Six Months of Working From Home

Today marks the twenty-sixth week of Work from Home for me, and I still can’t believe it’s been this long. When we got the notification on March 22 (Sunday night) that we would be transitioning to WFH the next day, I assumed it wouldn’t be for very long. I’d even left things at my office with the expectation that I’d be back by May at the latest.

I ended up going to the office mid-April to pick up some things that I’d left behind, because it was beginning to become apparent that we would be in this for the long haul. Still, I moved my expectations to “Well, maybe we’ll be back by July.”

It is now September 14, six months later, and I have been into the office only three times since leaving on March 20: twice for supplies, and once for a half-day (just in August). Our company stopped our “return to work” phases back in July when cases began spiking again, and as of now we have no idea when things are going to get back to normal.

It’s been a very interesting six months.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons launched on March 20, two days before we received the official “Y’all are going to be working from home until further notice” message. I have since put over 400 hours into the game. In the beginning, all of my downtime was focused on Animal Crossing. In fact, I spent so much time on the game in March, April, and May that I ended up burning myself out. I haven’t done much in-game since July, only playing for a few minutes a day, while I used to be on it for 5+ hours a day.

In the beginning, I thought I could clean my house and then keep it clean, because I’d be sitting at home anyway, so why not use some of my downtime to keep it clean? That lasted all of about two weeks before the spotless and completely organized house was back to the way it was before I’d even touched it.

I thought I could catch up on my TBR list and possibly revive my blog, but turns out the pandemic isn’t very conducive to reading or being creative in general. As with cleaning, I started out strong (reading a book a day or so), but that soon fell off because I felt like reading anything was too exhausting.

I thought I could finally pick up my sewing machine (which has lain dormant for about two years at this point) and teach myself how to sew, but turns out after I sat at my desk all day for work, I didn’t want to sit at my desk all night to work on sewing projects.

The one good/productive thing that has come out of quarantine/working from home is that I have been able to finish all of the paper flowers for my wedding. I am sitting at 519 currently, with only 7 left to go (which will be the boutonnieres for Steven, the groomsmen, and our dads). Steven and I were talking the other day, and we both agreed that if I was not able to do the majority of the work during my downtime in the work day (cutting and curling only; I saved all the hot-gluing for after work since that’s not something you can easily put down), it would have been a nightmare to try and make all of these paper flowers, since I would be constrained to weekends only. I probably would have ended up hating the decision to make these flowers and would have instead scrapped all plans and gone to buying silk flowers at Michael’s or Hobby Lobby.

My cat has also had to make a huge transition. At the start of WFH, she was in my lap or next to my computer all day, because she’s clingy anyway and thought this was the best thing ever. By week three, you could tell she was tired of me being home because she just laid on the bed all day and didn’t even move when I got up to go to the kitchen or the living room for something. She’s since switched between constantly being in my way and avoiding me for weeks at a time.

Kiki has also been having a hard time lately because we moved the Unsinkable Molly Brown (my fiancé’s cat) in on September 4th, which was a decision we made since we’re both still working from home and can help facilitate the cats getting along together. We wanted them to be friends before the wedding/honeymoon, so that they can already be living together and we don’t have to worry about trying to get the cats to get along while setting up our life together. Steven comes over during the day and works in my office (where we set Molly up and double baby-gated her in) while I work at my kitchen table and calm Kiki down. We recently started letting Molly out during the day and we no longer keep her locked up at night, and I think they’re getting along much better now! Kiki still has her moments, but Molly doesn’t mind her so much because she’s figured out she’s bigger than Kiki and can take her out if need be. I’ll write another post about Molly later (including how she got her name!).

The last six months have been incredibly weird. I’m so glad that I have a job that allows me to work from home, and that I have the ability to do so. What I miss the most about my office is my dual monitor setup: at home, I just have my 2012 13-inch Macbook Pro that got me through college and graduate school. I’ve used my computer more in the past six months than I have since I finished my MA. It’s been weird. (But I spend all day on the computer at work, so I guess it’s not too weird to want to come home and not spend time staring at another computer screen.)

I hope that all of you are still doing well, and that if you’re working on the front lines (whether as a medical worker or a retail worker), that you’re able to stay safe. I’m praying that this pandemic will be over soon, but I know it’s going to take a lot more effort from everyone to bring about even the beginning of the end.

Are you working from home, and if so how are you handling it? Do you have any good recommendations for books to get me out of my quarantine reading slump? Let me know in the comments!

And as always, keep reading.