From hour to hour: A photoessay.

Over the weekend, I got to wondering: what if I took a picture every hour, on the hour for an entire day? What would I see? Where would I be at those times? Would it be embarrassing? Would I learn anything?

As it turns out, I saw lots of things, went lots of places, and I was never embarrassed to haul out my camera and snap off a few shots whenever the big hand hit the 12. And, I actually learned a lot, this project turned into an interesting lesson in mindfulness: I noticed things I hadn't seen before, and I discovered that there were a lot of things I would have captured on film had the timing been right.

Here were my rules for the day:
1. To take a picture every hour, as close to the actual hour as I could get.
2. To capture "my perspective" - what I'm seeing, doing, or engaged in at that time.
3. To start the hour after I was dressed for the day (9:00am) and finish at sunset (5:00pm), see what I had, and then to put together this post.

So, here you go: 9:00am to 5:00pm: A day in the life of Walnut Cheeks.

9:00am: On the train, reading. This was right after the guy next to me asked for directions.

10:00am: My office, just before heading to class. It's a mess, I know.

11:00am: The empty classroom after I taught. I thought it might be full of students at this time (it normally is) but we finished up early and they made a break for it.

12:00pm: Back on the train, got a window seat this time (whee!) I'm heading back home for lunch and quiet writing time.

1:00pm: No good lunch options at home - had to make a run down the street to the grocery store. (Yeah, it's no coincidence that I appear to be lingering in the British food section and very near the Malteasers. Mmmm, Malteasers!)

2:00pm: Home office, sweet home office. It's a mess, I know. This is what intellectual work looks like - a comfy chair and paper everywhere.

3:00pm: My brother called from Berlin! I was telling him about my photo project and he thought it was cool. He suggested I take a picture of me talking to him, so I did. Clearly, we had a good time chatting.

4:00pm: Chris got home and we took our neighbor's dog, Lulu, for a walk. It's an excellent arrangement - I get all the fun of having a dog to walk with, with none of the dog ownership responsibilities AND I get to give her treats so she loves me. Lulu is an excellent dog.

5:00pm: Remember that article from the train? Finally finishing it, and with style - a yellow highlighter.

So, there you have it - sun up to sun down. It's dark now, and I suppose I could answer the question I begged my students to consider before they fled the scene just before 11:00am: the "so what" question.

So what - here's what. It was interesting to think about all of the pictures at the end of the day and see all of the places I'd been and things I'd done. What was personally more interesting was the in-between hours time. The time when I'd think, hey, that would be a cool picture, or, my street is really pretty, or, I never noticed that palm tree.... I stopped and noticed my surroundings more often and appreciated my daily path a bit more, and I got to share it here, which is always fun. It was a good project - you should do it! (Especially you, Erik - let's see Berlin, hour by hour!)

Comments

[Theresa]

Oh, I loved this - what a great idea. Thanks for sharing your day with us!

[Ashley]

What infernal bargain did you make that you get to live by a grocery store that carries Flakes? So. Unfair.

[Susan]

Brilliant! I'm gonna have to do that one!

[knittingphilistine]

Wow, how productive of you! My day would see a lot less action and a lot more fretting from behind towers of books and staring listlessly out the window next to my desk. I'm thinking I should stick to documenting FOs and *not* my unproductive academic life!

[Mintyfresh]

Very cool exercise! If i did it, though, you would see what an actually messy office looks like, and you'd mostly be staring at a computer screen. Still, maybe I'll extend the hours and see what we get . . .