We got word today from our headquarters back east that we are to work from home exclusively starting Monday..... We kind of knew this was going to happen, so I already arranged with my boss that I could still go in to the office. Luckily, he's going to be going in as well, so I'm going to mirror his schedule and work from home Mondays and Fridays. There are certain things I do at the office that I cannot do from home, plus my boss is still on crutches, so I help him to/from his car and stuff.

I've been noticing lately that one of my team at work is really starting to be affected by the pandemic and it's fiscal impact. Each day they're more on edge than the day before. They've been ranting more than usual about how it's all the democrats' fault and how they hate America, blah, blah, blah. He's a staunch libertarian who's afraid all that is his is going to be taken away by the democrats. I sit kind of near him, so I usually just go "uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh, really, wow" and ignore him (he knows he's insulting me every time he does it and has no fucks to give, so I just don't react). Well, he went off today and I was the closest person he thought he could do it to. Since I'm a really reactive person, I gave it right back to him. Don't go apeshit on me for no reason and expect me to take it without fighting back.

Afterward, to everyone else I had to pretend that everything was fine, even though I'm sure they all (all 6 of the people who were actually in the office) heard me slam the door and us yelling at each other. I tried waiting for him to cool down and being the bigger person by offering to help him with a computer problem he was having, but that just started another rant against just about everything I believe in (he likes to make it REALLY personal, but don't you DARE do that to him, not that I would) and he got mad all over again. I'm exhausted from it. Sad part is, I know exactly what he's having trouble with on his computer and I can help him fairly quickly, but he won't have it.

I think the worst part of it for him was, later on, I had to give him something valuable he'd left in the office by mistake the day before that he'd called me right after he left and had me lock up for him. Kind of like when you storm out of a room and slam the door and have to go back in to get your keys or purse..... The worst part for me is, he's never going to apologize. If anything he'll either be mad for days and pretend nothing happened or he will just pretend nothing happened. In his mind, it's all my fault. He's done it before.

Maybe I SHOULD work from home every day, if anything to avoid all of this bullshit.

It makes me really sad, even more anxious and overwhelmingly stressed. I can tell I'm not going to get much sleep tonight.

This is the new normal everyone is talking about?

Thank goodness this week is over, IT'S FRIDAY!!! A challenging, heartbreaking, stressful and very long week has, at last, come to a close. I'm hoping I can finally get some quality sleep, it's been a while.

As of earlier this afternoon, I can finally fully access my computer at work from home. For the past few weeks I've only been able to get into a few areas and then had to use a work-around to see my work email. Now I am actually proxying in and seeing my actual computer and everything on it. It's just kind of weird having only one monitor when I see everything, instead of the two I have at the office. I had to rush out of the office and quickly locked my screens and it wasn't until I got home and started setting-up this new configuration that I saw I'd left some windows open on the desktop! Again, so weird! Now that I have that dialed-in, I need to make sure I don't work while I'm on my own time.

It's only a little after 4pm, Self-isolating is still in force, so I can't go out and I don't feel like watching TV or movies or anything so I think I found something dumb to do while I'm listening to an audio book.....

I love infomercials. I don't know why, but I do and I always have. I used to go to the "As Seen On TV" stores, such fun! Most of the stuff out there is probably trash, but sometimes you come across really neat stuff (I'm looking at you Copper Chef pans! Literally, I have them and can see them.). Well, I found a website that has thousands of "As Seen on TV" stuff to look through and it looks like most, if not all, have commercials to watch. YAY! Arctic Hat! Easy Feet!

I know, it's stupid and a waste of time, but hey, I need a little mindless activity in my life right now. At least, for a little while. If I can stop my cat from knocking my mechanical pencil off the table.

Okay, the site does NOT have thousands of items, as it stated. I'm kind of disappointed. Oh well, there are plenty of other places on the intrawebs to look for silly things.

Crazy day. So many client calls.

I don't know why everyone decided reach out at once. It was not an exceptional day in regards to my industry. I couldn't leave my desk for over three and a half hours! We have a few clients in their 90's and I love helping and talking to them. Odd they chose today... Once the phones quieted down, and since I was basically alone at my end of the office, I started playing Talking Heads - Sand in the Vaseline" (greatest hits cd set). My boss hobbled out of his office on his crutches as I was sort of signing along to Psycho Killer. He laughed at me!

I was glad when the work day was over. I think the anxiety (and not being able to show it at work) and stress is getting to me. I'm sporadically sleep walking, which I haven't done in a long time! Sleep quality has kinda sucked too. I wake up tired. Things are going to get better though, I have to keep repeating that!

On to other things....

I mentioned earlier that, as my friend didn't need a grocery delivery when the spots opened-up, I decided to use one for myself. I didn't have anything I "needed" to get, so it's really just trying it out.

This is so surreal! I got a text saying that my shopper has entered the store and has started shopping for me (fancy!). They will text me if anything is out of stock or if limitations mean I am unable to get the quantity I'd bought. So far, most of the meat items have been replaced, but I'm not sure what with. The texts just say "**** replaced: Angus stew meat". I guess the pork butt roast is totally out of stock, so they asked if I would like ribs, chops or tenderloin instead. "Boneless pork chops, please". Their text sounded so sad when they'd said they have bones... "Bone-in chops are ok!" They use a lot of exclamation points in the texts to me, so I find I am too "Great!". (Chops should work, I'm going to make a salsa verde pork dish to take in to work, so the few of us that are going in every day can have soft tacos and take extra home.)

Now the broccoli florets have been replaced... I'm concerned, I mean, what they could replace those with? Unless it's a different brand? I hope they don't give me any with a butter or cheesy sauce or anything, I'm cooking with them.

More replacement texts! Very mysterious! It will be interesting to see what I get and how different the total cost is going to be versus what I already paid.

This is so weird.

Okay, they are done shopping for me and the items with be carefully handled and kept in a temperature controlled place until delivery. The driver will be next to contact me.

Driver just sent a text, they are on the way and should be here in the next 15 mins or less. Exciting! The supermarket is less than a 5 minutes drive, so I bet they'll get here quickly.

Oh my gosh, they got here so fast!

Looks like all the stuff that they replaced was with something comparable in price and description. One thing to remember, if you order a pork butt roast and they replace it with pork chops, you are going to get roughly the same weight and cost in chops as the roast. I think I'm going to be taking a few to work for people to freeze and use! The total came out to be a little more than on my original order, but that may be down to taxes and slight price differences.

Overall, I think I'd use the service again while we're still in this awful situation. As long as my coupon savings or promo codes will equal or beat the delivery price (which it did this time). The people we very nice and did a great job. It's helping employ people and it keeps me from crowding-up the market. If you use a service like this, please remember to tip generously, if you can!!!

Now I need to eat dinner. Maybe some of the pancakes I made a froze on Monday...……….

Oops, one last thing. If you have the means to do so, please consider donating to local businesses. If you're here in LA, Largo is having a benefit for their staff (date to be announced). I got a ticket and would love to see a full house there. Also, the legendary and historic Troubadour has a Go Fund Me Page. They just sent this out:


By now you know that we have had to shut our doors indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This means that we have not been able to operate as usual and our wonderful staff has not been able to work. We are a small, independently-owned, venue and have an hourly staff of over 20 people. Our team consists of bartenders, security, sound and lighting engineers and box office personnel. These are the people welcoming you into the venue and bringing you great experiences inside the showroom.

We are reaching out to our community for support and are asking you to please donate if you can. If you are unable to donate at this time, please share our GoFundMe link. Anything helps! 100% of the donations will go towards helping our staff.

We love sharing our stage and creating memories with you, we look forward to continuing to do so in the future! Until then, please stay safe and healthy.

From,
Your Troubadour Family

To donate: https://www.gofundme.com/f/troubadour-employee-relief-fund

Have I said on here lately how grateful I am to have a job and an office to go to? Seriously. My job may be really high-stress and not much fun sometimes, but I am so appreciative that I have a job. I can't put it into words properly.

These are such deeply unsettling times. No one knows how long the virus will run unchecked or how many lives will be lost. Our govt. seems more interested in spreading propaganda and downright lies than it is in trying to figure out the best way to handle this and protect people. Did you see that Mitch is saying the govt. was distracted by the impeachment and that's why it didn't focus on the virus? Are you fucking kidding me? How dare he? I swear, I am going to learn how to, then dance a jig WHEN (not if) that asshole loses his re-election. In fact, MY CAT will join in and dance a jig himself when it happens, because even though he's an asshole himself, he won't tolerate that level of assholedness! I just hope that GOP doesn't try and use the current crisis to delay the election in November. That. Can't. Happen.

Unemployment is skyrocketing and, let's be honest, there really aren't any jobs out there for me should I lose the one I have. Apart from delivery services and the like, everything else has dried-up. While I would do any job, what chance do I actually have at getting one of those jobs? The job market is flooded with better qualified people than this middle-aged woman with no experience.

At home, I only have the news on when I'm getting ready for work at 4am, but at work it's on all day. You can't escape it. It's only when I get home in the afternoon that I have some peace... but after a day filled with bad news, it's hard to turn it all off mentally. Even when I try and distract myself.

It's a scary time. My parents are an 8-hour drive away and are considered vulnerable. Even if I were to go to where they are, I'd have to be quarantined for two weeks before I could see them for fear of getting them sick in case I somehow get it and turn into a carrier. I only have one other semi-close family member near me and I haven't heard from them once. I sent a text today, we'll see if I hear back.

I always try really hard to be positive and not let all of this horror (or any other bad stuff) get to me, but sometimes, like today, it does. It really does.

Things WILL get better they have to.

Sooooo, this weekend was kind of a waste. I got very little done. I mean, I got SOME stuff done... cleaned the bathroom and kitchen and finally broke down the carboard boxes I had in the hallway and took then out to the trash, but I didn't get anywhere near as much done as I'd hoped. Other than that, I slept a lot, watched Forensic Files, Cold Case Files (on Pluto) and the last few episodes of Nora from Queens (on Sling) that I hadn't watched yet, re-watched some old Real Housewives episodes and What We Do in the Shadows.

Man, I also snacked WAY too much. Seriously, I was cramming pretzels and kettle corn into my face whenever I could. I wasn't even hungry! I'm a lazy snacker!

Surprisingly, I was able to get a delivery from the local supermarket scheduled for later this week. Luckily, I don't need anything that you have to actually go into the store for (yet). I was shocked I was able to get it done, as I'd been checking for a friend for the past 10 days and no time slots were open. Forget about Amazon Fresh and Amazon/Whole Foods though, there are no deliveries in my neighborhood at all! I guess I could go to the store, but I'm sure everybody involved (including me) would rather have one less person who doesn't need to be there taking-up valuable space.

Stupid thing - Thinking about it, I think I was in pajamas all weekend, even though I changed out of PJ's and into lounge clothes each morning. To be honest though, that felt kinda like going from nighttime pajamas into daytime pajamas. I wish I could go to work in daytime pajamas!

It's Sunday afternoon and since I've been home since mid-day Friday, I managed to complete most of my usual weekly Sunday "Me Time" routine a bit early. Now all I need to do get the last few things together to take in to work with me tomorrow, fix dinner and maybe read for a while.

My cat can't wait to have his apartment back to himself!

This is probably going to be a really long and boring post. We ARE in a pandemic after all. What else am I going to do on a Friday afternoon while stuck at home?

We're over a week into the pandemic "lockdown" here in California. As I've mentioned before, I'm considered to work in an "essential business", so I continue to drive into work each day. Our home office even gave us two memos to print out and keep with us in case we get stopped and questioned about why we are out and not isolating in our homes. I guess they don't realize that law enforcement here has WAY better things to do than stop cars driving into downtown before 5am..... at least that's how it is right now.

I'm worried that people aren't taking this seriously. Freeway traffic is markedly lighter, but street traffic on my way home is the same as it was before and I see loads of people out and about. Looking out the window right now, I see heavier traffic than usual driving up and down the street, as well as four people walking in a tight group down my street. It looks like a normal day.

You might be asking "well, what about you? You're out and doing your regular routine!". Fortunately, my regular routine entails very little contact with people close-up. I leave for work very early, before most are even awake. I get to my building and wave good morning to the parking garage attendant without rolling down my window. I don't see anyone as I take the elevator up to the buildings' lobby to take the next elevator up to our floor. Once in my office, I go to my desk. Currently, the occupants of the two offices closest to me are working from home and the person working at the desk closest to me (10 feet away) works from home a couple days a week and we are faced in the opposite direction to each other. There are only about 6 or 7 of us in the office and we are very spread out. The closest I come to anyone is my boss. Unfortunately, he's on crutches right now, so I help him from his car up to the office (and back again) and if he has to go to the restroom I walk him down and wait to walk him back (kinda hard to open doors when you're on crutches). Don't project anything dirty into it! It's the human thing to do! I'll admit, it IS kinda weird to stand outside a restroom door and wait to hear someone wash their hands before opening the door (facing the hallway) and holding it open with my foot extended backward. HA!

Other than that, I'm at home. I've already mentioned that I bought a new laptop and stuff and am now able to access most essential work programs from home if I have to, but it hasn't come to that. Our company has said that if we don't feel comfortable, we can work from home, but at this point, I'm more productive at the office.

I feel for everyone that's struggling right now. My hairdresser isn't allowed to work, so I offered to pre-pay her for my next appointment. I was supposed to go in tomorrow, so I was prepared to pay her then anyway. I've made a couple of local donations as well, but I know it's not enough. I hope people who need assistance get it quickly. The bill that the government just passed today is nowhere near good enough, but at least it's something to start with. I'm worried. Really worried. We just started this journey and things got bad so fast!

I'll repeat this to my friends and acquaintances, if you need anything, let me know. As long as I know you, the offer is open. I may not have what you need (I'll try to get it!) or I may not have a lot, but what I DO have, I will gladly share with you.

I really hope this situation is giving people pause and showing them that little issues and problems don't mean anything. We need to come together and help support each other. I've reached out to people I haven't spoken to in a while to make sure they are okay. I've heard back from most of them. Hopefully, I'll hear back from the one or two that haven't emailed me back, if anything to let me know they're okay. Unless they really hate me, then I guess they won't. One friend I reached out to was one I'd been slowly backing away from for over a year.... she said was low on toilet paper and I offered her what I could and went in search of packages for her (she lives out by the beach, where there aren't a lot of supermarkets). She's good now. A co-worker in another office that's medically vulnerable and has small children needed a couple of sundry items. A friend and co-worker in Little Rock was worried about being able to get needed items for her 92 year-old mother in-law... You gotta ask people, sometimes they don't want to ask you or mention it. I can't tell you how many text messages I've sent that ended with "Are you okay for toilet paper?". I mean, don't get me wrong, I don't have a huge hoard of it or anything, but I can get-up early and stand in a line and I'm happy to do it! No toilet paper at the store, and I have to get you wipes? Then that's what I'll do!

You know, thinking on it, I can honestly say that there are only two people I personally know on this planet I would refuse to help, and they are old horribly abusive bosses I had that are multi-millionaire assholes.

Other than those two, you are in my heart and I'm here to help however I can.

I'll probably write more later this weekend since I'm stuck at home. I promise it will be more upbeat! Maybe I'll binge-watch Parks and Rec or Community or something.

Oh yeah, if you have kids or like listening to young adult books, Audible has made a ton of audiobooks free to listen to as long as schools are closed at:

stories.audible.com

I think they have books available in 6 different languages.

Stay safe and healthy everyone!

Happy birthday CBLMW, I know I already wished you an early Happy Birthday in an email, but I wanted to do it here as well. This next year is going hold many good things for you. You are a good person who does a lot of good things, so you deserve it.

The state of the world is grim right now and I hope everyone is safe and healthy. My job/industry fall under the umbrella of “essential business”, so I’m going into the office as usual during the day, and just hanging around at home the rest of the time. Traffic has been nonexistent, which is really nice. One of the few nice things that’s happened lately!

For those of you that know them, my parents are doing okay. The area they live in isn’t experiencing the same level of shortages we are here when it comes to food and some other essentials. They’ll be good!

For now, I’m conserving my food supplies by getting take-out for dinner every couple of days. Hopefully, if enough people do this, it will help keep those business afloat!

I was walking home from getting a pizza the other day (again you gotta support your local small restaurants!!!) and saw a CA for Biden sign” affixed to the inside of an office window (facing out). That made me feel good. There are a lot of conservatives here, so it gives me a little hope for November.

I hope everyone out there is safe and healthy. If you’re a friend of mine and need anything, please reach out to me and I’ll share whatever I can or I’ll try and find what you need. I don’t have a huge store of anything, but I will help my friends! As of now, Gotham and I are okay and should have what we need. As a precaution, we’ve got an order of his prescription food due to be delivered within the next week.

Please be safe and PLEASE check on any older or vulnerable people around you!!!

Talk soon,

Robin