Zoe likes to squeak her toys when I’m on conference calls.
When I first moved home and set up my office, I thought about how great it was to always be in the center of everything.
Then, my puppy Zoe would start bringing her toys in and squeaking them, inevitably in the middle of a conference call. And I started shutting my door while I was working, cause who wants to have to explain that?
I would emerge at the end of the day, tired, desynced from life around me, and generally disagreeable. Zoe would be hyper saying hi mom hi mom yay you’re done you’re done and I didn’t have the energy to deal with it.
One day, after I’d nudged Zoe out of my office for the 100th time, I saw her little head droop, and watched her curl up just outside the door, head pillowed on the squeak toy. OK, mom, I will wait for you.
Something in that moment put a lump in my throat. How many times have things passed me by because they happened at a time that wasn’t ‘good’ for me? How many chances am I going to get to play tug with my puppy?
Now, my door stays open. Cause we don’t get infinite time to play tug, and I’m done waiting for the time to be right. Sometimes that means she’s spinning me around in my chair while I’m talking to a co-worker, cause I have one end of the rope while she has the other. Sometimes that means if you’re on my line, you can hear her yip at me for a pet or a treat.
Zoe likes to squeak her toys when I’m on conference calls, and that’s okay.
I have a mute button.
Curiouser and Curiouser 