September 8, 2023

Oh September, September, September you are proving to be a month of endless 21st century style hiccups necessitating a return to the office downtown. Downtown Denver was once upon a time so familar it was just there. Now I drive in the city and it’s a little anxiety provoking because everyone drives so fast and well I don’t. I’ve been to the office exactly 3 times since the March 13, 2020 exit. The first time in June 2020 to pick up my monitors and a docking station. It was apocalyptic. The woman who worked across from me had left her office sweater and a pen on her desk. Like she would be back on Monday and would exchange pleasantries along the line of “Living the Dream…Happy Monday…” the usual corporate banter those of us shackled to the capitalistic machine intone to one another like prayers. Almost rote. The second time, I simply needed a change of scene and was lonely at home. The office had just reopened. So much for quelling lonelienss. I was the only person on the floor. It was eerie but not June 2020 eerie. And now. AND NOW with a new Covid spike lurking in the wings ready to take centerstage as we move towards flu season, people have been mandated back into a hybrid schedule. I’m fortunate to be considered fully remote and my trip to the office was driven not by The Man (or in my company’s case The Woman) but by technology. My computer was going to die any day and rather than face the Blue Screen of Death I opted for a trip into the city and a day at the office getting my technology refresh. Dear Reader, it was weird as Hell to be on a busy floor in an office building. It wasn’t February 2020 bustling but it was still a sea of voices chatting on telecoms and tapping away on keyboards. All of us siloed into our own little piece of the empire. So much for collaboration. Oh we collaborated, socially distanced hellos in most cases as we exclaimed about the weather or the traffic.

But I did run into my business unit’s hardware guy, we’ve worked together for a decade and I hadn’t seen him since he helped me pack my car the evening of March 13 2020. He had helped all of us that day as we scurried away home. I was thrilled, he is one of those people you just enjoy running into. Not a friend at work but someone you rely on and care for. He can be a little dry in that Techie way but always upbeat. My eyes misted when he called me by name and told me how good it was to see me…would I be working weekly…what days..I walked away uplifted by our exchange and on my way back to my little cube in the middle of the big room, all that uncertainty that March day came roaring back. I looked out the window towards the front range. Those glimpses of mountains were the only thing that wasn’t changed about the view and the scene around me or inside of me.