The Night Comes Again - Future Diaries

Bloomfield Charter Township, Michigan, 2038

A typical day for me: Wake up, eat breakfast, brush teeth—in that order! It’s not technically the right way according to dental consultants, but in this profile of a COO I read she swears by it. Something she called hard stops: tasks with finite ends. Breakfast is open-ended, but brushing your teeth you can only do so long.

In between those I get dressed at some point. Of course everyone in the, no disrespect but, skilled professions, works from home. But I’m going to be seen a lot, and I find you just don’t work the same when you’re wearing jammies on the bottom. I’m not too much of a clothes sorta gal, so for me it’s usually some smart pants and a fun top. Nothing too flashy, but I think I just look healthier with some color. Pink, peach, orange. I go for that kinda neck that looks split at the top like scrubs. And I love that, what’s it called…modal! Feels like silk but it’s not.

The day really starts when someone Glows me. That’s how we keep in touch as part of our workflow. From work everyone gets a PC, a webcam, and a cloche with a Firefly inside. That’s Firefly with a capital F, it’s proprietary. When the Firefly glows, we know to check our notification dashboard. It was discovered that this is a calmer way to keep people connected. We could all use more calm, I’ll admit.

I’m a Product Converter, which means I’m responsible for the midpoint of our funnel. I work with the Scrum Master and the Task Pod to own every contact point in the process. Ha! I haven’t even said what we do: we maintain the most widely-onboarded project management software in the US and Canada. It’s called Haven, spelled HVN.

I work until lunch. Then I use my lunch to workout. (I eat at my desk throughout the day, it’s easier this way.) I mostly do Power Yoga and CoreFlow. It might sound weird, but I’m very into “positivity.” I read that movement is so important, and I try to really live by that.

If I don’t have any meetings that day – big if! – I’ll go over my to-do’s and cross-check anything that’s Queued or in a Hold. It’s a lot of chasing people down. We also iterate lots. Love, love to iterate.

I’d be lying if I said I don’t goof off a little bit if things are slow. I check the news, check on my investment accounts. See what crazy thing the president said lately. Stryker, that’s my youngest, just loves his movies. He’s at that age where everything is jungle this, jungle that: tigers, binoculars, the whole thing. Whereas Ryker’s more interested in trading dog coins.

No matter how many fire seasons I live through, it always catches me off guard. A weird feeling comes over my office when I realize it’s dark outside. It’s not dark the way night is dark, which, between the streetlights and the satellites, is usually lighter than you want it to be. It’s a dark you can only appreciate in comparison to its expected lightness. Like those optical illusions that let you “see” an impossible color by staring at them a long time and looking away.

I consider myself a rational person but it even gets to me sometimes. I’m usually good at pushing these thoughts aside. But sometimes I feel like—and I don’t know how much sense this makes—but like me and my mind pull apart. Like the one observing this all is distinct from the woman with a family and a yard and things to do. I heard a song in my Poppop’s music collection—he was a vet of the Battle of Lake Michigan, great guy with an even greater handshake—and the song went like “Is this my beautiful house? Is this my beautiful wife?” It sure makes you think.

Growing up in the Midwest you’re used to Mother Nature’s extremes. It’s practically a badge of honor to go to school in the slush. And the heat some summers…it could make your Nana curse! But this is…new. It’s different, I’ll say. And so inconvenient, you know? You’ve gotta plan around the smoke like it’s the weather. My boys want to throw the ball around and they’ve gotta wear those smoke cones. And their father is the biggest complainer on Earth. I say he gets the “man flu” – well of course he has the worst sore throat, the worst itchy eyes. He’s a trip!

And I’m not saying I like it any better. Give me sunshine any day of the week. I’m always telling
RJ, we move to Florida and you never have to buy me another anniversary present. He just looks at me like I’m crazy. Sure you might get a little wet but it’s the furthest you can get for your dollar from the fires. He says he wants to be close to his mom, I said that’s what a mother-in-law suite is for. Get some sand on her toes and a drink in her hand and tell me I’m crazy.

I’d say Q3 is really our busy season because it’s sort of ramping up to that Q4. I’m running around a lot, going from meeting to meeting. We do All Hands every second Friday where we check in on our objectives. We do a mission statement realign and we always close out with Rose, Thorn and Bud. It’s something you’re grateful for, something you’re excited for, and something that’s a low point. But not in that order. Mine last time was: Molly increasing our churn rate by 3 points above annual projections, Joshua leaving our team for his fantastic new opportunity, and getting to put our new operational philosophy to the test next quarter.

And I have to say, I’m excited for Q4 so we can finally get a break from the darkness. But what can you say! We do what we have to.