July 26, 2023: Life without a desk and office chair
July 26, 2023. Jule locked her bike at a parking spot at Hildesheim station. I watched her from ten meters away and cried because she hadn’t seen me.
I probably had this sad dream because of my walk to Linden. Aside from this dream, I was pleased that I had gotten rid of one of my worst habits: reaching for my phone and wasting time on it before getting out of bed. I took a quick glance at the time and put the phone away again. It wasn't yet eight o'clock, and because of the downtime function, I couldn't access the dating app or other apps. After briefly staring at the ceiling, thinking about the dream, and looking out the window at the treetops, I got up. From waking up to getting up, no more than five minutes passed, unlike the usual half-hour or even longer before I started using the downtime function on my phone.
I got up, got ready, and walked the two and a half kilometers to the library. Today I walked a bit faster to get my circulation going and wake up. Today, I planned not to drink coffee directly in the morning.
As I approached the Christuskirche, I looked at it and saw the large clock showing twenty to nine. "Interesting," I thought, "I hadn't noticed this change." Since I no longer carried my phone in my pocket but in my backpack, I checked the time less frequently. It would simply be too cumbersome to take the phone out of the backpack to check the time. "A positive change," I thought. After all, there was a clock at the station, at the Christuskirche, or in the library, all the places I frequented recently, which told me the time without the negative side effect of accidentally opening the dating app on my phone.
I sat on the fourth floor, writing my life chapter with Mara, and was glad about the decision to be here on the fourth floor of the literature department. I was virtually surrounded by pretty students. Four tables away sat that one tall, red-haired student whose ears had fascinated me back then.
Later, when I was in the cafeteria eating potatoes with soybeans, it rained. Afterwards, I treated myself to a coffee. Luckily, it wasn't raining anymore, so I could enjoy the coffee outside. I watched the dark clouds above me and tried to push them away from the sun with my intense gaze. I succeeded, and the sun cast its rays on my face.
"Oh, I'll go home now and get used to working without furniture," I decided and went home to continue writing my story. It was somehow fun to work on the floor. I simply ate my buttered bread standing at the windowsill where my table once stood. It was so great to be able to go directly to the open window. I sat on the windowsill with the plate in my hand, continued eating my peanut butter sandwich, and enjoyed the comprehensive view of the communal garden and the trees around it.
Micro change: I no longer own a work table and office chair. I always use what is available. At home, I work on the floor.