A Day in the Life: October 30, 2012

Happy Halloween! Like always, I have no plans for this holiday. I am leaving work early (3:30) to attend my first therapy appointment (nervous doesn’t even begin to describe how I feel…) and then probably going out for dinner to avoid trick-or-treaters as much as possible. 

It has been on my mind to do a day in the life post, like I’ve seen other bloggers do from time to time but man, it takes a lot of work! Still, this was fun to do and I thought it would be a fun glimpse into my life and what I do. Enjoy! (And try not to cringe too much as I switch around my tenses…)

5:46 a.m.: Alarm wakes me up.

6:08 a.m.: Finally force myself out of bed, after spending 20 minutes pondering about the last dream I remember having.

6:20 a.m.: After a short morning walk with Dutch and getting dressed, I am at the apartment gym for a short workout. I’m still taking it easy with exercise but shooting to get 4 days a week for now. After 30 minutes on the stationary bike, I head back home to do a short weights workout.

7:30 a.m.: In the shower and getting ready for the workday.

7:45 a.m.: After hearing strange noises in the living room while I’m in my room getting dressed, I go out to investigate and see that Dutch has gotten into the trash that was sitting on the ground. He is usually SO good about this so I was surprised and then upset with him. I put the trash up on the counter, quickly blow my hair dry, and then leave to take the trash out.

8:00 a.m.: Back to the apartment to finish getting ready.

8:30 a.m.: Leave for work. My morning commute isn’t too terrible, thankfully. It takes me about 20 minutes on average. Not too bad!

9:00 a.m.: Arrive at work, check email, and get set up for the day.

9:15 a.m.: Make breakfast. A simple meal of two pieces of cinnamon toast. This tends to keep me full for 2-3 hours, surprisingly!

9:40 a.m.: After some chit-chat, settling in, and answering emails, I can finally get started on my to-do list. First up: checking in on my advertising reps about media we want to place early next year. With a bunch of new giveaways starting soon, I’ve been researching new media. It’s the first project I’ve really gotten to “own” and take the lead on, and I’m really loving it!

10:00 a.m.: Start on a new analysis project I was given yesterday, reporting on the profitability of the various marketing tools we use in each of our giveaways. One of my main jobs here is analysis. I do a lot of analyzing results of past giveaways and reporting on the trends to help my director make decisions on what we should and shouldn’t do in the future. I actually love this, even if it involves a lot of number crunching and spreadsheets. It’s pretty interesting!

12:00 p.m.: Analysis is done! Whew. I answer some emails and update a spreadsheet related to the media research emails I sent earlier.

12:15 p.m.: Lunchtime! When I bring lunch to work (usually 3-4 days a week), I eat with my coworkers in our tiny little breakroom. Lots of chit-chat and giggles abound. It took me a while to warm up to everyone and I’m still not the most talkative one at the table (and I will never be) but it’s fun. Today, I had a Barilla meal that I learned about from Tina’s blog (these are seriously yummy!) with a side of applesauce. I do notice that these meals don’t really fill me up because I was hungry about an hour later. Bleh.

1:30 p.m.: After lunch, I get to work on updating our print run spreadsheet for December. The print runs are another big part of my job and I’m gradually taking these over, which is slightly scary (it’s a big job!) but also really fun. I mainly updated the spreadsheet to make sure it was reflecting any changes made in our media plans.

2:10 p.m.: Created a spreadsheet to guide me as I start inputting final costs into our data tracking system. I do this at the end of each giveaway, making sure it’s accurate and up-to-date for when we want to analyze the information.

3:45 p.m.: Quick break to open up a package from one of our printers: a Halloween basket filled with candy! Oh, so good yet very, very bad. I took a Butterfinger and a Reese’s back to my desk. Oops.

4:10 p.m.: I finish up with the spreadsheet (are you keeping track here? My life is one big spreadsheet. I’m surprised I don’t dream about dancing spreadsheets and AutoSum buttons. Sigh.) and cross it off my list! Onto the next thing…

4:15 p.m.: Begin generating a report on the number of impressions for one of our giveaways for the month of November. We send these out monthly to various contacts and it’s a project I’ll have to finish tomorrow.

4:45 p.m.: Make a to-do list for tomorrow, take a quick bathroom break, gather all my stuff, and shut down for the day!

5:00 p.m.: Leave work and commute home. My commute home takes anywhere from 25 minutes to 45 minutes, depending on how long I have to wait to get out of my office park. Today, it’s a 45-minute ride. Fun times.

5:45 p.m.: Arrive home, give Dutch hugs and kisses, and quickly start a bubble bath. (Side note: bubble baths are one of my obsessions. I take them at least 4 times a week. Usually 5 or 6. I love them.) While soaking in the tub, I read this book. I am loving it so far and can’t wait to review it on this blog in a few weeks!

6:05 p.m.: Get dressed and ready to leave for book club!

6:15 p.m.: Leave for book club, get totally lost because my GPS took me the opposite way, but end up pulling into a shopping center where – gasp! – the restaurant is. Score!

6:30 p.m.: Arrive for book club and yay, I’m only the fourth person there! (And one girl ends up being someone I went to high school with. Small world, eh?) This is actually the first book club I’ve attended. I went to a meet-and-greet last month and had brunch with the leader on Sunday, so I felt more comfortable than I usually would. We discussed The Heretic’s Daughter, ate tacos, and chit-chatted about all kinds of things. It was fun! And I’m excited to do more with this group. Take THAT, social anxiety!

8:30 p.m.: Get back home. Time for tonight’s episode of The Voice, some cookies (my dinner totally did not fill me up! So, necessary?), and snuggles with Dutch. And writing this post!

10:15 p.m.: Another walk with Dutch, bedtime routine, and then settling in bed with my book!

10:45 p.m.: Lights out! Snuggling with my blankets, pillow, and snuggly sausage and being very thankful that tomorrow my alarm won’t go off until 7:30. Yeeeees.