A Day in the Life

So this post is definitely inspired by a blogger event hosted recently by Trish at Love, Laughter, and a Touch of Insanity. The basic gist is that bloggers would capture notes about a regular day in their lives as a way of connecting more in the blogger community. I was out of the loop and missed participating in the event, but thought I’d record a day anyway. (Partly, this is stalling as I’m currently reading a very long book and don’t have any other books to review.) The day I picked to record was yesterday, Thursday, April 2nd.

6:45am – After spending a while listening to news on the radio (which is what I wake up to), I finally get out of bed. I take a quick shower (not a hair-washing day), iron my dress pants, open the blinds for my plants, among other routine tasks. As I move about the apartment, my cat Bean sits and stares at me, as if in judgment. This is a normal part of my mornings.

I go to pack my lunch, and realize I’m out of bread. Fortunately, I have a cold smoked mozzarella pasta salad I treated myself to from Whole Foods, and so I put some of that into a smaller container to take with me. I also add tortilla chips and one of those individual snack-size guacamole tubs to my lunch bag, which doesn’t pair especially well with the pasta salad, taste-wise, but that’s what I’ve got.

7:19am – Leave apartment much earlier than normal mornings because I need to go get my blood drawn at a lab as the second part of my routine physical. I had eaten something the actual morning of my physical two weeks ago, and so couldn’t get the blood drawn then as it requires a preceding fast of twelve hours.

7:24am – Arrive at lab. Two vials of blood drawn expertly (the woman who performed it cheerily said afterward “you’ve been served!”).

7:33am – Leave lab. Realize on drive to work that the commute is uncommonly good because it is spring break for the county school system.

8:00am – Arrive at my desk at work. Normal arrival time is usually 8:30 to 9:00 so I feel really good. Pregnant co-worker stops by to share the latest work news, looking fabulous in a black maternity dress. I tell her so. Co-worker: Yeah, this is pretty much what I’ll be wearing all summer. Other, more heavily pregnant co-worker is pulled into the conversation, and they both discuss the weird pregnancy dreams they have been having.

9:50am – Go to use the bathroom only to find that it is closed and it appears that it is being taken apart – dispensers are all on the floor, etc. I keep walking and run into a coworker who tells me that our bathroom may be closed the rest of the day. I go up a floor but that bathroom is also closed, and I wander down the hall on that floor and finally find a open bathroom. Feel sorry for pregnant co-workers.

On return to my desk, I briefly check my personal email and see that my church’s secretary replied to a hasty email I had sent the night before. She lets me know that my emailed submission of the handbell choir’s song title wasn’t too late to make it into the Easter Sunday bulletin. I get back to work.

11:08am – A weekly meeting that I thought had been canceled turns out to be back on. I summon my work-twin (we have the same position and are sometimes treated as the same person. We accept this.) and we go into the conference room. We are there to discuss issues related to the new system we started using a few months ago. We haven’t properly had this meeting for a couple of weeks and have been saving up. Meeting doesn’t end until 12:22pm.

12:40pm – Eat lunch while doing some data quality work.

1:10pm – Work-twin and I go for a walk outside. It is sunny, not cold, but very windy. Among other topics, we lament the despairingly high cost of houses in the D.C. metro area.

1:40pm – Return from walk. Go on to have a very productive afternoon, which continues what has been a very productive week, which may or may not be related to the fact that there have barely been any meetings. I make a lot of strides on projects that had been regrettably on the back-burner up until now.

4:05pm – Leave work.

4:30ish – Arrive home. After I’ve parked and turned off the car, my cat jumps to the windowsill and offers more looks of judgment and meowing that I cannot hear. I suspect she does this for anyone who pulls up to the apartment building, but I like to pretend she knows it’s me.

 

After compulsory rounds of email, Facebook and blogs, I engage in minor tidying-up tasks: putting away dishes, washing others; attacking the paper detritus on the table. Sorting through the detritus reveals several mailed requests for donations. I do write out a check for one of them: my local volunteer fire department. I feel particularly moved to do so as they responded to my apartment several weeks ago when some wires burned in the electrical closet.

As I do these things, I listen to Reading the End’s bookcast (with Gin Jenny and Whiskey Jenny), episode 36. Also, because my feet are cold, I wear my T-Rex/Godzilla slippers.

6:05pm – Finish off the last of a large salad I had made a couple of days ago. It’s still pretty good, though it is clear it wasn’t going to hold up much longer. I also steam some store-brand potstickers in the microwave for the rest of my dinner.

6:40pm – Leave to go to church for Maundy Thursday service.

6:55pm – Arrive at church. The service is thoughtfully led, but I can’t seem to get quiet inside, and feel distracted.

8:00pm – Service ends. I stay after for a late choir rehearsal. Before we start, a card is passed around for a choir member who recently had a baby (his second). We are rehearsing our piece for Easter, which is the first movement of Vivaldi’s Gloria. Everyone seems a little tired.

9:05pm – Leave church. Listen to the Stars’ “Lights Changing Colours”. (Now realize that the lyrics kind of work for Maundy Thursday.)

9:30pm – Arrive home. Last rounds with email, social media, etc.

10:04pm – Turn off computer. Get ready for bed.

10:34pm – In bed. Read a chapter of Taylor Branch’s Pillar of Fire.

11:00pm – Lights out.

**This was one version of a typical day for me. My other version, when I don’t have anything going on in the evening, involves a lot more internet and Roku.