12 p.m. — Most of my clients cleared out for the holidays, so I come back to a total of five emails after being out for two weeks. The morning goes fairly slowly as everyone eases back into working, and I use the time to do month-end admin tasks for the project. The day is still going slowly by lunchtime, so I message my friend, N., who works across the street to see if she wants to take a walk to get lunch. I typically limit lunches out to Mondays and Fridays, but I had plans for after work today and didn't want to carry around my lunch container (one of my least favorite things about being a consultant is that I'm constantly shifting locations and carrying all my stuff with me, so a plastic lunch container is small but it adds up in purse/bag-space). The office has very limited selections close by, so we take advantage of the slow day to walk a bit farther and get something different. I get a falafel bowl with hummus and red cabbage ($10.17). We each pay for our own lunch. $10.17