Ear Plugs: Best Thing Ever

Yesterday was a long day at work. The healthy staff were summoned back to the office, so I spent the day on Zoom, watching as old friends in the office had reunion dance parties in the background. (And all the time I knew that if I had sighed about it a working committee would be assembled to solve the issue of home-based worker inclusion. And sometimes sickness is just sad, and sick people have to deal. Healthy` people don’t have to cater to me.)

Then, as a counterpoint to Zoom visual overload, I had to listen to seven hours of hurried high-level strategy. And then after work, Gary wanted to … talk. And by talk, I mean he wanted to complain.

I begged for a night off from human interaction, and eventually he realized I just needed to be alone. I put my head under the duvet for some quiet time. That was great. Until Gary started talking to the cat in the other room while watching television and moaning about drywall dust.

Instead of cracking open the door to ask for more quiet, thus breaking the seal I’d just fought for, I hunted down the earplugs I bought several years ago. Perfect. In fact, so perfect I fell asleep for eight hours. Unprecedented. The cat didn’t wake me. Gary didn’t wake me.

Today is another day of Zoom calls. I’m going to try jamming just one earplug in one ear. I’m going to change my Zoom settings so I’m not distracted by old friends walking past in the background. And I’m going to set a timer so I get a break every two hours.

The plan is to solve my own problems without being a burden to others — I mean, except for you people.