Working from home

I'm a working mom, but I haven't been in the office since I left early on June 11th. I remember the exact date because it was my birthday. However, I didn't leave early to celebrate. I left early because the Cedar River was starting to swell and all of the bridges coming in to downtown were closing. I was worried I would be stuck on the opposite side of the river from my house.

Two days later the Cedar River engulfed most of downtown. The river reached less than a block from my office building. My office building that is so far away from the river we never, ever dreamed the river would get anywhere near it. My building did not take in any water, but we did lose electricity and water for over a month. This means I've been working from home every day since my birthday.

Working from home is not new to me. I've been working from home two days a week for more than three years. But working from home every single day is much different from working from home just two days a week. At least when I had to go in to the office I still showered in the morning. Now there are days I don't shower until I look at the clock and realize "oops, it's five o'clock."

But forgetting to shower aside, I love working from home every day. I haven't had to put gas in my truck in over a month. I can roll out of bed at 8:59 and be at work at 9am. I can work all day with no bra. It rocks.

Last Friday I got dolled up and headed to Uptown Friday Night. (Uptown Friday Night is supposed to be a downtown party where Cedar Rapidians can get together after work, listen to a local band rock on the stage and imbibe in some alcoholic beverages. Due to the flooding it has been moved to dryer ground.)  At Uptown I ran in to a couple of co-workers. Both of them were men. And both of them told me they are going stir crazy working from home.

So now I'm trying to decide if this is another big difference between men and women. (You know with this big scientific study of mine where I've polled all of two guys.) Do women love to work from home and men not so much? Or is it just because these two guys are single and don't have the, um, pleasure of five kids running around, banging on their office door and fighting non-stop all day. Ok, maybe going in the office a couple of days would be nice.