3 weeks of working from home and having to set up a home office has taught me that when it comes to technology, i have to dig really dip to avoid throwing wires and monitors across the room. Anyone listening to me in my office would've thought they were listening to Andrew Dice Clay stand-up. Not my best moment. However, I figured out how to install a printer/spaceship all by myself. This thing is huge. It scans, faxes, prints, cures AIDS and washes dishes. You don't even need to be near the thing for it to print, you just have to email the document to it and voila- it prints. And there are no buttons on it at all. It's all touch screen. And I figured out how to make it work. Myself.
Same with this giant flat screen monitor that sits next to my laptop, towering over it like a gawky 5th grader. I figured out how to get some screens to appear on the monitor and not on the laptop so I can have several windows open at once. Because who can possibly function with only one window open?? I never even knew this technology existed until this week. And I'm only 38.
Me and the IT guy are good friends by now. Abu (I swear that's his real name) is a lovely, gentle soul with Gandhi-like patience. He says my name so sweetly and has taught me valuable lessons about technology and life. Like, one should always know what operating system they are using and how sometimes the only thing left to do is power the sucker down and start again. Oh Abu- you are a wise Indian man who just laughed softly when I yelled "Goddamnshit!" when I dropped my company iPad face down when trying to figure out how to work the 65,000 apps it came with.
Anyway, I've been home for 3 weeks now and it still feels like I'm on vacation and will be heading back to the hospital soon. My days are fairly structured with a boatload of studying and trying to understand the world of multiple myeloma and proteasome inhibitors so my nerd cravings are being fulfilled. I forgot what it's like to read and study all day. What a luxury. I understand the allure of being a perpetual student. Imagine all you need to do every day is expand your mind and not have to interact with other humans. It's pretty awesome. For now at least. Strange thing is I don't miss the hospital at all. Maybe I was more burned out than I thought. I was definitely ready for a change and here it is.
People have asked me how the kids like me working from home. It was sweet/pitiful to hear HM tell her friends and teachers how excited she was to have mommy work from her house now because that means mommy will be home when she gets dropped off from school and that's never happened before. First-born son just cares about whether or not I'll be able to get him football jerseys from the cities I 'll be travelling to.
And Baby J- well that's a different story. This little nugget baby is a total mamas boy. Even though we have Monica/Jesus Christ Nanny at home, he is quite dependent on his biological mother. I also refer to it as insecure attachment. His baseline personality is Nervous Jew. He startles easily, has bowel issues and gets very anxious when left alone for a nanosecond. So when I leave him in his playroom full of toys and Monicas bosom- he freaks out. What I've learned to do is master the ninja skill of noiselessly tiptoeing to the bathroom. I've even dropped to the ground to avoid his line of vision. He once escaped and crawled his way to my office and when his eyes met mine, the look on his face was priceless. It was like Christopher Columbus discovering America mixed with "you bitch- you've been 7 feet away from me this whole time?!?" He was PISSED.
But even though there are some pitfalls to working from home- I do have to say that I am about 4000 times more productive in seclusion than I ever was surrounded by my peeps at work. Maybe it's because I love to study or maybe it's because my adderall is at a good dose. Whatever the case is, it's working for me. For now.
Passover is next week and there's a stupid amount of cooking and preparing that goes into this dreadful holiday. I would write all the ways I detest this holiday but it would take too long. And I have to go buy another 500 more dollars of food for 2 days.
