Friday was the first day since Monday that I felt good! Woohoo! I’m still congested, and I’m concerned that I’ll remain congested for another 5-6 months like I did at the end of last year/beginning of this one. But I’m choosing to look on the bright side that I feel good and my energy levels are nearly back to normal. Thank heavens!

Here’s what Friday looked like in my world:

5:45am // Alarm goes off.

6:10am // After spending nearly half an hour scrolling through my social media feeds in bed, I get up and get ready for the day while listening to an episode of Call Your Girlfriend.

7:15am // Commute to work while listening to Christmas music.

7:35am // Arrive at work and immediately start my first task of the day, which is sourcing images, so I can start posting content onto my clients’ websites. This is a mindless task and I listen to an episode of Stuff You Should Know while I do it.

8:45am // I take a break to toast a bagel and I eat it at my desk while reading blog posts.

9:10am // Back to my task for the day: sourcing, sourcing, sourcing.

10:00am // I take a break from sourcing images to update a spreadsheet that I’ll use in my upcoming meeting with my manager (we just discuss how we’re doing with our workload, any questions or concerns, etc.).

10:20am // The meeting goes well and it’s pretty standard. My manager is impressed that I have finished my monthly content for November and we discuss a special project she may need my help with next week.

10:45am // I work through the edits I received back on the pages I wrote yesterday and send the content to my client.

11:15am // I make my to-do list for next week.

11:30am // And that’s it for work this week! Half-day Fridays are the best. I leave work and head straight to Target to pick up a few things.

12:20pm // I have a follow-up appointment with my eye doctor. He determines I need a new pair of trials for both eyes. It can be kind of tough to figure out the right prescription because my astigmatism is so bad. Well, and so is my eyesight, ha. I’m hoping they come in before Thursday! Eeks. I don’t want to have to wear glasses on my cruise. 🙁

1:00pm // I pick up lunch and head home. When I get home, a maintenance guy is finally fixing my kitchen light (it’s been out for almost two weeks now!), so I take Dutch on a longish walk and then we sit on the couch while we wait for him to finish up. (Why is it always so awkward when maintenance guys are working in your home?!)

1:45pm // Maintenance is complete! I eat lunch while watching an episode of Parks and Rec.

2:20pm // I wanted to spend my afternoon working on freelance assignments and doing some cleaning, but instead, I opt to lay in my bed, reading and napping. Oops.

4:45pm // After spending some time scrolling through my social media feeds, I finally get up and take a shower. I get ready for tonight while listening to my fantasy football podcast.

5:30pm // I lay on my bed reading for a little bit and then take Dutch on a walk.

6:10pm // I head to my friend’s house. She’s hosting an event to discuss the election and what steps we can take next to effect change. There are six of us and it’s a very healing time where we’re able to talk about what we think went wrong and the different organizations we want to donate our time and money to. I’ve never been super involved in politics, but this election has fired me up and made me recognize how very important it is to educate yourself, get out there, and fight for the causes you believe in.

9:15pm // I leave my friend’s house feeling inspired and head home. I walk Dutch and then eat a very late dinner while watching an episode of Parks and Rec.

10:30pm // I finish up this post, clean up the kitchen, take Dutch on one last walk, do my nighttime routine, and then snuggle into bed with Dutch and my book.

11:30pm // Lights out!

Name something good that happened to you yesterday!

This week I’m bringing you daily snapshots of my life in my third annual Week in the Life series. Check out Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

Thursday was an okay day for me. When I woke up, I felt pretty good, much better than I felt Tuesday or Wednesday, but I gradually felt worse and worse as the day went on. Ah, colds! They are no fun!

It’s so weird to document a time when I’m feeling under the weather. I rarely get sick, so this is not the norm for me. I have a standing Thursday night date with Roomie that I had to cancel because I could barely keep my eyes open at work and all I wanted to do was come home and fall right into bed.

Anyway, this is Thursday!

5:15am // First alarm goes off.

5:30am // Second alarm goes off and I am up and at ’em. Feeling much better today than I have felt for the past two days, so hoping and praying this means I’m on the tail end of my sickness! Woohoo! I take a shower, take Dutch out, feed him, and then get ready for the day while listening to an episode of Dear Sugar Radio.

6:45am // Commute to work.

7:05am // I make a pit stop at Starbucks for a breakfast sandwich and a peppermint mocha. Totally necessary.

7:20am // I get to work and chat with Roomie for a bit when she stops by my cubicle to check in on me.

7:45am // I begin my first task of the day: editing the pages I wrote yesterday so I can send them to my proofing partner.

9:00am // I send off my pages and then edit a small batch of pages a coworker sent me yesterday.

9:20am // Once I finish editing, I start my big task for the day: writing 8 pages of content for one of my clients. Once I finish this, then my writing for the month of November will be complete! Yay!

11:00am // I take a break to go downstairs and make a call to Visionworks. So, here’s the long story: at my appointment on Friday, they gave me trial contacts, but one of the contacts wasn’t the power I needed. I thought the receptionist told me it was the left eye that was incorrect. So, yesterday, Visionworks told me my correct prescription was in, so I went in and picked it up. This morning, I put that new contact in my left eye and everything was super, super blurry. So, I called Visionworks to find out which eye that contact was for: it was for my right eye, not my left. Sigh. So that’s a huge snafu, but luckily, I’m going in for a follow-up appointment tomorrow and hopefully, we can get this straightened out.

11:20am // Back to my desk and back to writing.

12:00pm // It’s time for our Thanksgiving potluck! We have lots of good food and good desserts. I chit-chat with my coworkers while chowing down.

1:00pm // Back to work and back to writing! I am hoping to finish off this set of pages so I can send it to my proofing partner before the end of the day. (But oh! I am tired. So tired. Post-potluck crashing has started sooner than I expected.)

3:10pm // I’m finished with my pages, hooray! I send these pages to my proofing partner and then, noticing one of my websites has launched, I get to work doing the last few post-launch tasks that I’m in charge of, since I’m the writing launch coordinator for this website.

3:45pm // I go through the edits I’ve received on some of my pages and send one set to a client for approval.

4:45pm // I realize I have not yet gotten my manager’s feedback on a homepage that is on deadline. I rush around trying to find her, but I can’t and after a half-hour, I give up.

5:15pm // Commute home while listening to Christmas music, because I’m too tired to focus on a podcast.

6:10pm // Traffic was an absolute nightmare. Who knew leaving 15 minutes later than normal would double my commute time? I’m not making that mistake again! Once I’m home, I get the mail, take Dutch out, feed him, and then slip into a luxurious bubble bath. Ahhhh.

6:45pm // I heat up chicken noodle soup, watch an episode of Parks and Rec, and start working on this post.

7:30pm // I take Dutch out, clean up the kitchen, finish up this post, and then snuggle into bed with Dutch and my book. I’m probably going to be asleep before 8:30 and I don’t even care. I really hope I start feeling better tomorrow.

Tell me something good that happened to you yesterday!

This week I’m bringing you daily snapshots of my life in my third annual Week in the Life series. Check out Monday and Tuesday.

Well. Tuesday was a hard day, but I’m pleased to say that Wednesday was a much better day in my world. Thanks for giving me a space to vent and have a pity party. I was nervous to publish that post because, truly, I get it: it was a first-world problem. It really was. So many people have it so much worse than I do, but I also don’t believe in playing the Pain Olympics. We all have our own struggles that feel inherently difficult for each and every one of us. So here’s my little note that it’s okay to throw yourself a pity party over something that seems small and insignificant in the grand scheme of things! Your feelings are not insignificant, no matter how first world-y they may seem. Throw yourself that pity party and then dust yourself off, gain perspective, and move forward.

Here’s what Wednesday looked like in my world:

2:15am // Dutch wakes me up needing to go out. No, really. Senior dogs are really fun!

2:25am // Back to bed.

7:00am // Alarm wakes me up. Ahh, the blessings of a work-from-home day.

7:20am // After dosing myself with medicine (less congested today, but now I have a sore throat and some muscle aches, whimper), I set myself up on my bed to work. I usually work at my kitchen island, but I need my bed today.

7:30am // My plan for today is to write, write, write, write, write. I want to write 15 pages, which is unheard of and will probably entail me working into the night. But, alas, I need to meet a deadline.

8:30am // I take a break to have some breakfast. Sugary cereal and iced coffee – breakfast of champions!

9:00am // Back to work!

10:45am // I take a break to take Dutch on a little morning walk, feed him, put in a load of laundry, and make some soup for lunch, which I eat while watching an episode of Parks and Rec.

11:45am // Back to work… I edit a coworker’s pages and then get back to my own writing.

12:30pm // I take a quick break to switch out my laundry and take a shower. (What is it about a shower that makes us feel so much better?)

12:45pm // I get back to work and write two articles and after seeing an email about rewriting part of a homepage I wrote, I start that task, which is a lot more time-intensive than the pages I have been writing, ugh.

2:30pm // I take a break to fold laundry and do a quick “pick up” around the apartment while listening to an episode of Gilmore Guys.

3:00pm // Try to bust out a few more pages before I need to leave to run a few errands.

3:45pm // Take Dutch on a quick walk outside and then I run some errands: grocery store, Visionworks to pick up contacts, and my salon for a bang trim.

(Yeah, this is my “after.” I like my bangs cut at eyebrow level, even though that entails more trims, but I loathe when my bangs are too short.)

5:15pm // Back home after my errands. My energy is tanked just from that short jaunt; oh, sickness, how I loathe thee. I log back onto my computer and get back to writing! I still have 3 pages to write to make my goal.

6:30pm // I finish up my writing for the day and decide to call it quits, even though I planned on reading over the pages and sending them off to my proofing partner. Alas, I think writing 15 pages in one day is plenty. 🙂 Instead, I eat dinner while watching a few episodes of Parks and Rec.

7:15pm // I put on the Gilmore Guys podcast episode I’ve been listening to all day and make brownies for a potluck my work is throwing tomorrow. While the first batch of brownies bake, I wash the dishes and then, even though I know I have chores to do, I decide to lay on the couch with Dutch and read Harry Potter. Obviously, my body is telling me I need to slow down, so I’m trying to listen to it. 🙂

9:00pm // I make the second batch of brownies and put them in the oven and then finish up this post while they bake. I do my nighttime routine and read a little more of Harry Potter.

10:00pm // Brownies are finished, so I cover the pan with aluminum foil (I’ll cut them up and arrange them in my traveling container in the morning) and then snuggle with Dutch in bed.

10:15pm // Lights out!

What’s something good that happened to you yesterday? For me, spending the day at home, working from my bed. I needed this day!

This week I’m bringing you daily snapshots of my life in my third annual Week in the Life series. Check out Monday’s post, if you haven’t already done so.

Oh, boy! Yesterday was a pretty difficult day in my world and it feels very vulnerable to publish this post. I cried multiple times throughout the day and threw myself a raging pity party near the end of the day. But I’m committed to showing you what a normal week in my life looks like, so this is what you get! There are good days and there are bad days and there are just wretchedly awful days. This is one of those wretchedly awful days, mostly because my slight congestion from Monday morphed into a full-blown sickness yesterday. I nearly went home sick, but managed to power through thanks to some dosages of Dayquil (and the fact that I had deadlines to meet, le sigh).

So, deep breaths. Here’s what Tuesday looked like in my world:

4:00am // Dutch wakes me up and needs to go out. Ahh, the blessings of a senior dog.

4:15am // Back to bed.

5:15am // First alarm goes off.

5:30am // Second alarm goes off, but I’m too exhausted to move and fall back to sleep.

6:00am // Finally get up and take a shower, which helps to wake me up. I feel pretty crummy today, but I have deadlines to meet and I can’t call in. So, I put on my big girl pants and get ready for the day while listening to an episode of The Simple Show. (<– Not sure I’m loving the new format. It’s never been a show I really relate to, being single and childless, and it’s feeling less and less relatable for my stage of life. Might have to be a podcast I drop. We’ll see.)

7:00am // Commute to work while listening to Christmas music.

7:25am // Get to work and immediately find my work BFF (also known as Roomie!) who always has medicine on hand to see if she has Dayquil to help me get through this day. She does! After chatting with her for a little bit, I go to the cafe downstairs to get a breakfast sandwich and a bottle of OJ.

8:00am // Eat my breakfast sandwich and start working. I’m trying to finish up a batch of pages to send to a coworker to proof.

9:30am // Pages finished and sent off to my proofing partner. Then, it’s time to edit a huge batch of pages. This will take up the rest of my morning and probably some of my afternoon!

12:45pm // Take a break to finally eat lunch. I kept putting off lunch because I was considering going home early, but my to-do list scares me too much. (There may have been an incident in the work bathroom where I cried about being sick and not being able to go home. To be clear, I could have gone home, work wasn’t holding me hostage, but I opted against it. It… has been a rough day.)

1:30pm // Back to work for me… editing, editing, editing.

4:45pm // Finally done with the edits! I had no idea it would take up my entire day. Obviously, I was working at half-speed today. Oof.

5:00pm // Start my commute home while listening to a super interesting episode of Stuff Mom Never Told You, about the gender differences of failure.

5:40pm // Stop at CVS to buy Kleenex, Zyrtec-D, and ibuprofen, and then swing by Publix for chicken noodle soup and ice cream. (I always want ice cream when I’m sick.)

6:15pm // Finally home. Walk inside my apartment to find out that Dutch has not only pooped in the apartment, but spread it everywhere. I nearly lost it at this point. But somehow, I held myself together, took him for a walk, and then closed him in my room while I cleaned up his mess. I was so angry at him and so tired and so done with this day.

6:30pm // Once the poop is cleaned up, I give in to my pity party and just cry for a little while on my couch. I mean, this is week in the life, right? I want to be honest here. Today has been a really fucking hard day and I felt very alone. I feel bad saying that because I wasn’t alone – I talked to two friends and my mom about feeling under the weather – but then I leave work and have to do everything alone. I have to buy my own soup and make it myself. I have to clean up Dutch’s mess myself, and still take him out and feed him and love him. I have to clean up the kitchen myself, no matter how tired I am. I couldn’t just curl up in my bed and let people take care of me because there isn’t anyone to take care of me. And that sounds really pathetic, I know, but it’s the truth. I am really, really good at taking care of myself, but dammit, it’s hard to do it 100 percent of the time. It’s hard to have to lean on your own strength every single fucking day. Some days, I want someone to be there to cheer me up or hold my hand or just be there for me. I know I have friends, I have great friends, but it’s not the same as a partner. (I’m sorry how ‘woe is me’ this got, but it was a really emotional day for me. I’m feeling better today; as I mentioned above, yesterday was a wretchedly awful day in my life. This is just real life, and I’m going to chalk a lot of it up to also starting my period. Oy vey.)

6:45pm // Pity party over. I feed Dutch, unpack my bag, take a dose of Zyrtec, and then decide a bubble bath is just what the doctor ordered. I need 20 minutes to soak in the tub and read my book (which is Harry Potter, if that’s not the cure for all that ails me).

7:15pm // I make soup and watch a couple of episodes of Parks and Rec. And then I self-medicate with my boyfriends, Ben and Jerry.

8:00pm // Take Dutch out, clean up the kitchen, finish up this post, nighttime routine.

9:00pm // Lights out and prayers that tomorrow is a better day.

Name one good thing that happened yesterday in your world. For me, it was probably my bubble bath. I made my water extra hot and dove into the world of Hogwarts for 20 minutes, which soothed me immensely.

Hello, friends! This week, I am documenting my life in a series of “Week in the Life” posts. This is my third year doing this series and I think this comes at the perfect time, as I don’t have the brain space for much more than this.

It is interesting to look back on my previous “Week in the Life” posts from 2014 and 2015, as I feel like I was in completely different life stages then! In 2014, I was still living with my mom and in 2015, I had just moved to Tampa and was living with Roomie. And now, in 2016, I’m living on my own. Who knows what 2017 will look like?!

In any event, here’s what Monday looked like in my world:

4:45am // First alarm goes off.

5:00am // Second alarm goes off. Scroll through Facebook for a minute and then force myself out of bed.

5:15am // Morning walk while listening to a podcast. (All the Books!)

5:45am // Back home. Feed Dutch, shower, and get ready for the day while listening to a podcast. (What Should I Read Next?)

7:00am // Commute to work.

7:25am // Arrive at work and spend time chit-chatting with coworkers about all sorts of subjects, including whether or not every star is a sun (verdict: no).

8:15am // Finally start working. Go through my emails and respond to a few of them, do some housekeeping tasks, and then start working through the edits I received on some of my monthly content.

9:00am // Short break to eat breakfast. (I’ve been sipping on iced coffee all morning, but I wasn’t hungry until just now.) I have grapes and Greek yogurt, a healthy breakfast for once! Start editing a coworker’s content while finishing up breakfast.

10:00am // Project update meeting (We have this meeting every Monday to update the team about what’s happening with our new clients who are in the process of getting new designs/content for their websites. Since I’m a launch coordinator with the writing team, I sit in on these meetings and offer updates as needed.)

11:00am // Meeting concludes. Back to my desk to finish up my editing task.

11:30am // A friend texts me asking to do lunch today and I take her up on the offer.

11:45am // Lunch at McAlister’s where we do a lot of passionate venting about the election and talk about what we can do next. It’s an emotional lunch, but a cathartic one.

1:15pm // Back at work and I dive right back into writing.

3:45pm // Take a short break to eat my afternoon snack: string cheese with a handful of chocolates. 🙂

4:00pm // Back to writing! I stop around 4:45 once I finish up the page I’m writing and realize I made my writing goal for the day. Success! Write my to-do list for tomorrow.

5:00pm // Commute home while listening to a fantasy football podcast. (Yes, I’m a dork.)

5:25pm // Once home, I walk Dutch, feed him, unpack my lunch bag and put out the trash, take off my makeup and get into comfy clothes, and then work on this post.

5:55pm // Leave for an appointment at my salon, a quick eyebrow wax!

6:15pm // Eyebrow wax with my favorite esthetician. We talk about sports the whole time and it makes me realize how much I love talking about sports with females. There’s something so empowering about it!

6:40pm // Back home and take Dutch for a quick walk outside.

6:45pm // Dinner and a few episodes of Parks and Rec. (I’m rewatching because I need some hopeful Leslie Knope in my life.)

8:00pm // Take a bubble bath and decide to dose myself with cold medicine. I’ve been sneezing all day and my left nostril has been clogged, and I’ve been feeling crummier as the day has gone on. I only took half a dose because it’s designed to help me sleep and I’m sensitive to drugs like this (they usually knock me out for 12 hours straight), and I want to be functional in the morning!

8:30pm // Last nightly walk for Dutch, cleaned the kitchen, nighttime routine of brushing teeth and washing face, and then snuggle into bed with my book and my pup.

9:30pm // Lights out!

Name one good thing that happened to you yesterday. (I know it’s hard during this time of turmoil.) For me, it was lunch with my friend and our discussion about how we’re going to affect change.