my documents were still marked classified, etc. I answer, no, as usual, because it's always true. There are no secret or classified or whatever papers in the American Red Cross records. Most days they take my word for it, but today the guy gave me attitude. ("None of your documents are marked secret?") Goodness, dude. Well, fine, give me attitude if it makes you feel better about yourself. But then he pissed me off by practically yanking a chunk of papers out of a folder in the box I had brought up to show him. WTF?! I wanted to give him serious attitude back to the effect of, "God damnit, man. These papers are 90 years old and some of them are falling apart, and you go yanking them out of a tight box like that? These things are irreplaceable." When I got back to my desk I noticed that some of the pages in the folder he had manhandled were torn. I don't know whether his actions are to blame, but it just made me angrier. They have all this security and rules here, and lots of reading room staff to make sure you are following them, but sometimes they are the worst offenders. And they won't ever know it. Damn it.

9:50 back to work
13:33 check e-mail and late bus schedule
13:38 back to work
13:46 time for lunch
13:50 eat packed sandwich in cafeteria
14:02 back to work in the reading room
17:12 decided enough is enough: home time
17:15 return documents, pass security, and head to locker room
17:24 leave locker room and exit archives
17:29 arrive at bus stop
17:41 bus arrives
17:53 get off bus at station
18:00 home!
18:07 check e-mail
18:27 time to see what's up with food (getting hungry)
18:56 put dinner in oven---pita pizzas!
18:59 check e-mail
19:06 dinner is ready
19:09 start eating

J's (AKA other J's) friend R comes over (again) and hangs out with us while eating. He's too cool.

20:00 TV time with J and R
22:05 yet another J comes over (again)
22:22 finish hanging out with the boys when they all head to the bar with other roommate (also named J, of course)
22:23 check e-mail and MSN with FN, EC, and LG
22:30 download images from camera (I took 1896 of them today!)
22:35 copy downloaded images to external hard drive, continue reading e-mail
22:40 work with images (yawn)
23:40 finish transferring images into folders based on the record groups, series, subseries, boxes, and folders that the actual documents are in
23:45 brush teeth
23:50 one last e-mail and MSN check before heading to bed

This was supposed to be the end of my day . . . but alas. It took me a long time to fall asleep. And then I was either still awake or awoken by the return of the partyers (is that a word?) at 1:15am-ish. I remember checking my clock at 3:17. Oy: still awake. Oh well.