I have a project I'm working on and have told myself I will devote a minimum of 3 hours a week to it. This is in addition to my job and exercise (more later on exercise). So, yesterday I left work on time and got home with enough time for a few minutes rest with the kitty before hunkering down to work on said project. I didn't count on the noise. Behind the houses across the street from mine is an empty field (and the gas well). Apparently, they're going to build back there, though I can't imagine who wants to live that close to the gas well. They had heavy machinery going - they were working when I left the house and they were still working when I got home and they kept going until after 6:00 pm. And, the house next door to me is under construction (finally). It's at the bricking stage. So, they had their little brick breaking machine going and the Spanish radio station. Of course, the radio station had to be turned up loud enough so they could hear it, which means I could hear it. Oddly, I can't really hear much of the noises in the living room/kitchen, which is in the back of the house, but I can definitely hear it in the study. It was much more of a distraction than I thought it would be.
Then I come to work. I sit in a cube in the middle of a room that adjoins two other people's cubes. Right now I hear someone crushing ice at the refrigerator. The printer and microwave are behind me. The two people in the cubes next to me, I hear their conversations. They've started using headsets for the phones, so now when Person A makes a call, I not only hear her end of the conversation, but I also hear the person she's speaking to. Person 2 receives quite a few personal calls, which I hadn't noticed before and because she's using a headset, I now hear her radio since she no longer can use headphones. She does try to keep it low, but it's still distracting. This office is so open, you pretty much hear everything. Hard not to.
Today added smells to the list. A couple of people cooking their lunch in the microwave then someone with a different blend of coffee. Mix them all together and ugh.
Most days noises don't bother me, I can tune them out. Here lately though, person A's supervisor is at her desk often and that gets loud. Plus supervisor has what I've dubbed a monkey laugh and she does it a lot. Around lunch time, it was getting to me. It was all just running together. It's now gotten much quieter and I'm hoping it stays that way. Maybe when I get my very own cubicle and Persons A & B move over a bit in the room it won't be so bad.
