The Pros and Cons to Workin' From Home

Geez, I haven't blogged in forever. I have been super busy with work and travel and boyfriends. Er..boyfriend. But, all is good with me. Wish I could say the same for those who've suffered hurricanes and earthquakes. MSNBC makes me so depressed, especially when dubya opens his mouth. It really makes me literally a sick queasy feeling to my stomach. He is so profoundly embarrassing.

Anyhow, I'm still alive and kicking. I'm working from home for a few months while our office is being finished. Some people think this means I'm in my underwear watching soaps and shopping QVC, I think. I admit, I watch some TV while I'm working, but really, there is so little worth watching on daytime television. Did you know that Tony Danza and Tyra Banks have their own talk shows? I think they had a raffle or something- giving out talk shows one day on
Hollywood Blvd.I can't think which is more pathetic: these shows or the people who actually watch them? I admit, however, that I do watch Martha Stewart's show some days. She's fascinating to me. She has such a calm demeanor even when her guests are tacky and inappropriate...ahem Joan Rivers...I like that she makes celebrities cook with her, because they don't know the first thing about cooking (they don't have to- they have chefs). She makes them knead dough and use a food processor and they're bumbling around and it makes me feel better about my own culinary inadequacies- which aren't THAT bad.

There are pros and cons to working at home. MAJOR PRO: Rolling out of bed in my jammies and walking to the computer to start work. No CTA. No walking for blocks upon blocks in heels and more sleep for the weary. Also, my dog is here and I can let him out now and then for air and poop. CONS: Some days I don't see people, except from those I pass walking my dog. There is not as much human interaction. (Which some days may be a PRO) But I like to feel a part of civilization. Another con is that work is always there. I can see it. I see emails coming through and faxes that need attention when I'm not supposed to be working and I have to fight the urge to leave it and designate time for myself to just be lazy or do domestic chores or something. Sometimes I'd rather do excel spreadsheets that wash dishes though. Yet another con is that my dog is getting used to me being here. When I go back to work, I will be a "bad mother" and he will sulk about it- he's just that way- like a child. It will feel like leaving my baby on the first day of preschool. He won't like it. He'll feel abandoned, and I'll feel like shit.

Working at home, I've also realized how annoying my neighborhood is, during the day. There is constant construction going on. Many days I have had to work while listening to a thousand nails being driven one at a time into wood, concrete being jack hammered, men hollering at each other and all the while knowing that my car is being covered with more and more dirt with every passing minute. Also, when my neighbor upstairs leaves, her four month old Norwegian elk hound barks incessantly until she returns. UNTIL SHE RETURNS. bark, bark, bark, bark, bark, bark, bark, bark.....on and on and on. I have secretly fantasized about ways to tranquilize him- isn't that awful?

I have also taken more time to ponder about the daily lives of my neighbors. I've decided that there's a homeless man who lives in the house at the end of the block. Seems improbable, homeless but has a home, I know. But this man permanently lives on the steps of this family (his own?) and eats and drinks beer there everyday and sometimes goes through the trash of the house in the alley, but he’s like part of the three generation family that lives there. He’s a permanent part of the landscape. He’s friendly. He doesn’t appear to be mentally ill, but I guess many people who are mentally ill don’t appear that way. He smiles at me when I’m walking Mars, and sometimes even pets him. He seems to have need for an extreme dental makeover. And the house is next to a Starbucks. It’s crazy.

well...okay, time to get back to wo...hey, the Weather Channel...