a day at the office
The service interruption by Xfinity—and not just internet, but cable too; even calls, the flyer on our building door said, we won't even be able to dial 911—is scheduled from between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m. today, it turns out. So, I am working at the office all day, for the first time since March 12. That's more than seven months ago! The office is, predictably, mostly empty, although I have seen a somewhat surprising number of people in Merchandising today: Darrell; the VP of the department; David, the Meat Merchandiser, who spends a lot of loud time talking on the phone; Leon, the Deli Merchandiser; and Robin, the Fresh Program Manager. That's still not a whole lot, considering we have 22 people in Merchandising (counting me, that's 22.7%), and there's still enough space that we're all more than six feet apart. Oh, and I almost forgot: there's the young woman helping Steven with his receivers, so there's actually six people back here in the Merchandising section.
Otherwise, I've seen maybe three people from HR, and Adrienne (Executive Assistant) is working reception at the moment; I saw one person so far in IT and one in Accounting. There may be more now that I am actually writing this. Even Robin remarked on how there seemed to be a lot of people in today. "A lot" being 12 I have counted so far, of the 124 or so total office staff we have.
Shobhit gave me a ride this morning so I wouldn't have to take the bus, and I arrived at roughly 7:20. I was first here, which was often the case even in the past anyway. Otherers began trickling in within 45 minutes or so. I got a great shot of the foggy view from the patio, the view I otherwise have generally had to miss out on for seven months, but for the brief fifteen to twenty minutes twice a week when I come to swap out my own receiving paperwork.
I'm not sitting at my regular desk, as my monitors are now at my home work station (and have been since August 12). I kind of wish I could have, honestly; I'm at one of two "guest desks" for roving employees along the south wall, which is in the main Merchandising section and thus where all the other aforementioned staff present today are; my desk was one of four Merchandising seats on the other side of conference rooms otherwise part of the Accounting / IT section. There are far fewer people over there, but, whatever.
This is also my first time having to work all day with a mask on. It's annoying. But, not as annoying as David when he's talking on the phone. I know he's also talking through a mask, but damn. That guy is loud. I mean, I suppose I should be careful about what I bitch about given how fortunate I have really been through most of this Year from Hell as experienced by far too many. That said, I think I'd still trade David for my cats at home given a choice. This service interruption better really be only for today.
Actually, to be fair: I do have the option of using someone else's empty-desk work station in another section of the building if I really want. But, since I arrived before anyone else and needed to set up, I don't want to have to deal with moving all my shit to a new work station, especially if it means having to spend another several minutes just getting my dual monitor setup to work properly.
So, anyway. I should tell you about my weekend, which had somewhat minimal socializing but managed to feel quite busy overall anyway. Yesterday, Laney and I met at Volunteer Park for an afternoon Happy Hour. We had planned to do that for our Happy Hour on Friday the 11th—two Fridays ago—but there was far too much smoke in the air that day; we did a Skype virtual Happy Hour instead. Laney still wanted to meet at the park once it was possible, though, and so we tentatively scheduled that for this past Friday, the 18th. But: still too much smoke.
We could have done it on Saturday, but it rained that day. Not all day, but we figured it best still not to go sit in wet grass. Yesterday was the first day we'd had in a week and a half with clear sun breaks and no rain.
And you know what? It was so pleasant, in a way we were incapable of taking for granted . . . it was like a revelation. We talked a fair bit about how taking something as simple as breathable, clean air for granted is a thing of the past. We sat there on the north lawn of Volunteer Park—at my suggestion, near the bathrooms I knew were actually open—for a good three hours, just soaking in the beautiful day.
Quite a lot of other people were at the park too, predictably: it's one of the few safe things we have for socializing during a pandemic. And it wasn't crowded, exactly—there was plenty of wide open space between people who were out together. And everyone clearly not part of the same household were socially distanced, Laney and myself being no exception: I once again brought my tape measure so we would know for certain we were precisely 10 feet apart, a distance Laney herself wanted, to just add a few feet to the 6' standard.
We saw plenty of other groups of people doing the same thing, all of them hanging out but spaced at least six feet from each other. That said, we were easily a dozen yards or more from any other couple or group sitting out in the grass. Later in the afternoon some guy who appeared to be alone set up a DJ station and played music over speakers. Laney and I actually rather enjoyed it, although that was not that long before we decided it was time to go.
I did come uber-prepared this time. Not just with the tape measure, but even with margarita salt for me to press the rim of my little glass into, for the two cups of margarita I brought in a thermos. I also brought a packet of cashew butter cups I'd gotten at PCC, and a sandwich I made for lunch. I had totally intended to make a bagel sandwich with the bagels we got at Costco on Saturday, but for some reason I completely forgot about them yesterday morning when I made the sandwich and used regular bread instead. Dammit! It was still a good sandwich anyway.
We met at 1 p.m. and then headed out of the park at 4:00. I walked with Laney to her van, which she has really decked out with a little bed and small shelving units in the back. She's very ready for using it to camp all over the place. She actually offered me a ride home; I wasn't that afraid of accepting given we both had masks, but I wanted the walk and so I walked home. It's only about a mile anyway. And after all I ate and drank yesterday (I also made tortellini for dinner), I was up a pound this morning. I have only myself to blame!
The Emmy Awards took up most of the evening the rest of last night, which turned out pretty well all things considered, with none of the nominees actually in the theater. It was interesting to see who dressed up for their video feed in their homes. I was delighted to see Julia Garner win for her role in Ozark; she was quite surprised, but she had dressed up in a very nice white dress and pearls—and her boyfriend was sitting next to her in what looked like nothing but a kimono.
The historic sweep of awards for Schitt's Creek, which I guess I need to watch now, made me think they must have been given a heads-up in some way, that they would at least be winning several. Their cast, and evidently some crew, were all in some location having a big party, which I had pretty mixed feelings about. It looked like fewer than 50 people, and they all had masks on unless they were at a microphone giving acceptance speeches. But, for instance, Dan Levy kept screaming in excitement when other people won, often with his mask removed. If anyone in that room was COVID-positive, there is no doubt it spread to others. But, for all I know, maybe they all got tested right before? I'll probably hear about things like this soon enough on some of the pop culture podcasts I listen to.
Anyway, that was my Sunday; Saturday was even busier even though it had no socializing. I watched The Devil All the Time on Netflix, and being Oscar-eligible, I wrote and posted a review—I did not like it as much as I wanted to (I gave it a B-). Soon after I posted the review, I took the bus up to Northgate to meet with Shobhit, so we could then drive straight up to Costco in Shoreline and do some shopping there; we then did our PCC shopping at Greenlake Village since it was on the way back home. I don't think we had shopped there since the Central District store opened June 17. It was slightly strange to revert to the old store, but on the plus side, I was able to get to of my beloved Eggplant Naan Pizzas! (Those are slowly on their way out, and they don't get merchandised at any of the new stores. They haven't get been discontinued completely, however, so they remain on shelves at Greenlake Village, thankfully, for now.) Honestly the pizza sets at new store suck ass, and I think it's because of getting more stringent about our ingredient standards. Years and years ago I used to get an Amy's pizza I loved with veggie meat on it, but that got discontinued too. Bastards!
Oh. I also did laundry on Saturday. Even the sheets! I did so much on Saturday.
But, what did I do Friday evening, then? I can't remember! I know that was the day Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, which made it a day of monumental loss for America, and possibly a step closer to the end of Democracy if the Republicans pull a fully expected bit of hypocrisy and try to shove through a new nominee before a new president is sworn in. I seriously have no shred of respect for those people. Anyway, I do remember that I made chai, as a calculated move, so that I would be kept awake long enough that I would not be asleep by the time Shobhit got home after his shift ended at 9 p.m.
Still, I must have filled my time with something between 4:30 and 9:30, right? Well, unless it suddenly comes to me, I guess those five hours are just lost to history. I'm sure you're crushed. In all likelihood I just watched some show or another. Dear White People, probably. Aha! I just checked my viewing history: I watched two episodes that night. So that covers one of those hours.
[posted 12:32 pm]