solving the energy crisis

Yesterday, I stepped outside for my afternoon walk and discovered the stairs outside the building and the sidewalks were covered in a thin layer of slick ice. I turned around and went back inside. Not worth it.

Based on that, I had grand visions of not being able to head to the office today. Technically I’m not required to attend the weekly team meetings in person, and I expect I’ll be spending some Tuesdays at home due to winter weather. But when I stepped out this morning, the walkways were salted and clear. Oh well. Going in today is good, because it prevents my keycard from timing out (there’s a 28-day limit).

Learned this morning that the Starbucks up the block is closing in February. Rest in peace. End of an era. It’s not a huge loss since there’s another Starbucks a block away (and another one 1.5 blocks away; I’ve always marveled at how they maintain such density) but it’ll be weird having my go-to breakfast spot gone. Already I miss the food court across the street, even though I rarely had lunch there pre-pandemic. It was a fixture of my early work years. The building is currently gutted in the process of being converted to a corporate center. Wonder if they’ll put back the food court afterwards. Probably not, but I can hope. Employees gotta eat, right?

Currently I’m trying to stave off waves of sleepiness at 11:40 am, which doesn’t bode well for the afternoon. At least the Pokemon Sleep energy crisis has been resolved. Around a week after I made a big deal about needing a Ralts, Pawmi was released (a new Energy for Everyone mon), and I caught one with Skill Trigger S and Skill Trigger M by level 50. So I decided to roll with it. I like Pawmot much better than Gardevoir, and it’s reasonably competitive (the Reddit consensus is that Gardevoir > Pawmot > Sylveon >> Wigglytuff). Imagine if I had a Pawmot irl to keep me at 80%+ energy all day long. That would rule.

Even if I had a Pawmot with perfect skill triggers, I think I’d still want some sleep. (Status at 1 pm: Closing my eyes as I walk down the hallway. It’s so much effort to keep them open, and there are no obstacles in the hallway, it should be fine.) Sleep is enjoyable. It’s also an end to the day, and a palate cleanser: after a miserable day, you go to sleep hoping things will be better tomorrow. It would be too weird to have my life be one continuous day with no stopping points. I think I’d still have a nightly “nap” from like 2-5 am, though it would be optional/flexible if I were caught up in some activity.

At 1:30 pm I stepped out for lunch. Noah saw me putting my jacket on and was like “Oh, are you heading out for the day?” in a neutral/positive way. I could’ve been like “Yeah, seeya” and gone home and taken a nap. Instead I said, “Nah, just gonna grab some lunch.” It was probably the right call. I wanted lunch on the town (after hauling myself out here this early, I consider it my just reward). Snorlax and the squad will be just fine.