Occasionally, Working From Home Can Be Interesting

My friends and family have (mostly) learned to leave me undisturbed when I’m working from home. It took a while, but if you were greeted with snarls and profanity whenever you spoke to me during working hours, you’d learn to leave me alone, too.

So, today, I was surprised when a friend called with an immediate request.

“Come outside right now,” she commanded.

“I’m still in my pajamas,” I said (it was 1:45 p.m.).

“That might be appropriate, considering what I want to give you,” she said,* before hanging up.

I snarled, uttered a few profane words, and then headed downstairs to the front door. She was parked at our curb, so I didn’t bother putting on shoes.

I leaned into her car window. “You could have put on pants,” she said.

“I thought you said my pajamas were fine? I wore a T-shirt to bed last night.”

Whatever,” she replied. She reached into a shopping bag and pulled out a medium-sized envelope.

 “I saw this at the grocery store and thought of you.” She handed it to me.

“Cock-flavored soup mix?” I shouted in surprise.

“Shhh,” she said. “Do you want people to hear you yelling that word when you’re not wearing pants?”

If my T-shirt had been a little longer, I would have leaned further into the car and given her a congratulatory hug. She’s now in the lead in our contest to embarrass each other with gifts of dirty-sounding food.

I’m in second (read: last) place. A while back, I left this in her mailbox:

Then again, maybe I’m the winner, because I can still get my mail without being afraid that I’ll run into the mailman. My friend still, after more than a year, has to check her mailbox after sunset (even later in the winter).

* In hindsight, I see that my friend is a lot more risqué than I had realized.