Does what happens during a Zoom meeting stay in a Zoom meeting?

For many of us, the coronavirus reality will have some memories of: “6 feet apart or 6 feet under”, “the toilet paper panic” and– you may have found yourself entering the world of video conference calls.

Years ago as a child I used to watch the Wonderful World of Disney every Sunday night without fail. Walt was always full of surprises, and one evening in the 70s he showed his viewers a telephone that one day would show the caller’s image while talking. Sure enough he was right, but what he didn’t prophesize is how everyone’s live image would adding a continuous element of self awareness. In fact each time I am on a Zoom meeting I remember the old popular TV show Hollywood Squares and am grateful I am not Paul Lynde the centre square.

Disney’s telephone models were career gals dressed to the nines even though we could only see them from the waist up. You knew they were not looking like they had just been a cast member from Survivor or the film Castaway. So what do you wear to a Zoom meeting? The good news is you only have to dress the upper half of your body as it’s really what’s showing above the desk that counts, and pants are optional.

I try to look halfway decent, but again I am dressed from the waist up and no one is really asking me if I have underwear on that day. With me, you get what you see, but since I began attending Zoom meetings I have never really looked at my face for such an extended amount of time. For the first time I have noticed that I do have reminders of my past strokes on my face. I can see how the left side of my lip droops. In reality I never noticed that before Zoom meetings and sometimes I find myself trying to adjust my lips throughout the meeting with no success. No one notices though. But, maybe they have and are just too polite to say anything. Most people have “resting coffee faces” on Zoom, so my lip droop just adds to the expression list.

I never think about what I am going to wear at a Zoom meeting. This morning I got ready in 5 minutes flat. I threw a mesh jacket over my PJS and topped it with one of my hats and necklaces. If people only knew. I was wearing bright and happy on the top and cozy on the bottom thanks to Hanes. Yes, Hanes.

Of course some feel they don’t need to see the other participants so they put up a virtual background of landscape, or Hogwarts, or just their name. They figure it’s nobody’s business to see the clutter on their desks or have people in the community gossip how bad they look in Zoom meetings. Some adjust their lighting for their best look, and I wonder if my five burnt out lights in the kitchen make me look better with dimmed lighting? Sometimes I wish someone would just upload a photo of their clean living room to give me some inspiration.

Does anyone notices the crumbs of my mini Ritz crackers I am munching on? What if I suddenly choke while drinking water if it goes down the wrong way? One thing is for sure– after a couple of months of no hair dye the top of my head I sport the same hair colour tones as a Yorkshire Terrier or maybe more like Big Foot.

Casual Fridays have reached a new level on Zoom and every day seems to be just another day, and another Zoom meeting. I just wish I had been clever like Walt Disney to realize all this was going to really happen– that and have the notion to buy stock in Lysol Wipes and Charmin’ or Cottonelle. I guess I just didn’t wish upon a star hard or long enough to know what was coming. None of us did.