… what goes through the minds of people who’ve never (at least not for any length of time) held a regular nine-to-five job in any profession, when they think of what goes on during the day for those who’ve only ever had such jobs. I’d imagine from the number of personal communications that come through from my self-employed friends and acquaintances during normal work hours, via e-mail, texts, social media and/or smoke signals, that they think it’s quite like television where people sit around chatting about their personal lives. Maybe there’s an occasional interruption to do some task or another, and then it’s back to chit-chat and witty office repartee.

I’m not angry. I know I should feel fortunate to have people who reach out to me, but let me present an inventory of just one friend’s outreach:

• A note saying simply that they have the worst headache and good morning how are you.
• A music video.
• An article about the album that the song is from.
• An interview with the songwriter from the band who wrote the song.
• An unrelated music video.
• An article about Donald Trump.
• An article about protests in Israel.
• Two memes in two separate texts an hour apart.
• A text asking if I’m busy today.
• An article about sports.
• Another music video for yet another band I’ve shown zero interest in.

I shit you not.

Am I flattered? Yes.

Am I appreciative? Not really.

This isn’t just one person either (well, the list above is). It just really makes me wonder how people think us nine-to-five sorts spend our days.