The Ice Storm Days
I haven’t left the house in five days. For some folks, I know that can conjure feelings of claustrophobia. Feeling stuck or trapped or hemmed in. But as I sit in my home, watching the thin snow solidify into a dangerously slick pack of ice, I’m feeling grateful for this pause. If you’ve read my more recent posts, then you know 2023 was a rather trying year for us. There were a lot ups and downs, with very high highs and the lowest of lows. And I’ll be honest – this is my first year in a LONG time where I didn’t have at least a week off at the holidays. With both Christmas and New Years falling on my normal weekend, I was feeling more than a little toasty rolling into 2024. But, this arctic storm has brought a sort of relief. Five unexpected and uninterrupted days off. I’ve…
On Office Space (No, Not the Movie)
Let’s talk about office spaces. Home offices, in particular. I talked a bit about this on my various social media accounts, but I’ve thought about it more and figured I ought to put it all down in one place. For a lot of us, the pandemic made it painfully clear that our work-from-home setups were not ideal. We were not prepared. I felt that way and I was admittedly more prepared than most thanks to my writing habit. I had a desk and a laptop and all the equipment needed to run a Zoom call. And all of that was even in a room dedicated to the purpose. With a door and everything! My office is one of our two spare bedrooms (we have a three bedroom house and no children, so we both get offices!) and in the early days of homeownership, I had the brilliant idea to convert…