sometimes I like my job

Recipe for work satisfaction:
1 cup decaf vanilla chai tea. Warm, spicy, soothing, yet somehow also invigorating.
George Winston’s Winter album on my headphones. Pretty piano music that reminds me of ballet class, with hints of Christmas tunes mixed in. Not too in your face like the cheesy carols playing in the grocery store.. just right for early December.
Snow flurries floating by the window outside. Adds a lighthearted note to the day, in contrast to the dreary gray sky over the lake.
A blank document to be filled with words. After days of tedious formatting and editing and hunting down people for their signatures, it is so satisfying to sit with a blank document and fill it up. Even if it’s just a standard document – not a story with a thriller plot, or even groundbreaking science (not yet anyway; we’ll see what happens once the experiments are finished). Not sure why I get such a kick out of typing together ideas and sorting them into logical sections and formatting the headings as such [Word makes headings so easy – just a few clicks and the document suddenly feels so put-together]. Or why the familiar formality of scientific text feels so comforting sometimes.

Whatever the case, I just wrote 995 words in a couple of hours and I have a silly sense of satisfaction from it. Not sure I could be a full-time writer, but I’m glad I get to write on occasion, anyway.