Last Week, This Week: Topsy Turvy, March 16-20

Feeling like the world has gone a bit topsy turvy lately?  Ya, me too. With retirement on a short horizon, I’d been bracing myself for an abrupt change in lifestyle.  However, essentially being confined to home was not what I’d been expecting.

Typically, Last Week This Week is a look back at what I actually wore last Monday thru Friday as long as it was a workday. However, I was working from home last week (and probably for the next several as well) which threw me for a loop. Bear with me until I’ve gotten myself into a routine and have actually put on something other than “hanging out at home” clothes.

There are a number of trending phases related to the current state of affairs. For the subtitle of this post, I could have opted for “a new normal” or “life in free fall” or “social distancing” but instead went with topsy turvy because that’s truly how I’ve been feeling. Besides the anxiety and fear about COVID-19, there is also elation that I didn’t have to suffer with my daily 3 to 4 hour commute to work.

Monday

An automated call to employees woke me at 5am with an announcement that my work location was essential closed and that we were to WFH. Show of hands, did any of you have to look up WFH recently because it was an unfamiliar term until this past week? 🙋‍♀️ Me, I did. That issue aside, the announcement was both a little unexpected but not very surprising.  I had met with my team on Thursday to discuss this possibility and to be sure that all were set up to work from home if needed.   It all seemed even more possible after a meeting with my bosses Friday afternoon at which I could confidently report on my team’s ability to meet its responsibility even if working remotely.

What I hadn’t anticipated was how mentally unprepared I was to WFH. And it was a very blustery day. So no OOTD, just photos of the rain and a peek at my temporary office.

Tuesday

While my team can log into their office computers from home, we hadn’t worked out the details of how to actually “work” with each other if we’re not at the same location. So most of my day was spent texting a few of them to touch base and getting caught up on emails. Still hadn’t fallen into a regular schedule though, so I never changed out of the clothes I wore when I took a walk in the late morning.  The sky was so blue and the clouds were amazing.

Wednesday

I’d started exploring options for teleconferencing, even asked my daughter what program/service the company she works for uses. Then I got a message from one of my staff inviting me to use Microsoft Teams. 🤦‍♀️ duh! There has been a bit of a learning curve to using it but four of us were successful in “meeting” that afternoon. It was good to see their faces again. I got out again for some fresh air and just had to take a photo of the recent dusting of snow that our local mountains had gotten during the storm that passed through on Monday.

Thursday

Showered and dressed because we had an all-hands team teleconferencing meeting. It went well, mostly just making sure all of my staff could connect in and we went over current priorities. Up until this day, staff had not been allowed to re-enter our building. Select personnel was now being allowed to but only to retrieve laptops and/or other work-related materials they needed in order to WFH. I had what I needed except my tripod for my OOTD photos. Besides, it’s a 130-mile round trip drive that I don’t mind not taking. One of my team members did go into to get some work items and grabbed my tripod as well. Now I just need to get it from him. Until then, I must either prevail upon The Husband to take my OOTD photos or figure out another means of doing so.

Friday

I’m still finding myself waking up before 5:30am and uneasy at the idea that I get to sleep a little longer. And I’m not yet settled into a new routine because I keep thinking that we’ll be going back into the office soon. Even so, I got out for another walk (four days in a row if you’re counting), had another Teams meeting, and made progress on a project that comes due soon. No OOTD photo, though.

And there you have it, a look back at what I wore to work last week.  How do you decide what you will wear to work? Let me clarify … unless you’ve declared yourself to be checked out from any type of routine (could that be me?), anything you do during daylight hours (and sometimes nighttime ones as well) whether or not you get paid for it, I consider that to be your “work” and you should/can be dressed accordingly. And even if you are retired, in whatever manner you’ve enjoyed your day is good enough for me.

This last photo was taken on Saturday and the people you see lying on the grass are doing yoga, one of many classes held in this park. I passed them as I was out for my daily walk. Sadly, the group that runs this program will now be doing so only through virtual means for the foreseeable future. 😷 Bug off, COVID-19!

Be well and let’s connect! Subscribe, tweet, follow, friend, love, pin … all options are available and waiting for you. I look forward to hearing from you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~