Time for another working-from-home update! Thanks to a friendly reminder from our ever-vigilant Oldrich.
Over two months since the last update. Yes, I guess I did get busy.
By the way, the format of this update post is inspired by Havi’s Friday Chickens.
The hard stuff
The hours
Work got very busy, very quickly. In fact, I have been running on an average of 60 hours over the past eight weeks – early mornings, late nights, all weekends. My brain hurts.
To be fair, would have probably been the same even if I worked from an actual office. Cyclical nature of business, learning curve, setting boundaries, this kind of stuff.
The stress
Oh, the stress. Two very stressful months. Taking a lot of notes about things I intend to do differently in the future. Don’t want to go into details.
Slow connection speed
Not being on a local Ethernet means that everything takes forever to upload/download/open. Very frustrating.
Not enough live people
Being an introvert means that I love working on my own, with less distractions and interruptions. At the same time, working from home in a new city means limited opportunities to meet people. Things are better than they were right after the move, but still.
And I had high hopes for Caroline Collective, but the couple of times I went there, there were very few people. Also, the desks are too far away from the windows and the AC is set way too low for me. So I stopped going.
Not in the mood to spend time on cooking and eating
Shopping at Kroger? Making lunches that I eat on my own? Boring and depressing. Doing it with minimal effort and not proud of it.
Hot and muggy Houston
Too hot for walking outside. The temperature climbs to 30°C by 8am and stays there until midnight. Even a walk to the mailbox or from the car necessitates a subsequent shower. So, the walks at the Hermann Park had to go. 😦
The good stuff
Nice office setup
With a wireless keyboard and mouse, large monitor, and a near-perfect arrangement of stationeries. Very satisfying!
People I work with
Are simply awesome. Very smart, supportive and hard working. I am learning so much from them everyday.
Texas Rock Gym!
There’ve been ups and downs, but I’m slowly establishing the twice-a-week routine. Climbing 5.9s and starting to branch out into 5.10s. For the first time in my life, I actually have discernible biceps and it makes me ridiculously happy.
And people! Have been meeting people every time I go, and slowly building my circle of climbing buddies. Some of the guys I’ve been climbing this are amazing athletes and climbers, and it’s thanks to their friendly prodding and beta (“tips” in climbing jargon) that I’m now climbing at the level that I am.
Also, bonus points to reaching the point when actually driving to the TRG is no longer a big deal: got used to the car (quite a “sporty” ride as the wind blows right through the fabric cover), to the highways (was taking surface roads for the first couple of months to keep everyone safe) and to the speed (no more white knuckles and holding breath while changing lanes).
Trips and travels
Boulder, CO in April. Although I mostly kept my nose to the screen, I met many of my otherwise remote colleagues and checked out some places in both Boulder and Denver. I liked it, but would want to visit in during “real” summer and “real” winter to get a better feel for it.
Miami, FL in May. Went for the Memorial Day weekend. Lots of sleep, lots of yoga, accidental sunburn. Quite a seedy scene in South Beach, but otherwise very good time.
Practicing yoga
Ashtanga. Shiva Nata. On my own, almost every day. Taking classes, at least once a week. Teaching a private class, almost every week. So much goodness. Also, thinking about and actually making plans for yoga teacher training. Very exciting.
All in all…
…I guess this update is not so much about working from home, or working per se. Oh well. Things are looking up and I am hopeful that June will still be a lot of work but manageable, and that July and August will be normal or even (*gasp*) easy, for a change.
I’m glad you’ve read this far – it’s good to be back and blogging. How has your week (month, season) been? Challenges? Joys? Random thoughts? Comments, I’d like them please. 🙂
Jenia Laszlo 
Lots of hard, and lots of good too! I’m so glad to read that things are looking up, and that hope is what you feel when you think of the coming months. 🙂
Josiane, hi! Nice to see you here – I just discovered your wonderful blog for the first time. And thanks for cheering along, I think I’m going to pick “hope” as my word for the month of June.
Nice, looks like remote works for you splendidly.
Of course except for the connection speed.(Glad you mentioned it) Working on company LAN via remote connection is just painful. Concerning yoga, good luck with that, I myself tried a couple of times to start practicing regularly but it’s very difficult for a human without a routine like me to do it on a regular basis:)
Oldrich: yes, connection speed is the worst, especially the part that when I start uploading something, get bored waiting, start doing something else, get carried away, then completely forget what it was that I was doing to begin with.
Yoga – don’t worry, the first five years are the hardest. It will stick eventually.
Can so relate to the sentence about making notes about things to do differently in the future. I’ve been doing that the whole two years I’ve been working from home, and, like you Jenia, I don’t want to go into details!