Back to Reality (and Back to the Cold)

Today is my first day back at work after being off for the past two weeks for the holiday break. The museum and campus have been closed since Christmas Eve, and I also took the entire week of Christmas off to go home to Alabama. It’s been a rare stretch of unbroken rest—especially at night. For two weeks, I slept deeply and easily, the kind of sleep that makes you forget how precious it actually is.

Of course, when I really needed a good night’s sleep, it didn’t happen.

I went to bed early last night, partly because I’ve had a severe migraine for three nights in a row. I fell asleep quickly, but around 1 a.m., a strange noise woke me up. Normally, I’d assume it was Isabella on a feline overnight prowl, but she was sound asleep on top of me—and the noise startled her awake too. It sounded like a woodpecker in slow motion, or something cracking through ice. I looked out the window but couldn’t see anything. After a trip to the bathroom, I went back to bed, but the noise continued, and sleep came only in fragments for the rest of the night.

That made it especially hard to get up when Isabella began her determined campaign at 4 a.m. to remind me that breakfast exists. I managed to fend her off until about 5:15, but anyone with a cat knows that once you’re half-awake like that, real sleep is pretty much over. I spent that time suspended in that strange in-between state—neither fully asleep nor fully awake—aware that the day ahead was going to be a bit of a slog.

It’s currently –1 degree outside, which means the car will take some convincing before it’s warm enough to be tolerable. To add to the ambiance, I was notified yesterday that the heat in the museum hasn’t been working properly and it was hovering around 60 degrees. The system is controlled from another building, and while facilities has been notified, even if something has been adjusted, it takes time for a large, cold building to warm up—especially when it’s this cold outside.

Thankfully, I have an illicit little space heater under my desk, so I should at least be able to keep my office reasonably warm. Today will likely be spent catching up on emails, untangling the loose ends that always pile up during time away, and easing myself back into the rhythm of work.

It’s not the most graceful return, but it’s a return nonetheless. Some days are about productivity. Others are about endurance. Today feels firmly in the latter category.