Thwarted Again!

This was not this week. Also not in Texas.

It seems that this winter, everyone and their mother is getting snow. People living in Atlanta! Florida! Even in the southern parts of Texas, Austin and Houston have gotten two snow days this winter! And yet still nothing for us in Dallas. We had Winter Storm Inga blow through this weekend. We got the freezing temperatures, howling wind, frozen water troughs at the barn - but NO SNOW.

In the lead up to the storm, there was the inevitable hype. The weatherman warned us to prepare for it - drip our faucets, cover our plants, take our pets indoors, stock up on liquor and beer. My parents live north of Dallas, and my mom believes everything she hears on the news and went out and bought extra groceries Just In Case they had a real Little House on the Prairie / Long Winter scenario where they would be bottled up inside their home for days. That evening I crouched, childlike, by our windows, waiting for any sign of precipitation at all. I refreshed #DallasWeather on Twitter constantly, anxiously scrolling for any mention of sleet, freezing rain, hail, flakes anywhere in the metroplex.

As I mentioned before, there was absolutely zero. Life went on as normal the next day and not like a wintertime miracle.

For the larger part of the morning, I stewed in my massive disappointment at having to go to work and commiserated with my coworkers. In light of what I’m sure what most of you who can work from home have experienced and maybe feeling a bit sour grape-ish, I wondered if it really would have been better to be snowed out of work but snowed in and working from home. You see, “WFH” is in large part what I did during this past Christmas break and during my preciously hoarded vacation time.

In my mind’s eye and for no particularly good reason, I always picture WFH as a leisurely late wake up - sans alarm - with hot breakfast and even hotter coffee waiting at the dining table (from god knows where). Then it’s a spell of napping / internet surfing / Netflix cruising in my pajamas until noon, occasionally glancing at my work email every hour or two and responding with Y / N. After a long lunch (again prepared by my mysterious personal chef), I somehow assume that the afternoon is going to be quiet so I WFS or Work From Shopping, repeating my behavior with my work phone while wandering about boutiques and specialty food stores with the Ladies Who Lunch. Then I “knock off early” and enjoy the stress-free evening full of frivolties, friends, and food.

In reality, WFH goes something like this: my work phone starts buzzing around 4 am since the majority of the people I deal with are across the Atlantic. I wake up at 5:30 to 20 emails which I frantically scroll through to determine which one I want to respond to first, all before putting my contacts in. I tiptoe downstairs to start taking phone calls at 7 am and DO stay in my pajamas until noon because I haven’t gotten off the phone until then. Bryan is confined to the upstairs part of the house because our place doesn’t have an office, and he’s trying to stay quiet during my conference calls. Then it’s a quick lunch of chips or raw vegetables or cold leftovers since I remember I haven’t eaten and then begin going through all the emails that I’ve been missing since I’ve been on the phone. The majority of the afternoon is spent responding to those emails / phone buzzes / bothering other people who are probably WFH during their break as well. And that’s all - that’s the day.

So maybe it wasn’t so bad that we missed a snow day after all. At least I wasn’t taunted by the promise of a beautiful day outside, full of potential and fancy-free. Tell me, is your snow day schedule or WFH schedule like the one in my imagination or in reality?