About 3 1/2 months ago (mid-March 2020) CO19 happened and turned my world inside out and upside down.
To try and sort everything out, I blogged about the unfolding of these unusual events in My Current Situation: My current situation…
Here’s where I’m at today: during the first 10 weeks of Covid 19 me and my fellow Account Executives in the News 8 local sales department were asked to work 100% of the time from home on our laptop computers. Daily zoom sales meetings and zoom calls with our clients and prospective clients became the the new norm. To make it work at home, my dining room quickly became my new office, the table now completely covered with client files and client notebooks. Lucky for me I already owned a computer desk and office chair and now it was finally getting full use. At the office I was used to working off of dual monitors so to simulate this I connected my Dell home computer monitor to my HP work computer and as luck would have it, they were compatible (smile).
When Week 11arrived we Account Executives were told we were heading back to work but in a checkerboard fashion. Meaning that we were to be split into two teams. Team A would go into work the first week back on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and work from home on Tuesday and Thursday and Team B would do the complete opposite. In this way only half the staff would be in the office on any given day. We still were not sure how long this new arrangement would go on but as it turned out for me it worked out just fine (smile). I’m happy because I get the best of both worlds: a break from the monotony of working from home 100 percent of the time and the chance to get out of the house, work in my familiar cubicle and connect face to face with my co-workers (smile).
I’m not gonna lie: Being back in my cubicle was strange that first week back because in this new Covid world we now had to wear face masks and practice social distancing. No more water cooler chit chat (smile). Plus we did not have access to certain areas or departments in the TV station as they were now considered off limits…
And sanitizer seemed to be everywhere so my hands felt like they were in a perpetual state of dryness.
But the best part of week 11 was that we entered phase II of back to normalcy in the state of Connecticut. In this phase Hair and Nail Salons were now allowed to open back up. Yay! Finally some relief for my neglected head of hair and bitten down nails.
Also my gym I love kickboxing opened back up – so I had to quickly get used to working out real hard again (smile).
During phase II I was also able to go back to my favorite dentist in North Haven to get my teeth cleaned.
But phase II did not include vacations (at least not in our world). Vacations for now were a distant memory…we are not looking to fly anywhere for a long while nor were we even remotely interested in taking super long car trips so Staycations in Connecticut were going to become our new option.
Here’s what I think: suddenly in this CO19 world the little things that we used to take for granted have become big things…spending quality time with family members, heading to a performance at a live theater or concert hall, meeting up with my girlfriends for dinner, etc.
But despite everything I still commit to remaining positive, optimistic and focused as we are truly all in this together. And because of that, I choose to wear my mask in public.
