Monday, August 26, 2013

A Day in the Life of Me

I've been trying to find a day that is semi-normal.  That I'm doing at least something consistent that I do every day but besides waking and going to sleep (only to some extent) I rarely have had a typical day this year.  Working killer amounts of overtime will do that to do I guess...and selling a house, moving into an apartment, buying a house, moving into said house....the list never ends.

So what follows is a "typical" day in the life.  I'm breaking from norm and not following a single day but Doing A mash up of my days.  And actually life has recently gone back to normal only in anticipation of in completely changing again.  So without further adieu, a day in the life.

5:30 am  
The alarm on my phone goes off.  How is it morning already?  I browse facebook (a lot happens after I go to bed at night) and delete all the 'spam' from my email while laying in bed and trying to wake up.  The light from the phone helps.  My friends think it's funny I reply to all kinda of things at 530am as opposed to midnight like they do.
Goodmorning

5:35-6 am
I don't believe in the snooze button.  Never have and never will, not even in college.  If I'm gonna hit the 5 minute snooze 3 times, just set the alarm for 15 minute later.  Snooze sleep is worthless anyways.  If I wake up naturally within 15 minute of my alarm going off I just get up because otherwise that semi-sleep isn't worth it to me.

Now that I'm off that tangent.  This time is me getting ready for work.  Mostly just standing in the bathroom half that time still trying to wake up.  I don't like to shower in the morning because then I have to blow dry my hair which I prefer not to do, I have enough split ends without ever using a blow dryer.  So the morning is really just washing my face, putting on some basic make-up and getting dressed.

6 am
Head downstairs and grab my lunch from the fridge.  Make sure I have my purse, wallet, phone, work computer bag and anything else I may need that day (like a gym bag).

6:10 am
Heading out the door.  Make sure I have parking money (it's never fun to pay in quarters) and get the stereo set.  My commute can take anywhere from 30 minutes (when I leave early like now or any time before) to 45 minutes (typical traffic if it's busy) to 2 hours (when there is a lot of snow or accidents).

One bonus of working so early I get to see beautiful skies every day (PS: Don't take pictures and drive).

7 am
By this time I've walked into the office from the parking deck.  It's a small lot (the cheapest) about 2 blocks from my office.  Sit down and power up the computer.  Usually just 1 or 2 other people are in at this time.  In my office people come in anywhere between 6 am (yes I was doing this for a long time) and 9:30/10 am.

From here on out I do different things every day depending on how far along a project is.  I'm a civil engineer.  I design roadways and put together plan sets.  I also work on document control of really big projects which involves lots of emails throughout the day.  Recently I began keeping a list to help keep my email organized.  You have technology but it always comes back to basic pen and paper.  Throughout the day I take some various break.

Some plans from a job at work

Sometime between 9:30 and 10:30 am
Take a few minutes to have some breakfast.  Likely oatmeal.  If someone brought something into the office I'll eat that instead.  I can never refuse a free donut (or bagel).  Depending on when I take this break I'll check up on some blogs.

Someone brought in mini muffins for me to enjoy with my peach oatmeal

Sometime between 1 and 1:30 pm
I take my hour lunch break.  Usually I've packed something.  It's typically left overs or else a salad.  My new favorite is salad with corn, chicken, colby jack cheese and ranch dressing.  If people in the office are going out to lunch this usually happens around 11:30 so my eating schedule is altered (or I just skip breakfast).

4 pm
This is the time I leave the office on a normal day (like what I'm trying to document).  As long as I'm not in the middle of something I head out by 4 otherwise I wrap things up and then head out.  When I pull out of the parking garage I play the 'Which Way to Turn' game every day.  And if there is a game in the city, that makes it even more fun.  It has tookmTook  minutes to get the 5 blocks to the highway before (and that's even been in good weather).  Being downtown kind of stinks, but I usually make it out in 5 minutes or so.

Peace out CLE.  (OK, this is from an evening I worked sunrise to sunset, not cool)

5 pm
I like when I get the opportunity to visit the gym.  We are members of our college's Rec Center which is super fancy and as alumni it's actually the same price as a membership elsewhere.  I say it's so nice because the classes are included and there is a pool (though I've only used both those perks a handful of times when I was a student).  Mainly l like it because there are MULTIPLE tvs, with tons of equipment and a lot to choose from.

And this is only about a quarter of it.  Not including the weight area, the rock climbing wall, the lazy river/whirlpool/hot tub pool, Olympic sized pool, fitness classrooms, various courts...

A workout usually includes the elliptical, stair stepper and the treadmill (sometimes the stationary bike to change things up).  I spend in total about an hour at the gym.  I like to go at 5 pm because Dr Phil is on (don't judge me) and the drama is enough to make an hour pass quickly.  Although other times someone has messed with the TVs and you're stuck with Friends' re-runs.

If I'm not headed to the gym I usually get home and try to relax or organize the house for a bit.

6:30 pm
I'm home from the gym or bored of sitting around and it's time to do something.  I'll shower and pick out clothes for tomorrow.  If you've never picked out your clothes ahead of time I seriously recommend it.  I use to pick out stuff for the entire week on Sundays.  It was so nice and also a lot easier when in college and you didn't have to think about what to wear.  Now I have to consider what is going on at work, are we going out to lunch and walking somewhere (no big high heels), what is the weather like...  A day ahead seems to work out very well though.

7 pm
Hopefully we're eating dinner by now.  If we haven't decided what to eat by now I threaten to eat cereal (which I love and leaves my husband to peanut butter and jelly).  We are HORRIBLE meal planners.  Mostly because we are both picky eaters and neither of us is big into cooking.  I don't want to spend 30 minutes or more prepping and making a meal when I've been gone from my house for the past 12 hours.  Definitely not ideal to me.  While some love to cook, I love to do other things around my house or just relax.  My time in the kitchen usually involves cupcakes mostly.

Brought these in last week.  Chocolate cherry, yum!

8 pm
By now something has been eaten and we've cleaned up.  Spending time in the kitchen usually leads to me putting away mail, organizing our 'drop zone' and packing food for the next day.  Sometimes I'll get a load of laundry in too.  I have a problem remembering to move stuff to the dryer from the washer or emptying the dryer, so unless I am nearby, very little gets done.  This is why I usually spend an entire weekend day doing a TON of loads to get laundry done.  I've also recently made our kitchen table the spot to put everything that needs put away still from moving into the new house.  There are just SO MANY THINGS!  We're getting there very slowly.

(Because a day in the life isn't complete without at least 1 of my kitties)
He's clearly "helping" with the laundry...

9 pm
By this point I just want to relax.  My husband gets home at least an hour before me (and he leaves 30 minutes after me, call me jealous) so he usually has control of the remote during the evening while other things have been going on.  So around 9 I always head upstairs to get ready for bed and watch some of MY tv.  I'm usually flipping through the channels unless a series I watch is on.  Otherwise I'll watch old shows.  Right now there is really nothing on, so I've become obsessed with house shows again.

10 pm
I threaten to lock my husband out if he doesn't come upstairs.  I hand over the remote and let him find something to watch because I'll soon fall asleep while he is up longer watching television.  I never had a tv in the room I slept until I got to college and now I couldn't live without it.

10:30 pm
I'm shutting the lights off and asking for the volume to be turned down to I can get some sleep.  Dreading doing it all again the next day.

Thanks for taking a second to peek into my daily life.