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.

I’m documenting my life in a series of “Week in the Life” posts. I hope everyone enjoys this little peek into my day-to-day! Read all about Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

Sunday’s story begins at 2:00 a.m., which is when Dutch finally got off the couch and came into my room. “Stephany,” you may be asking, “Why didn’t you just bring him into your room when you went to bed?” Very good question, my friends. Because Dutch was feeling mean when I went to bed and when I tried to pick him up so I could carry him from the couch and to my bed, he tried to bite me. This is his nighttime M.O. He’s gotten me real good before, so I’ve learned my lesson and let him be when he’s feeling mean.

Anyway, he was back to being Sweet Dutch at this time, so I picked him up and put him on my bed and we slept until about 7 a.m.

Once up, we took a long walk and then snuggled on the couch while I read my book. Around 8:30, I got ready and left to meet my friend at Starbucks for our weekly writing date.

I was super stoked to see that peppermint mochas are back at Starbucks! YAY! They were also playing Christmas music and you know, I didn’t hate it. I’m ready for some Christmas cheer! I bought a blueberry muffin and a peppermint mocha Frappuccino, chatted with my friend for a little bit, and then got to work.

I escaped from my story nearly two hours later, having written over 2,300 words. It was a successful morning of writing and I have to say how much I am enjoying the writing process for my novel. I have lots of thoughts and feelings I’ll save for a separate blog post (you know, after I win NaNoWriMo this year!), but suffice it to say, it’s been such a fun time and I can’t wait for the day I can do this for a living.

We finished up our writing date around 11:15 and I took care of two errands (dropping a whole backseat full of donations at Goodwill and dropping my Postal Book Club book in the mail) before picking up a sub for lunch and making my way back home.

I got home around 12:45 and took Dutch on his second long walk for the day. I’m experimenting with taking the little dude on longer walks, 10-15 minutes in length, thinking maybe he’s not getting “everything out” with his shorter walks. It seems to be helping. And this concludes Ponderings About My Dog’s Pee Problems.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing and not doing much! I love, love, love lazy Sundays. I really try hard to keep my Sundays free of plans as much as I can because I feel like it helps me to better ease back into the work week.

I turned football on, ate lunch, and then just puttered around the apartment, getting things done. I finished my book (easily the best book I’ve read this year and probably even in my top three of all-time), took a short nap, started a new book, read some blogs and caught up on the online forums I follow.

After watching the disappointing ending to the Giants/Patriots game, I took Dutch on a long walk and then caught up on How to Get Away with Murder while eating dinner (pizza leftovers!).

I decided I needed to take care of some adulting tasks (mainly bill paying and budgeting), which I did while watching Sunday Night Football. Around 10:30, I took a bath and then wrote this post while watching the end of the football game.

I didn’t get to bed until about midnight, which is super late for a “school night” but oh well. It happens!

Some thoughts: This concludes my “Week in the Life” series! I really enjoyed doing it this year, even though my week was not all that exciting. But I think that’s the beauty of this project. It gives people a peek into everyday living. It allows people to learn about someone’s routines and habits and needs. We get to see the mundane, little moments of someone’s life – these are the moments that so easily escape our memory, but when we’re living in them, they mean so much. I’m happy I did this project again, and I am definitely planning on doing it again next year.

Do you prefer busy Sundays or lazy ones?

This week, I am documenting my life in a series of “Week in the Life” posts. I hope everyone enjoys this little peek into my day-to-day! Read all about Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

I woke up on Saturday to the news about the Paris attacks. Honestly, I have no words and I don’t know how to adequately express my grief and pain. This world can be such a scary place. Innocent lives were lost for what reason? It makes no sense to me. It’s heartbreaking.

No matter how I transition from talking about the Paris attacks to writing a silly day in the life post, it’s going to look awkward and strange and dumb, so I’m just going to acknowledge that. Here I go anyway.

Dutch woke me up at 6:50 a.m. by snuggling up super close and licking my face. He’s the best alarm clock anyone could ask for! We got up and took a long walk. It was 59 degrees at that time and I wore a jacket. Yay for fall-like temperatures! (If only they would stick around…)

After our walk, I lounged in bed reading my book, and then eventually got up around 8:30 to go to the gym.

At the gym, I did a simple 30-minute walking treadmill workout, came home, fed Dutch, and then got right to work on my NaNoWriMo writing for the day (1,700 words – works for me!).

After that, I took a shower and got ready for the day. It was going to be a busy one! First, I had plans for lunch with my mom, and then we (+ Dutch, of course) were going to Dogtoberfest in Dunedin!

I left Tampa at noon, with Dutch in tow, and we picked up Chick-Fil-A for lunch, bringing it to my mom’s new apartment to eat.

Around 2 p.m., we made our way to Dunedin to attend Dogtoberfest! My mom, Dutch, and I have attended this festival/adopt-a-thon for four years now, mainly because it holds a Running of the Wieners race every year. I love this race and look forward to it every year. It’s just so fun to be around so many dogs and I love watching the little doxies run their tiny legs off in their races. It puts me in such a good mood. It doesn’t hurt that it’s a cheap festival and it goes to a good cause (just $5 for parking and $7 to enter the race, all proceeds going to the Suncoast Animal League, a nonprofit, no-kill animal rescue agency). Also? Nearly 200 dogs were adopted today! Isn’t that AMAZING? Go, Dogtoberfest!

They run the dogs in different age groups (Dutch is a “Senior Sausage,” in the 10 and up age group). Usually, they run the heats from youngest to oldest, which has never made sense to me. This year, though, they started running the senior dogs first! Yay! We wouldn’t have to wait around for an hour or more for him to run. Instead, we only had to wait about ten minutes for his heat to be called.

In the end, Dutch finished second in his heat, but he crossed the finish line, which is all we wanted for him! He did so well. There’s a fun video on Instagram that includes me screaming his name, for your viewing pleasure.

We left the festival around 4:15 p.m. and headed back to St. Pete to visit my grandfather (whom I will now just call Pops because that’s what I call him. So weird to call him anything else!). I hadn’t seen him since the funeral, nor had I been to his home since the night my grandma died. I’ve been really putting off going to the house if I’m being honest. It just doesn’t feel right being there without Grandma. I kept expecting her to walk down the hallway and see me and give me her bright smile. She always had the biggest smile for me, as if just my very presence brightened her entire day. It’s so unfair that I’m never going to see that smile again.

While visiting Pops, he played two videos he found of Grandma. One was during an interview he and my grandma taped in the early 1990s with the Christian Television Network, where Pops described the time he was electrocuted. (His heart stopped for 20 minutes, but he survived with no issues!)

Oh, Grandma. She looked so beautiful and so warm and so loving and so comforting. And then she started talking and that’s when I lost it. Tears. It just reminded me of how long it’s been since I’ve heard her voice, how long it’s been since she’d been healthy and vibrant. It was so special to see her like that and to hear her voice. I miss her so much, and it just struck me how unfair it is that she’s gone. Life can be such a cruel master.

My mom, Dutch, and I ended up leaving Pop’s house around 6:30 (though it felt more like 9:30 – darn you, time change!), and I dropped her off at her apartment before heading back to Tampa.

Dutch and I got home around 7:15 and I promptly took a bubble bath before lounging on the couch for the rest of the night. I made a frozen pizza for dinner, caught up on Scandal, wrote this post, and set my fantasy football lineup for the week.

Afterwards, I cleaned the kitchen, did my nightly routine, and then read in bed until about midnight.

How was your Saturday?

This week, I am documenting my life in a series of “Week in the Life” posts. I hope everyone enjoys this little peek into my day-to-day! Read all about Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

I had a really crummy night of sleep. I woke up at 1:30 a.m. with a stuffy nose, so I took some Nasonex, which cleared me up within minutes. (Ahh.) And then the rest of the night, I had terrible dreams that Roomie and my mom both had terminal brain cancer. I woke up from the dream multiple times and would recognize I was only dreaming, only to fall back asleep and re-enter the dream. (<– Upon further research, I think I was lucid dreaming, which is when during dreaming, the person becomes aware they are dreaming. They aren’t actually awake, but are conscious of what is happening, if that makes sense. I totally geek out about the brain and dream states, so this was incredibly interesting to me!)

After a rough night of sleep, I was finally awoken for good at 5:15 a.m. to the sound of Dutch dry heaving. Lovely.

Thinking he was going to puke and knowing I had just cleaned my sheets and didn’t want him horking on them, I hurriedly picked him up and placed him on the floor. Oddly enough, he stopped dry heaving after that. Okay then!

Then, we went on our first morning walk before I got dressed and walked down to the gym.

At the gym, I rode 3 miles on the spin bike and then did a 20-minute strength-training workout. Felt so good, and I was so deliriously happy to have my workout done for the day!

Back at home, I fed Dutch, took a shower, took Dutch on his second morning walk, did my hair and makeup, got dressed, made my breakfast shake, and then was out the door by 7:30.

My morning at work was fairly uneventful – all of the editing! First, I edited the pages a coworker sent to me and then I edited the blog-style pages I had written earlier in the week and received back from my proofing partner on Wednesday. By the time I finished up, it was 11:30 a.m. and I was done with work for the week. Wahoo!

I came straight home from work, took Dutch on a short walk, and then ate lunch while reading all about lucid dreaming (see above, ha!).

And then I proceeded to have the most boring Friday afternoon/evening. I wish it was more exciting, but it was productive and I’m really happy I knocked off a lot of tasks on my to-do list. Here’s a run-down of what I did:

• Cleaned my bathroom, including washing my rugs and mopping my floor
• Cleaned and vacuumed my room
• Read a lot of The Martian (I am enjoying this novel so much that I’m taking my time with it and savoring every word)
• Wrote 3k words for NaNoWriMo (woo!)
• Grocery shopped for the week
• Baked homemade chocolate chip cookies to bring to my grandfather tomorrow
• Baked chicken to take for lunch next week
• Took Dutch on multiple walks, of course

My last task of the evening was to bake my cookies, so I did that while finishing up this week’s episodes of The Voice and watching a few episodes of Blackish. Then, I did my nighttime routine, read for a bit, and went to bed around midnight.

Thoughts on today: So not the most exciting of Fridays, eh? Such is life. When I began thinking about doing another “Week in the Life” series this year, I felt a lot of internal resistance at first because my life from an outsider’s perspective is rather boring. It’s not boring to me; I actually quite enjoy the “boring,” though that is all relative, you know? But it’s not filled with grandiose plans. I’m a homebody to my core, and I think this past week of posts has shown that. I like being home. I like cozy nights in, snuggled on the couch with my pup, writing or watching TV or reading. I enjoy this little life of mine. I know these posts probably are not as interesting to others as they are to me (I’m actually having a blast writing them!), but I think it’s interesting to take an average week in someone’s life and document it. It’s fun to see how people’s day-to-day lives differ from others.

Would you ever do a “Week in the Life” series on your blog? Tell me one good thing about your Friday!