The joy of going back to work

Monday was my first day back in the office after two weeks of lying in the sun editing my book and keeping His Royal Fluffiness company.

Don’t get me wrong, I like my work (most days), but going back after time off is like falling through the ice on a pond.

Worse, His Royal Fluffiness gets lonely. And he still hasn’t figured out how to use his new cat flap since the lion cat incident, so when I go to work he’s locked in all day and I feel terrible. Is having to sit by the door for eight hours to let the cat in and out a good excuse for not going to work?

But I try to be positive, so instead of griping about having to work (or did I do that already?) I thought I’d come up with a list of great things about going back to work.

1. Less time to write

You’d think having less time to write would be a bad thing. Wrong!

If I have eight hours to write it can take me three hours to work my way through my emails and Twitter notifications before I even open my draft.

If I have 30 minutes you can bet I’m going to use every one of them. I’m ridiculously efficient and productive, and feel great about it.

Having less time to write wins, no argument.

2. Human-watching opportunities

There aren’t many humans traipsing through my living room (thank goodness) so my opportunities to do research by observing the human race are limited.

I’ve seen so few humans over the past two weeks that I’ve nearly forgotten what they look like. Smile = happy, frown = sad, right?

Now I’m back at work I can spend half my day watching people. My ability to characterise is about to launch into orbit.

3. Whiskey!

Guess what was on my desk when I got to the office on Monday.

The Japanese whiskey I ordered.

I don’t drink normal whiskey, but I hear Japanese whiskey is actually nice, and it comes in an adorable bottle that’s sparkly and has a real cork.

Totally worth going to work for.

4. A reason to wear real clothes

I’m not one of these people who sits around all day in her pajamas when she’s on holiday. I would, but I’d get cold. Instead I’ve been wearing my slouching-around-home clothes, which are as snuggly as flannel pjs and look more ridiculous.

After so much comfort, who wouldn’t want a reason to squeeze into something restrictive, wear real shoes, and pretend to be a genuine human?

I’m kidding, of course. I wear bare feet and hippie clothes to work.

5. Distance from the kitchen

My office is farther from the kitchen than my living room is. A lot farther, if you’re going to be precise about it.

This means it’s going to be a lot harder to wander into the kitchen and find something to eat every half hour, so by definition I’m going to lose weight, right? Right?

Come on, you could be more encouraging.

6. Solvable problems

When I go back to work I get to think about problems that I might actually be able to solve, unlike the never-ending snarls of plot and character that I’ve been unpicking for months.

7. Free coffee

Because who doesn’t like free coffee?

 

The only problem with going back to work is that I seem to have forgotten how to talk to people. The first time someone came by to have the obligatory “Happy New Year” conversation I was an ant’s sneeze away from hiding under my desk.

I didn’t. Are you proud of me?

Fortunately the world didn’t end, though there’s always tomorrow.

What do you love about going back to work?

 

I’m very excited–my first guest post is coming out tomorrow, thanks to the lovely L.M. Durand. (Or maybe today. Time zones confuse me.) Don’t forget to watch for my link to it.

And if you haven’t read it yet, why not check out my new short story, Chasing Cara? It’s full of words and everything.