Back to Normal...

Back to normal? 

Not quite. 

 So it has been some two-and-a-half years of working from home. 

 Ugh.

 I would have never THOUGHT such a thing could ever happen in my line of work.

Well, I have been to work three times in the last three months. It was a cumbersome clumsy return, to say the least. I refuse to sit in a cubicle area of some thirty people, so I had to find somewhere else in the building to sit. I had to make sure I had everything I needed before leaving the house, like my hand sanitizer and wipes to clean off the surface of wherever I found to sit. I needed a rolling briefcase for my laptop. Extra masks... Ugh! 

It was more than a notion.

About a year and a half ago, there was a big laptop update, where it was time for a new laptop. I didn't want to go to work for mine, so our IT people mailed it overnight to me. I have had the old laptop since then, and our inventory guy needed it to be turned in. So I went to work this past Sunday to leave it on my cubicle desk for him to pick up.

The thing is, I hadn't been to my cubicle since early 2020. 

So like I said, I went in this past Sunday. It is good to live only 5 miles from work, but I sat in Sunday traffic nevertheless (Yes, there is bumper to bumper traffic on Sundays in Atlanta).  

When I went in, there were only two people there on the sign-in sheet, but they were in another part of the building. I signed in, and took the elevator up to the third floor. 

And I realized I had left my mask in the car.  

O_O!!

I didn't want to go back out and get it, so... oh well. 

I arrived at the door to my cubicle area. The lights were on, so that meant someone was around. I think I even heard someone tapping away on the keys of their laptop. I didn't even bother to investigate. I just wanted to leave my computer and get out of there quickly. 

But once I arrived to my cubicle, I looked around for a few minutes. It was just as I left it. People had left gifts from the past couple of Christmas' on the desk. Someone had left their child's graduation announcement. The month prior to the pandemic, my workgroup had thrown me a 50th birthday party, so the old big number "5" and "0" balloons were there (deflated now). 

But something I saw made me pause: The calendar on wall of my cubicle. 

It gave me goosebumps. It was so... eerie.

Eerie.

March 2020.  I don't know why that creeped me out so bad. I think the gravity of it all hit me. I had not been at my desk in over two years!

Two whole years. It's really been over two years since this whole pandemic started.

And yet at the same time, I felt some since of... normalcy. 

There was a realization in that very moment that things can possibly go back to normal, where I can wake up every morning and go to work and sit in my own space, my own cubicle once again. 

I stared at the calendar for a minute or two. I straightened it up, as it was slightly askew, and a thumbtack had fell from one corner. 

I think I will keep it as a reminder of all that has happened. 

Not quite sure I will be sitting there for awhile, though.  

My plan is to go back to work in person on a regular basis in September, even though I am only doing paperwork and can easily work from home. My management does not seem to be pressed about my return. But I would like to return to laboratory work. I miss it so much.

But I just want to get back to normal. On purpose. 

Someday, I hope this whole pandemic will be over... and normal will be the true order of the day.