Working from home – that’s great, right? Part I = March/April

* Disclaimer: This mini series is only intended as a glimpse into my life, working an office job by day and being an artist by night. Obviously there are a lot of things going on right now in our world (novel coronavirus) and in the US specifically (BLM and election), but my blog is not the place to cover or discuss these topics. It is and will remain my safe place on the net, where I am sharing my art with you. Thank you.

March 17, 2020 – the virus started months earlier and far away from my home.

But this was the day it changed my own ‘personal normal’.

To this day, July 3, 2020, it was the last day that I drove to work in my day job’s office. Later that day I sent my team home, armed with laptops and external monitors. We agreed to stay in ‘close personal’ touch by regular video calls, which at the time were not yet approved by our company and in fact the cameras on our laptops were disabled. Well, that policy was updated in no time, GoToMeeting logins got distributed and – not so magically – cameras started functioning on our laptops. We all went home that day thinking we’d be back in a couple of weeks. It has now been more than three months of working from home with all its pros and cons.

The first month or so of the stay-at-home order was extremely busy. With all the closures and layoffs I considered myself very lucky to be able to continue my day job. 12 hours or more without a real break were the norm, but not sustainable. While I realized that I had (!) to set myself some kind of schedule to avoid burn out, trust me, that is easier said than done. Between all that work and worrying about family and friends in Germany and my team and the horrible daily news and virus updates – it was rough.

Self-preservation kicked in around the same time that my day job work eased off a tiny bit. Almost more importantly the weather started to get warmer and you all know that I am a ‘summer girl’. Soon David and I started to go on short walks around our neighborhood and I took photos of the blooms that slowly started popping up. I spent more time on our small balcony, breakfast, lunch or dinner, and was soaking up as much sun as I could. I even started jiggy-jogging (walk / run) again early mornings before I sat down at my work computer. Not that it makes me loose weight, but it gets me moving and out of the house and makes me happy. Added bonus: I have now finished three fantasy novels by listening to Audible while out-and-about.

But that’s for another post, today I just wanted to share with you what has been happening around here these days and to show you some photos of the blooming flowers from my walks over the past three and a half months in March and April *updated – while compiling the photos for this post I realized just how many photos of different blooms I did take over the weeks. Way too many for one post, so I will split this up into a 2nd post. Stay tuned.

I hope these simple pics will brighten your day a little or as much as they did mine when I took them. Please stay safe and healthy and until next time, with part II.

Never stop seeing the beauty and importance of ‘the little things in life.

3 thoughts on “Working from home – that’s great, right? Part I = March/April”

  1. There’s nothing quite like some spring blooms. Love the photos and hearing from your little corner of the world. It’s definitely been a wild and weird time!

    Reply
  2. Lovely photographs, dear Claudia! In such tough times, you were able to capture the beauty of nature, which luckily wasn’t affected by the virus (or even benefited from it, considering the lower levels of pollution). Stay safe & healthy!

    Reply
  3. Claudia,

    I’m glad to read that you’re well. DH has been working from home since the end of March with no immediate plans to return. His employer is taking it cautiously. It’s going well for him and I love having him around the house all day even if mostly stays in our make shift home office. We surely could use a larger space about now. lol The beautiful flowers you captured on your walks are so cheery. That’s something I missed out on altogether this spring. I hope next year is better than this but we’ll get through this mess hopefully if we play it cool. Stay safe, be well, and have a good week, my dear!

    Reply

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