I’ve been going into my office (like a real company office, not my third-floor window perch where I split my time between work tasks and Mrs. Kravitzing the neighbors) one day a week and I have to say, I don’t hate it.
This isn’t a regular office. When I started working at this company, there were 35 people. There are several times that many people now, and most of them don’t work in or near the office. But the people who are usually here are the same ones I started working with back in pre-pandemic times.
This new office has a very PB2 design sensibility (velvet midcentury-ish couches, fake succulents) and un-serious plastic desk chairs, but it is also mostly empty. So I can be alone and unbothered in a place that is not my house but still has snacks. Sometimes the product dev peeps are here, and I get to have Coworker Interaction™ which I have eschewed either by government decree or out of my affinity for sweatpants for several years. It’s been a nice change of pace, although I am woefully out of practice getting up, making myself presentable, and arriving anywhere “on time.”
I have also been sleeping better thanks to chemistry, not for me but for the littlest dog. She gets extra trazodone at dinner and melatonin at bedtime and wow does she sleep well. I’m enjoying it while it lasts.
Despite the A-1 quality sleep, my mind has been unquiet. There seems to be a lot of sadness going around and many more endings; maybe I have just reached the age where most people in my cohort have ailing parents or serious health stuff of their own or are just dealing with complex, tricky Life Shit™. Last week I heard some scary news about a friend, and I said, “man, life is no joke” and I have never felt that more acutely. It’s for real out there! Please be careful.
Perhaps you are feeling this too, in which case, I have some advice.
Since the early pandemic days, a comfort I have really leaned on is pizza, specifically homemade pizza. I make two versions, a three-hour dough version and a 24 to 48-hour dough version. If you already have a homemade pizza groove, then continue doing that, but if you don’t and would like to, here is how I roll.
Always have what you need to make SOME kind of pizza. Flour obvs, salt and yeast, olive oil. I like King Arthur’s pizza dough flavor but it’s not required. You can freeze shredded mozzarella, fresh is better, but there’s nothing wrong with utility cheese. You can freeze pepperoni, pancetta, and Italian sausage. Get a jar of banana peppers or roasted red peppers. And much like soup, many types of leftovers and odds and ends can be turned into pizza toppings.
For the sauce, use the last half of a jar of Rao’s or buy a can of Pomi. Anymore, though, I just make mine: minced garlic, some red pepper flakes, and anchovy paste with olive oil in a cast iron pan, sizzle about a minute. Add a big can of whole tomatoes. (Use whatever tomatoes you have, but the whole ones are the best; the lesser ones are processed down into diced and puree and cans of Rotel. Just use whole canned tomatoes for any canned tomato purpose, in fact.)
Crush the whole tomatoes with a potato masher or whatever. Add a sprig of fresh basil if you have it and simmer the sauce (keep it blippin’ away, as Jamie Oliver would say) until well thickened, about 10-15 minutes.
Bake the pizza however you like, or however the dough requires. When it’s very hot right out of the oven, add a sprinkle of good parmesan, a drizzle of olive oil, and perhaps some torn basil leaves. Let that mellow for a minute or two and then eat. You will probably feel better and you will have lunch for tomorrow.