Aaaaaahaaaaaaaa…I have discovered a HUGE benefit of working from home. I caught a cold and, rather than have to go into an office and infect everyone else because I get an infinetessimally small number of sick days…and listen to everyone gripe and complain, I sleep in a little bit and get to sit here in my quarantine bubble (AKA my office) and not bother anyone.

Usually I do my blog after lunch but had a few spare minutes and thought I’d do it now before my afternoon of activity begins, because I’ll actually be quite busy.

For anyone keeping track…Good Days Working at Home – 4; Bad Days Working at Home – zero. Let’s keep the trend going!

I’ll begin by saying that I had a crown put on yesterday afternoon; or rather, I had my tooth drilled and a temporary crown put on. The permanent crown is put on in a few weeks. For anyone who has ever thought about neglecting his/her dental hygiene…DON’T DO IT!! I had to have a crown put on because, surprise surprise, I grind my teeth at night to the point where after 32 years, I have started cracking my teeth. My advice? Yoga…exercise…bubble baths…competitive archery…go on Survivor…do whatever you can do (if possible) to reduce the stress in your life because, it ain’t worth it…even with nitrous oxide.

I feel like one of those “The More You Know” public service announcements on NBC.

The upside…hopefully no root canal…the other upside, in keeping with the theme of the blog…is that I can sit here at home doped up on various pain medications and still get some work done and not have to talk to anyone or pretend like I feel great. :)

The desk and chair were delivered yesterday and my dear, wonderful husband put the desk together while I was Vicodin’d out on the couch (I have a vague recollection of Everybody Loves Raymond and something about meatballs…). The office is starting to take shape. I need to figure out what to put on the walls…white board? Bulletin board? Politically incorrect calendars of scantily clad men? I will need t give that further thought.

Is it common of new “virtual office” workers to start losing track of what day it is? I remember a few years ago I had bronchitis and was stuck at home for a week…and that was back when Starz! showed the same movie at the same time every day. I watched Good Will Hunting every day at 11 a.m. for five days and started to lose track of the days of the week…that’s kind of where I am right now. If someone can tell me what reality shows are on tonight though, that helps to get me back in sync with the universe.

I just checked with one of my friends and The Bachelor is on tonight so that would…make…it…Wednesday.

Whew. Now that I’m back on track…I need to get back to work.

Well…I’ve made it through 1.5 days of working from my new “home office.” I use quotes around the home office part because it’s a work in progress. We threw the doggies out of their room and moved the guest room furniture in there to create what we’re affectionately calling “Stacy’s Kennel.” The dogs have theirs to keep them out of trouble and now I have mine…except it’s scaled to my size. My new desk and chair should come today so then I won’t have to sit on the floor anymore.

It’s different having all of my work communication primarily via email and instant messenger…with the occasional phone call, but with me being so antisocial (LOL!) it’s actually quite refreshing.

Upsides so far of working from home…flexible hours, the ability to go to the gym in the a.m. and still get to “work” at 7:30 a.m., buying a cool new notebook computer…and not being at my old job…LOL! Throwing in a load of laundry at lunch is fun too! (Did I just say that??)

Downsides so far…no desk & no chair although those downsides will be remedied as soon as the Office Depot truck shows up today. Being here at home all day is a little isolating but I have enough potential lunch dates and email friends to make the time go fairly quickly without feeling like I’m in a vacuum. Then again, I could be climbing the walls in two weeks so we’ll have to see.

Oh yeah…another downside…MY LOUD, BARKING DOGS. I swear, they drove me NUTS yesterday…so nuts that we went to Petsmart and bought the PetSafe Ultrasonic Bark Control apparatus. It’s really working on Daisy…she’s been a dream but you can tell she hates the sound because she’ll run under the bed when she hears it. Cookie…well, to be honest I think she’s managing to ignore it. Then again, it’s only been a few hours but the house has been MUCH quieter today. The real test? When all the kiddies get out of school and are walking home…that’s PRIME dog freak-out time!

So far I am enjoying this but am aware of potential pitfalls and am either trying to take care of them before they happen or have good contingency plans & what I call “isolation busters” so my husband doesn’t come home one day and find me sitting in a rocking chair, catatonic & staring out the window.

Recap for Monday, April 19

For me, there were only two reality shows on…The Restaurant and Family Plots. Now, I have a relative-by-marriage who is involved in the funeral home industry (field? occupation? seems too…odd to be called an industry) so I really had no interest in watching it. After reading other recaps on the show at other websites…doesn’t sound like I missed much.

So, now on to The Restaurant!

First off, I’ve got to say that I like the hot and sexy Apprentice-ish intro now with cool headshots of the big players and the standard NY skyline shots…I half expected the restaurant to be called “Trump’s 22″ when all was said and done.

I did watch the show the entire last season and caught a few episodes on MSNBC’s (maybe it was CNBC) marathon over the past few days and I was waiting to see what Wacky Wocco would do next! So far, it appears as most of the waitstaff has jumped ship for Queer Eye internships and now we’re stuck with the crabbily unemployed who get stuck at The Restaurant.

Hat Check Girl…I’ve got a problem with her for the sheer fact that they made her a hat check girl after she applied for a hostess position. “Administrative Assistant? But I applied to be Division Manager…that’s my desk? Well…okay…I’ll just sit over here with the toner.” No. Don’t like that one little bit but hey, you can lead a hostess to water but you can’t make her check coats.

We are also introduced to Italian Tony, who apparently whetted Wocco’s whistle during a 10-day trip through Italy…whetted it so much so that they brought him over to…well, that I don’t know…give Mama’s meatballs a run for their money…who knows. What I do know is that they were going to have Italian Tony fly first class but the business card budget caught them a little short so he was back in SkyDeli land with everyone else. {{rimshot}}

American Tony…love the pants, buddy…that’s a sure sign that you’re a real chef and not a reject from Ready, Set, Cook! Am I the only one who was feeling the tension when Wocco knocked him down a few notches in the kitchen? I suppose that I wouldn’t have a problem venting my frustration to the “other owner” if my training was serving no useful purpose but to bring Wocco and Italian Tony plates.

We cannot forget however, the man that is…Evil Partner! No, his name isn’t Tony but wouldn’t that be great? Apparently, this guy has flown under the radar for awhile and was just “getting out of” Wocco’s way so he could run the restaurant however he wanted. Evil Partner, whom I will refer to as “Jeffrey” going forward…to give the restaurant that hoity-toity feel…has come to the Big Apple to find out why Wocco’s is the only restaurant in his food empire that is losing money. I’m guessing business cards may have had something to do with it.

Speaking of hoity-toity, it was great to see Laurent again and even better watching him play both sides of the field. Kiss Wocco’s butt, kiss Jeffrey’s butt…yell at the wait staff and replace all the wood hangers in Coat Check Girl’s Hussein-esque foxhole with wire hangers…bwa ha ha!

The jury is still out on Drew…I’m sorry, but how old is he? He’s an “intern” yet he’s calling an awful lot of shots…but he does have that management look-of-exasperation down pat. I’m thinking part of it was the mob mentality of the “meeting” at the restaurant…I’m curious to see what he’s like when he’s on his own.

Yvonne…Wocco’s girlfriend/model/Italian translator…where did she come from? And why would Wocco tie himself down to one hottie when there are so many chef groupies to be had? They’re EVERYWHERE!

I was really disappointed when Wocco wandered off and pouted instead of being gracious to his staff during the birthday festivities. But then again, when your world is teeny tiny, adversity can take up an awful lot of space.

There’s no “Rocco” in “team”, buddy.

Coming up on the Tuesday recap…American Idol.

There’s something to be said for that mysterious span of time between the words “I have accepted a job with another company” and “Thanks for the goodbye lunch”…and sometimes what occurs during that span is good, sometimes it’s bad…but it continues to amaze me how powerful it is to actually leave a job. All of the “you’ll never do this or that again” such as drive a particular route to work…or get a cup of that hideous coffee…or see certain people you weren’t particularly close to, but will remember…at least for the short term. It’s no wonder that leaving a job is considered one of the most stressful things people have to do.

Of course, the most powerful part of leaving a job is sitting back and taking stock of what you’ve learned and how you’re a vastly different person/employee than you were when you started…hopefully more for the better than the worse.

Today I left a job of two years to begin a new job with folks from my past. These folks from my past have worked with me, trust me, believe in me and, even four or five years removed…still think I’m going to do a good job without a whole lot of question. Flattering? Of course, but it’s always sad when the employer you’re leaving doesn’t share those beliefs but alas…onward and upward!

So this morning, I go through the motions of a requirements meeting, a “farewell” lunch hosted by my closest work friends, one last trip to the car with my personal belongings and finally…the oft-mocked exit interview. My former company’s HR manager has always been an outstanding sounding board for me and I told him so. I was also frank with why I was leaving…and squelched some of the assumptions as to why I was leaving.

Me, being a complete weenie…opted not to go back to my desk after the exit interview but to simply ride off into the sunset with little fanfare because honestly, I have a hard time believing I make an impact on people’s lives and didn’t want to go back to my desk just to (in my opinion) show off that I was leaving and everyone else had to stay. Of course, that wasn’t my intent but in no way did I want to imply that it was…that just ain’t my style.

In two hours of retrospect though, it was rude of me to dismiss everyone else needing closure (even if it was just to simply say “Goodbye” or “Let’s have lunch.”). I wussed out…and I know it, and now I regret it.

But, that’s a story for my therapist…or Dr. Phil.

Even worse, I left my vacation countdown clock behind on my desk. Talk about irony. I think I’m down to 39 days or something like that. That clock got me through the last month and I just left it there.

LOL…guess I couldn’t cut the cord…now I’ll have to go back and get the d&*n clock, in spite of the fact that I said “I’ll never have to go back up to that office again” as I drove out of the parking lot today.

Never should have said that…Murphy’s law. :)