“Remoted” – Workday 45 / Day 58 (Wednesday)

Today we had our monthly meeting of the Sales and Marketing team which is comprised of Sales, Marketing, Customer Experience, and Corporate Communications. In the old normal times, we would gather in the Marketing area which has plenty of room and seating for all 15 to 20 of us, with group size varying based on the number of co-ops and interns in the office and other people out of the office. Today, in the new work from home time, we were 16 on a Zoom screen. It was great to see everyone, and only slightly embarrassing when both dogs started going nuts barking because the long-awaited Amazon hand soap delivery arrived during the meeting.

For part of the meeting, we were asked to share something we are grateful for, and something new we’ve enjoyed doing during the remote times. Well, I’m certainly grateful to have a job, and I reflect on that pretty much every day and especially on payday.

Give me an apron and a helmet and
I can take care of myself.

As for the new and enjoyable thing, my lame-ass response was that I enjoy having groceries delivered. It’s true (and pathetic) that it is the only “new” thing in my world, and compared to colleagues who are rediscovering family dinners, a slower pace of life, or that they enjoy cooking, it’s pretty freeking lame. But I live alone, I’m mostly self-sufficient (the grocery deliveries took it down a few points), and for my life to get any slower would involve rigor mortis. 

The differences in my life right now are so subtle they are imperceptible. There is an extra 30 minutes before and after work. I still work all day, cook and eat, play online Scrabble, watch too much Netflix and Prime Video, and sleep. Just like before. The extra hour a day from not commuting is spent writing.

A very experienced party of one.

The network of exciting and interesting new friends I imagined would blossom upon moving to Lowell never happened, because damn, it gets harder with age and/or I’m just a lone wolf/odd duck. I haven’t had a boyfriend in so long (years. So many years) that I don’t remember what that is like, but even when there was one, there was no boyfriend social network, it was just me and the guy.

Except for the occasional community event and a monthly board meeting, the bulk of my social life (and I use the term loosely) since moving back from Tennessee and especially to Lowell has consisted of empty interactions with a Family Dollar cashier once or twice a week while buying dog biscuits or toilet paper or Milk Duds, and with a grocery store cashier once every three to six weeks. There were highly valued, periodic meetups with family and a handful of decades-long close friends who all live out of town. But for the most part, there was no bright and shiny social life suddenly snatched from my grasp by a Stay-at-Home mandate and replaced with quiet time for new and wondrous discoveries.

While everyone around me was cultivating relationships and families and having  a social scene, I unwittingly set myself up to be an expert level social distancer long before it was needed. Read: I’m damn good at being isolated. So, so good. Even when it wasn’t necessary.

Now, if the past 58 days had involved not working and just being home all day free of obligations, my answer about new and enjoyable things would be different. I’m sure I would have learned a new language or unpacked all the supplies and resumed making stained glass or sewing. Maybe there would be a lot of reading and finally hanging some of the gajillion pieces of art that live in boxes and drawers. But for now, life is the same. I was lazy and anti-social before COVID-19 reached our shores, and the only difference now is, all the accidental practice paid off and I didn’t have to change a thing.