Though my job will end, there is still work to do. My computer is a laptop, but in order to be efficient with my work I use two additional monitors, plus a full-sized keyboard and a wired mouse. I hauled all those things home, plus my office chair.
Then, to get my keyboard to the correct height I propped up the dining room table on some bed lifter things I got from Ikea years ago.
When I’m done with work for the day Matt and I lift up the table and kick aside the supports, then gently set the whole operation down.
Yesterday, we were told that due to the pandemic, the entire office would be laid off at the end of the month. In the meantime, we would be working from home. I’d already brought things home, but I went back to grab all those personal items that live at work. Here’s my thermos I put my tea in each morning (so I can get more tea out of one tea bag) my water bottle, my shrug, and a picture of Portland that Sara sent me.
I’ve also got my work laptop in that bag. I think it was because I went in to write checks, so I had to haul it there and then back home again.
I can recall once in high school realizing a skirt I owned was four years old! As evidenced by the italics and the exclamation point this was an amazing realization.
I think of that moment with a chuckle as I put on clothing that is five or ten years old. And so things accumulate as life goes on.
My five-year journals have been like that. I started in 2005, morphing a daily journal into my own five-year journal. And I’ve kept going for fifteen years now.
I don’t write every day. But I do write regularly.
The first year is its own year. I can’t see what’s come before. But starting the second year, and continuing through year five, I can see what I’ve been up to. Often Matt will hear at journal writing time: Did you know that three years ago we started square dancing lessons?
It’s nice to look back in five year segments. These journals have now taken me through four jobs and two houses.
I was worried that the construction company was going to tape over all the windows and leave them for weeks, but I worried for nothing. They did one side of the building at a time, and the windows were only covered for one day.
One interesting part of this process was that I learned there is a roller-type tool that is utilized to stick the blue tape on. With that tool, it was a very fast process.
And then, one morning they were painting just as the sun was coming up and I got this silhouette.
It seems strange to call these old, as they are pictures from when I was little and they are in color, but considering Ronald Reagan was president when they were taken, they are old.
That’s me wearing my mother’s Queen of the May dress that her mother made for her. I love the springy daffodil background. Choosing the background was my favorite part of getting my picture taken. A quick pull on this flower background and it would retract. Then you could choose a different one, like a snow scene, or a solid color. (Boring!)
Thank goodness I grew my hair out after this. I don’t love that bowl cut.
And here’s my brother. He wouldn’t consent to dressing in these types of clothing for much longer. But he looks so going-to-church.
Where do kids get their pictures taken now a days? I’m guessing not at Sears or J.C. Penny.
Hold the phones Edna! You can get your pictures taken at J.C. Penny! They even have themes. You can even get office head shots taken there. That’s the only place, though. Sears, Target, and Wal-Mart have all closed their portrait studios in the last decade. K-Mart closed theirs long ago.
I made the switch from Virgin Mobile to Google FI. Both plans are similar: low monthly cost and you buy your own phone. Google FI has a variable rate for data and I might be able to lower my monthly charge slightly.
On the left, the new phone. On the right, the old phone.
I gave my usual three-minute search for a case. The new case (left) isn’t as good as the old one.
We shall see what the Google Pixel has in store for me.
Call me float-curious. Floating, the practice of paying money to lie in a dark in a tank of water with a bunch of Epsom salts was very intriguing to me.
Not enough to pay money, but I was interested.
Enter friend Kelly, who gets free floats as a part of her volunteer gig. She gifted me one, so I signed up.
Float On has a very cool waiting room. The walls are covered with this stretchy fabric that was mesmerizing. Plus, look at all those stretchy fabric things on the ceiling! And there was tea.
And look at this great mural in the bathroom!
Here’s my room. You are looking at the shower and the door to the tank.
From the other direction, the door to the hallway, a complementary robe (that I didn’t need to use) and on the right, the filtering system for the tank.
I was given an orientation, I showered, got into the tank and closed the door.
And then 90 minutes passed.
At first, I thought I needed to be inert in the water, but eventually I realized that I could move around if I wanted. After I started some slow movement of my limbs, I enjoyed floating more.
And yet.
I’m a person who regularly experiences insomnia, so I’m quite familiar with the feeling of being awake in a dark room, alone with my thoughts.
I also am a swimmer with a goodly amount of body fat, so floating is also a thing that happens to me on a regular basis.
When I started thinking of things I would rather spend money on than floating that would also relax me (massage, acupuncture, a nap—which is free) I concluded that floating was not for me.
And I’m so glad I got to figure that out for free.
If you are float curious, I recommend Float On. It was a great operation.
I am not even kidding when I say the promo pen people always light up my day. We used to get them every so often in the mail at the Emerson School. I had one version for years that said “The Erson School” on it. Because nothing makes you want to buy a promo pen than a misspelling. Even my fancy new workplace is not immune to the promo pen offer.
And now Keen Eye LLC has joined their ranks. I will treasure this pen until—well, until I lose it. And I will never, ever order any promo pen, ever.
This sign has been affixed to a locker near the one I use in the Campus Rec Center for months. I have spent many mornings staring at it as I transition from my swimming gear to my work gear.
I can see that it was hastily written by a Campus Rec employee, probably a female. I can see that this person had no idea the note would be posted for so long because little care was made in writing.
The sign gets the job done. There is an alert to the problem, there is a directive, and there is an apology. It’s scrawled on a PSU notepad and hung (again hastily, with tape.)
And then, there’s that signature. What is going on with that signature? It’s written in a different pen, and in a different handwriting. It was clearly there before the note was put up because the tape covers the S and part of the M in “Smith.”
Who is Smith? My current theories are that two employees were joking around as they made the sign, hence the “Love” or that the Love, Smith was written before the note itself was.
Someday, that locker will be fixed and the note will be gone. It will take me a few weeks to notice its absence. And then I will move on with my life, never knowing the story behind the note.
This is what the short-lived podcast Mystery Show was good for.
I just had a slight birdwalk and discovered that Starlee Kine (who made Mystery Show) now has a Patreon page where for $5.00 per month you will get access to a podcast she will create. Interesting.
