I started Not Boring during COVID, when there was no choice but to work from home.

When our lease expired that June, and we were pregnant with Dev, and I had quit my job right before a global pandemic and decided to write a newsletter for free, we moved in with Puja's parents in New Jersey. Every day -- 7 days a week -- I would get up, go to Wawa (masked) to get coffee, come back, and head to the unfinished basement to read and research and write. I'd emerge for family dinner, and then, usually, head back down. I was earning a historically low hourly rate, but I loved it.

Writing started, somehow, against all odds, to pay off, so after nine great months in New Jersey, baby in tow, Puja and I were able to move back to Brooklyn, into a townhouse. I couldn't get over that, how funny it was, that writing a newsletter in a basement turned into enough money to rent a townhouse. The internet, man. The place was big enough that I could just work from here. Plus, it was 2021, and people weren't really going back yet.

I thought life with a baby was hard. I wrote about it on Dev's first birthday. But one kid was so easy. I had a whole office to myself! I got to work from home and whenever I wanted to, I could go into the next room and play with the little man, which was the greatest thing in the whole world and I am eternally grateful that I was able to do that.

Then Maya came. August 2022. Two kids is way more work than one. And, when Maya was old enough to stop sleeping in our bed with us, we began to share an office. My desk was still in there, but so was her pack n' play, and for the past two years, I've waited until she wakes up (ideally around 6:30am) to use my office, and evacuated it promptly at 6:30pm.

But still, whenever I wanted to, I could go into the next room and see my two kids. Whenever I went to the bathroom, I could give them a quick hug. It was frustrating at times, but it was awesome. Again, I'm eternally grateful.

Now, though, five years after the start of the pandemic, which means almost five years since the start of Not Boring, it's time. Maya needs her own room. I need my own office, and an excuse to get out of the house and run into people and do more of the in-person stuff where the real magic lives.

WFH, especially in my kids' first few years, was a gift. This next chapter will be, too.

I spent the day setting up my office. It is tiny, so there's not a lot to set up. But I love it. It used to be a Breather space when I worked at Breather, when there was a Breather, the smallest on the whole network of very small spaces. It feels like home.

Meanwhile, Puja spent the day making the kids' rooms perfect. When I got home from the office, they were so excited to show me. They were so excited to see me.

I'm going to miss being able to go into the next room at any point in the day and seeing the kids. But that was going away anyway, they have school and activities and friends.

It was cool to get to experience a little preview today: we might not spend all of our time locked up in the same place anymore, but I think it's going to make the time we do get to hang even more special.