Crying babies and work have never mixed well.

I’ve said it before, but Facebook is such a great way to see what people like, dislike, and especially what bugs them.   You really get a feel for what the pulse of a community or even an individual is.  Today’s ramblings include a rant against the Smurfs as well as a general disdain for cleaning bathrooms.  I particularly enjoyed this post from a fellow doctoral student friend of my husband’s:

Typing longhand notes (and trying to ignore the crying babies..why did I forget my headphones =/ )

I’m not sure about the final punctuation {maybe it’s the new cyber-slang for cursing or maybe it’s just a missed key}, but I’m pretty confident this PhD student didn’t head out to a usually quiet cafe this morning just to hear not one, but several babies crying.

A Common Complaint: Noise

It does beg the question, why do we go to public places to work?  This guy does have an office, so why would he trek to downtown to take notes.  It’s possible the coffee is particularly tasty there, or there might be a pretty waitress, but more than likely, he needed to escape his own office to be productive.  You see, normally people don’t have their own offices, so they share the room with at least one other worker.  This is definitely true for doctoral students.  That means that every person’s noise can be another person’s downfall.  What is more frustrating than being derailed by a colleague’s noise? {Or worse, watching them be productive while you twiddle your thumbs?}

This got me thinking- even when we try to escape noise, we inevitably encounter noise, just a new variety or frequency.  Thus, I sent my friend a link for a free white noise generator.  Like most people these days, he’s pretty portable, so having a portable white noise option can be crucial…especially if he forgets his headphones!

Noise can’t always be escaped, but you can always have white noise with you!

Oh, our flat…while I really do enjoy life in the UK, it is not exactly peaceful.  I have mentioned before that my children are less than quiet.  Lying in bed trying to get over jet-lag, listening to hear if my children were struggling to sleep, I was shocked to hear how many noises assaulted me- car doors slamming, our neighbors having a conversation next door, the  local dogs yapping, the garbage cans being dragged out to the street, etc.  I said I was shocked- that’s because we normally use a white noise machine to drone out the ambient sounds.  However, this time (last  night), we couldn’t risk it since we had to be attentive parents for the sake of our jet-lagged children.

So, this is my ode to white noise.  Thank you for blocking out life so that I can sleep.  We will meet again soon.