Nicky The Good

Work for me is very different nowadays. Pretty much with the exception of Covid I’ve always worked in an office setting. I’ve been a cube monkey my entire life. The commute to NYC is something I’ve mastered going back to my days as a 22 year old Assistant Media Planner in Soho.

I worked at an Ad Agency, hated my life and spent 16 hour days locked in a square box with my co-workers. I didn’t like the job, in fact I hated it, however if there’s one thing I loved doing, it was shooting the shit with co-workers. No matter what, I’d figure out a way to make it tolerable. The work was secondary in my eyes. The goal was go get through the day and try to have as much “fun” as possible. Needless to say, I enjoyed being around people. I figured if we’re gonna see each other this much out of the week, we might as well enjoy each other’s company. I took a lot of trips to the kitchen to drink some stale columbian coffee.

Fast forward to 2024 and I find myself in a fully remote job. I work alone in my house. I don’t talk to anyone unless it’s on Twitter or through a Zoom screen. Recently I’ve grown a little bit tired of my surroundings and knew it was time for a change of scenery. I thought long and hard about where to go. I went to the “coffee shops” and after a while I just felt like a part of the place. I felt like my body was growing into it. Same people, everyday, but you never talked to anyone. You might as well be alone.

This lead me to think outside the box. Where could I go that has wifi, but also has a variety of shit that could keep me entertained and/or stimulated?

Then it hit me … how about a place with endless stores, a food court and the ability to people watch on any given day.

Enter, the mall.

Yep, for the last few weeks, after I picked my up daughter from school I’ve been ducking into the mall by my town, parking myself at a different store front each day and knocking out work. It’s really not that bad. In fact, it’s surprisingly private.

The food is also great. Now instead of looking in my pantry, I’ll roll over to the food court and see which franchises are still serving samples. That’s another thing covid fucked up. A lot of these spots got away from free samples. But that’s another time, another blog. Let’s stay on topic. Sometimes you’re not looking for anything in particular to munch on, you just need a quick bite of bourbon and orange chicken on your way to Spencer Gifts.

If I haven’t convinced you yet, what if I told you the wifi is super reliable? I’m talkin’ top fucking notch. You don’t have to worry about “outages” in your area when you’re at a mega mall. They can’t afford that to happen. When you’re at the mall, you got all 4 bars with the speed of a cheetah.

And the best part? Errands are never a problem. You need something? It’s there. You’re in the fucking mall.