Day 58, 5 March: Power Mode and a Visit to the UEA...Hotel?

Norfolk Terrace, Day 58. 23:05. Power Mode and a Visit to the UEA…Hotel?

            After the struggle with the bed—always seems to be a struggle into the bed at night and then a struggle out in the morning—I observed the mosaic of rain drops on my window and decided against running outside today. I opened my email and went through the anticipated “no, we can’t help you” emails from the big transportation companies (rail, ferry, coach, plane). This Jailbreak for-charity challenge to travel for free hasn’t helped rid me of my scepticism. Hopefully, this will end up working and Dan and I get somewhere, but we may mostly wing it the day of.

            Ah, I finally know how to deal with late-morning and lunch collision! Double the portions for breakfast! So I had not 2, but FOUR peanut butter-banana raisin bread slices! And then 3 eggs…I was inspired by Dan. (Btw, yes, in the picture that is a yellow placemat. Yes, it's funny. Oh and sorry, Charlie, but this breakfast is the best. Some day you'll understand the joys of peanut butter...)               Following through on an email sent to me by Eleanor Crawford (one of the ladies at the Luncheon, Day 37 & 39), I picked up the business card of my scholarship patron Mrs Jill Buch (i.e. contact information to send a thank-you missive) at a building on campus I’ve never been before: the Broadview Lodge, disguised by a dorm building built into it. From all appearances I was walking into a hotel lobby—turns out it was a hotel lobby—and then found Ms Crawford in a business-oriented room decked with desktop computers and files. I went back to the front desk and got more information—apparently there are discounts for family and friends of UEA students who stay here. There is a legitimate on-campus hotel at UEA. Wow. You learn something new every day.

            There was something different that I tried today: staying on time. I only had 15 minutes after breakfast to play guitar--I only played for 15 minutes. Well, 17 but still better. Usually I set out a slotted time and I get so caught up that I ignore the overspent time. And there goes an hour. I didn't today. I got to UEA Hotel on time (it's not actually called that, but it sounds cool), to rehearsal on time, and followed through on getting back from the library by 6 to have time to cook dinner. I guess the way to manage time is to be on time, but the battle between finishing a task and stopping at the hour's end will not always end favorably.
        I spent 4 hours in the library. In the first few minutes of labouring through a boring section of a book on Shelley, I pulled myself out of “thorough” mode and started reading only the relevant bits for my paper. I sped-read, scanned, and filled up five pages with quotes and notes (I never thought about how both those words rhyme). My brain suddenly clicked: I flew through 3 books, mostly one chapter here and there per book. This weird yet refreshing efficient mode didn’t wear off after research—cooking, eating, and cleaning my plate of turkey, rice, and onions took under 50 minutes. In choir rehearsal, I felt the rhythm in quavers and crotchets more persistently than usual, I heard when my section was flat in one phrase because of our suppressed vowel sound. Since we went through all of Mozart’s Requiem, minus the solos, I was exhausted by the end.

            I laid my head down in the practice room for a timed five minutes, then played for an hour. I should really get over to the pianos more than once a week, but there’s that psychological barrier that distance bestows on the mind when something’s not essential to the day and adds an element of inconvenience in the midst of a flurry of other activity.

            Arriving home, I wrote this before midnight and hopefully will struggle into bed before then too.