Transitions
Friday, a pleasant surprise...I'm going to get to work from home two days a week again!!!
Wow, I was not expecting that. But apparently the company had ordered us a bunch of brand new Dell computers, and with the delays in the supply chain the plan to send us back home has been on hold for months. The computers finally arrived while I was out for the weekend. I went to the office to get my computer and find out what days will be my Work From Home (WFH) days. Friday and Monday! Last time it was Friday and Tuesday, which was nice because it felt like a long weekend. But actually WFH on Monday is WAY better because now I will be on time for my Monday steno classes!! Yay!
It's a lot of work to make up the class, so I'm very excited that for three weeks of each month I'll be able to attend. (The fourth week I have to work on-site, that's part of our rotation so that we can all enjoy WFH).
Work itself was fine, nothing to report. I got a rejection letter for one of the internal job openings I applied to, no surprise as it's an HR position and I have zero HR experience.
Back home I ate dinner then checked out my new work-toy. I won't take pictures because my company is suuuuper all about confidentiality, proprietary information, etc etc, so suffice to say it's a Dell All-in-1 with a touchscreen and an external FCC sound card. This is the same equipment that captionists use onsite, which means that if we need to caption from home, we will be able to (not right now but at some point). I'm really glad, this was one function we'd all really wanted last year because sometimes there are outages or we get shorthanded, and the more people can caption the better.
Anyway, when that was set up I did my steno homework and shopped for bras. I HATE shopping for bras online! I've got tiny, limp boobs, and it's not easy to find something comfortable + the right shape for me, even in a physical store much less online. So I pretty much just used Poshmark and Ebay to find bras that I know will fit, and ordered them. Hopefully they don't arrive with sweatstains on them or something. Sigh.
Saturday was pretty slow, it was hot and humid outside, but like an icebox at work. I felt tired and droopy, but did my best.
Got home, checked on the chrysalides, everyone looks fine. There are now four chrysalides in my pollinator garden.
20+ eggs, 12 caterpillars, down to 6 caterpillars, and now 4 chrysalides. I'm sure there are more hiding somewhere, but dang, survivability is poor.
After dinner we had an exciting Actual Social Event, a band with a lot of Jameson's friends in it was playing over at Margaritaville, outdoors, socially distanced. We sat down at a table full of former Disney performers, all fully vaccinated except for me and like one other chick. It felt very "Before-fore Times". And it was nice. I got to hug people. No, I'm not fully vaccinated. But also, no one around me has gotten sick. Ok?
Some idiot at the table was buying WAY too many shots, so we ended up with at least two free drinks which was two more than I'd intended to have. But hey, it felt good in the moment. It was a nice moment of socialization, and pretending things are normal again.
https://instagram.com/p/CN0ygj2H7IL
Sunday, work again. It was a slow day, I was glad because I wanted to wrap up as much as possible before working from home on Monday.
At home we had BBQ from a new place we'd found, it was ok but overpriced so it probably won't be a regular stop for us.
After dinner I quick-pickled the jalapenos from my garden because five of them were ready to use. I added a thinly-sliced carrot as well. Boiled with equal parts vinegar and water, and salt and sugar for a few seconds, then left it to brine and cool with crushed garlic. Should be really nice on eggs or with cold cuts.
Then I cleaned the bathrooms, vacuumed, and did not-enough-steno-practice before getting tired and going to bed.
Monday, my first day of working from home! It was nice to have the extra hour of sleep, and to drink coffee from a mug instead of a lockable thermos. It was nice to be able to go to the bathroom when I needed to, and to break my work into manageable chunks without interruption. Some things did need a litte extra work, like downloading all my spreadsheets and figuring out how they want us to use Zoom now, but overall it was a more relaxing way to work and I'm very grateful for it. Saving four hours of driving, two hours of sleep, and a thimble of sanity. Worth it.
During breaks I checked on my chrysalides (no change) and spent time with Jameson, who was doing classwork in the bedroom. After work we had pizza, then I had steno class while Jameson relaxed, then he had some theatre meetings while I relaxed. Then we rejoined again for Spring Baking Championship before going to bed.
Tuesday, very stressful. I notice that Tuesdays usually are stressful, no idea why, but it's very annoying.
I can basically assume that we'll "somehow" be shorthanded and I'll have to cover more work than usual.
I can assume that something unusual will happen during the day that will prevent me from completing my usual tasks, so that I feel frustrated and fed up at the end of the day.
And of course, I can assume that whatever-it-is will happen right before my shift ends so that I'll be desperately rushing to finish my tasks and finally leave much later than usual.
Because Tuesday!!
I escaped work nearly 10 minutes late (doesn't seem like a big deal until you try to drive past Disney World at 4:55 instead of 4:45, give it a go if you don't believe me) and stopped at the grocery for dinner ingredients. Back home, said hello to Jameson, ate dinner, checked the chrysalides. There was a big storm in the afternoon and one of them had fallen down.
It didn't seem damaged, so I did what Google said and carefully tied a bit of string to the torn caterpillar silk, then re-hung it in the enclosure with a safety pin. Lookin' good.
While poking around in there I noticed that one chrysalis is darkening, and the wings are starting to form. Very cool to see!
The four chrysalides in my pollinator garden all seem fine too. The one who pupated on the fence was kind of glowing in the setting sun, looked very pretty.
There you have it, my week.
This weekend I'm baking raising walnut bread per my breaducation, and might crack into the apple butter I made over Christmas to enjoy on top. I've also got to put all of the milkweed into the garden, the pool deck is getting cluttered with all my potted plants. And I'm making steak for dinner on Thursday, and steno class in on Wednesday night, and somewhere in there I hope to finally attempt to make macarons.
Wow, I was not expecting that. But apparently the company had ordered us a bunch of brand new Dell computers, and with the delays in the supply chain the plan to send us back home has been on hold for months. The computers finally arrived while I was out for the weekend. I went to the office to get my computer and find out what days will be my Work From Home (WFH) days. Friday and Monday! Last time it was Friday and Tuesday, which was nice because it felt like a long weekend. But actually WFH on Monday is WAY better because now I will be on time for my Monday steno classes!! Yay!
It's a lot of work to make up the class, so I'm very excited that for three weeks of each month I'll be able to attend. (The fourth week I have to work on-site, that's part of our rotation so that we can all enjoy WFH).
Work itself was fine, nothing to report. I got a rejection letter for one of the internal job openings I applied to, no surprise as it's an HR position and I have zero HR experience.
Back home I ate dinner then checked out my new work-toy. I won't take pictures because my company is suuuuper all about confidentiality, proprietary information, etc etc, so suffice to say it's a Dell All-in-1 with a touchscreen and an external FCC sound card. This is the same equipment that captionists use onsite, which means that if we need to caption from home, we will be able to (not right now but at some point). I'm really glad, this was one function we'd all really wanted last year because sometimes there are outages or we get shorthanded, and the more people can caption the better.
Anyway, when that was set up I did my steno homework and shopped for bras. I HATE shopping for bras online! I've got tiny, limp boobs, and it's not easy to find something comfortable + the right shape for me, even in a physical store much less online. So I pretty much just used Poshmark and Ebay to find bras that I know will fit, and ordered them. Hopefully they don't arrive with sweatstains on them or something. Sigh.
Saturday was pretty slow, it was hot and humid outside, but like an icebox at work. I felt tired and droopy, but did my best.
Got home, checked on the chrysalides, everyone looks fine. There are now four chrysalides in my pollinator garden.
20+ eggs, 12 caterpillars, down to 6 caterpillars, and now 4 chrysalides. I'm sure there are more hiding somewhere, but dang, survivability is poor.
After dinner we had an exciting Actual Social Event, a band with a lot of Jameson's friends in it was playing over at Margaritaville, outdoors, socially distanced. We sat down at a table full of former Disney performers, all fully vaccinated except for me and like one other chick. It felt very "Before-fore Times". And it was nice. I got to hug people. No, I'm not fully vaccinated. But also, no one around me has gotten sick. Ok?
Some idiot at the table was buying WAY too many shots, so we ended up with at least two free drinks which was two more than I'd intended to have. But hey, it felt good in the moment. It was a nice moment of socialization, and pretending things are normal again.
https://instagram.com/p/CN0ygj2H7IL
Sunday, work again. It was a slow day, I was glad because I wanted to wrap up as much as possible before working from home on Monday.
At home we had BBQ from a new place we'd found, it was ok but overpriced so it probably won't be a regular stop for us.
After dinner I quick-pickled the jalapenos from my garden because five of them were ready to use. I added a thinly-sliced carrot as well. Boiled with equal parts vinegar and water, and salt and sugar for a few seconds, then left it to brine and cool with crushed garlic. Should be really nice on eggs or with cold cuts.
Then I cleaned the bathrooms, vacuumed, and did not-enough-steno-practice before getting tired and going to bed.
Monday, my first day of working from home! It was nice to have the extra hour of sleep, and to drink coffee from a mug instead of a lockable thermos. It was nice to be able to go to the bathroom when I needed to, and to break my work into manageable chunks without interruption. Some things did need a litte extra work, like downloading all my spreadsheets and figuring out how they want us to use Zoom now, but overall it was a more relaxing way to work and I'm very grateful for it. Saving four hours of driving, two hours of sleep, and a thimble of sanity. Worth it.
During breaks I checked on my chrysalides (no change) and spent time with Jameson, who was doing classwork in the bedroom. After work we had pizza, then I had steno class while Jameson relaxed, then he had some theatre meetings while I relaxed. Then we rejoined again for Spring Baking Championship before going to bed.
Tuesday, very stressful. I notice that Tuesdays usually are stressful, no idea why, but it's very annoying.
I can basically assume that we'll "somehow" be shorthanded and I'll have to cover more work than usual.
I can assume that something unusual will happen during the day that will prevent me from completing my usual tasks, so that I feel frustrated and fed up at the end of the day.
And of course, I can assume that whatever-it-is will happen right before my shift ends so that I'll be desperately rushing to finish my tasks and finally leave much later than usual.
Because Tuesday!!
I escaped work nearly 10 minutes late (doesn't seem like a big deal until you try to drive past Disney World at 4:55 instead of 4:45, give it a go if you don't believe me) and stopped at the grocery for dinner ingredients. Back home, said hello to Jameson, ate dinner, checked the chrysalides. There was a big storm in the afternoon and one of them had fallen down.
It didn't seem damaged, so I did what Google said and carefully tied a bit of string to the torn caterpillar silk, then re-hung it in the enclosure with a safety pin. Lookin' good.
While poking around in there I noticed that one chrysalis is darkening, and the wings are starting to form. Very cool to see!
The four chrysalides in my pollinator garden all seem fine too. The one who pupated on the fence was kind of glowing in the setting sun, looked very pretty.
There you have it, my week.
This weekend I'm baking raising walnut bread per my breaducation, and might crack into the apple butter I made over Christmas to enjoy on top. I've also got to put all of the milkweed into the garden, the pool deck is getting cluttered with all my potted plants. And I'm making steak for dinner on Thursday, and steno class in on Wednesday night, and somewhere in there I hope to finally attempt to make macarons.