Living in SF has put me into a 15-minute lifestyle. My job requires that I account for every 15 minutes of my day. I turn in a stats sheet at the end of each day that breaks down my day into units or 15-minute chunks. When I see a patient for 45 minutes, I bill 3 units. When I’m writing my therapy notes, it takes me about 1 unit. By the end of the day, I need to have a total of 28 units accounted for (my lunch hour is not included).

I guess the rest of my work day seems to work around the same concept. With having to take two trains and a shuttle to work everyday, it’s more important than ever for me to do things in a timely manner. I think I’ve got it down to a science now.

Here’s an example of a typical morning:
6:45 am Alarm goes off…push “snooze” button.
6:55 am Coffeemaker turns on.
7:00 am Alarm goes off again…push “off” button.
7:15 am Finally get out of bed, brush teeth, get dressed, etc.
7:30 am Walk the dog and bump into Victor and Susie on their way to Muni.
7:45 am Prepare my coffee and Pop Tart and gather my belongings.
7:50 am Out the door, cross the street, race the Muni to the corner.
8:06 am Catch BART, listen to a Kevin & Bean Podcast and finish two Sudoku puzzles.
8:21 am Run down the stairs to catch the hospital shuttle.
8:30 am Walk through the hospital doors and prepare for another crazy day.

I’ve been doing this regularly for about a month now and it’s becoming very predictable…with the exception of the various characters I meet on the trains, of course. My afternoons are a little less predictable but I think I should have that down in no time.

I’ve had an interesting time here this past month and a half but my commute to work has been pretty ordinary…until today.

I was riding BART this morning as I usually do. We all know that food and drinks aren’t allowed but no one really gets called out on it. I bring my coffee on board every morning and no one ever seems bothered if I take a couple sips on my way to work. Today was a bit different.

As I was working on my Sudoku puzzle, I notice the middle-aged man seated behind me standing in the aisle and lecturing the younger guy seated across the aisle to my right. I couldn’t actually hear what he was saying because I was listening to my iPod and we were traveling through the TranBay Tube, which usually gets really loud. After removing my earphones, I catch the last half of the lecture and realize that he was upset with the younger guy for eating his breakfast sandwich on the train.

The next thing I know, I hear the the older man (still behind me) saying “There’s a guy here on the train wearing a green and red vest with black-rimmed glasses eating and drinking.” I didn’t actually turn around to look at the man to see if he was really calling the driver. Is he just bluffing? There’s always the chance that he’s a little cuckoo and talking to no one. Well, just a few seconds later, the train conductor makes an announcement overhead and says, “May I have your attention, please. There is someone eating on the train and food and drinks are not allowed on the train. People not following the rules are subject to being escorted off the train by security at the next stop.” Holy crap. This guy was serious! He just called the train conductor and reported him! The man was so proud of himself that he continued to give the guy in the vest a hard time. So, at the next stop, the guy in the vest got off the train. Dude, that’s not how I’d want to spend my morning. Luckily the man didn’t see my travel mug in my lap.

You’d think that that would be enough excitement for one day but I was wrong. This afternoon as I was seated outside of the hospital waiting for the shuttle to the BART station, I notice police cars zooming past the hospital. That’s nothing. It happens all the time so I go back to my book. Seconds later, I hear sirens and a whole army of squad cars weaving through traffic. I look up at the girl seated next to me and she said to me that she heard two pops. Pops?! You mean gunshots?! *sigh* I knew that I was working in a shady area but I wasn’t expecting gunfire next door to us.

Moments later, we see 8-10 more squad cars and 5-6 motorcycle cops zooming by, a helicopter circling the area from above, and one of our ambulances pulling out of the driveway. Crazy. I was just thinking to myself, “Oh man, the shuttle’s going to be a while.” and “I hope the guy doesn’t run into the hospital.” Luckily, the shuttle got through the traffic and I made it home in one piece.