the windows 11 updates of life.
an ode to work friends.
Marcelline (our four-year-old daughter) is VERY excited about Christmas. She sings “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” constantly, but of course she gets the lyrics a little wrong. It’s my favorite thing. This is how she sings it:
“You better watch out…
You better watch out…
You better watch out…
You better watch out…
Santa Claus is coming to town!”
Puts a whole new darker tint on the song. 😂 It’s a real threat. Evan and I walk around the apartment now singing this new version to each other.
But maybe Marcelline is a genius oracle, because with this Mercury retrograde I FEEL LIKE I SHOULD HAVE BEEN LOOKING OUT MORE. Last week, I got myself (and KHOL) into the biggest pickle of all time.
It was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. The KHOL office was quiet. Jack, our music director, was going to lunch and then was going to work from home. We hugged and told each other to give love to each other’s partners for the Thanksgiving holiday. I told him I was going to update the on-air computer and he told me not to.
“Don’t do that. You’ll be here all day!”
I didn’t believe him. I hadn’t worked on a PC in decades, but updating from Windows 7 to Windows 11 can’t take too long, right? It can’t break everything, can it?
TWO HOURS later, I had to call Jack.
– Hey, so… How do you get everything to connect back from the Production Computer?
– I KNEW this was going to happen. I’m just going to come back in.
– No, I’m sure I can figure it out on my own!
I couldn’t. Jack came in and we couldn’t figure it out together. It was an IT nightmare. Like many community radio stations, we’re running on some pretty ancient computers and both of the important ones were on the struggles bus. I had broken the connection between our computers, so that the automation wouldn’t work. We could have live DJs, but none of the automated programming was working… going into a long holiday weekend… that all of our staff and DJs were taking off.
I played music and underwriting spots off of my computer while Jack and I tried to figure it out. We called our IT guy, who was on a train, traveling for the holiday, using his phone as a hot-spot, trying to get into our system to figure it out. He sent over another IT guy. That guy called another IT guy. 4pm turned into 5pm which turned into 7pm… I kept apologizing. Jack kept telling me it was okay. I teared up multiple times and Jack would say, “I can see you starting to spin. Don’t spin. It will be okay. What’s done is done and we’ll figure it out!”
7pm turned into 9pm which turned into 9:30pm and the IT guy helping us out had to leave… you know… to go home to his family on the night before Thanksgiving. But just as he was saying he needed to go, Jack had a breakthrough from a clue he followed to figure it all out. It worked! We knew what we had to do! We had kind of fixed it. All we had to do now, was relink an ENTIRE music and news library.
It was tedious work, but there was an end in sight. I found a bottle of wine and popped it open and put on some Neil Young and Tom Petty and Willie Nelson over the KHOL airwaves and Jack and I relinked all of the files while just talking. We talked about life. We talked about friendships. About work. About how we both have followed the “woo” signs in life to be where we are today. It felt so much like the episode of Parks and Rec where Leslie and Ron are locked in the office overnight and are tasked with becoming friends again…
(except Jack and I weren’t in a fight… except for maybe the one I had started ten hours earlier by updating the computer to Windows 11.)
These days, I’m noticing and appreciating friendships and relationships that aren’t traditionally celebrated. So I’d like to raise a glass (rather, a plastic cup we found in the closet) filled with found red wine to the work friends! The friends who are down in the trenches with you when things go sideways at the office. The people who are down to grab lunch or coffee together or will pat you on the back at the coffee shop and say they’re sorry when you tell them how hard things have been lately. The colleagues who let you read them their horoscope every day, even though they don’t believe in astrology one bit. I am so grateful for these friends. I am so grateful for Jack.
As the 10pm hour ticked by, Jack and I continued to link the computer files in the DJ booth and talked about tragic ski accidents we both had and about our families and about hard things. Then Jack told me about a time that his mom punctured her lung.
– Oh my god! Your poor mom!
– Yeah, and it was kind of my fault.
– I’m sure it was not. What happened?
And, looking at the computer, clicking files, told me…
– Well… I tried to update her to Windows 11.
And I laughed hard. And Jack said,
– See! We’re already laughing about this.
We finished everything at 10:45pm. Tested it. It worked. We high-fived. We walked out of the building into the cold and dark. I hugged him again and apologized profusely and thanked him over and over. The next day (Thanksgiving), Evan and I went to Jack’s home and dropped off a pumpkin marble cheesecake (Diane’s recipe) I made as thanks.
I’m so grateful for this friendship. May you have someone in your life, in your workplace that can be there for you through all the Windows 11 Updates of life.
Quick Hits:
Jam of the Week: Sexy to Someone – Clairo.
(I love weird little poppy videos/songs by women.)
I Did Not Foresee Spending My 40th Birthday In SLC…
(but that is what’s happening! what a line-up! see you there?)This Post Is GOLD.
(the comments are incredible. I commented about our wedding. spoiler: there were bears there.)
CACKLED At This.
(it’s so accurate… except instead of my parents referencing my brother… they would reference Evan… my husband… who can do no wrong in their eyes.)I’m Obsessed With This New Merch.
(we updated the colors and materials and they’re perfect now.)
Speaking Of KHOL Love!
(Jackson! I hope to see you tonight at the Virg.)
This Is Beautiful.
(more of this in my life, please. [me talking to me.])
(so many whirlpools in Diane and Dave’s above-ground pool.)
DJ Friends, I Have Some Requests.
(another one.)
(🤣🤣🤣)
Yes, this Messayist was supposed to come out on Tuesday. I feel like I’m still recovering from the Windows 11 Update and then a few more Windows 11 Updates of life. Thank you for being here and thank you for being patient with me. You’re the best.
xxo,
rachel.
Oh gosh! I hope Windows 11 serves you and KHOL well.