I went back to the office today.\u00a0 For real.\u00a0 For the full day, and I felt like it was the first day of school after summer vacation.\u00a0 What do I do?\u00a0 What should I wear?\u00a0 And most important, what do I bring to eat?\u00a0 (smile).\u00a0 Armed with a new notebook and pens, and a refreshed and thankful attitude.<\/p>\n
I\u00a0know a lot of people have pretty much been living the same life through this pandemic.\u00a0 Going to work day after day like nothing is different.\u00a0 Not always feeling safe or secure as the pandemic worsened.\u00a0 To those that put themselves on the front lines – thank you.\u00a0I’ve been very sheltered, and very lucky to have been able to work from home all this time.<\/p>\n
Until today.<\/p>\n
Today was the first day I got to come back to the office for the full day.\u00a0\u00a0Not going to lie, it was challenging, but I enjoy being back.\u00a0 For the most part.<\/p>\n
We’re still working in a quiet office.\u00a0 A lot of my co-workers are still working from home.\u00a0 But it was really nice to see a few friendly faces today, and get to work at my old desk – after I cleared a few cobwebs (smile) and did some cleanup.\u00a0 Odd to sit back at the spot I haven’t occupied for a year and a half.<\/p>\n
I think cleaning up the mess helped with the emotional impact this past year and a half has had.\u00a0 I had been coming in on Fridays, and it\u00a0 has been strange to see so many workspaces stuck in time.\u00a0 Even at my desk, for a long time the calendar was stuck on March 2020.\u00a0 As if time stood still and we were all swept away like on some sci-fi movie.<\/p>\n
In so many ways it feels like this pandemic is over.\u00a0 To see people out on the streets and in the parks and on the beach.\u00a0 So many cars on the streets and in the parking lots.<\/p>\n
Gatherings and get togethers happening.\u00a0 More and more businesses open.\u00a0 Patios full.\u00a0 It’s good.<\/p>\n
I feel like finally coming out of hibernation after a very long winter.<\/p>\n
Step by step things are returning to “normal” and it’s going to be different for everyone. We’re getting there.\u00a0 \u00a0Isn’t this where someone wiser than me would offer advice, like “slow and steady wins the race?”<\/p>\n
I don’t know.<\/p>\n
I need a hair cut – though I’ve adjusted to this new “I hope no one sees me today” look.\u00a0 \u00a0I’ve stopped caring about a lot of things this past year and prioritized other things differently.<\/p>\n
It’s good to be back, even if it is still quiet.\u00a0 At least finding a parking spot is still easy.\u00a0 (smile)<\/p>\n
How are you doing?\u00a0 Are you back to work? Back to routine?\u00a0 How are you doing now that school is finally, officially OVER?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I went back to the office today.\u00a0 For real.\u00a0 For the full day, and I felt like it was the first day of school after summer vacation.\u00a0 What do I do?\u00a0 What should I wear?\u00a0 And most important, what do I bring to eat?\u00a0 (smile).\u00a0 Armed with a new notebook and pens, and a refreshed","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":15339,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"featured_img_display":"Yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-afternoons"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-18 21:53:38","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"react_link":"https:\/\/foxfm.com\/blogs\/afternoons\/2021\/07\/the-view-from-here-so-this-is-strange\/","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15338"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15344,"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15338\/revisions\/15344"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}