A Typical Week

It's hard to get much done (like doing a university chemistry course by correspondance in my "free time") at the McQueen's, and I'll explain why by mapping out a typical week.

But first I'll start with a few principals.

1. The average person requires 8 hours of sleep per night.
   It is true that a sleep cycle is 90 minutes, which does not divide 8 hours evenly. It does divide 7.5 hours evenly. I figure that extra 30 minutes is thrown-in to:
   
   
   
   1. round things out
   
   
   2. account for time you're lying there but not sleeping, like when you first lie down or if you wake up during the night, etc.
   
   


2. The average person lives on a 14 hour sleep deficit. This has caused a culture of caffeine addicts.


3. Dinner with the McQueens isn't like dinner with the McKays. (See Dinner v Dinner)

Monday to Friday:
0525: I wake up from my radio alarm
0530: My watch beeps. This is a fault-tolerant method in case my radio alarm malfunctions
I get up, get my clothes together, go upstairs, take a shower, check the weather online.
0600: Leave the house and drive to the bus stop.
0625: Get on the bus. (It should actually be there at 6:18, but lately it's been late.)
0715: Arrive at work.
1545: Leave work. Head over to the bus stop.
1614: Get on the bus.
1705: Get off the bus.
1730: Arrive home.
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Stuff
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2130: Attempted bed time. Successfully reached thrice.
2330: Actual bedtime.

Saturday:
0800: Wake up because Max is barking at a leaf being blown in the wind.
0920: Max stops barking.
1030: I give up on the notion of getting more sleep, figuring I'll lie down for an afternoon nap. I take a shower, get dressed, etc. The breakfast process begins.
1330: The breakfast process ends. We all say what we want to do that day. Some might actually get to do it.
1400: Stuff
2300: Planned bed time.
0000: Actual bed time.

Sunday:
0730: Get up, take shower, get dressed, ready for church.
0845: Ready to leave house for church. I stand at the door gathering enough bodies to fill a car.
####: Leave the house for church.
0930: Scheduled church arrival time. Sunday School starts.
1100: Church service starts.
1230: Service ends. Fellowship begins.
1330: Leave church.
1410: Arrive home.
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Stuff
|
1715: Anticipated departure time for evening church.
####: Leave house for evening church.
1800: Evening service.
1930: Leave evening service.
2005: Arrive home.
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Stuff
|
2130: Planned bed time.
2330: Actual bed time.

Tuesday is my day, with Robin, on kitchen duty. Ideally laundry is done on this day as well. That way I do all my domestic work on one day, and enjoy the rest of my week.


That time labeled "Stuff" is what I consider to be my life. It's the time when I don't have to be doing something for someone else. It's my own time. The problem with "Stuff" is that it looks a lot longer than what it actually is. Monday to Friday has "Stuff" for 4 hours. Take that 4 hours and subtract dinner time. 2 hours approx. 2 hours remain. Often times, the 2 hours doesn't neatly fit neatly into the schedule. It may be an hour before, and an hour after.

I can hear you know. "2 hours! You get 2 hours a day to do what you like! And you're complaining! I'm lucky to get 2 hours a week!"

To that I have 2 responses.

1. I'm not complaining. I'm explaining. It explains why trying to do a university level chemistry course (including lab) is rather difficult. Not only due to time constraints, but getting up at 5:30 every morning (esp. after going to bed at 11:30 every night) takes it's toll after a while. I'm usually more tired than I like to be.
   
   You're probably also saying "What's the big deal? Sleep in on Saturday." My answer to that is: being woken up at 5:25 every morning by alarm causes you to wake up at 5:25 every morning; alarm or no alarm. When I wake up early on Saturday morning I say to myself "Oh, yeah. It's Saturday. I'm going back to sleep." But that sleep is never as good as the uninterrupted sleep.
   
   Anyway, I do enjoy our long dinners together. The conversation is lively. We keep up on each other's lives. The food is good. Having grown up eating left-overs 4 or 5 nights out of the week, moving on to eating like a college student for a number of years (read: Michalina's and those 99 cent frozen pizzas, yuck!!), I am quite happy to be eating some real meat and potatoes.


2. I see my schedule in light of recent schedules. Mind you, I worked my entire way through university, which had much much much heavier demands than college, I spent 90% of my time doing work and school things. Not much free time. But there was a summer between college and university. I had a full time job that summer. I came home at about 5:00, had supper, did what ever I wanted to do, then went to bed at 11ish. I did lots of programming, I taught myself different technologies. I read an awful lot.
   
   During the summer of 05, while I was in Ottawa, I stayed with my Uncle for a while. He lives close to downtown Ottawa. For those few weeks I got up at 6:00. Was at work for 7:00. I left work at 3:00. I was home by 3:30. I didn't go to bed until 10 or 11 pm. I had tons of free time.
   
   Compared to those schedules, 2 hours a night isn't very much.
   

But I know what I must do: cut down on MSN.