Audrey
6:30am. Leave the house. Yes, it's early, but I'm a rare one. Most of my colleagues get to sleep in. But since I have longer commute, I get up super-early (I kind of like it, actually — gets me an early start on the day).
6:49am. Hop on the train. After hanging out with the regular crowd at 30th St. Station, I hop on the R5.
7:45am. Off the train and on to my bike. I ride 4.5 miles from the train to the office — rain or shine, baby. (Ice, however, is off-limits.) I love the cool air, and the exercise is invigorating. I know, I know. Not your typical programmer. But we're all pretty different here.
8:10am. Arrive at the office. Usually I'm the first one here, but today Joanne beat me. Tomorrow I'll bike extra hard.
8:30am. Reading blogs and email. People start trickling in. Happy to see my fellow idealists (aka, colleagues).
9am. Check the Scrum board. (It's a software development practice that uses lots of advanced technology like cork boards, push pins, and note cards.)
9:05am. Sit down at pairing station. Looking for Scott. He'll be here soon. (Scott and I are working on a project together.)
11-11:15am. Have our "daily stand-up" meeting. These are especially cool. I get to catch up with my fellow developers and hear the latest progress on all the projects we're working on.
12pm. Lunch! My fave is Charlie's if I don't bring my lunch.
12:30pm. Realization: wow, I'm impacting someone's life. Everyone here is excited to have a positive impact on the world. What an awesome environment. They call this a job?!
1pm. Back to work. Lunch was good, and now it's time to fire up the rest of today's work.
2:17pm. Run into a problem. Pull Woody aside to help me work through. He's one of our top problem-solvers, and I can always count on him to lend a helpful ear (and mind). We spend some time at the whiteboard making sure that we understand the problem and then sit down to fix it.
3:05pm. Problem solved. Time to move forward. Man it's good to work with such smart people!
4:12pm. Call client. Wanted to let him know that we finished! Had a couple of questions to make sure we're on the right track. I love working directly with clients.
5pm. Change back into bike clothes. Turn on blinky lights (it's dark) and ride back to the station. This time, I take Amtrak home. Say hi to the conductors, whom I've gotten to know pretty well. They all get a kick out of my fold-up bike.
7pm. Get back home. Yes, it's a ridiculous commute. But I love it here so much that I can't really imagine work anywhere else.
