6:50 a.m.: My gentle alarm begins waking me up. I was having a bad dream, so it was good to be pulled out of it. Lila is lying next to me so I snuggle with her for a bit.
7:15 a.m.: I meant to get up around 7, but Lila was being so snuggly and sweet. I told her she was making it very hard for me to get up, but I don’t think she cared much. Cats, man! I finally get up, pee, and eat breakfast while finishing up yesterday’s blog post.
7:50 a.m.: I throw on some clothes and lace up my sneakers to take my daily walk. It is another gorgeous day. We’re finally hitting the stretch of months where living in Florida is a DREAM and not a hellscape of heat and humidity. I start this week’s episode of The Friendship Paradox on my walk.
8:15 a.m.: I sit down at my computer to start work. I go through my emails, send a long email to a few writers who will be joining me on a project I’m leading, and then start working on my slides for today’s content team meeting. I’m about to huddle with another manager so we can collaborate on one of the slides when I realize I never made coffee! I do that and put away yesterday’s dishes while the coffee brews.
9:15 a.m.: I get on a huddle with my coworker and we work on the slide. Then, I draft an email to send to one of my contractors with all of the documents she needs to work on her November assignments. In the middle of that, I have to do a little assignment triage – removing one writer from an account because it doubled its page count this month, which puts her over capacity, and then figuring out who to assign those pages to. We work in Monday.com (which I will forever believe is the worst name ever for a project management system) and I spend so much of my time buried in our assignment boards, making sure everything looks right.
10:30 a.m.: It’s time for a break. I take a shower, blow dry my hair, put on real clothes, and do my makeup. Then, I make a quick lunch and eat it while reading blogs.
12:00 p.m.: I work through my emails for a bit and then notice a question from one of our account managers that reminds me of a problem I keep seeing on our Monday boards, so I decide to drop everything and investigate this issue. It’s one that could cause a LOT of problems down the road, so I need to figure it out before it spirals. Before I know it, I’m getting the alert for our monthly content team meeting. I have to present a few slides, but it’s a pretty easy meeting otherwise.
2:45 p.m.: My mom called me when I was in my meeting, so I call her back. We decide to book the Jim Gaffigan tickets today. For some reason, the website keeps declining my mom’s card because the address is incorrect, so I tried my card and it went through. Yay! We’re going to surprise my brother with the tickets on Christmas.
3:00 p.m.: Back to work for me. I throw myself back into the project I was working on before our content team meeting. I have finally figured out what’s going on, so I start an Excel spreadsheet to work out the solution.
4:00 p.m.: I’m hungry! I make popcorn and eat my snack while reading blogs. I’ll tell ya, keeping up with everyone doing NaBloPoMo this year is becoming a full-time job! It’s fun, but I’m sorry if I’m a late responder!
4:30 p.m.: Back to work! I finish up the project. I’ll bring it up during tomorrow’s managers meeting. For now, I draft an email to send to one of my contractors about her November assignments. (I manage the workloads for three different contractors.)
5:30 p.m.: I shut down my computer for the day. I have some fun evening plans that I’m excited to get to! I do a double-check to make sure the hair straightener I haven’t used since this afternoon is off (duh), the burners that I haven’t used since lunch are cold (duh), and other fire hazards have been checked. We’re good! I leave home and drive to Target. Only, at first, I drive to the Target nearest to me and I need to go to the one near the restaurant I’ll be meeting my mom and cousin tonight. I drove 5 minutes in the wrong direction. Argh!
6:00 p.m.: I finally arrive at Target and can’t help poking through the holiday goodies at the front. I pick up a $3 “merry” sign because I just can’t help myself. Then, I wind my way to the toys and games section, as I need to pick out a few gifts for Olive (our warrior girl is celebrating her third birthday on Thursday!). I also stop by the holiday section JUST TO LOOK OKAY. Don’t judge me. There’s a precious “Meowy Christmas” sign and I have to buy it. Like, it basically just jumped off the shelf and into my basket. My last order of business is finding a good-sized container where I can store my fall decorations (success!) and a round brush. I need a round brush to properly style my curtain bangs, so I found one for $4, which I’m happy about.
6:35 p.m.: I’m a little late to dinner, but it’s all good as the restaurant is packed tonight. It’s usually not very busy. But we get seated fairly quickly and dinner is a very, very good time. Mom and I catch up with Rachel about her life, talk about Thanksgiving plans, and enjoy our favorite dessert: pizookies! (A pizookie is a “pizza cookie.” It’s a cookie baked in a deep dish pan so it’s gooey and warm and delicious. It’s topped with ice cream.)
8:00 p.m.: Mom and I chat for a minute outside the restaurant after saying goodbye to Rachel and her daughter. Then I head home.
8:10 p.m.: I’m home in record time. I unpack my Target purchases (the girls are very unimpressed with my “Meowy Christmas” sign and it’s hurtful) and then work on this post a bit.
8:45 p.m.: I check the election updates and everything is terrible. DeSantis and Rubio win re-election. UGH. Be smarter, Florida! I start to fall into a pit of despair reading CNN so I decide to exit out of my browser. The reality can come tomorrow. I Facetime with my mom because I wanted to tell her about a podcast episode I just listened to. (These week-in-the-life recaps are really going to show you how many times my mom and I talk to each other throughout the day, lol.)
9:00 p.m.: Time to start my nighttime routine. Tonight, I have to clean out the litter boxes (I clean them out every other day; I used to do it daily, but I can stretch it a bit since the cats have multiple litter boxes). I also need to do my skincare routine, brush my teeth, clean the kitchen, and tidy up the apartment. I take breaks every 10 minutes or so to do some computer work (and that’s why my nighttime routine takes so damn long).
10:30 p.m.: It’s finally time to crawl into bed. I bring The Smart One into bed with me to read, play a few games of Candy Crush on my phone, and watch an ASMR video to lull me to sleep.
11:10 p.m.: Lights out!
What’s the weather like where you are?
tuesday in the life: 2020, 2017, 2016, 2015, and 2014
You’re right – I guess I didn’t really realize that you speak to your mom multiple times a day! I am lucky if I text my mom multiple times a week! LOL.
I, too, am finding that keeping up with all the NaBloPoMo posts is a real challenge. Can you imagine what it was like during the peak of the blogging when BlogHer sponsored it and hundreds of people did it?!
I think the fact that my mom and I talk to each other so frequently is what leads me to think the worst if she doesn’t respond to my call in a reasonable time frame! I’ve talked to my therapist about this and I try to keep our calls to once per day, but ugh, it’s hard. I really like talking to her!
I ordered two of those Meowy Christmas signs for pickup and they were bought in store before they could get to it! I am glad you got one. They are so cute. (But come on girls, show some interested for mama!)
Olive is turning 3?! OMG YAY! What fun gifts.
That sounds like a great night with your fam. I’m sorry it ended with crummy election results.
Oh no! I hope you were able to get them delivered instead! (I love that they offer that option when things go out of stock during pickup!) The sign makes me very, very happy. 🙂
Another fun post! Quick question- do you do your hair and makeup and get dressed in real clothes in the middle of the morning because you have video calls for work, or is it just for your own satisfaction, to feel more put-together?
Ha ha, LOVE the meowy Christmas sign! I also love browsing through the Christmas displays now. This is why my house is FULL of Christmas things in December- just recently I bought a Christmas-y welcome mat that says “Joy.” I couldn’t pass that up! It won’t go out until after Thanksgiving though.
I know- NaBloPoMo has grown this year and it does take a lot of time. But I’m fascinated by all the different blogs! I can tell there are a couple new ones that I’ll continue to follow when the month is over.
Haha, yes, I only did my hair and makeup because I was going to be on video today. I don’t always do that even if I will be on video, but it was a department-wide meeting where I would be presenting so I wanted to look somewhat put together!
As I’ve started to put out some Christmas stuff, I realize I have a few empty shelves that are going to need to be filled. I’m excited to check out TJ Maxx and Homegoods to see if they have anything good!
Such a fun post – I love these Day-In-The-Life ones.
This made me laugh so hard: “the girls are very unimpressed with my “Meowy Christmas” sign and it’s hurtful.” For what it’s worth, I LOVE it <3
I think is so lovely you talk with/see your Mom so often in a day. This is wonderful and a dream for me when my kids are grown. Please call/text me every day, I silently beg in my head already!!!
I know my mom loves getting so many calls/texts from me daily, and I’m happy to oblige! I hope your kids remain close like I am with my mom when they’re grown! <3
I cannot believe we have 16 (!) NaBloPoMo participants this year. I created a NaBloPoMo folder in Feedly and moved everyone in there so I can give these blogs priority this month… yeah, it’s a bit of work but I love that so many people jumped on the bandwagon this year!!
We watched the election coverage and while the outcome in FL didn’t surprise me, I thought of you and wondered how you felt…. to live in such a ‘red state’. Sigh. Overall, it looks like it wasn’t as bad as Democrats feared, but it’s not good either. Why does this always have to be so freakin’ close in some states?? It boggles the mind.
P.S. Oh, and one thing… are you drinking HOT COFFEE???
I have a NaBloPoMo folder in Feedly, too! I’m trying to prioritize those blogs while also not wanting to leave out my non-NaBloPoMo friends. My little enneagram 9 heart needs everyone to feel the love! Haha.
It is clearer every day that Florida is becoming a red state. UGH. I’m very interested to see if DeSantis runs for president, though, especially considering how well he did in this election. A Trump/DeSantis fight would be kinda interesting to see!
I agree! NaBloPlo is a full time job and I am so behind on reading all the posts. But I’ll get through it and if it is in December. I love it though. It’s so interesting to read along. And get glimpses into your life. I am intrigued doing that for a week. I’ve just one for yesterday.
I am so behind, too! Like… days behind. But it is what it is! I’m trying to live my life AND write daily posts AND do my job AND read/comment on blogs. It’s a lot, but it’s fun, too!
I love how your nails coordinate with your coffee cup AND I love that hair style on you! So pretty!
You are too kind, Nicole. Thank you!
The Meowy Christmas sign is too cute! I’m looking forward to browsing Christmas decorations when I”m in the office next week. There is a Target 1 block away which is equal parts convenient and dangerous!!
Ugh, Florida. Come on! I think your state is officially no longer a swing state. 🙁
I love the gifts you picked out for Olive!! Those are things that would have gone over well in our house!
Nope – Florida is officially a red state at this point. So disappointing! I was really hoping we could pull in some strong Democratic wins, but apparently not.
As a mom of littles, it makes me very happy you approved my gifts! I love doing puzzles/books for gifts. 🙂
I was just thinking of Olive and wondering how wonder girl was doing! YAY for turning 3. Is she still rocking life? That kid… amazing. 🙂
You are a stronger woman than I, venturing into the Christmas section of Target. Wow. 😉
Your hair looks awesome, and my goodness, Stephany, your nightly routine exhausts me! No wonder it takes you 1.5 hours! I guess I do most of my stuff at the end of my workday, before I ‘shut it down’ for the day. I’m not much good past, say, 8 pm. Ha.
I should really attempt to do part of my nighttime routine earlier, at least cleaning out the litter boxes and tidying up the apartment. That way I could get to bed much earlier than I do!