January 4

The year 2020 was, as we all know, a singular bummer of a year—having started with relative wide-eyed innocence, then ending with most of us stuck working at home and having done so for nine months in that calendar year alone. 2021 began with far more hope for the coming year, eventually quite tempered, resulting in a year that was decidedly a mixed bag. That still counts as an objective improvement over 2020 so I'll take it!

The above shot kind of serves as a metaphor for the year. It began more literally as a metaphor used by Tracy, whose desk is behind mine, in meetings wherein she characterized her hopes as "sheep, horses and rainbow unicorns." Apparently Eric then lined her desk with exactly those things the next time he was in the office.

January 5

I can't decide whether this screenshot of Noah in a glitchy Category Management Zoom meeting is legitimately frightening, or a masterpiece of high art.

February 11

Back when I was still working from home but coming by the office twice a week to swap out receiver paperwork, this was the Thursday that began our four days of snow in February, 8.9" falling on Saturday the 13th alone, Seattle's largest single-day snowfall since 1969. As I was only going to the office on Thursdays and Mondays at the time, this was the only day during that stretch that I could get a photo of the view from our office balcony. (I got a snowier balcony view during the second bout of snow we got in late December.)

June 25

Ah, remember the spring! When we all thought we were headed straight out of the woods with COVID restrictions! Government entities severely eased restrictions, something later revealed to be a deeply moronic move, and we all thought that as long as we were fully vaccinated we were scott free. I had my first vaccine dose in late March, the second in mid-April, and was thus "fully vaccinated" by the middle of my Birth Week vacation. I started going back to movies in theaters in early May. By late June plenty of office workers were now working regularly at the office, just with masks on, but I was waiting to return—as eager as I was to do so—until the all-day mask requirement was lifted. But now, as long as we were fully vaccinated the office reopened to unmasked working and I jumped at the opportunity to come back then, on the same day we had our first office social gathering in a year and a half. This photo is of me on my first day back working at the office, truly delighted to be finally leaving work-from-home, which I had finally been well and truly sick of, behind.

And: what a truly beautiful day that was. We did make the conscientious decision to hold the bulk of the (ultimately ironically named) "Merchandising Post-Pandemic Party" out on the balcony, something known to be a wise decision even then—rumblings of the Delta variant elsewhere in the world were already starting at the time. Late June, this being the first day of a record heat wave (87° on this day, a Friday; June monthly record 102° the next day, Saturday June 26; all-time record 104° Sunday June 27; all-time record again of 108° Monday June 28). 87° is plenty warm (too fucking hot, as far as I'm concerned, always) but that Friday was downright cool compared to the weekend that followed. The Friday gathering with the Merchandising Department was easily the most pleasant of those days, and a fond work memory for the ages, being able to get back together after so very long a forced break.

July 15

"Hello, teammates!" Gack. I initially took this picture to make fun of the gratingly corporate catchphrase of our CEO at the time, a woman who quickly proved to be widely unpopular in the company—to be fair, I was relatively indifferent to her at the time, albeit with a definitive distaste for her initial penchant for all-company emails packed with fonts of varying sizes and colors, giving them a vibe of something forwarded by your great aunt. After the previous CEO, who had been with us five years, left for greener pastures mid-pandemic in the middle of 2020, this one was hired in December 2020 . . . and she lasted precisely eight months, before officially stepping down August 8. It was a shockingly short tenure, but no one missed being "encouraged" to say things like "Hey teammates!" anymore. PCC closed out the year still without an official new CEO yet hired, evidently taking longer to find a new one than we did last year—taking our time on such a critical decision probably being fine by most of us.

July 27

Tracy bought a letter board.

July 30

Is this photo safe for work? Check out my new series, Eggnog After Dark. Getting samples midsummer is my kind of "Christmas in July."

August 6

I might have mentioned to the broker for Guru Energy Drinks that I have a cat who shares their name.

August 11

And guess who else moved on to greener pastures this year? Our Titan of Community Building, our Queen of Earthly Fashions, the loved and dearly missed Claudia. PCC's greatest loss in 2021 was the Washington Farmland Trust's greatest gain, where she is positioned to thrive.

I didn't take this photo, I think Bridget did—but it was included in the goodbye email sending off Claudia on her last day at PCC, and I think it may be the most beautiful picture ever taken of her on the job here, so I asked to be sent the original size photo.

September 21 [and August 4, 2016]

September 21 was the day I made an odd realization: We’ve been at this “new” office location a full five years now, but it doesn’t feel like it because for a year and a half (30%) of that we were all working from home.

(August 4 2016 / September 21 2021: the difference five years makes)

October 11

I later realized it had been left open for what appeared to be some kind of commercial shoot the next day, but having discovered the doors left wide open to the completely abandoned and empty huge office space on the third floor, naturally I went in to do a bit of exploring on my way out at the end of that work day. So, I’ll just be taking this corner office okay thanks.

November 3

To celebrate Kevin's 20th anniversary at PCC, Beth took the "Grocery crew" (Kevin, Scott, Noah and me) out for lunch at Willmott's Ghost, a phenomenal restaurant at the Amazon Spheres. This was one of the earlier times I had a restaurant check my vaccination card, which I did not find off-putting in the slightest (in fact I found it fantastic and comforting). This was our first "team outing" since returning from work-from-home, and how wonderful it was to be able to do such a thing with coworkers again really could not be overstated.

October 29

And here I am, the Friday before Halloween, not only the only office staff person to come to work in any semblance of a costume, but one of just a handful of staff who even came to work at the office at all that day—thereby lessening the disappointing impact of there being no official office "Halloween celebration" for the first time in my nearly 19½ years of working here. I was intent on defiantly participating anyway!

My goal for Halloween costumes is always "simple and clever," and I feel like I kind of got halfway there with this one. The idea, and the props, are still directly related to PCC, though, or at least my PCC contacts: when I made my Birth Week theme "boating and waterfronts" in 2019, and then-broker Heather took me out on Puget Sound on her boat, this mug and Captain's hat were what she hilariously gifted me for my birthday. As I tossed around ideas in my head for this year's Halloween costume, I figured, hell, why not make these props truly useful at least one more time?

I also wore this outfit the following Sunday, Halloween Day, while in Las Vegas, even spending a bit of time with Tracy who just randomly happened to be there at the same time, also in costume.

November 18

Our first in-office "Harvest Potluck" (a new name I much prefer, over the self-consciously generic "Holiday Potluck," especially for an office version of a Thanksgiving meal) in two years! Here Kwanteria and Adrienne carve up the turkey that I did not eat. They did provide a Tofurky veggie roast, though, which, although a bit too crumbly, actually proved pretty tasty under the mushroom gravy that was also provided.

The gathering here was much, much smaller than in The Before Times, but that was just as well given how uncomfortable too large a crowd would be anyway. About 30 people actually showed up, and that was only about a quarter of total current office staff. Having a smaller event was, to my mind, a small price to pay for once again finally being able to have holiday events at the office at all.

November 22

"Holiday Helper" store shift #1, afternoon of the Monday before Thanksgiving, my last work day before a Thanksgiving trip to Palm Springs: Central District store. This was my third year doing these, and this year they didn't even bother pretending we were "volunteering"—it was declared that every office staff person was obliged to work at least one four-hour store shift Thanksgiving week and one Christmas week. Not that I resent that or anything!

As always, doing this was hardly a big deal in the end. I survived.

November 29

When Tracy found out how much I love Christmas, she offered to bring one of her artificial trees to the office to share between our desks. She also brought the ornaments, and I hung most of them; Tracy spent most of the holiday season working from home so I was the one who got constant compliments on this tree, and I would have to clarify, "It's actually Tracy's, but I helped put it up!" I have a lot of other ornaments of my own that don't fit on my current tree anymore, so if we do this again next year, I think I will bring some of those to make the ornaments more of a mix between the two of us.

December 16

I don't think I have ever had Kevita. I don't tend to be interested in "probiotic drinks." Bleh. But! Instead of borrowing an "ugly holiday sweater" to participate in this at work for the first time, a brand came through for me. Or I guess Noah did, and Kevita through him. They sent him this sweater and matching socks, and he asked if I wanted them. I said, sure! And although it's definitively weird and no one around could help me figure out what the hell that little cartoon character is supposed to be, I actually can't say the sweater is "ugly." Honestly I thought the colors worked quite well on me.

(Thanks to Steven for taking this picture for me. This was much better than I might have managed using the self-timer.)

Steven, Mackenzie and Kwanteria at the 2021 PCC Ugly Sweater Brunch. Kwanteria's sweater, by the way, could be swiped one way or the other to read NAUGHTY or NICE. ("I'm a GIF. I have officially made it," Kwanteria said.)

Fun group shot at the Ugly Sweater Brunch. My favorite part is how Marie is hilariously barely managing to inch into the frame at far left. This did not include everyone (Steven, Mackenzie and Tracy all appear to be missing, having gone back to their desks by this point), but it's still a great shot, a worthy addition to the ugly sweater group shots from over the years.

Lynne V. (front row left in the ugly sweater brunch group shot, in the santa hat) also left us this year, retiring this very week. She came by and bequeathed this plant to me, which had previously been left to her by Kim, the woman with whom she once shared a desk. So I guess it's been around a while. I was relieved to hear it only needs watering once a week, as I am otherwise singularly talented at killing plants. So, this plant now faces an uncertain future, as do the rest of us. 2022 is sure to be another mixed bag, especially as we head into it amidst yet another variant surge, but here's hoping that mixture still continues the trend of it averaging out to an improvement over the previous year.

[posted 5:29 am]