Amber loves the fact that she can do her job from anywhere — in the past, she and her laptop circled the globe, working remotely from wherever her wanderlust guided her. These days, she has a different routine. Like the rest of her office, Amber works from home — and she’s discovering that she loves some of the perks that come with working out of a home office, especially now that her girlfriend, Bryn, is working remotely from home, too.
Here’s how Amazon Pay — a speedy payment method that requires no sign-up and no new passwords — can make it easier for Amber to get through her workday, and plan a fun getaway for her and Bryn at the same time.
About Amber, the adventurous shopper
Age: 36
- Priorities: Lifestyle, personal and others’ satisfaction
- Influences: Trends, reviews, targeted emails and other promotions
- Drivers: Good deals and discounts
- Barriers: Cost of items and shipping options; no brand loyalty
Amber’s Diary — Tuesday
9am: Waking up
I’m getting a little bit of a late start this morning. Usually, I’m not that worried about when I roll into work — I’ve never been much of a morning person, and now that I work from home, I can set my own hours — but today is a little bit different. Bryn’s coming over! I know I saw her on Sunday, which was only two days ago, but still, I miss her. Since her workday starts promptly at 10 a.m., I invited her over a little early so we could have breakfast together before she has to dive in.
But when I walk into the kitchen, I realize that the unthinkable has happened: I’m dangerously low on coffee. How did I let this happen? Thankfully, it’s enough for a full pot. I ask Alexa to turn on the coffee maker, and “play the news from NPR,” and while it’s brewing and the BBC news hour is blasting in the kitchen — and I’m stewing in frustration — I pick up my phone to scroll through Instagram. I’m not a coffee snob, but I do really care about my morning cup (make that cups) of coffee. While I’m scrolling, I notice an ad for Red Bay Coffee. They seem interesting: A company committed to fair and sustainable coffee production. And the best part is they’re local! When I get to their website, I realize that I could get a weekly subscription. That would save me from ever running into this problem again. Without missing a beat, I check out with Amazon Pay and before I know it my coffee supply is on its way. Caffeine crisis averted.
9:30 a.m: Bryn arrives
I don’t usually make such a big deal about Bryn coming over to work — she does it all the time. But I want today to go well because her birthday is tomorrow, and I’m planning to surprise her this morning with an early present. When she arrives, I realize that I’m actually too excited for her to take off her coat. I hand her the present the second she walks in the door. She unwraps it to find the Adventure Challenge’s Couples Edition, a scrapbook with 50 date-night ideas and activities that we can do together. It’s exactly the kind of thing that Bryn loves — she’s always trying to get us to do crafts and activities together.
I tell her that I got the idea from our friends who posted about it on Valentine’s Day — I didn’t hesitate, I just ordered it. Bryn gets so excited that she asks if we can do it tonight when we get off work. Who am I to refuse?
10 a.m.: Working side by side
The minute the workday starts, Bryn puts on her headphones so that she can get down to business without being distracted by me. They look really nice. Even though we’re sitting right next to each other at the kitchen table I send her a text and ask her, “hey, are those new?”
She looks over at me and smirks. “There Sony’s! Now stop distracting me,” she said. Noise-cancelling headphones won’t work around me. I silently laugh while I look them up: Sony WH-1000XM4 Wireless Noise Canceling Over-Ear Headphones (Black). I notice that for some reason they’re on sale! A part of me wonders if I should wait until Bryn is taking a break so I can try them on for myself, but then I think, I can always return them if I don’t like them. Plus, two-day shipping is free, which means they’ll get here before the week is over. I breeze through checkout again with Amazon Pay. Feeling accomplished, I jump into work.
1p.m.: Lunch
We’re both hungry but we have no idea what we want to eat. As we raid the fridge, Bryn’s so surprised how I can have so much food, but none of it seems to add up to a meal. I just like snacks! It’s honestly the reason that we work here and not at her place. Bryn has a much nicer apartment than mine, but I have better snacks, and I’m always mixing it up.
These days, I’ve become pretty addicted to Schoolyard Snacks. I find their crunchy keto sugar-free cereal snacks are the perfect thing for those stressful, low-blood sugar moments of the afternoon. They are packed with protein and are totally addictive — it’s a good thing that they’re only 100 calories a bag. Bryn pops open a cocoa Schoolyard Snack and tells me that she’s craving raspberries. “Alexa,” I ask, “Add raspberries to my grocery list.”
Before we know it, we’ve added 10 different kinds of fruit to our grocery list, and are daydreaming about smoothies and juices. We’re convincing each other that the thing that would really up our work-from-home game is if I got a juicer. I can picture it clearly: Balancing my day with a deliciously pressed juice. I’ve actually always wanted a juicer — ever since I dated a vegan in college. While we’re talking, I pull up the NutriBullet 800W Juicer on my phone, and before our conversation is done, it’s on the way.
It’s almost enough excitement to make us forget that we still haven’t figured out what to have for lunch.
3:30 p.m.: Taking a break
Bryn is on her second Schoolyard Snack of the day — cocoa again — so I decide its time to reorder. This time, instead of getting two flavors, I’m going to get four. If Bryn likes the cocoa so much, maybe she’ll enjoy the cookies and cream. That reminds me: “Alexa,” I ask, “Where’s my stuff?” I’m curious about whether or not the Chirp Wheel 3-Pack I ordered is going to arrive today. Bryn and I are both tired of working at the kitchen table. It’s hurting our backs, and we need to find better ways of stretching. It’s out for delivery! It should get here by the end of the day. Just knowing that the Chirp Wheel is on the way has our backs feeling relieved.
We do a couple of stretches and I ask Alexa to put on my work from home playlist — time to get into the zone to finish out the day.
6:30 p.m.: Dinner and dessert
The moment we’re done for the day, we start thinking about dinner. Bryn still doesn’t trust my cooking, with good reason, so we decide we’ll pick up an order for the Vietnamese place a few blocks away. After being cooped up all day it’s nice to get out. When we come back from dinner, we decide to do our first Adventure Couples Challenge. I enjoy leaving some things to mystery, so let’s just say, it was really sweet (yes, that’s a hint), and one of us had to wear a blindfold!.
10 p.m.: Cuddling on the couch
The Adventure Challenge tuckered us out, so we lay on the couch and dreamed about what adventures we could go on — maybe we could do some safe travelling, like backpacking or camping, in the spring. It would be fun to be digital nomads for a while, working from whatever internet we could find near our campsites. We make a little tea, and sweeten it with Zach & Zoe’s raspberry honey, while we dream. Bryn jokes that if she couldn’t have raspberries, at least she could have honey that tasted like them.
While I’m scrolling Instagram, an ad pops up for the Roofnest Sparrow, a car roof top tent that I could put on top of my station wagon. This would be the perfect thing for travelling this spring! I show it to Bryn to ask her what she thinks. It’s a little pricey, but if I pay for it in installments then the money that’s coming in can help cover it. This will totally help fulfill our dreams of being digital nomads. Bryn thinks it sounds exciting — and tells me to do it. I buy it just before we fall asleep, dreaming about what we could bring on our road trip.
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