Week in the Life: Wednesday, November 6

I wake up at 3 a.m., grab my phone, and pull up CNN. Trump won. I can’t believe this is happening. What is wrong with our country?

It takes me a while to fall back to sleep, but eventually, I do and I wake up again around 6:45 and remember what happened. Today is going to be a bad day. The next four years will be a slew of bad days. I send the famous Michael Scott “please God no” GIF to my book club group chat because that’s just about how I feel right now.

Eventually, my bladder tells me I need to get up so I deal with that and feed the girls. Then I sit on the couch to play Duolingo, my NYT games, and Happy Color. I also read a few chapters of my book, which is my first time reading this week! (Very abnormal.)

Around 8, I force myself to make breakfast (scrambled eggs, toast, and sausage) and eat it while finishing up yesterday’s post. Once that’s published, I do an abbreviated morning routine (I skip the skincare—brush my teeth, get dressed, clean up the kitchen, deal with my CPAP machine, and take my meds) and then it’s time to work. I think??? Work feels impossible on a day like today.

But work I do. I clear out my email, edit content, do some posting, and handle some small to-dos that resulted from my leadership meeting yesterday. I was supposed to have a meeting with my team today but I’m not in the headspace for that so I move it to next week.

Around 10:45 my mom calls me to ask if I want to do a volunteer shift with her for Feeding America Tampa Bay. Well, this feels like something positive that I can do this month when things feel as depressing as they do today. We sign up to do a morning and afternoon shift next Wednesday. Then, we make plans for lunch.

I do a little more work when I hang up the phone with my mom and then drive over to our favorite local deli for lunch. I order my usual (turkey sammie on a croissant) and it hits the spot. My mom and I don’t talk much during lunch, which sometimes happens. We’re both thinking about a lot of things (we also got some distressing news about a family member earlier today, so it’s been a double whammy of terribleness) but we’re together and sometimes that’s what we need.

I get home from lunch a little after noon, work on this post, and then dive into a mindless work task. It’s exactly what I need.

I take a short nap when I finish my work task and it feels very nice to turn my brain off for a little while. Eloise spent the entire naptime with me, so when I wake up, I give her cuddles and she meows like crazy at me. Maybe she can sense I need a little extra love today? Before I get back to work, I scroll through my personal email and see that a package has arrived! It’s Sephora – I ordered some skincare products.

The rest of my workday goes pretty smoothly. I write some content that’s due this week but we haven’t been able to assign to writers. I post some content, answer emails, and handle some assignment issues that crop up. At some point, I pull out my snack pack to munch on and I also take a few breaks to read and comment on blogs.

Around 5:15, I wrap up my workday. I get ready for the gym, feed the girls, and then spend 10 minutes trying to find where I placed my Zevo replacement filters but they are nowhere to be found. WHY! I have no idea where they could be because I feel like I looked everywhere. But I’ll have to continue looking later because I need to leave.

My first stop this evening is Target to pick up a curbside order. Nothing exciting here – just household essentials like toilet paper, laundry pods, and distilled water. It’s a quick pit stop and then I’m on my way to the gym for HIIT class. Except I can never time these before-class errands correctly because I am a whole half-hour early. What I should do is go into the gym and do a short cardio workout. But what I do instead is sit in my car, playing games on my phone and reading blogs. I’ll get enough cardio during HIIT class.

A little before 6:30, I walk into the gym for HIIT class. And it’s a good one! I feel really strong during this workout – and I surprise myself by picking up the 20-lb weights for some of the stations. (At one point, I picked up one of the 20-lb weights and was like, “Oh, this isn’t as heavy as I thought!”) It feels good to see progress like that.

I leave the gym around 7:15, take a quick pit stop at Publix, and then drive home. It’s a struggle carrying all of my stuff up the stairs, but I get it done even though my heart is racing. I put away the food that needs to be refrigerated and then take a shower. Right as I’m finishing up my shower, it’s 8pm so I pull up my Paramount+ app to start streaming tonight’s episode of Survivor. I put on pajamas, brush out my hair, and then sit down on my couch to turn on Survivor on my TV. I eat my dinner while watching the show. Once the show is over, it’s time for The Summit. This new show on CBS isn’t my favorite (mostly because the contestants are very dumb), but it’s something mindless to watch on Wednesday evenings. While that show is on, I make cookies, work on this post, and respond to blog comments.

Once the show is over, I Facetime my mom and we talk about the show and other chit-chatty things. Then I pick up around my apartment, do an abbreviated nighttime routine, and finally go to bed around midnight.

wednesday in the life: 2023, 2022, 2020, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014