WFH

At my office, we are encouraged to work from home at least one day a week. The other day, my direct manager was out of the office unexpectedly, so I asked around "Where's K__"? My creative director (K__'s boss) said "He's working from home. We all work from home one day every week, except you. You should probably fix that."

Well. It's not like I don't want to work from home. It's not like I enjoy the 45 - 60 minute commute in to and from work every day.

The thing is, it's really hard to get anything done when I'm not in the office. If I go out to a coffee shop, which seems to be the Thing To Do in SF if you're not in the office, I can't get anything done because I regularly work on highly confidential products, and I'm a designer so there's visuals of those products in everything I do. So unless I pick up a privacy screen and / or a very large dark sheet to hide under, coffee shops are out.

I've tried working actually at home. Which sounds innocuous enough. But my husband is very loving and attentive and a little on the clingy side, so he'll come up every hour or so to just give me a hug and say hello. I know, I know, this is something I should not complain about. I'm sure there's a lot of women out there who would love it if their husbands / boyfriends paid them half as much attention. But when you are trying to get in a creative focused zone and stay in it long enough to get work done, little distractions can be kryptonite.

So what I've come to do is frantically plow through my work during the days I'm in the office so that my WFH day is so light that I don't actually have any work to do, other than being available on email in case any emergencies crop up.

What this means is as today has become my WFH day, I've been baking cupcakes while periodically checking my email and working on some designs. Red Velvet cupcakes with Cream Cheese frosting. And they're vegan (no eggs or milk, with vegan "butter" and tofutti "cream cheese"). And they're delicious and gorgeous. Check it out:

Red Velvet Vegan Cupcakes

I've also been periodically furminating the dog. She's shedding like crazy and has this super-thick winter undercoat that, if not combed and removed regularly, turns into dreadlocks within minutes. She's not thrilled with the idea, as the device pulls on the fur and I'm sure her skin is a bit sensitive now. But that's the price to pay for a soft, silky coat with no dreadlocks or tangles.

I've also been listening to a lot of Dolly Parton. Man, what a great singer. I'm not a big fan of country but the girl's got some pipes.

Todays been one of the best days I've had in a long time.