A Day in the Life: What It's Like to Be Me On an Average Tuesday

I've seen a few of these "day in the life" posts swirling around the blogosphere lately, & I thought it might be fun to do one myself.

Why Tuesday? I don't know, why not Tuesday? Truthfully, the bulk of my days look pretty bland: I work from my kitchen table or from a coffee shop for, like, hours on end. Then again, I guess most days look like this for people who go into offices for their jobs, too. We spend so much damn time at our computers...

Anyway.

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9:15am: I wake up late - as usual. My coworkers all work together in an office in Manhattan, & they work a standard 9-to-5. I, on the other hand, usually get a little bit of a late start & work more of a 10-to-6. When you consider that I don't have any in-person coworkers or office activities to distract me, it evens out to the same amount of work - sometimes even more, because it's not uncommon got me to lose track of time & forget to stop working! I check social media first thing in the morning (a bad habit, I know) & answer some work emails before starting the day.

9:20am: I spend a couple minutes petting this handsome dude, who's been grumpy lately because he can't sit in the windows & sniff the outdoors. We recently installed window AC units, which have been a godsend, but they mean closed windows, which means I've got a whiny cat. Morning cuddles help.

 

9:30am: I eat a Balsamic Fig & Hazelnut Curate bar for breakfast & get ready for the day pretty quickly: no shower today, just sunscreen, concealer, foundation, & mascara. And then, because I'm dressed entirely in black & white, I decide it'll be a bright lipstick kinda day. I swipe on Bite Amuse Bouche in Radish, my favorite color of the moment. I hate wearing my hair up, but it's looking a little (OK a lot) raggedy today, so I try something new: an awkward braid over my right shoulder. Um, I should probably learn to French braid? Whatever, this will do for now.

9:50am: After answering a few more emails from home, I head to my favorite coffee shop, which is a whopping half a block away from my apartment. I order my summer usual - a large iced coffee, sweetened, with a little bit of soy milk & am served by one of my favorite baristas, a hipster witch from Massachusetts who always lets me put the milk in myself so the proportions are to my liking. At $1.75, this is a much cheaper option than Starbucks, which is good news for my wallet, given the amount of time I spend here.



12:06pm: I have a weekly check-in meeting with my supervisor that I completely forgot about - though, in my defense, that's only because I was concentrating really hard on a big project. We talk work for about 10 minutes, catch up for another 10, & then call it a day. It's a short week - HR gave us this Friday and next Monday off for Independence Day! - so nobody wants to do more work than necessary. (PS: I gave up on the braid & embraced my dirty hair. Whateverrrr.)



12:40pm: Mike is working from home today, too, which means he's at the coffee shop with me. We live so close to it that at lunch time, I leave my stuff at the cafe & run home; when I get back, we'll trade off & I'll watch his stuff while he gets something to eat. I'm trying to be healthier, so today's lunch is simple: a few slices of Brie with a mix of almonds & dried cranberries (literally all purchased at Trader Joe's). The coffee shop doesn't allow outside food, but I put together a tiny bag of snacks to sneak in with me: a sliced pear, some banana chips, & a juice box.

2:30pm: After a couple more hours of work, I go for a quick walk around Lincoln Park, which is right around the corner from the coffee shop. Today, I spot some chalk drawings along the way. Working from home, it's nearly impossible for me to hit the American Heart Association's recommended 10k steps per day, but I've set my FitBit to 6k & am trying like hell to hit it on a more regular basis. It's .5 miles around the park, which isn't much, but every little bit helps! Sometimes I'll circle it three or four times, when I've got the time - & I know, I need to start making the time.

3:50pm: I'm getting reaaaaally antsy. I love my job, but sitting all day is the pits! Wait, have I ever even told you what I do? I'm a social media & community manager for a large Jewish nonprofit. I spend my days writing, editing, soliciting, & publishing content & then packaging it for social media & other promotional outlets, & I hop on a few video calls a day (which is always slightly awkward to do in public). It's a great gig, but it's a lottttt of sitting in front of a computer screen, so by this time every day, I start to get cabin fever.

6:00pm: It's farmers market day, so I pack up my laptop, leave the coffee shop, & head back to the park, where all the tents are set up. Today looks different, though: half the usual tents, plus a batch of new ones & some weird little sound stage. Apparently a bunch of teens are putting on a singing/dance recital telling the history of American music, which includes performances of "Funkytown," "Brick House" (mildly inappropriate), "I Love Rock 'n' Roll," & "Formation." I eat three pierogis & then realize that Tremont West is passing out free hot dogs, so, um, I eat one of those, too, & watch the show for a bit.

7:45pm: Mike & I head to Great Lakes Brewing Company in Ohio City, where a few of our friends do trivia night every Tuesday. We haven't been for awhile, but last time we were there, our team won. Can we do it again tonight? The quizmaster, who is lovely but new, has a very difficult time pronouncing our team name, Bend it Like Reykjavik, which draws lots of quizzical (no pun intended) looks from the other participants. So much for our jokes! We console ourselves with Holy Moses White Ale, my new GLBC favorite, & an order of soft pretzels with beer cheese soup for dipping. (OK, I'm not doing great at the healthiness thing today...)

10:30pm: Trivia took longer tonight than usual, in part due to the new quizmaster & some technical glitches. But we won! We pose for our victory photo, & our friend Seth pockets the prize, a GLBC gift card - to be used for beers at future trivia nights, of course.

11:15pm: It's laaaaate by the time we settle into bed. I usually do a little bit of reading before bed (right now I'm working through Elizabeth Gilbert's Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear), but I decide I'm too tired for it tonight. Blessedly, I fall asleep fast & stay asleep fairly well, a rarity these days. Bring it on, Wednesday!

What does your average day look like?