There are days when I sit down at my computer at 7am and don’t leave until 7pm. Yes, I make about 20 runs to the refrigerator and three or four trips to the bathroom, but by and large, I am at the computer all day long. These long stretches of time usually take place in one of three places: our NY co-op, our Miami condo, or our office in the Flatiron District of Manhattan. During the recent hurricane, I worked even longer hours in my living room. I had so much to do that I literally worked around the clock except for five or six hours of sleep. I didn’t leave my apartment from Sunday before the hurricane to the following Saturday.

It occurred to me last weekend that I was truly living a virtual life. If I wanted to, I could go days without speaking to anyone. Just type, type, type. My work requires me to answer a few hundred emails a day about the products and services we represent. Then I spend many hours on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram, talking to the media, strategic partners, promotion directors, event management groups, advertising and marketing folks, suppliers, freelancers, and staff. At the end of the day, I have jumped from topic to topic while making commitments, promises, and even more appointments. My notes have notes, and if I transcribe them right away, I might be able to remember what I wrote down. Sometimes I have to play a game which I call, “Guess what word that chicken scratch is.”

The first thing you learn when you enter the digital world is that you ditch all of the paper, pens, and pencils you own. You never write down a thing. Everything is recorded digitally so you have easy access to it anywhere in the world. That is the whole point about working virtually. Your entire office is in your computer and smartphone. I can’t quite make the transition complete. I am still taking notes on a pad and transcribing them later on my “Things To Do” List. Recently, I tried typing all of my notes right into “Word” or a “Task” app only to discover that once I filed my notes, I never wanted to open them again to see what I needed to accomplish. Somehow paper is not as intimidating.

In any case, I am spending so much time alone that I often wonder if there is someone else on the other end. It could just be a machine that spits out appropriate answers to me every few minutes. Talk about being paranoid. When you are alone for extended periods of time, you kind of drum up all kinds of nonsense.

I also reminded myself that my virtual world is my own little secret community. I am the only one that speaks to this group, day in and day out. These are my unconditional digital friends that count on me to be at my computer most of the time so we can dish on any topic we want, when we want. While all of the members in my virtual group are business related, that doesn’t mean we don’t get personal. People share all kinds of things online that they probably wouldn’t tell another living soul if they had to see him or her face to face. We can hide behind our keyboards.

Living and working virtually gives you great freedom to associate with people you never would have become friendly with offline. I connect with people from their teens to their 90s. We have great dialogues that go on for months. Most of the time, people are very consolatory, but every once in a while tempers flare and then you get scolded in CAPS. The strangest thing about the virtual world is when you actually meet in person. You realize that the world you build when you are sitting in front of your computer comes from your own imagination. Now suddenly, you have to deal with all the physical stuff. You are no longer in control. Everyone else is.