A day in the life of a Structural Crochet Engineer

Preface:

My sister-in-law, Julie, is the inspiration behind this post. She would write the most fantastic posts on just a typical day in her life. My sister, Courtney, and I loved them so much that we would call each other after we read them and gush about how cute our nephew was that day or how cool her city was and such. I have been percolating on this myself, and really always thought that my life was boring. But then its dawned on me, life is never boring there is always something funny or sad or thought-provoking that happens every day. So I decided to take the plunge, here is my day yesterday. Nothing earth-shattering, just a day in the life of this...

Structural Engineer- Crochet Designer- Wife- Crafter- Dog Owner- Daughter- Friend- Me

Friday, May 2, 2008:
6:00am- Turn over and look at the clock. Poke the hubbie that we agreed that today we were going to get up and start walking the puppy in the morning again now that his ankle is better.
7:30am- Actually wake up. Agreed with the hubbie that we will start tomorrow walking again, well, if it's not raining... Take Faye out, Feed Faye, Give her a hug. Check and answer my crochet account emails. I do that every morning, try to answer as many as I can in an hour before I have to get in the shower.
9:00am- Curse, forgot to get in the shower. Decide not to wash my hair, because all the fashion mags say you don't have to wash your hair every day and that will save at least 5 mins. And decide, if anyone comments on it, that's what I will tell them. Run through the shower, Throw on clothes, Hop in the car, Look longingly at Starbucks as I drive past.
9:30am- Downtown at building we are doing a facade investigation/ restoration. Take a quick photo survey of the roof. Yes, I tromp around roofs and sides of buildings pretty regularly for my job. Get some great shots of our bridges from the roof. Pinch myself at how lucky I am that I get to help restore this cool old building and how awesome the views I get to see.
10:30am- Decide to take the long way into work so I can get a stop at Starbucks.
10:35am- Mmm, Chai Tea Latte
11:30am- Downloaded pics from the morning, and start tweaking the elevations I have been working on for weeks in AutoCad. On a lot of these buildings, and architect is not involved, and we (aka me) gets to draw the building from scratch since most don't have any plans at all from when it was built. This one has one plan, yes only one plan, for the 12 story, 110 apt building. Hey, I take what I can get.
12:30pm- Make lunch. Soup (I eat soup almost every day for lunch. Summer, winter doesn't matter. I just am a soup kind of person.) Check crochet email account. Write back to a couple of people about TNNA plans. Email my editor about Blueprint Crochet, (I am a total pest and am dying to get to see the Galley Copy of the book, so I decide to bug her again. Poor thing. but I do it anyway.)
1:00pm- Back to work on the elevations. Well sort of. Have that boy-it's-Friday-and-post-lunch-coma working against me.
Every 15 mins till 4:30pm- Boss asks me a rhetorical question on the project. We work in tandem on a lot of the projects. I do most of the heavy calculations and he does a lot of the research. We share tasks of drawing plans and details, and writing notes and letters. His thinking style is to ask a million questions out loud. Granted I do that, but I do it in my head. He likes to ask them to someone, and usually answers them himself. Every 5th question, I usually give him a comment other then (yes or no) because I can't catch myself in time to remember he is just thinking out loud. This ensues a debate of the pros and cons of our ideas and the best solution. Usually takes a good 15 mins to hash it out.
2:30pm- IM hubby on what we want to do tonight. Check the weather and decide that since its going to rain, lets not go to the Pub (it has outside seating) and have a movie night inside. Debate on if we still want to grill out or get sushi.
3:20pm- Get a call from dad that he wants to pre-order Blueprint Crochet, but doesn't understand what I am talking about that he "just has to go to my blog and click the link". I giggle. He's an incredibly intelligent attorney, but the Internet and he don't always get along. Promise to walk him through it this weekend.

3:30pm- Take a break to check my google reader. I have it read hundreds of blogs a day, but I usually only get to quickly scroll through about 10 posts any given day. Boss asks me if I'm done with the elevations. I grown because I realize its 3:30 when I usually leave work (I work part-time- 6hours a day- I know its a really sweet deal), and I am not done at all. Curse the boy-it's-Friday-post-lunch-coma.
4:30pm- Finish the elevations, and chat with boss on what's left on our plate to do before our meeting with our clients on Monday. Decide to come in early on Monday to finish up the loose ends. Hubbie IM's about why am I still at work, and that he definitely wants to go out (aka don't bother stopping at g store).
5:00pm- Leave work. Call hubbie about where we want to go tonight. Realize I'm still in "Contractor Gear" (the uniform of most engineers too- khakis, polo shirt, boots) and my hair is now super greasy and you can tell its funky (decide that the fashion mags did not mean me when they say you should wash your hair every other day), so I definitely need to change and get a shower if we really are going out but have a stinky suspicion that he won't want to go out either (call it wife intuition).
5:15pm- Almost home, get a call from the hubbie that he definitely needs a night in. (He just got and earful from his boss and would rather camp out at home. - I know its like Office Space- Seagull Management at its best- "So, I'm going to have to have you work tomorrow and Sunday. Thaaaaaaaaaaaks. You are the best." Yeah I know he's the best too buddy, but working 7 days a week is getting old pal.)
5:16pm- Do a U-y. Head back to the G store. Actually am happy, because I can move right into the PJs when I get home instead of getting pretty.
5:30pm- Pick up food to grill out with and sushi. Talk to sushi chef at G store. He gives me free sushi, got to love the guy. (Yes, we have really good sushi in our g store. Cincy in general has really good sushi. Really good.)
6:00pm- Get home and let out Faye and check the mail. Play ball a bit. Rain starts again
6:20pm- Sit down to do some work on the final editing of the Mission Falls patterns.
6:30pm- Decide its Friday and work like that is just not getting done. Pour a glass of wine. Grab some old knitting magazine and hunt down some cool constructions. I do this a lot I love pouring through old magazines to find inspiration on interesting construction and schematics.
7:00pm- Decide switch it up and move to swatching instead. Grab a ball of yarn from a magazine project I am working on. Realize that I only have 10 days left to finish the design, crochet the sample sweater, and write up the pattern. Oops. Giggle how that happens every spring. (for most of my magazine work it is spread out a bit, but every spring they all seem to have the exact same deadlines- the sweater I sent out last week I crocheted in 4 days- that's super tight even for me).
7:30pm- Greet Hubbie, decide that we are going to have sushi and salad for dinner since it goes better with my wine. He chuckles at my reasoning.
8:00pm- Turn on Juno. Decide to switch to crocheting a present I am working on for my mom for mothers day. Get excited because its been years since I have crocheted from someone else's pattern. (Shh, if you can tell from the photo what it is then keep it a secret, b/c mom does read this pretty regularly and knowing me it will be next mother's day before i finish it.)
9:30pm- Crying A LOT. I cry at everything. But babies and moms get me every time. Finish the first part of the project. Start the second.
11:30pm- Half way through the second part of the project and realize I messed up the first part. Messed up by missing 10 stitches. Oops. Giggle again, that that's what happens when you crochet and drink. Sometime it's great sometimes not.
12:00am- Head to bed.

Epilogue-

So that was my day. Nothing earth shattering, just a pretty typical day. Yesterday was more engineering and less crocheting, but some days that's reversed and some days I just goof off all day. With that, I put it now in your hands. If you get inspired to write your own, day in the life of post. Please leave me a comment! I'd love to hear what you guys do all day too. You know I'm nosy.