social calling
I got on FaceTime with Danielle for maybe half an hour last night, as she had texted me her hospital is back down to 25 COVID patients—it was exactly double that a month ago, so that's clearly movement in the right direction. Shobhit asked me something about how Danielle's job is going, and I went to text her to ask if her department is still closed down, and then decided I should just FaceTime her. So then Shobhit and I talked with her on my iPad for a bit, although when Danielle decided to bring Morgan into the conversation because Morgan was also calling (from her bedroom at Patrick's house), I had to move it over to my much smaller iPhone screen because for some reasn incoming FaceTime calls aren't ringing on my iPad, which is very annoying.
Anyway, Danielle is actually permanently moving to the Emergency Department now, apparently, even though Endoscopy is now open again. I guess she has more and better future prospects this way, although she's also still pursuing a job at the VA Hospital. In any event, when it comes to career, things are looking up for Danielle. And then, 5:00 rolled around and Karen called, also on FaceTime.
Oh, shit! In the midst of conversing with Danielle, I completely forgot that due to lunchtime scheduling conflicts, Karen's and my twice-monthly lunchtime call this week had to be rescheduled, to an evening call on Tuesday. Duh. So, I had to hang up with Danielle and switch over to Karen.
This was my first time hanging out virtually with Karen in the evening, and it was kind of different. The lighting change due to it being dark out was one thing, but she also had no work-related calls or distractions—although she certainly had the distraction of Dave assembling a cat scratcher stand that had just arrived in the mail, which he did at the same kitchen table Karen was sitting at to talk to me. I even had a couple of suggestions for them, which they took, and within minutes the thing was all assembled and looking great. It has a sort of slide element to it, which makes it much more accessible for their brand new cat, Kiki, who has mobility issues in her hind legs.
Their old cat, Nora, died, as I recall, in late 2019. They finally decided to get a new cat, and Karen is beyond thrilled. I guess Dave had resisted for a while, but he's also really into building things so he quite predictably threw himself into assembling the cat tower.
It was really nice catching up with Karen as always, and also fun to have Dave slightly part of the conversation for a few minutes as well.
Shobhit had his online Project Management class from 5:30 to 8:00, and Karen and I ended our call at 6:00. This gave me a couple of hours to kind of just hang out on my own until Shobhit's class ended. I updated my budget, listened to an album, browsed social media. Then, after it taking some slight convincing, I got Shobhit to sit down with me to watch Flirting with Disaster on HBO Max, the 1996 David O. Russell film that was Mary Tyler Moore's last high-profile gig. Shobhit's response to it kind of went back and forth: he was open to it and giggling at the start; in the middle he was declaring it "a stupid movie" (which, to be fair, it kind of is); and by the end was laughing quite a bit at its screwball comedy elements. I found a lot of that movie's frenetic pace and tone to be distinctly "nineties," and a little over the top by today's typical standards. A lot of famous actors were in that movie though, and they all gave great performances in what otherwise was kind of limiting material.
And now, I just finished with this week's Office Lunch Meetup on Zoom—our 26th. We had a new person join us this week! Rebekah, the Sound Consumer editor, joined us for the first time. She and Molly, who joined us this week for the fifth time, both had to sign off halfway through the hour, which left just the standards for the rest of the time: Rebecca, Noah and myself. Thus it was just five total this week, actually making it the least we've had in over a month. This ebbs and flows though so it's hardly any surprise there, and I do think moving it to Wednesdays did make it easier for newer people to join every once in a while.
As is often the case, it was just Rebecca and myself to start; since she hosts on Zoom, she's always on early, and I'm consistently the most punctual person after her. We got to talking about what the impact might be of PCC being among the grocers being mandated by the City of Seattle to offer an extra $4 an hour to all store employees for "hazard pay." We all agree that there's no disputing that they deserve it, but for a company of something like 1600 employees for at least the next four months, that's going to be a lot of money. I guess I'm glad my raise came through before this city ordinance was passed!
Anyway I have to get back to work now. This week has been stressful with how much shit just keeps coming my way from countless sources. I do love this job but this week 4:30 every day is a relief.
[posted 1:04 pm]