Today I have officially returned to working five days a week. This is care of a personal service contract arrangement with the Forest Service, for whom I will be working for one day a week until July. It is contract work for technical and laboratory services for a number of projects involving monitoring invasive bark beetles (Scolytidae). I do not have guilt for the time I come into work 'late' although, where I work is pretty flexible and there is no set schedule per se. But there are days that I show up later than I would like to and then have to leave by a certain time to catch my bus home regardless of what time I arrive. But I do not have guilty feelings about this because I am working the entire time I am there. I happen to have a strong and good work ethic and am proud of the fact, I am proud of my job, of doing a good job, of being effective and efficient. I have issues with smokers, sometimes I am openly hostile towards them and today I witnessed yet another reason for my hostility. Why is it so socially acceptable for smokers to take a ten to fifteen minute break once an hour to feed their addiction? If I stopped working for fifteen minutes out of every hour by just going to stand outside, to get some air, or wonder the halls aimlessly, I think an employer any employer would view this as grounds for disciplinary action or dismissal. At the very least, if I chose to take a break to eat carrot sticks every time the smokers did to smoke and my boss said anything to me, it would be discrimination toward non-smokers. Yet, there it is, happening every day, all day, wasting hours of time. I'll be needing a lot of carrot sticks.