“Remoted – Hybrid” – Day 732 (Friday) – good day

The day began with waking up to the fourth consecutive day of feeling slightly less dead inside, which sounds a bit like dark schtick, but that minor shift felt pretty amazing. Maybe it’s the approach of spring and emerging from a protective emotional hibernation.

NEW BOOKS!

While drinking coffee, Wordle was solved in two tries. The ride to work was easy and annoyance free. Bouyed by the positive start to the day, I was convinced I would be declared the winner of the Canon camera with two lenses in the “Celebrating Our Team” raffles at work.

Looking ahead, lunch was the remaining half of the yummy steak and cheese sub ordered in on Thursday night. There was a plan to take a walk to nearby Lala Books to pick up two books that were recently ordered and came in this week.   

The morning included conversations with colleagues, more coffee, and progress on projects while waiting for the final winners of the week-long raffle to be posted. Promotional campaign materials were ordered. Updates were sent out. All was relaxed and peaceful.

Not long after 11:00, the raffle winners were posted. For the fifth day this week, and possibly the second consecutive year, none of the dozen people on the floor where I work was a winner. It is now dubbed “the curse of the fourth floor.” Some other lucky person won my camera. And my laptop. And my Jordan's Furniture and Wayfair gift cards and a dozen other items. Still, this was not allowed to deflate the mood of the day. Maybe I didn’t win the camera or any of other many items I entered raffle tickets for, but it’s not the end of the world. There was the bookstore visit still ahead, and that was a sure-fire winner. 

The leftover lunch was delicious. The books were picked up – two books by Shana Thornton, a talented writer with whom I was acquainted while living in Tennessee. A walk along Market Street was taken in the sunshine with a stop at Gallery Z to look at the art. 

Yo, Jack!

Jack Kerouac banners fluttered from lamp posts for the month long 100^th anniversary celebration of his birth. As I took pictures of a banner, a man in a suit standing the doorway of Market Street Market asked if I was in town for the Kerouac events and we had a brief chat during which he remembered that he, too, had ordered books from Lala. One block over on the loop back to the bank, a stranger on the street said she loved my hair.

After the errand and the encounters with strangers, the afternoon dragged. Then it suddenly sped up, and the next thing I knew it was 5:00. There was scrambling to put away files and papers, log off from the system, put on my coat and get out of the building with the two other colleagues who were waiting by the elevator.

The day was over, the week was over, and the weekend had begun. It was time to go home to feed Winston and myself and open a bottle of wine. As soon as I finish my book club book for March, I can start on the new books. Some days feel better than others, and today was one of them. Thank goodness for such blessings.