I think many people started to be quarantined a week or so ago, but I didn’t really feel like I was since I was still driving to work. I have to say this last week of work felt like an eternity. With so many unknowns and hearing about the spread of coronavirus and everything changing in hours or minutes, it is scary and constantly wondering how you will get your work done is stressful. Personally, my department at work, most of us have desktop computers so we don’t work from home ever. Only managers have laptops for the potential ability to check in on something or on a rare case work from home. In some ways, I have liked it because it means everyone works at the office and doesn’t just randomly decide, hey I’m working from home today while others do not have that ability. However, in a pandemic when you are told you should be working from home and practicing social distancing, it presents challenges. On Wednesday they decided on a partial work from home schedule and people could remote in from their personal computers. My scheduled day was Friday and on Thursday night, Brian and I tried to follow the directions to log in from home. We got into my computer successfully one time and then when logging out, we couldn’t figure out how to get back in. So, I ended up going into work Friday morning and hoping IT could help me figure out the missing step. Well then IT was on strict rules to only take phone calls and not walk to your desk and help. I got my critical work done and left work at 12:30 on Friday to work from home the remainder of the day. Right before leaving, we received an email that everyone in the office should work from home next week and our factory would have a one week shut down, but have a few essential people report. So now I really needed to figure out this work from home thing.
As soon as I got home Friday, I set up my computer and tried a few steps my co worker wrote down for logging in and IT WORKED!! I was happy that I figured it out and didn’t need to spend an hour on the phone with IT. I got on and we had a conference call with our team about this work from home thing and issues that could arise. Basically, we were told we have to make it work and be creative and if any issues arise to talk to our manager. While we have slowly converted many tasks to pdfs and less printing, our department still does a lot of printing so there will definitely be challenges with that. For this week, we have one person in the office to liaison, in a way, with our group and handle things in the office. However, there are still so many unknowns to this and things have changed quickly in the last week.
Anyway, so this week will be my first work from home week, but I am lucky to have a good set up since I work on my computer a lot and have 2 screens.
I worked until about 5 Friday and then quickly jumped on a team meeting for school to discuss a project. It’s nice to not have commuting time. Nothing changed with my school stuff since I was already 100% online and I am still working ahead where I can. It’s weird because I am working on stuff due in April now, so between all the chaos of the coronavirus and my brain being in April due dates for school, I am all out of sorts with what day it is. Friday was Brian’s birthday though and I tried to make it as special as I could. His aunt brought over a delicious brownie cake that we might of inhaled. While I was bouncing off walls from the sugar, Brian crashed. I ended the night watching A Million Little Things and then some Gilmore Girls (watching from season 1 again).
On Friday morning I also started PIIT28 program since I don’t have a gym and wanted an at home workout. I am supporting people where I can. I also took an Instagram live class on Thursday morning before work and I donated a few bucks to their studio for having the class. I know that yoga studios and small businesses are probably suffering a lot in this time and since my gym kindly suspended my membership so I won’t lose out on money and I am not spending money on yoga classes locally, I can spare a few bucks for the classes I take. I can definitely say PIIT28 is kicking my butt and I have only done 2 days. I am not used to the jumping and endurance which is also why it is something fun and new for me.
On Saturday, I started with day 2 of PIIT28, then had a relaxed morning. Brian and I went to the farmers market that amazingly is still running and then another grocery store for a few items. Saturday morning also included working on taxes with Brian. Luckily ours are pretty simple, but I am missing one form that I need to make a call on Monday. I then worked a little bit on homework and some cleaning around the house. With Brian being off work this week, we are preparing the living room to finally finish the floors YAY!! We have all the stuff, it was a matter of having the time and since neither of us can go anywhere, why not move around furniture and finish some house projects?! Speaking of house projects, the Lowe’s near us has been packed it seems because it really is the perfect time for house projects as the weather warms up a bit and we can’t go out.
Saturday afternoon I was facetiming with my sister when suddenly we lost power on a bright and sunny day. Apparently, a wire went down and 5,000 people were without power. Brian and I walked around the neighborhood because we heard a loud bang of a transformer going or something and we saw the power line pole where it happened. However, that was just a small incident for what really happened which Brian found out a power line came down and burned a guy’s lawn. So, it was probably about 3 hours without power, but since it was sunny, we enjoyed some outside time, though it was only maybe 35 degrees. We saw our neighbor outside and decided to chat for a bit while keeping our 6 feet or more distance. Then it was time to warm up inside and curl up with a book for a while.
Brian made steak fajitas for dinner. It seems there is like no chicken but plenty of steak left in the store since that is pricier meat. Brian actually found a good package on sale so it was perfect. We ate and I mostly laid on the couch for the night. I think I was a little dehydrated and ate too many carbs in the day, so I wasn’t feeling the greatest.
Sunday morning, we enjoyed sleeping in. I got up at about 7am to make some breakfast. I was feeling better but still a little off so I didn’t do a workout in the morning and I stuck to mostly proteins and fats for breakfast with eggs, avocado and some strawberries.
Brian laid in bed until around 9 and once he got up, he made breakfast while I did some reading for school. I have officially read my textbook from cover to cover while I feel like rarely happens in classes. Our last few weeks are reading from articles and things online. After a very laid back Sunday morning, I headed out to get some iced tea from Dunkin to perk up a bit and also went to Wegmans.
Wegmans wasn’t too busy considering it was noon on Sunday. Produce was pretty well stocked, meats were limit 1 of each but there wasn’t much selection so I just got some honey ham from the deli. I found my almond milk which was also limit one and got a dozen organic eggs, limit one as well. They were completely out of Wegmans brand teas which was interesting so I settled for the Lipton green tea. The baking aisle was completely out of flour and soups are very low as well. It’s pretty crazy. I got Brian’s new favorite protein wraps though and a pricy parmesan cheese that seems to be ok with my stomach. Oh and there are no quick oats so when I run out, I really have to find a new breakfast. I have Ezekiel bread and 2 jars of almond butter and a jar of peanut butter so maybe I will just have toast for breakfast or something.
When I got home from the store, I was in for the day. I had emailed one of my teachers a question on a group project and I was glad I did because I was thinking right but wasn’t exactly sure how to approach the next step. Thankfully she sent out a detailed step by step after my email so I bet others were asking. I was still not totally following until I read it outload to Brian asking if he understood and then finally I could figure it out. Does anyone else struggle to understand something and then you read it outloud to someone and go OOOHHH I get it?
So I worked on my group project a bit, hoping I am doing these steps correctly now. I can’t wait until we turn in this project next week so we are done, but then we quickly need to start the next project due in April. I basically have 40 days of school left for this semester. It has gone by fast in some ways as the workload has been lighter so I can enjoy more time with Brian.
Honestly, my weekend is not too out of the ordinary since I don’t go many places. The only struggle is no gym, but making the best of it trying new workouts at home. My yoga room is coming in handy now so maybe I will actually get more flexible in this time at home and playing around with poses.
Alright so this post is super long, but that’s what is happening with me right now. I hope to check into the blog more as I am trying to write more and journal. In this weird time I want to remember all the things happening.
