Scribe

I did notice there was a Mexican restaurant that was selling, like, gallons of margaritas, and I did actually think about that.

Hey, hey, hey. Welcome back to ladies of Erasable. We appreciate your ears here in this special lady space. We're hunkered down in our respective homes and doing some daydreaming, and we want to take you along on this journey. But first, let's reintroduce ourselves. We got a shout out on another podcast, and that might be bringing us some new listeners. So, Frankie, tell us a bit about yourself.

All right, thanks. I'm Frankie Gamber. I am the wife of Johnny Gamber from Erasable Podcast east and Other Points, pun intended. I live here in Baltimore with Johnny and our stockpile of stationery and our three kids. And I'm a high school principal, so I am surrounded by tools of the trade every day. And this is my first time podcasting, so I'm really excited to be here. Jane, over to you.

All right, well, I'm Jane and I am the wife of Tim Wasem. I was also a part of Erasable. I live in Johnson City, Tennessee, but originally from Atlanta, Georgia. I work at a church. I actually work with youth, with teenagers. So I spend my days with teenagers, and then I have two kids that are 6 and 3, and this is also a first for me. So I am excited about this unknown feet here. All right, to you, Katie.

Great. What a coincidence. My husband is also on the Erasable podcast. His name is Andy. My name is Katie Pruitt. I am by day project manager and copywriter in the digital marketing space. I used to be a college adjunct instructor in my other life before we moved to California and I reinvented myself as a. I wanted to reinvent myself as a stay at home cat mom, but it turns out that's not really a thing. So instead, I started working from home as a project manager and a copywriter with some friends of mine who started a business. Can't recommend it enough. Sounds like a bad idea to just go work for your friends, but it's been great. We're here in San Francisco with our cats and love and life most of the time. These are some strange days, but most of the time. All right, let's move on to tools of the trade, our first segment on this podcast that we have every week. Jane, why don't you start us off?

Okay. Well, so I actually don't know a lot about pins, even though my husband seems to know a lot about them. But I have been using the same pen probably for about 15 years. And that would be a pilot G2. It is a point 05 if that means anything to anybody. But that's what I'm using. I pretty much use it most of the time. So yeah, that's what I'm writing with.

Is that a click pin or.

Yeah, it is. It is a quick one. Yep.

Those are the kind I like the best. I'm always losing caps.

Yes. What about you, Frankie?

I am usually in the company of two different Shinola notebooks. My 2020 Day Runner Planner that I always buy my. I always buy it for myself around the holidays and I always get it monogrammed with my initials because it's special and it doesn't cost extra to get it monogrammed. And then I have a medium hard linen shinola notebook that I carry around for taking notes and things at meetings at work. And I keep my weekly to do list in there. So Johnny is not a big fan of shinola, but I really like their notebooks. And so when they went on sale recently at our local Barnes and Noble, he actually did buy me a whole bunch of them because they were 75% off. And I am writing with some vintage secretary pencils that Johnny got me at the Baltimore Washington International Pen show. I have no idea how old they are, but they say Stereo Corporation, Milwaukee, Wisconsin on them. And I really like these skinny secretary pencils. They're kind of like the Virginia Slims of pencils. I'm sure that they were designed with women in mind and I. I just. I mean, I guess that's kind of problematic, but I really like the. The dimensions of these itty bitty pencils and otherwise. I also enjoy writing with the Blackwing natural, which goes in my opinion very nicely with the shinola notebook. Katie, how about you?

Nice. I have never written in a shinola notebook. I don't know why I didn't even think about that until you started talking about it. A lot of Midwest love there. Shinola is a Detroit company. You got your Milwaukee pencil. Yeah, I'm from the Midwest, so it is a thing I always notice. I lately have been loving on this general cedar point pencil. It is really simple. It's a natural wood barrel situation like the Blackwing natural but probably a lower price point, I'm guessing. And I also really love this special edition Baron fig Squire pen that I have. It's one of the ballpoint. It's a clicky pen. I cannot with pen caps. When I used to. When I used to grade up a lot of papers, I would always lose the caps. And I think that habit has carried over that I just can only do a clicky and this year I decided that I would try to write down more of my thoughts about the media that I consume. So I bought myself a Baron Fig Gather Review Journal. It's very cool. It's this pretty green color and it's extremely structured, which isn't my usual journal style. So we'll see how it goes. My intent was to write about movies and TV shows and restaurants, but so far I've only written about books, so. And also now I can't leave my house.

So

I haven't gone to a restaurant in so long. But so far I really like it. The paper is really nice. It's also my first Baron Fig journal. I have a purple confidant that I haven't started writing in yet because I don't have any thoughts that are profound enough for it. And daily use I use this task pad. I'm also a to do list maker even though all of my work is online. So there is also like project management software that we use to keep track of our tasks. I like to write down every morning what I'm going to do that day in a tactile way. And Iron Curtain Press makes this thing called the Task Pad that is changed my life. I love it so much. I went to their storefront in LA and bought a bunch of them last year. I'm totally an Iron Curtain Press fangirl now. So that is what I am writing with and on these days. It changes a lot, especially pencils. There are a lot of pencils in my house and I changed my mind a lot about what pencil I'm going to be using. But right now it's that that generals

I feel like I'm going to spend a lot of money buying the things that you guys have just been talking about because I don't know what it says about me, but I mainly just have legal pads that I'm writing on. So now I feel like I have a lot of things ideas from you all about these beautiful journals and notebooks

to get Katie, I was wondering if the reason why you don't use pens with caps was because of your cats.

Oh, probably. I mean that's a good call too. They often abscond with like a clicky pen too. But okay, yeah, separating a pen from its cap is especially troubling. They also because pencils have more give for your teeth, they're especially pencil thieves. Yeah, it's a problem. All right. Anything else we want to talk about as Far as what we're consuming, I

mean, I'm having a healthy dose of a gin and tonic at the moment. I don't know about you all, if you're drinking anything, just coffee for Frankie.

All right. I intended originally to make this cocktail that I really love called a paper plane, which is equal parts Amaro, Nonino Bourbon, and this other amaro that St. George spirits in Alameda, California, across the bay from me makes, called Bruto Americano and lemon juice. So it's four ingredients. Three of them are alcohol.

And.

But I've been a little bit sick, so I. And because now I'm an adult, I don't just keep drinking even though I'm sick. So I'm only drinking water, but in my heart, I'm having a very fancy cocktail.

Sounds wonderful.

Yeah.

I don't even know what that all of those things are that you said they're so fancy.

Well, what happened was, honestly, somebody bought me the brutal Americano for my birthday, and I went to the St George Spirits website, and they had a bunch of cocktails, cocktail recipes, and I just picked this one because it seemed like the easiest to make at home, and it turned out to be so delicious. So I just recently found out about all these ingredients as well, except lemon juice. I already knew what lemon juice was. All right, let's move to freshpoint. This is the part of the podcast where we talk about the things that are on our mind. And of course, on our mind these days is quarantine. So I'll just start off this shelter in place order that we have in the state of California has locked me inside of my apartment with my cats and my husband. For now, this is our second week, so we're recording this on March 24th. And this is the. The end of the first full week. So we started ours last Tuesday, and this is Tuesday again, Sorry, second Tuesday. And I've always been pretty smug about the life choices I've made for myself as far as the partner I picked, the cats I picked then that kind of stuff. And it's. This is just reinforcing my spugness.

I

was made for this life. The only thing I would change is that I would like to please have a dishwasher.

Yeah.

We have been making all of our own meals. Right. And that means a lot of dishes we haven't given into paper plates. And I don't think that we will. This is not the time to give up on the environment.

Right.

So this just means we've been doing a lot of dishes, a lot of people on my Instagram stories seem to have a lot of extra time. I don't feel like I have any extra time.

It feels the opposite.

Yeah. And you both have kids, so I'm sure that your quarantine situation feels a lot more restrictive than mine. A lot more crowded.

So do you. You don't have any extra time because you washing dishes?

I think so. I can't really figure it out. It also could be that I always work from home, so by my day to day, is. Hasn't really changed at all. Except that Andy's also here making more dishes.

Yeah.

But basically, I can't figure out why I don't have any more time. It also could be that I've decided to clean every. And clean it and organize every inch of my apartment.

Okay.

That's what I did all weekend. I even washed the windows.

I mean, I definitely feel like the dishes, for some reason has. Yeah. Like, consumed 80% of. I mean, I just feel like there's always dishes, like, even when we're washing them, like, there's dishes at. You know, just constantly. So. Yeah.

All right, Jane, you want to talk about quarantine content online?

Yeah. So, I mean, there's just so much. Is that, you know, the first thing I feel like. Well, and working from home, which has been a switch for me, so I don't usually work at home, but working at home with the kids around and then also trying to kind of stay informed and up to date. You know, I just feel like it's like, filtering a lot of extra filtering and. Yeah. Trying to kind of stay on top of all the different information and where it's coming from and what it's saying and, you know, but so that's been one thing that's just been so much. And then also kind of trying not to get too, like, riled up. I mean, I do get riled up, but just I've actually been listening to a podcast called what Fresh Hell? Which is about parenting, but there's this one episode on anger management. Because I just feel like the amount of online, you know, information and, you know, just following some of the different conflicting information, and particularly from the president and different. You know, it's just been very, like, aggravating, you know, so that I feel like anger management has been. Has been a good thing for me and everybody at home, because I just feel like it's brought it out, like, in Tim and me and the kids, like, just being quarantined, but also because of, like, all of the information that we're you know, reading and consuming and, um, it's just. It's definitely been challenging.

Are you watching any. Are you binging any shows or anything like that?

Sort of. That's the thing too, though, is I kind of feel like we've had less time, like, than before quarantine, which I don't know how that's possible, but, I mean, so Madam Secretary is like, we just finished it, so we kind of were binging like, the. The last season, which I feel like was a little cathartic too, you know, because anyway, I love Madam Secretary, and it just makes me, like, have a little bit more morale, you know, and watching it. So that. What else? Well, I guess. I guess I should admit that I like, like, the voice I watch, that I'm kind of a sucker for the stories, like, people's stories and stuff. So it just kind of, you know, good to get a little, like, emotion in that sense. I don't know what other shows at the moment, mainly just because in the last, like, week or two, just kind of we kind of crashed. Like, we've been more exhausted, I feel like, at the end of the day or doing dishes. But,

yeah, I think you hit on the reason that I don't feel like I have more time. I think it's because I spend a lot more time digesting both reading and just emotionally digesting the news. So I probably lose a lot of time that I don't even notice. And also, I was a little bit sick, so I've been sleeping a little bit more. But I do think that the news requires an extra layer of vigilance, even if that's. Even if that vigilance is reminding yourself to when to turn it off.

That's true.

Well, and I've had to kind of navigate it a little bit just because we're in geographically an area and also just even my work, but where we're in situations where people have very different, like, thoughts and feelings about it. And so it's, like, very challenging because, yeah, I kind of. It's like navigating and maneuvering a lot and figuring out how to interact well and be informed, you know, So I just feel like it's definitely. It takes a lot more energy to do that. Well, for sure. So that's why I send lip sync battles to the students I work with and things like that.

That must be an interesting dynamic to navigate because it's a little bit looser of a relationship with teenagers than probably Frankie has. Like, Frankie probably doesn't text her students.

Right.

I do I try not. Yeah, I try not to. And then. And my not really being on social media helps.

Yeah.

Yeah. That makes it easier.

Yeah. But my fresh points also have to do with working at home and other things to do at home while schools are closed. So Maryland is not under quarantine, but the schools have been closed since March 16th. As of today, they haven't said that we're not going back on March 30, but that seems super unlikely. So this week is technically spring break, but a lot of us are still working over the break to plan in the event of a longer term closure and having to move toward distance learning for a larger chunk of the year. So I do find that all of the advice about putting kids on a schedule has been really helpful. So our kids are 3, 6, and 9, and the first week of the school closure, we really just kind of let them do what they wanted, which was mostly playing on their tablets and watching Frozen 2 because I had to go to work four days that week for parents to come in who didn't have Internet access so that they could pick up work for their kids to do. So kind of felt like a normal work week to a degree. So this week what we started doing was having them having the kids wake up, do some schoolwork, have lunch, take a little walk, and then come home and have some tablet time or movie time or quiet time. And that. That has been helpful. And today, quite frankly, I went in their room and worked because they have a very nice little space in there, even if they're not excited about doing their work in there. We got our oldest daughter a loft bed, and there's this nice little workspace underneath her bed. And it was, you know, the desk was like just the right height for my Chromebook, and it was quiet. And I got a whole lot of work done in my kid's room today, not in my workspace.

Yeah, I feel like we're still in that first week or two that you mentioned where it's just like, I mean, literally, you know, the kids will just be running in circles and just haven't quite hit that. Like, we've kind of tried or started some structure and schedule, but everybody's still a little bit kind of scrambling, but working. Working it, you know, towards that.

Yeah. And then when I spend a lot of time at home, whether it's just an extended break or something like this, which is super unprecedented, I like to cook. And in particular, I like to make soup from scratch because it seems like it's really complicated, but it really is just dumping a whole bunch of stuff in a pot and letting it simmer for a while. And then you get this nice sense of accomplishment. Like, look, I made soup. I made this homemade soup for dinner. But, like, really all I did was take a bag of frozen frozen peas and some pasta and some vegetable broth, and I boiled them so that those are, like, my favorite things to do during a time period when I'm especially homebound.

So I probably make things more complicated. Usually Tim kind of makes fun of me a lot because with recipes, I kind of tend to, for some reason, try to combine different recipes, because I just. I don't know, it just seems like fun or something. But so often I will start with one recipe and then kind of, like, find another one and think, oh, that I like that part of that one. And so I'll just kind of like. And it drives them crazy. But so it ends up kind of just being, like, some mixture of, you know, variety. But, I mean, it usually ends up pretty good.

I think that sounds great. I hate to cook. I don't want to be overdramatic, but I find the burden of feeding myself to be overwhelming. And this week, I have learned that I, or we have learned together, Andy and me, that we can feed ourselves, but we do not want to. So I used to say, like, my mom doesn't like to cook, and so she'll say that she can't cook. And now I know that I guess I could. We haven't made anything that wasn't good. On Sunday, Andy made vegan pasta cream sauce from scratch with, like, cauliflower and miso paste and a bunch of spices and white beans. That's the base of the sauce. And it was really good. And we're still eating the pasta that we made because we made too much. But leftovers are a gift, definitely. So I will be super pleased to go back to supporting all my local restaurants when this is over. But I do feel a little bit of pride to know that we can feed ourselves. We'll see how long it goes on. And I might just start eating toast for every meal. But so far, we've made meals, and it's been great. I have done a little bit of baking. I tend to like to bake, mostly because you can do the dishes while your thing is in the oven.

Yeah.

And then when it's over, the kitchen is clean.

It's like it never happened. Yeah.

Yeah.

And plus, you have, like, on Sunday, I made oatmeal blueberry muffins, which are just a little Bit moister than. And a little bit heartier than a normal blueberry muffin. And so we've been eating those for breakfast, which makes me feel so proactive, because now there's hardly any breakfast dishes. My life is all about the dishes.

Yeah. Right? You don't even need a plate for a muffin. Nope. Maybe a napkin.

Yeah. And we use cloth napkins.

Mm.

So to reduce waste, but also because you. You can use them for more than one meal, so. And they're, like, very hearty. So you just sort of stand up with your muffin over your napkin.

Exactly.

And then breakfast is done.

You're good. So here's a question. How much. How much Uber eating have we all done in the last, like, since we've been told to stay home or schools have been closed?

We got delivery one time. We have a friend who works for Uber, and he gets credits that he doesn't like to spend because they don't. He likes to make all of his own food, so he sometimes lines us his credit. So we got Froyo delivered one time. That's one time Andy drove to pick up food because he was wanting to get out. But we haven't actually had any dinner delivered, which is extremely significant for our particular household.

We've only gone or to pick up food once, which I guess we've been kind of quarantined a little less amount of time. But, yeah, we have a favorite Mexican restaurant, so that was kind of the first. The first one that we definitely got takeout from, but that's about it. We've kind of been, like, just cooking a lot more, so making a lot more, you know, dishes for ourselves.

But I should say that we do want to support local businesses, and there's a local empanada restaurant that did this thing where they will deliver you a box of 24 frozen empanadas. We went for that.

Okay.

Got to pick all 24 of yours. So it's completely customized, and that has saved our lives so many times.

I didn't. I did notice there was a Mexican restaurant that was selling, like, gallons of margaritas, and I did actually think about that, but I did not. I did not do it, so. But it was tempting.

That's a good idea.

We.

We usually get Uber eats, like, once a week, maybe twice. Like, Friday and then maybe Saturday if we have a bee in our bonnet, we've probably gotten it, like, at least three times a week the last two weeks. And, you know, we. We just will justify it very easily, like, who knows how much longer we can get this Uber eats, so let's just support our local businesses. And also we don't really feel like cooking, so that's been nice. And also in Maryland, evidently the liquor store is an essential business. So those are still open, which I was very concerned about yesterday when the governor said that they were going to close down non essential businesses.

When does that start?

They closed non essential businesses yesterday. So that was March 23rd at 5:00'.

Clock.

Yeah, ours started in San Francisco last Tuesday and then statewide on Saturday. I think I've sort of lost track of the days. I've been trying to. Instead of saying a couple days ago, I've been trying to just exercise my brain and try to remember exactly when things have happened. I don't know why, but we. Liquor stores are not open, but you can get cocktails delivered from bars and restaurants.

Oh, that's so interesting.

Yeah, liquor stores are non essential, I guess, but dispensaries are still open.

Yeah, our liquor stores are still open. I mean, Tennessee has been behind the curve, like, you know, behind most states, but. But yeah, they're still open. And I have also, I mean, gone to pick up espresso beverages from local, like, coffee shops that I like or go to. So they've kind of done like a, you know, pick up your. They'll bring it out to the door for you. Okay.

All right. All right, let's move on to our main topic. Frankie, do you want to introduce it?

I will, yes. So speaking of being at home and doing. Doing things at home. So our topic for. For this episode is a room and a stationary stash of one's own, taken after the famous writing by Virginia Woolf in 1929, in a room of one's own. When she wrote, a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction. So as much of the nation hunkers down during this coronavirus pandemic, these words take on a new significance. We're wondering if you have a room of your own, whether you identify as man, woman, non binary, or. Or another identity, what does that room look like? What kind of stationery is in there to assure maximum productivity? How is this room serving you during remote work? And if you don't have a room of your own at the moment, what does it look like in your dreams?

Okay, we're all in the dreaming boat. Is that correct?

Yeah. Yes, I am, for sure.

All right, Jane, tell us about your dream, your dream room.

Oh, man. Well, I think it would definitely be in terms of aesthetic kind of A modern. Maybe like mid century modern, but also. Also, like, earthy. A lot of wood. I like wood and metal. We need to have probably a really good, like, Persian rug. And I'd really love a velvet couch. And lots of plants. Like, I just love plants, like big tree kind of plants, so, you know, hanging plants, all kinds of stuff. And then art, like, I. I love like, colorful art. So, like, Henry Matisse is one of my favorite artists. So something that's kind of like colorful, a little quirky, that has like, some character and. But also like warmth. So I guess I'm kind of big on aesthetic, so that kind of feel to it. Matisse, Picasso, things like that. In terms of, like. I mean, obviously in terms of books. I tend to be a. Like a poetry lover and reader. So I'm like, really into Mary Oliver, who's a poet. Love Billy Collins. T.S. eliot is a favorite of mine. So just like lots of poetry. And then for sure, music. I mean, I would have to have a good record player and lots of good music, I guess, to name one that's kind of like funky, but just gives an idea of. What I like is Beirut is a group that. I like that. So I would just like, you know, there to be a certain amount of energy, like, with the music and just have that openness and like, of my own, you know, where I can kind of like play my own things and just have that space. But yeah, I'm trying to think. Does that describe some. Some stuff?

Oh, for sure. I feel like I can see it.

I can definitely see the paintings in there.

Yeah, I love. So I have a favorite one. It's like mostly red. Like, when my brother was living in New York, I would go to the. The Museum of Modern Art a lot. So I just. Yeah, like, those paintings or art would. Would be big for me.

Okay. But right now, where you live, like at home, you don't have a home office or like your own space?

I do not know. We. We basically just have bedrooms, which is funny because. Yeah, like, our bedroom is not really. It doesn't have any kind of. I mean, I've picked out certain art, but, like, there's not much else, you know, kind of to make it my own or. Yeah, for sure.

All right, Katie, what does your room look like, real or imagined?

I also don't have my own space. I probably have more of my own space than maybe I should because I. Andy has let me sort of. Oh, gosh, that was a very unfeminist way to phrase that. We have a sort of Agreement.

There you go.

Where most of the time I pick out the stuff that goes in our apartment. We both, we have very similar styles though. We watch a lot of House Hunters and we know that we would never be a good couple for that show because we agree too much. I also am a big mid century modern fan. I have my own desk in our current apartment. Right now it's in the corner of the living room. It used to be in the bedroom, but it got too crowded. And when Andy came to work from home semi permanently, we started having WI fi problems. So we had to move the desk to make it closer to the router. So now I work in the living room, which is a little bit strange, but it's kind of nice because now when I go to sleep at night, I haven't been in the bedroom all day. So it's like a cool shift in my perspective. If I had my own office and an unlimited budget, I would have a really cool like sturdy mid century modern desk. My problem is always that old fashioned desks don't have a lot of cord storage and my current setup has a lot of cords. And I get all these Instagram ads for desks that have no. There's a computer sitting on it, but there are no cords. It's fiction, it's a fantasy desk. So I'm always on the hunt for a desk that will hide the cords and also look pretty. It doesn't look like I an engine, for lack of a better word, an engineer's desk. It's like made of rubber or plastic or something. A real wood desk with some cool lines. My most salient dream involves this chair that I have that was my grandmother's. Not a cute chair. It is currently upholstered in this sort of mauvey flower pattern that is indicative of its previous owner who was an old lady. It has some nice wood on it. I don't know what the style is. I'm not a gray judge of eras of furniture. It's older than mid century modern, just like grandma was. It's probably from the 30s or 40s and it's a very sturdy chair. It's high backed, which I like because I'm a little bit tall and I like to be able to sit back in a chair and have my head still be on the chair and not sort of floating above the back of the chair. It's pretty comfortable. I would love to reupholster it in purple velvet. When Jane said that she wanted a velvet couch, I was really into that. I really want like A sort of statement piece with this chair and purple velvet is where I've landed. I would probably get some kind of a footstool or something to go with it so that when I read, I can put my feet up. Some kind of. I have some kind of light fixture. I really like lamps and some kind of cool reading lamp to go with it. Probably the main stationary objects in my dream office would be books. I really love books. I have a book tattoo on my forearm. It looks like a graduation hat a little bit. It has a bookmark sticking out of it that sort of looks like a tassel. Some people think it's a graduation hat, but it's definitely a book. I also have another tattoo that is a line from a book. I'm kind of a book lady. I'm trying to get into poetry. I've always been a fiction person, and when I was in grad school, I was really into writers, writing about writing. So a room of one's own was definitely part of my regular reading back then. And these days, for April, I'm going to try to read only poetry. We'll see what happens. But basically, books would be the main event in my. In my office. But I do need, for practical purposes, somewhere to keep my cords. And I would probably have to get another chair or some kind of window seat for my cats, because currently this chair that I want to recover is in the corner of our bedroom, and one of my cats sleeps on it all the time. I can't think of the last time I even sat on it. So in order to reclaim this chair, I'm going to have to get somewhere else for him to sleep.

Yeah. They need an alternative space.

Yes.

I should say as you were talking. I did. The vision for the velvet couch for me is definitely like a dark teal, like, green. So just sort of came to me.

Velvet. I really love rich colors in velvet.

Mm.

It's not very mid century modern, but.

Right. No. But, yeah, there's this chair.

So it won't go with my desk, but it'll go in the sense that it is. They're both things that I like.

Yeah.

Okay. All right.

Frankie, what about you?

I don't have my own space at home because we have shoved five of us into a two bedroom apartment. So. So Johnny and I have one of the bedrooms, and then all three of the kids share the other bedroom. So I. If I imagine a room of my own, it really centers around a single piece of furniture, and that is the Pier 1 Papazan chair. You guys know what I'M talking about.

Oh, yes, yeah, okay.

Like it's the big round basket chair with a big round pillow and it sits on a little, like little stand. Kind of looks like a. Kind of looks like a footstool that it sits on. And I have been fixated upon this piece of furniture since I was in the 12th grade. And so I was always sort of awkward kid, just sort of awkward mixed race girl. Like, never totally comfortable in my body or like my hair or my racial identity or whatever, what have you. And so for some reason I had managed to get myself invited over to. To a girl's house after school who was in my class. And she was very popular and she sort of embodied all of this like quintessential American girlhood stuff that felt very outside of my own experience. Like she was very petite and blonde and her family had a lot of money. And I don't know what I was doing there because it was so far outside of my own, you know, every day, whatever. And I remember walking into her room and she had one of these Papasan chairs. And I was like, that's it. You know, I must, I must have one of these chairs one day when I reach adulthood and I have everything figured out. And so the quest to have this chair has followed me from. In every apartment that we've ever moved into. And even the brief moment when we had a house, I was always like, Johnny, I have to have this Papa Zion chair. Like, where are we gonna put this? But it never, it has a rather large footprint and so it never fit into any of the various living spaces that we have ever, ever lived in. And so I still don't have this chair. And I'm almost 40, so whatever this room of my own looks like, like, it doesn't really have to do anything else except fit this chair in it and I'll be happy.

I also thought that chair was really cool when I was in high school. But then I don't know if you ever watched this super cool girl from high school get out of it, but there's no elegant way to remove yourself from such a chair.

No, see, that would have. That would have totally, like, messed up the, like, illusion. I did not see her try to get out of that chair.

It is pretty comfortable. I don't know that it's. It would be comfortable for my current body, but when I was in my early 20s, somebody in my dorm, which is. Makes no sense, there was not room in this person's dorm room for this chair, but she had one. And I would Sit in it. But when you're in your late teens and early 20s, you sit in all kinds of ways that aren't comfortable later, like sideways in chairs with your legs draped across all these ways. I never could sit now, but Pier 1 is going out of business. I'm getting a little nervous about your dreams.

I feel like you should go for it.

But see, if I bought it, where would I put it? That's the problem. I don't have anywhere to put this chair. And we're not, you know, we're not looking at moving anytime soon. So it was especially frustrating when we had, when we were living in the house that we had because, because I remember thinking, I can't believe that we're spending all of this money on this house. And I still can't get this Papazon chair in here because it was like a, you know, it was a city row house. Like it was narrow. So I couldn't get it anywhere in there.

I mean, I don't know if this works during this quarantine time, but I mean, if you knew someone, you could almost like have it at their house and you could go, you know, visit and sit down. Yeah. Visit the chair.

Well, my mother in law now has a she shed which I'm very excited about for her. Johnny helped before all of the having to stay home things started. Johnny helped her clean out a room in their house and put in like a rocking chair from Ikea and some other furniture. And that is her she shed. And that was what made me really think about that as a topic for this, for this episode. Because I thought, well, I have an office at work, but that's not really a room of my own. And I certainly can't put a papasan chair in there because, you know, I surely did try, but it won't fit in there either. Yeah.

Plus the, the sort of relaxation that you need to truly enjoy it can't, at least for me, can't really happen at work. Like wouldn't you, as soon as you got all comfortable in it, wouldn't you think? Well, if I have all this time, shouldn't I just be at home?

Yeah. I mean the work, the work office is, you know, can that really be a room of one's own?

I don't know. Mine definitely cannot. It's usually full of either teenagers or random from trips or things that we're going to do or have done. So.

Yeah. And mine is the principal's office. So it's, you know, it's private insofar as it contains Things that need to be behind a lock. Like it has certain records, it has things that we've confiscated from students that we are holding until we can like, give it back to their parents. But there's also a sort of public nature to the principal's office because that's where you have like parent conferences or teacher meetings or like if somebody just needs a quiet room to have a meeting with a student. Because I'm usually not in my office, they'll usually use my office for that. So it's, you know, it's not a space that I'm really even supposed to be in that much.

What about you, Jane? Are you in your office at work a lot?

I would say a decent amount of the time. I kind of try to work on things sometimes, like outside of my office, which is nice that I can do that some. But yeah, I mean, I'm in there a good bit. I mean, the redeeming thing about my office is that I feel like I could probably survive off of what is in my office because it's just, I mean, you know, there's food and cases of water at times and um, just. Yeah, things from camping trips or, you know, that kind of stuff. First aid kits, like. So, I mean, that's a good thing. But yeah, in terms of like, you know, sometimes productivity or just inspiration and like, things like that, it's not always my best, like place to, to be in. And it's the. The nature of it too is people do come in and out, you know, which is part of my job. But also it's definitely a shared space for sure.

Yeah. When I was teaching college back in Indiana, I had an office that I shared with one other adjunct instructor. And we worked on different days so we didn't really see each other in the office a lot. And we each had our own desks, but it was university issued, Clunky, unattractive furniture. And I wasn't in there a lot because I was always teaching. It was just a place to sort of store my stuff and have meetings with students. But I never really thought of it as my own space. But I did enjoy the fact that I had a door that I could close if I needed to take off my shoes. But I think both of you have furniture that you did not pick out in your offices.

Yes, I do.

Yeah. I have a Franken desk that's like two different desks put together and some of the drawers are falling off and a chair that came from some other place, so. And the furniture was left behind by the principal of the school that used to occupy the building where my school is. And that was a charter school that lost its charter. So that's why we ended up being able to move into the space. And so it, like, my office also kind of functions as this rather ominous reminder, like I'm sitting at somebody else's desk, you know, that, like, you know, you really better do a good job

because it could all be over.

Yeah. This is not forever.

Yeah, I kind of have that in a way, but it's like filing cabinets that were there before me that I seem to try to clean out, and they still just, like, are still there or. I don't know. It's like I try to go through stuff and. But it just doesn't go away. So there are things in my office I feel like are there from 10 or more years ago somehow, even after, you know, there's stuff from just me. But

how long have you been in that position?

Seven years.

Wow.

Yeah.

So even after all that time, it still doesn't feel like it's entirely your space.

Yeah, a little bit. I mean, it feels, you know, more like that now, but. Yes, but there. I do feel like there's still things about it or things in it, you know, that are actually from multiple kind of people before me. So.

Yeah. So it's not really a place where you can really, like, get any writing of your own done, I would guess.

Yeah, no, no. If I. And I do write for my job, but, Yeah, I usually don't there. Yeah. Which is funny because it's my office,

and that is the same for my current situation. If I have a longer form writing, I do some blog post writing for clients. If I have something like that to get done. I usually go out of my apartment, even though everything in my apartment is mine. And I really love this apartment. It's very comfortable. It's the one we've probably decorated the most to reflect our personal style. I love this apartment, which is. I'm extremely grateful for these days because it is the only place I ever am. But sometimes a change of scenery is what I need if I need to focus on something for a long time. So I'll go to the library or to a coffee shop and just put on headphones and listen to French pop music that I don't understand and knock it out. But it's. There's too many distractions at home. There's too many, like, laundry or cats or just other things I could be doing.

Yeah, I have a hard time writing at work, too, because there's always something happening. I mean, that's one of the nice things about working in a school is that it's never, ever, ever boring. There's always something happening that you need to, like, deal with or the, you know, the kids are changing classes again, so you've got to get up and be out there in the, in the hallway for that. But I. And I think Johnny is like this too. I'm a big fan of writing by hand. And so I have actually started having my students do that. I have started doing these in class essays. This semester. I'm teaching one class at my school, and instead of having them write at home and then, like, type it and email it, I've been having them do these in class essays that they have to write by hand. And I just love the tactility of having that, like, stack of crinkly paper that they turn in at the end of class that they've written. And I mean, I personally, I enjoy the quality of the writing more than when they're just like, tapping it out on the computer or on their phones. But that kind of longhand writing, like, I definitely can't get done at work.

I hate writing by hand. Yeah, well, okay, I'm going to back it up. That was dramatic. It's nothing like my relationship with cooking. I do love the shorter things like to do lists. I always write those out by hand. But I just recently tried to. I don't like to use recipes on my phone. I find it extremely clunky. So I wanted to write out this recipe for these muffins before I made it. And I tried to write it out and my hand got tired in the middle because it's so out of practice. So maybe one of these quarantine activities.

Gotta do some hand exercises.

Yes. I was really disappointed. I was dismayed by this process. I was. And surprised by how quickly my hand got worn out.

Your hand strength let you down.

It did. So I. And also my journal writing I thought was going to keep my hand in. In shape, but it turns out writing one paragraph about a book that you've read like, three times a month does not constitute exercise enough. So we have to do something about my hand. So I do like to write some things by hand. I always send my nieces and nephews, like, handwritten cards on their birthdays and that kind of stuff. But that's like three sentences. I know that. Yeah, I've heard that Johnny likes to write things out by hand. And I always think about the strain. I used to try to write things by hand. First, like the first draft when I was in school, and then I. You learn so much about your thought process when you're typing from your first draft that was handwritten. I used to find that if I had time to do that, which I didn't always, because I was kind of a procrastinator, that that was a good process for me. And also when my students would do in class writing, and you can visibly see their thought process because they have to cross things out instead of just delete.

Yep.

That helps you learn a lot about how to help them get better at their writing. So, yeah, that was definitely something that I love to do with my students. What about you, Jane? Do you like to write by hand?

I do actually love to write by hand. Although I will say, like, since having kids, I just, you know, combination of things, but, like, I just have not written as much, but I do love it. And really, all of my, you know, like, undergrad and grad school, like, all of my notes, I didn't really take notes using a computer, like, in school, so. And I mean, I. I also grew up with. So my parents were, like, English teachers and my brother is. And, you know, they would also, like, say, you remember things better when you write it. You know, things like that. So, yeah, I kind of grew up in that. And I do also just like to write by hand, too. So. Yes.

Yeah. I never took notes on a computer ever, either. And I. It probably is generational because I'm 39.

Because we're old.

No, because I'm older than you guys.

Not much more.

No.

I'm 38. But so, no, like, nobody.

When I was in college, there would be, like, that one guy who brought, like, a big brick of a laptop to. To class and then would be typing on it really loudly, and it would be, like, super obnoxious. So that wasn't the norm when I was an undergraduate. Yeah. But the thing that really blows me away these days when I'm teaching my students who are like, 16, 17, 18, is that I'll put up this beautifully crafted PowerPoint that I'm expecting them to take notes on, and then they pull out their phones and take pictures of it.

Yeah.

And I'm like, what. What. What just happened just now? Like, you're supposed to be writing this down and, like, paying attention, but now that you've taken the picture, you kind of don't have to pay attention because you're just going to go back and read it later. Like, that blows me away about this generation.

Yeah. I feel like, the students I work with, too. I mean, and I'm not even in a, like, you know, official kind of classroom setting, so there's even less. Like, Tim and I talk about this a lot between our jobs and stuff too, but so, I mean, they don't even come with paper or we don't. You know what I mean? Like, they only have their phone and everything they do is kind of on their phone. And so just in general, that interaction, I mean, even just communication and talking and interacting and all that kind of stuff too. But there's just a lot of that, like, you know, trying to figure out, like, them doing any of that without their phone, using their phone, like, for it. So. And because that's just. Yeah, it's a totally different way of being almost. But.

Yeah, I don't remember things that I just take pictures of.

Yeah, no, I don't. I don't either.

I will often look at my phone's camera roll and think, what is this even a picture of? So I can't relate to those. To the kids who think that that will suffice for notes.

No. I asked my students about it too. I say, you know, does this actually help you? And, you know, they're very honest, which I love about them. They'll say, you know, I always tell myself, I'm going to go back and look at these notes, but I really don'. And then I say, well, why don't you. Why don't you actually take these notes down in your notebook? And then you might remember just from the act of writing it down. But it's, it's a. The way that they study and the way that they research is so different from the way I did it when I was their age.

And I'm sure it's changed just in the five years since I was teaching. I'm sure it's gotten. I don't want to say worse. I'm sure it's gotten different. I don't want to be one of those people. Yeah, but we'll see. Time will tell. I do kind of miss having a space, an office outside of my home, but most of the time I love working from home.

So you don't find it difficult to. Or do you find it difficult or not to be like, okay, I'm finished working now?

No, I don't find that difficult at all. My co worker is, Is more of a workaholic than I am. I'm actually trying to be more like her. But I'm really good at being done with work. I don't I think I could use a better work ethic, frankly. I am pretty detail oriented and I'm pretty responsible. Like I'm everybody's reliable and dependable friend. If I say I will pick you up from the airport, I will not forget. But when I'm done, even mentally or chronologically, I'm just done. It's a lot easier for me than when I was teaching to be done. I think it could be that marketing is just not as important of a job as teaching. So I just feel like if I haven't finished it by 4:30 or 5, then it'll get done tomorrow. My responsibility is more to my co workers than to the work itself. So if I feel like I'm making someone else's life easier by finishing something, then I will. But otherwise I'm also pretty good at responding to emails right away so that people feel like I'm. My clients feel like I'm there and I'm responsive. And my job as project manager is to triage the incoming information and, you know, figure out who's going to do what and when. And so it's kind of. I'm kind of the one who mitigates that at our company as far as when the workday is over. So I like to take that responsibility seriously. What about you all? Do you have trouble with the balance now that you're working from home?

I totally have trouble with it. I feel like, yeah, I'm listening, like, you know, wanting to kind of take some tips. I don't know. Yeah, because in some ways it's just like this is a whole new thing too. So it's like just kind of trying to learn how to like a new way of doing this. But yeah, so I feel like even just with my job, like things don't always feel completely done most of the time. So you're kind of. I'm kind of like working on things, you know, multiple things kind of at the same time that don't really have like clear like deadlines at times, you know. So yeah, there's a lot of like fluidity and things just like that I'll still keep kind of thinking about. So figuring out how to kind of just break from that is difficult to figure out. And then just. Yeah, the combination of that with like parenting at home and some of it is, you know, I think kind of the ages of kids, like my daughter's three, Lila. So, you know, she kind of wants to be just like right with you all the time, that kind of thing.

So.

Yeah, so I don't know, just those, like, how to do more kind of clear work times or things like that is. I'm still kind of trying to figure out.

Yeah, I've always had trouble with that. And now, you know, for the past five years I've been a high school principal. And that's not a job that ever turns off, like ever. Especially, I mean, not. Not if you're going to do the job. Well, I think so, yeah. I've gotten very used to having to be available to a certain degree at night and on weekends because there may be some sort of emergency that happens. Like if the, if the alarm is going off in the building, then school police will call me and I have to go and, you know, turn it off or figure out why it's going off or there might be like a student who has an emergency or a parent reaches out. And like, I, like, you know, I try, I try to respond to parent emails, like pretty soon after I get them so that the parents don't feel ignored. So it's. I've spent a lot of time, with varying degrees of success trying to put certain parameters around, like how often I'm gonna do work at night. And sometimes I'm good at keeping it, you know, keeping it limited. And sometimes I'm really not good at it.

Yeah, that's the same. Same for me because I'll have students or parents or things like that contacting me and. And you know, I do try to kind of set like certain boundaries, but at the same time, even just in my own, like, I'll be thinking about it, you know, things like that, that I anyway just sometimes be working on stuff when I'm doing other things and. Yeah. Just multitasking when I maybe don't have to at times. But.

Yeah. And then in that case, like, the home office doesn't really need to be like a formal office. Like it's just, you know, the phone. Having the phone on you or sitting on the couch. Sitting on the couch, responding to emails. It doesn't require like something more formal or, and, and two, because I don't want to remove myself from my family. You know, I end up like kind of doing that in the middle of other stuff, which is, you know, it has its pluses and minuses. You know, I'll hear like, my kids will say like, mommy, please put your phone down.

Yeah.

When I know that I. That I'm on it too much.

Yeah. I'm glad I don't have to model good behavior for anyone else. I do definitely, like, yeah, check my Email on my phone a lot because I don't like the pile up of emails. I don't like the red bubble to get out of control. All right, are we wrapping up?

I think so.

Yeah.

Yeah. I feel like this is record time. The guys usually go so late. Well, hopefully a modeling good behavior.

Yeah, hopefully some of the other listeners will have some ideas or suggestions about what their own room of their own in their stationary stash of their own looks like.

Yeah, drop us some ideas in the comments. We'll put links to the things that we mentioned in our show notes. You can't have my grandma's chair, but if I find a purple velvet chair online, I will.

Yeah, you might be inspired to get certain.

And if you are too young to know what the Papasan Chair from Pier 1 is, then I'm sorry for your cultural references, but we will put a link.

Pier 1 might have a spike in purchases.

Yeah, I would love to see some pictures of the Papasan chair in situ with like people who are actually using it because they have a big enough room for this chair. Yes, I will enjoy it vicariously.

All right, well, it's been fun.

So I should. Should I read the sign off?

Yes.

Okay. So on behalf of the Erasable podcast, we will sign off by thanking our supporters. If you would like to become a Patreon, you can visit Erasable Us Patreon P A T like Tom R E O. And thank you to our Patreon producers. Alex, Jonathan Brown, Ann Sipe, Bob Ostwald, Bobby Letzinger, Chris Jones, Chris Metzkus, Chris Ulrich, Dave McDonald, Dave Tubman, Fourth Letter Gangster Hotline. Hans Noodleman, Hunter McCain, Jacqueline R. Myers, Jason Dillon, Jay Newton, Joe Cracey. Excuse me if I said that wrong. John Baynon, Johnny Baker, Kathleen Rogers, Kelton Wiens, Larry Grimaldi, Leslie Touzay, Mary Collis, Measure Twice. Michael d', Alosa, Michael Hagan, Random Thinks. Sarah Hunter, Stuart Lennon, Tana Felice, Terry Beth Ledbetter. And think Travel, Eat. And again, apologies for any mispronunciations there. If you would like to find us on social media, Take it away, Katie and Jane.

I am on Instagram at World Katie. That's W H I R L E D K a T I E. Like a whirl of Katie. Like a whirlpool of Katie. Sorry. I love Instagram. Please come and look at pictures of my cats.

I'm also on Instagram just at Jane Wassem. So that's J a n e W a S e M and there might be, you know, a large amount of pictures of my kids.

Okay, terrific. Frankie does not do social media, so. But the Erasable Podcast does. So where you can find Erasable online at their website, erasable us their Facebook group, www.facebook.com groups erasable their Facebook page facebook.com erasablepodcast and on Twitter and Instagram raceablepodcast.

Do you like our podcast? Most people like our podcast, but if you like our podcast, David will turn it.