We are back in the office this week,

Same with JZ. She's now back in the office two full days a week (Mon, Thurs). She wasn't happy about commuting this morning.

I don't know what's going to happen with mask mandates in the schools soon. OTOH, the district and board have done everything they can to stall shit to the end of the year when they can. OTOH, the recall was driven by pissed parents who were furious about the schools being closed all of last year.

I'm not even sure how I feel about it now. It'll feel weird going into places without a mask. I had just gotten that idea into my head after being full vaxxed last summer but now that Omicron has breakthroughs I'm not sure what to think.

Well, except, I personally have had Omicron and my anitbodies are golden for a month or two.

But it seems inevitable that JZ and Matilda will get Omicron at this point. But maybe not. Maybe the surge will fade and roll away.

Three days a week (Tues-Thurs) for us. I really can't complain about my commute, it's still very short and easy compared to most people's, but compared to rolling out of bed and stumbling to the living room to open my laptop it is daunting.

I know that odds are that if I did catch omicron or whatever at this point it should be pretty mild but I don't want to count on that. I'm usually pretty cavalier about my health but I'm on the paranoid side still with this.

Well, I'm moved into our new office. It kinda sucks. We have these tiny cubicles ... but since most people are still working from home it's less of an issue. We have one electrical outlet at each of our desks ... the other outlet is dedicated to iPhone/iPad/iWhatever charging, so I brought my powerstrip over from the old office and now have this tangle of cords on top of my desk. Of course, there's nothing in the office to corral them with. The lights are set so that if I go without moving too long (now up to TEN MINUTES), the overhead lights go dim and then out completely. We don't have printers or copiers, so hard copies aren't an option. I'm right outside my boss's office and he plays music all the time - loudly enough that I have trouble hearing phone calls; he, of course, objected the one time I played some music loudly enough to blunt some of the effect of his music. Our icemaker doesn't work, the microwave has no instructions and only seems to work in one-minute increments - press "1" and it runs for one minute; press "3" and it runs for three minutes. And I'm pretty sure I'm allergic to something - I've had a splitting headache every day I've worked full-time here.

sigh ... I'm thinking longingly of retirement, but I like having food and an apartment ....

I have to fly in and out of Dallas for a one day meeting, and I'm not super psyched, but I feel sanguine enough to go. Pissed that they changed it from 8:30a to 11a, though. I could have flown in in the morning, but now the fare has jumped enough that even if AA didn't charge the change fee, it's still cheaper to stay Thurs. night at the hotel. And it's for the NP I work for, so... I'll suck it up.

Today is Day 1 of no indoor mask mandate at work and even though there was language like “I urge all employees who have chosen not to be vaccinated to continue wearing face masks to protect your coworkers.” the one employee in my building I have seen moving about without a mask is unvaccinated.

Can you keep a big can of Lysol in your desk and spray the area (or just them) with it whenever they walk by?

I just found out that the @ $300 billing statement I asked for to balance my account with my psychiatrist and therapist turned out to be a $1000 billing statement instead. Still worth the price, but a lot more than I'd planned on paying out this month. This is shaping up to be a very Monday-ish Monday.

Meep, Matt, that's a big difference!

Ugh, Toddson, that all sounds very unpleasant.

To make things complete (for Monday), I have three Zoom calls scheduled for this week. Two of them, I have to draft the notes for. The one this afternoon, I had the person right behind me unpacking her office while her new computer (the old one having died) was set up, so there was a lot of noise (ripping open the boxes, unpacking, arranging. I was supposed to set up the computer, but there were NO cords that would work with the thing ... the issue with changing computer brands while still using the old brand (we went from Dell to ... who knows). There was no power cord, no compatible docking station, no ethernet port in either the computer or any of the available docking stations, no way to connect a full-size keyboard or monitor.

OMG, Todd, I'm so frustrated just reading all that!

We've been back in the office FT since June. I take a day to WFH here and there for appointments or days where I'm *kinda* sick, but not so sick I can't work at all. For a miracle, I've managed not to get Covid yet. *knock wood*

I went in to the counseling services office to pay off my balance, where the receptionist told me I only owed $328. We checked with the accounting rep I spoke to earlier today and she somehow subtracted $135 from $1030 and got $675 rather than the $895 I expected to pay, to which I said "good enough, here's a new check."

JZ, let's trust that the tuxedo kitties of Ukraine are headbutting their little hearts out right now. Sweet decent things are ultimately what people fight for after all.