Working From Home

It has its pros and cons.

The pros are fairly evident ... no commute, no worry about wardrobe and make-up, no need for fast food/take out, no time constraints, etc.

The cons are not quite as evident ... for me it's mainly about space. I used to work on the dining room table, but the need to use our dining room table for, well, actually dining, kept rearing its troubling head.

To alleviate the mess and clutter from the dining room, and to free it up for its intended use, I moved everything into our bedroom. So now my studio is on a 4-foot Costco-purchased table piled with shelving and drawer units and containers. The actual working space is adequate. But the con is my dear companion and husband of going on 30 years; he hates the studio being in the bedroom up against the window. It's on "his" side of the room. Personally, I don't see why it can't be considered "our" side of the room, but I suppose that's picking nits.

There is a spare room upstairs currently being used as storage/junk/scaredy-cat's sanctuary/guest-room when needed after a thorough clean out. I could use that room and would gladly do so except for one very important necessity lacking in that room.

It's not wired for cable TV.

I need noise to work. And music simply won't do because the music I like to listen makes me get up and dance. While that may help in burning a few 100 of my excess calories, I can't handcraft jewelry while dancing.

Nope, the TV ... the proverbial "boob tube" is what I need. Strange, because I don't actually watch TV while handcrafting jewelry, but listen to it. Occasionally something I hears piques my interest enough that I'll stop and look, but I'm still very productive.

I'm a rather eclectic TV viewer. While we are taking full advantage of the house having Verizon's FIOS, my channel selection pretty much stays in a very narrow range of Discover/National Geographic/History network. Fortunately they are all next to each other on the channel line-up. Sometimes I'll "go across the pond" and have BBC America playing. And sometimes, rarely, I'll listen to a documentary on one of the premium channels.

Like today, I had on the Sundance channel. I am not a fan of reality TV shows. I generally run out of the room when Son #2 is watching one of his several dozen favorites (although I have to admit to enjoying "So You Think You Can Dance" every once in a while). But today I discovered a reality TV show that totally floats my boat called "On the Road in America." After watching the first episode, I ran to the computer (which is NOT in the bedroom) and Googled the show, found the air dates of the next episodes and cleared my calendar accordingly. I'm really looking forward to the episode where they take in some of my favorite Montana stomping grounds.

I've always had a sneaking suspicion that people were pretty much the same all over the world, if not in terms of culture, at least in terms of what gives joy and laughter and what causes sadness and pain.