Back to work

by Ken

Michele Bachmann and her curious withdrawal from the world of electoral politics can wait. Ditto the steady drumbeat of the Israeli march to fascism. Because I went back to work today.

I got a jolt when I settled into my desk this morning, for the first time since I shut down my computer at the end of the day on Friday, April 12, with knee-replacement surgery scheduled for the following Monday. I knew back then that I wouldn't be able to return to work until I was cleared by my doctor, and that that couldn't happen until my six-week follow-up exam on May 29. It's true, I told coworkers that if I was cleared, I was prepared to return the next day. (We're pretty thinly staffed in what no longer qualifies as a department. We're more of a nodule.) What I forgot was that I had flipped my desk calendar to Thursday, May 30.

Okay, there were shaky moments. Like when I got on the elevator and looked at the buttons and had to guess. It was an educated guess, though -- "14" looked good. (It was right.) Probably my mind was still on going through a metal detector for the first time post-surgery. (As I've mentioned, I work in the building that adjoins the New York Stock Exchange, and we're part of the same security zone. Every time we enter the building we have to go through the bag-check checkpoint in the DMZ out on Broad Street and then through X-ray bag check and a metal detector inside. Often I don't go out during the day just to save the hassle.) The thing is, the metal detector didn't go off! Which really threw me.

Later in the day, when I was returning from a physical-therapy session, and assumed it wouldn't go off, naturally it did.

I wish I had something more profound to share about My First Day Back. I couldn't actually let myself into the office because I didn't have my electronic card, which somehow, sometime seems to have fallen out of my wallet. I did have my building ID card, though. So I had to make an entrance like company, more or less. Then I had to change my computer password in order to log on. And then there were doughnuts to celebrate my return. (There was also fruit for the health-conscious.)

It felt a strange combination of strange and not-strange. The best part is that it was Day 1 of a two-day work week. The two-day work week has long been a dream of mine. How often do our dreams come true, even on a one-time-only basis?

Actually, I wound up the day pretty tired, and that second day is looking like a challenge.

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