Why Practicing at the Office is Kind of a Pain

I close on a house in one week and move in two weeks. I am very excited about this for a multitude of reasons, one of which is that I will no longer have to practice at the office. Practicing at the office means this:

• I carry my violin to the office almost every workday. It’s a hassle in all the ways that moving from point A to point B with an instrument is a hassle. You can’t have it bouncing around in the trunk. You can’t leave it where it’s exposed to extreme temperatures, such as the third hottest summer on record in the contiguous United States. Running errands right before and right after work becomes inconvenient or impossible.
• I have stashed a plastic file container that holds a folding stand and some music between my desk and file cabinet (photo below). That actually works well, but I am looking forward to having all my music in one place.
• At the end of the workday, I keep an eye on our office’s instant messaging program to see who is still left in the building to know if/when I can start to practice. It's a small enough building that if colleagues are working late, I either stay until they leave, or I leave and come back.
• I also check the calendar for a semi-public space in our building that is sometimes used for meetings, receptions, workshops, etc. to make sure no one will be there in the evening.
• On weekends, I drive 15 miles round trip to the office to practice. I can sometimes loop in other errands, but see the first point above about the hassles of running errands with an instrument in tow. This is why I generally only practice on one day of the weekend.
• If I come in on the weekend and no one is there, I turn on my computer, fire up the IM system, unplug my headphones from the computer, and turn up the computer’s volume so that if a colleague does come in while I am there, I will hear the IM noise when they log on and can stop practicing, pack up, and go home.
• If colleagues are working late, or working on weekends, or if there is an event in the building, I can’t/won’t practice at the office. My colleagues have been unanimously curious and encouraging about this violin thing when they see me coming and going with it, but I really do not want to annoy them. People say, “Oh, I would love to hear you play!” and I think, “Scales? Arpeggios? Etudes? Riiiiight.” It’s nice to hear the support, but practicing is not playing, and I do not want to subject anyone to it! 
• Despite these precautions, there have been a couple of occasions when a colleague walked in while I was practicing--returning to the office after an evening meeting or event elsewhere, that sort of thing. Not a huge deal, but not really something I want to repeat. Maybe it's like when a colleague's kid's school is cancelled or child care falls through and we end up with a kid in the office quietly playing Legos or computer games in a corner somewhere. No one seems to mind, but the colleague whose kid it is apologizes and acts like they're imposing.    

Amidst the many lists, timelines, etc. that I am making as I prepare to move, I am definitely finding time to plan my new practice space. I so look forward to using it. 

Evidence in my office of my secret violin life. Only one more week of this! Photo by TR, 17 Sept. 2012.