5:32am: It’s an early morning for me since I signed up for a 6am spin class. Eloise is displeased with the early alarm.
6:01am: I’m at the gym and a few minutes late to class, eeps. The parking lot was so full already this morning and it took me longer than I expected to find a spot.
7:24am: My favorite morning routine is breakfast with my NYT games. Today, I made a bowl of apple cinnamon instant oatmeal with coffee and got Wordle in 4.
8:03am: I’m at my desk doing a little work while Lila snoozes next to me. At one point I looked at her and said, “That’s ridiculous,” and snapped this picture. Work is A-OK this morning: going through emails, responding to some Slack messages, and fixing due dates in Salesforce (the bane of my existence; our due dates for content are never accurate so I have to constantly monitor them—there’s a long convoluted reason why these due dates are always incorrect, but I won’t bore you with the details).
9:37am: Morning routine time! I was influenced to try this air dry cream from JVN (of Queer Eye fame!), so I added a sample size to my Sephora order. These days, it’s rare for me to blow dry my hair (especially on work days) and while it air dries pretty well, I wanted to see if this cream takes things up a notch. Today is my first day using it, so let’s see how my hair does throughout the day, shall we? (EDIT: I don’t think this air dry cream did anything spectacular to my hair and only made it feel slightly more weighed down than usual. Next time, I’ll try using a smaller amount and see if that helps.)
10:54am: Here’s me surreptitiously taking a selfie while on my weekly leadership call. I have to be on camera and realized I was going to miss taking a photo during the 10:00 hour if I didn’t sneak this in! This weekly call includes our SEO managers and content managers and whenever they start talking about the nitty-gritty of SEO projects, my eyes glaze over. (Kim and I have a goal of being better about not multitasking during work calls, but sorry Kim, I was not successful! I added photos to this post and replied to some emails, both work and personal, during this meeting. Oops.)
11:31am: Lunch and Netflix. I’m currently on season 6 of The Circle and this season, one of the contestants brought his dog with him, and the dog is 100% my favorite player. I heated up leftovers for lunch and paired that with two pieces of chocolate and a small Dr. Pepper.
12:50pm: Nothing fun to report here! I was working (editing pages, sending pages to clients, posting pages) and the girls were snoozing away behind me. Can you spot both of them?
1:35pm: I did a very dangerous thing and took 20 minutes to sit down with my Kindle on the couch. I’m proud of myself for not falling asleep! The cats napped next to me while I read and then once my time was up, I left the couch and returned to my desk. Gold stars for me. That doesn’t happen often.
2:01pm: Snack time! I chomped away at my snack pack while working on a few emails that I needed to send to various people. (And ChatGPT to the rescue here: After composing the email myself, I asked ChatGPT to review it; it made the email much more readable!)
3:50pm: I get up for a minute and suddenly, Eloise thinks she owns my desk chair. Silly lady! Nothing too exciting is happening this afternoon. I’m just working away at my to-do list. I manage to get the majority of the tasks assigned to me during our leadership meeting this morning completed, so that was great! I also work on an email to one of my writers about a project he’s going to spearhead. He’s been asking for something like this for a while, so I’m so excited for him to take on this challenge!
4:55pm: I’m wrapping up for the day and look at this cutie pie! Why are cat scratchers so cozy for cats to sleep on? I will never understand them but alas, it makes them happy. I spent the last hour of my day finishing up some emails, clearing out my inbox, and checking on one of my Salesforce reports. All is well and I can shut down for the day.
5:30pm: I had a dermatology appointment today because I’ve been dealing with a burst cyst on my underarm. It originally burst right around the holidays and I saw a teledoc to make sure I wasn’t dying. She prescribed me a topical antibiotic (which I haven’t been great about using, womp), and the open wound hasn’t healed at all. It’s not getting worse but it’s not getting better. My dermatologist thinks I have a condition called hidradenitis suppurativa, which is a very fancy way of saying that my body likes to produce cysts! There isn’t much she can do about this cyst, though. She told me to do the topical antibiotic twice a day and also prescribed me an oral antibiotic to hopefully speed up the healing process. I also need to use a warm compress at night and use a specific type of soap on my underarm for the time being.
I can’t lie. I left that appointment feeling very discouraged. I feel like my body is falling apart!
6:48pm: Here’s a way to cheer me up! My mom and I met up for dinner after my doctor’s appointment. It was one of those quiet dinners for us where we didn’t talk all that much, but it was still nice being together.
7:31pm: Dinner continues! We ordered a pizookie (a delicious cookie baked in a personal pizza tin) because they were only $5. I only ate a few bites because I’m trying to limit my sugar (sigh), but those few bites were very delicious and it was surprisingly easy to put my spoon down and push away the dessert.
8:45pm: Home sweet home. I’ve been working through my nighttime routine and stopping every 15 minutes or so to work on this post and other computer tasks. This colorful spreadsheet is my schedule for tomorrow. The time blocking method is working well for me, especially once I added in “transitioning” periods because sometimes, moving from one task to another isn’t as seamless as I’d like it to be. Giving myself a bit of a buffer period helps a lot!
9:04pm: More nighttime routine stuffs. I started using this foot cream on my heels, the balls of my feet, and the side of my big toes because that’s where I get really cracked/dry skin. I slather on this cream and then put on a pair of socks to lock it all in. (I don’t sleep in the socks because I’m not a monster, but I do walk around in them for a bit.) What’s funny about this routine is that I remember my mom having the exact same routine so we really do just turn into our mothers, don’t we?
10:30pm: I’m finally in bed and reading my book! This book has been an interesting reading experience – it’s been a little on the slow side to start off but things are picking up!
Have you ever used Bumble and Bumble Sea Salt Spray for air drying? I have stick straight hair and I feel like it gives my hair a little oomph. It’s also nice because I feel like the product helps my dry shampoo have something to stick to. I learned about that product from the blog Amalah what must have been DECADES ago.
I love seeing all the photos of the girls in your daily posts. I always have tons of posts of my girls and I think that must be boring for people (like…how many photos of a random dog do people want to see?), but I think it’s so fun to see the different sleeping arrangements of your cats!
LOVED that book. I have that foot cream on my subscribe and saves– it’s wonderful. Love your cute little snack, too. Tiny heath tweak suggestions that I do: Add pb and raisins to the instant oatmeal so it’s more filling; swap the soda for diet (I KNOW it tastes much worse, but still a little sweet and a caffeine buzz); and use your transition time to listen to a book or podcast and take a really tiny walk (think 8-12 minutes 3 times a day). I am also thinking about getting a walking pad so I can do more work and less sitting…
One of my closest friends had that exact problem with cysts and it was pretty painful and uncomfortable for sure. I think she has it under control now and I cannot remember what she ended up doing, but she was medically supervised, whatever it was. Wow, I’m helpful. “I can’t remember what she did but she did something!” Anyway, maybe it helps to know you’re not alone?
I tried an air dry product that was called Don’t Blow It (Bwahahaha) and it didn’t work much better than adding nothing to my hair. I guess I’m stuck blow drying forever now.
I am here for all the cozy cat content! Your girls are so darn cute.
I’m sorry about the dermatology appointment though. It’s tough to feel like your body is falling apart, and I can so relate. I read some of the coverage of the confirmation hearings for RFK and all of his comments blaming people for their chronic illnesses really really pissed me off. It’s hard to deal with below after blow to your health. I hope the antibiotics help with the cysts.
I’m terrible about Multitasking during Zoom calls too. I try to focus, but depending on the type of call it’s really hard to stay focused!!
So you got up at 5:30, went to work out, then worked all day and DIDN’T TAKE A NAP??? I’m impressed. If I sit on the couch to read and one of the cats snuggles up to me, that’s it- I’m out like a light.
If it makes you feel any better, I get cysts too- but on my head. Arg. In my lifetime I’ve had three removed, and I have another one now I have to get taken care of. They just keep getting bigger and bigger, and if I don’t get this one removed it’s going to be an antler soon.
Ha ha… Eloise always looks a little disgruntled.