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.
Ugh, I am sorry to hear that you had such a rough day. I remember feeling the way you did when I was sick as you just want someone else to shoulder some of the day to day responsibilities and you want someone to take care of you. I hope that this cold is short-lived!!
My good thing from yesterday was spending the evening together with Phil. I made dinner and we watched an episode of the HBA John Adams series and then we watched This is Us. It’s not Phil’s thing at alllll but I’m glad he was up for watching it with me. I really love that show!
I’m so sorry for your rough day! It sucks so bad when you start your period and are also sick. That happened to me this week. Even though I have a family at home, I relate to your feelings of frustration very much. I feel so much pressure to keep our house running, and I am the default parent 100% of the time no matter how sick or tired I am or if my husband is there. And if he is struggling with something (like he has been recently) it’s almost worse because he is *there* but not, and it’s hard not to get resentful. Anyway, just wanted to let you know that you aren’t alone – life can just be tough! Happy to hear that today is better, and I’m thinking of you. xo
I had a really hard week last week too. Today feels like I’m more ready to face the world. I hope your cold is all gone. Hugs and thanks for being such a bright spot in my world, and dare I say in many others’ worlds as well?
Ugh, these kinds of days are the worst. I rarely ever call out of work or leave early unless I have a stomach bug and I know how tough it is to power through when you don’t feel well. I’ve gone home early more in the last three months of this pregnancy that my entire 8 years here and I think it’s because it’s the baby’s health and not mine that I’m worried about. And oh, the poop would have totally thrown me over the edge as well. We had poop issues with the dog and it was a huge part of why he went to live with my parents (which I never actually blogged about or talked about). It just got to be way too much for me to deal with because I can’t touch animal poop while pregnant, and Pete is never home, so it just became safer for me physically and emotionally for him to go live at my parents for the time being. He’s a lot happier living with my parent’s dog too, so I don’t know if he will ever come back here. Luckily it’s only 1.3 miles down the road so the change wasn’t too huge for any of us. But poop, man, it’s gross on a good day, never mind a day when you’re already just DONE with adulting. I hope you are feeling a little better today and that the rest of the week starts to look up. And that there are no more poop incidents!!
One good thing that happened yesterday: I got to hear baby’s heartbeat at our 38 week appointment and then walked across the street to the hospital to eat lunch with my mom.
I remember this feeling all too well when I was single and living alone. And it sucked. Loneliness always reared it’s ugliest head at that point. Although that said, in the middle of the work week and especially with a child, I’m pretty much on my own when I’m sick anyways. The baby boss is demanding and does not allow sick days and my husband can only do so much.
Yikes – I’m sorry you had such a hard day! I think the icing on the cake for me would be cleaning up the poop!!! Not fun, that would make me cry on the couch too.
I’ve been sick A LOT this fall. I’ve always had an iffy immune system and moving to a new climate / area does not seem to be helping it especially as winter sets in. I know it’s so so sucky to be sick and feel so crappy. I hope you feel better this weeK!
Oh, man, rough day. Hope you’re feeling better by now! I’m so sorry to hear that Dutch’s seniorness is becoming such an issue… <3