My supervisor Slacked me yesterday with a rather humorous question.
Where do you learn your words?, she wondered. Or are they part of your dialogue?
I wasn’t even sure how to answer that. (Ironic: I was at a loss for words. Ha!). Turns out she had been reviewing an article I submitted earlier and had to Google one of the words. Now, I’m no sesquipedalian (person who likes to use big words) (and I suppose the use of that word constitutes more irony), so I felt bad that I was driving her to the dictionary! I try to make my writing easy to read for all, but I suppose more obscure words occasionally find their way into my articles. In this case, it was “boon,” as in, a thing that is helpful or beneficial.
Or an American pioneer, explorer, and frontiersman.
I told her I’m an avid reader who has been drawn to books my whole life and that I excelled in English classes, but really, a lot of my vocabulary probably came from Stephen King stories.
Ha.
To her credit, she ended her message with #alwayslearning, so it’s not like she was upset with me or anything. She was merely agog.
Err…curious.
Post-COVID Business Opportunities
I’m now midway through my third week working from home.
It’s amazing how quickly we fall into routines. Now, the idea of an actual commute, and sitting at a workstation where there are other people nearby — hell, just wearing something other than sweats — seems so foreign. Don’t even get me started on happy hours in neighborhood bars and eating dinner from an actual plate at an actual table inside an actual restaurant, instead of dishing it out from a cardboard box and scarfing it down from the comfort of a recliner while watching Better Call Saul.
With the way businesses have been adapting to the crisis, maybe once this is all over I should open a restaurant where you do just that: park yourself in front of a TV on a comfy recliner. The dress code would be super relaxed, of course. Sweats or pajamas. I’ll hang a sign on the door. No Shoes, No Shirt? No Problem.
Or maybe I should work for the Croatian Board of Tourism. A blogger and tour guide from Croatia read my last post in which I extolled the virtues of his country without ever setting foot there and asked if he could share it on his blog. Being the type of person to never turn down free publicity, I told him to go for it.
Today, he posted to his blog,
When I was in primary school, our teacher used to say that our country had a shape of a bird spreading its wings. Later on, we used to kid that our country actually has a shape of a croissant – even the first three letters of Croatia and croissant suggest there is a connection (there isn’t). But I never thought I would find this description of the shape of our country: “It kinda looks like an alligator with its jaws open, ready to swallow Bosnia and Herzegovina whole.” Now, I can’t un-think of it when I look at a map.
Ha! Sorry for giving you a whole new visual perspective of your homeland, Dejan. To be fair, I do see the bird, now that you mention it. But I will also never be able to un-see the alligator.
Rollercoaster Rides
Monday and Tuesday, I opened up all the windows in the office house. Enjoyed sunshine-filled walks in shorts and a t-shirt. The weather was glorious.
Today, I had to crank up the heat. Our 74-degree weather has been replaced by blustery 40-degree conditions. And it’s going to snow again this weekend. Possibly a lot.
That’s hardly a surprise at this point, though. I’ve written about our rollercoaster weather far more often than I’ve ridden on actual rollercoasters.
Case in point: the photo on the left was taken Saturday. The one on the right was Monday.
Same backyard, less than 48 hours apart. At least the snow melts quickly this time of year.
Timing is Everything
I’ve been thinking a lot about how fortunate we are to have this great house. One year ago, we were living in a cramped apartment with paper-thin walls. My “desk” was either a TV tray or my lap. I can’t imagine being stuck WFH there for an extended period. I’d have gone stir-crazy by the end of that first week! Even when I was freelancing full-time while living there, I often made it a point to work from a coffee shop instead.
Hell, exactly one year ago, we had just begun our house search. If this had happened then, I highly doubt we’d have been able to buy a home. Real estate is kind of the last thing on people’s minds now.
Two years ago, we were getting ready for our cross-country move. How would THAT have played out in the midst of a global pandemic?!
There’s no getting around the fact that this situation flat-out sucks, and the longer it drags out, the more it’s going to suck.
However, I can’t help but think of silver linings like those mentioned above. I may complain about being stuck in the house now, but at least I’m not stuck in an apartment, or stuck in another state.
Proof that if you search hard enough, you can always find the positives.
Mark My Words 
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