Monday evening is the time slot on this blog that I devote to a contemplation of work. What I want to mention tonight is the enchanting experience I had this afternoon of working while I slept. I kid you not.
Right before the noon hour I was asked by the office manager to accompany her to Seattle to run some errands. I readily complied. It's always nice to vacate the premises and get on the road for a spell. Basically she needed a passenger in the local's minivan so she could access the HOV lanes and also someone who would sit in the driver's seat -- the van parked in a loading zone -- while she dropped off a check at the main post office across from Benaroya Hall.
With that out of the way we drove to the local's old location, the one we vacated at the end of March to move out to SeaTac, to inspect a break-in attempt and deal with some exposed bolts jutting out of the concrete at the building's entrance. Our chores completed, we stopped off for a luncheon special at a Chinatown restaurant.
And that's what created the condition necessary for me to be blanked out -- in a semi-comatose state -- while at the same time diligently sitting at my desk and performing my work; in this case, cleaning (pulling staples and post-it notes) and putting in chronological order correspondence and notes that make up the contents of old grievance files. It could have been the egg drop soup. Maybe it was the chow mein noodles. But what I do know is that I'm not used to eating very much food at lunch. Usually it's just a piece of fruit or two and a protein bar. So today the huge quantity of food delivered -- chow mein, soup, fried rice, fried shrimp, hot tea, several glasses of ice water -- most of which I consumed -- really threw me for a loop.
The only thing I can compare it to -- working while asleep -- is driving long distances not fully conscious. You're aware -- you're hurtling down the road at a fast speed -- but you're not really there. You're someplace else. And when you finally snap to, not only are you relieved that you didn't crash, but you feel pleasantly refreshed.
And the nice part of working while sleeping, at least if you're sitting at a desk shuffling papers and not operating any machinery, there is very little risk of injury. So my advice is don't fight it. Don't jump up and rush to get a cup of coffee. Go with it. And I think you'll find, if your job is anything like mine -- one that you've done over and over and over again -- that you can literally do it in your sleep.
The past weekend's musical immersion started out on Saturday with Bob Marley & The Wailers' Babylon by Bus (1978) and then ended up on Sunday with Bob Desper's only full-length album, New Sounds (1974). Dubbed proto-downer folk, I heard a cut a couple years back on KEXP and liked it. Spooky but soulful. I finally got around to downloading it yesterday. It's good. This is track eight, "Time is Almost Over":
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