Letter from Boston

My Office-Home

By MASAKO YAMADA

A while back I wrote about the facilities I work with at home in my "home-office." This week I'll write about the homelike comforts at my office, which I call my "office-home." We just finished finals week, so I've spent more time at the office than usual ・　and it's become more of a second home to me than ever.

I share an office at school with a third year grad student named Francis Starr. We're both on the same scholarship. It's really a luxury for all the students in the physics department to have their own desks at school, but our office is located away from the other graduate students' offices, and ours is super-deluxe.

Most of my friends have their offices in the basement of the main science building. There is no carpeting; the furniture is old; there are no partitions between the desks, and it floods whenever there are heavy rains. Since the offices are in the basement, there are no windows either. My friends' offices are in the main science building because they make their living as Teaching Fellows, and that's where they work.

My office is especially nice because it has carpeting, large cubicles and ・ you guessed it ・ wall-to-wall windows. Francis and I each have huge personal desks with SGI workstations, which are much more luxurious than either than my Mac or my PC. We are given these computers because our research involves doing domputer simulations. There is also a small common table where we can have lunch meetings and study sessions with other people. It's a very comfortable space even by "real job" standards.

Of course, I couldn't just leave a nice space like that alone. I had to doctor it up. This desn't mean that I've prettied up the decor; I don't much care about putting posters on my wall. Since I like to eat, and since going out to restaurants is expensive, however, I've stocked a nice pantry above my desk very well. I have a coffee making set as well as a hot plate. Not only can I boil water, but I can also cook simple food using a pot.

Francis said my shelf looks like a grocery store. In the "drinks" section I have Coke, fruit juice, chocolate milk, two kinds of cocoa, and some Chinese tea. In the "snacks" section I have potato chips, corn chips, and candy. I also have a "main dish" section with instant soup, two kinds of Korean noodles, some Middle Eastern couscous, and gourmet macaroni and cheese. I know I can survive through a minor storm ・ or a major exam ・ as long as I have electricity.

I've slept at my office a couple of times when the work was rough. There are no beds, but there is a low ledge by the wall-to-wall window that makes a comfortable, if slightly narrow, bed. That is where the heater is, so you feel the warm currents coming up through your body. It's especially nice if you have a long coat to cover you, because the warm air is trapped, and it's as if you're in a nice warm tent.

　 Even after the exams were finished, I went to myh office many times just to check my e-mail or to read a novel. I know I can check my e-mail or read a novel at home, but sometimes I don't feel like being among lots of people, for example my three roommates. It's a 30-miniotue trip to get to the office, but it's a wonderful escape especially when I don't have to do "real" work there.

I was tired from an afternoon of Christmas shopping in Boston so I decided to drop by my office. I ended up reading one of the novels I'd been saving for my bus trip home; Ryu Mjurakami's "Love & Pop." It's light reading that has absolutely nothing to do with physics. I suppose it would never be on any English professor's reading list, either. But I don't think I've been so moved by a book in a long while. I stretched myself out on the ledge and watched the sun set over Boston as I finished the whole book. Then I gathered myself up and went home.

Shukan ST: Jan. 3, 1997

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