This screen grab was shared by a coworker of mine from the Forbes Influential CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) list of the year. I'm just gonna leave this out there for you...

Back when I was changing jobs, I was contacted by a training and professional development agency asking if I would be interested in taking courses to improve my marketability to potential employers. I hesitantly said yes because I've received requests like this before from some pretty dodgy characters. 

I dunno how many of you are full-time remote workers or temporary remotes during the pandemic or have already returned to an office or maybe you never left.

One pandemic trapping I never fell into was the whole idea of working in your pajamas. Rolling out of bed and going to my computer to work just never seemed like a good idea to me. 

I've kinda hit a strange place in my reading right now. For the last couple of weeks, I've been without an audiobook to which I want to listen.

Almost any time I log into LinkedIn, I see information about new followers and conversations related to accounts for my employer. 

I dunno if y’all have noticed but I’ve been dropping a few hints here and there about a change in how things are happening around here. 

I was scrolling through my Photos app and found this little gem of Nathan on one of my last days at work with the City of Naperville in 2017. 

Hey all, I need a little help. I’m looking for a good app for taking and keeping notes. But I have some caveats. 

Two weeks ago, our IT Dude from work came by my house to take my MacBook Pro. My battery was going bad and it wouldn’t hold a charge even when plugged in (Zoom drains a battery faster than it can recharge apparently). 

I decided to work from the library again today. Just a chance to get out of the house and get some fresh air on the balcony. 

I typically work Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. This does not account for sometimes starting early or working late or having a late night or weekend deployment. Take out an hour for lunch and I work an eight-hour day.

Yup. Another late night deployment. 

I'm on a midnight site deployment for work and, aside from my laptop and other collateral to get stuff done, this is what's in front of me.

Three years and two days ago marked my exit from public sector employment after 11 years in municipal government. Tomorrow marks my third anniversary at what I hope is my forever job. I can only hope they feel the same way about me. 

Man, I’m really terrible at keeping up with these COVID Diary posts, aren't I? My goal was to get through 19 of them, for obvious reasons. At the rate things are going, I may still make that goal... even at a post every two months. Ugh. 

A little light reading this weekend...

A little while ago, a friend asked me if I was still skilled in the art of website design. This person, I'm certain, was looking for help in the day and age of Coronavirus cutbacks... she had lost her job and I'm guessing she was either looking to start an online consultancy in her field of expertise or just a site for self marketing.

Okay, so I may have missed updating this for week 3... and week 4, for that matter. But let’s be honest, there wasn’t all that much to update on the ol’ Social Distancing Bingo board.

A week or so ago, I saw some headline on the web touting how you can use old tech and gadgets to make for a better work-from-home experience. Despite suspecting it was clickbait, I clicked on it. I couldn’t help myself. 

Here are my week two additions to the Social Distancing Bingo board. I’m using a darker orange to denote week two.

My buddy, Blaine, posted this to Instagram yesterday.

It’s certainly been an interesting week, hasn’t it? That’s not to take away from the previous couple of months, of course. But this week marks the official declaration of COVID-19 as a pandemic worldwide and a national emergency in the United States.

Sometimes, vacation just sucks. And, no, I don’t mean (just) the obvious “when it comes to an end” bit. 

I had a tough week at work. Nothing bad, just busier than normal and I wasn’t feeling good about the work I did. 

This was shared with me by one of our developers at work. It’s pretty accurate. And, yes, I’m in quality assurance (tester).

My professional life revolves around quality assurance with websites, in case you were ever wondering. As I say to laypeople who don't understand what that means, "I do what I can to break a website, but not like a hacker would."

I've only ever had one Bloody Mary in my life. That was in October 2001 on one of the four flights to and from our honeymoon. I don't recall which flight. I do recall that I hated it. 

Today, three of us in the office "got the memo," as it were. We all wore red shirts. Two in t-shirts and one in a polo.

I went it to lunch with some coworkers today. Five guys and the girlfriend of one met us there. So five guys and a girl. 

Last night, we had a late site deployment at work. I could’ve worked from home but everyone else was sticking around the office so I did, too. 

Today, I presented an instructional video I made to a Leadership Seminar held internally in my company. 

Remember how I said that this week would be a return to normalcy regarding work and my schedule?

As in "Work From Home," something I am able and allowed to do via my employer but that I only do once a week due to necessity.

Yesterday, a coworker scheduled a 9 a.m. meeting. For many, that’s no big deal, but our workday starts at 8:30 and she’s offset by an hour living in the Mountain time zone like she does. So I was joking that we might not be able to make that happen.