A day in the life of me…

I’ve done this type of thing as social posts before…but I’m a wordy girl (you should see the word counts of my books pre-editing) and I think it might make a better blog post so here it goes.  Before I start though, you should know I’m a creature of habit so routines are comforting to me. There are days when things don’t go like this but in general this is a normal day in my life.

Weekday

My alarm goes off at 5:15 am because I have to leave the house by 6:34 am to get to work (day job) by 7:00 am. I need to be on time to any and everything. When I’m not on time I am not a happy camper – even when it’s beyond my control like due to an accident or a random tractor holding up my commute (it happens especially in the morning).  

I don’t usually hop right out of bed. Instead the first thing I do in the morning on most days is grab my phone and Wordle. It probably isn’t a shock I love Wordle (so much I caved and now have a NYT Games subscription). I don’t always do Wordle first thing but I do try to. I then get up and get ready to head in. I always try to park in the same parking spot- and get cranky when “my spot” is already taken. 

My (day) job is a Monday through Friday 7:00 am – 4:00 pm kind of job. Sometimes I work the occasional Saturday for special events when I’m needed. I do not get overtime in my position for working longer or extra, but my boss is good about giving me an in lieu (comp) day off instead. If I’m on a comp day it’s treated more like a weekend day but often I’ll do something fun like get my hair done if I know in advance, or go to a movie. I usually like these to be on Friday or Mondays for the obvious extra long weekend but that can’t always happen and sometimes I’ll randomly take off a weekday in the middle. 

During my morning break I try to go for a walk outside. Luckily for me the day job is great for this because it’s got a lot of nature right around it. There are days this doesn’t happen depending on things like meetings and weather but I do make every effort to get outside at least once during the work day for at least 15 minutes. It’s especially important for me during the winter months because I need the light exposure because I come to work in the dark and am usually getting home in the dusk. 

At lunch I’ll usually do author things- whether that be check my author email, work on social media graphics (something that is not my bag- so thank goodness for Canva or all you would get is pictures of my dogs or the occasional tree). Some days I’ll write a blog post (like today) or work on writing/editing whichever mode I happen to be in. Some days I do none of this and just read or de-stress by playing a stupid (and I mean stupid) game on my phone. Yesterday for instance I updated my home page so it said Finding Harmony instead of Reviving the Rhythm. 

Afternoon break, okay who am I kidding, I’m usually trying to finish something up (I don’t like to leave things hanging over til the next day if I can help it) and don’t often remember to take my afternoon break. I try to skedaddle back home by 4:00 pm but sometimes this doesn’t happen exactly at four depending on the day. The morning commute is usually about 15-20 minutes. The commute home on the other hand is usually more like 20 -30 minutes depending on traffic, what’s being harvested where since I live in Ag country on the Central Coast of California. I work in a different city than which I live. 

Back home usually by 4:30ish, I greet the dogs whose separation anxiety was made worse by working from home for 18 months through COVID and then going back to work so this usually means a lot of baying/crying and jumping around on their part (they are Beagles- adorable, sweet yet stubborn and quite loud when they want to be creatures). 

I change out of work clothes into comfy clothes. Dinner is had by dogs and me. On Fridays- usually right before or right after dinner (depending on what’s for dinner) I start my laundry (I’m one person with a wardrobe designed to last more than a week but still tend to do laundry Friday evening and Saturday mornings. 

Next I’ll sit down and try to write (or edit or both but usually not both-I’m not great at balancing both at the same time). I try to get at least 1k words a day if writing, with the lofty goal of at least 1.5K words. But 2k is best. 

General daily chat-fest with BFF Misty happens after (don’t misunderstand- we text throughout our days as our work permits) that while I relax and mess around on my author socials trying to engage with readers (although sometimes I’ll try to engage at work as well). On Friday nights my instagram stories are usually full of memes and such because that’s what I do on Fridays. Lately I’m usually in bed some time around 10:00- 10:30 depending always later on Fridays because I’m usually doing something authory (or reading a really good book). I’ll read a bit and go to sleep.  Lather. Rinse. Repeat. 

Weekends

Saturday and Sundays are a bit different as are the odd holiday. At the day job we don’t get most holidays off- they are hoarded and we are given the entire week between Christmas and New Years off. Apparently some holidays can’t be moved and those we get off on the actual day. Like Veteran’s day is one we always get on the exact day.  

Weekend goal is to sleep in until 7:00 that’s when my alarm will go off. I almost never make it to the alarm because I have dogs who sleep all night and if I’m lucky they’ll make it to 6:30. This is a very rare day. Depending on the day (and how early the dogs got up) and what I have to do sometimes I will go back to bed and read because I can rarely if never go back to sleep. Then I Wordle.  And the day is started.

Saturdays are family-type chores and running amok. Going to the store for myself and my aging parents. Finishing what’s left of laundry, etc. It’s also my favorite day to cook because I don’t feel rushed and I can make something extra yummy. I’m currently in my homemade soup era. I also love to make enchiladas and tacos. Or try something new. If I need to go to Costco this is the day I go- and yes I try to do it early. Dogs are walked. After all that writing or editing is done. I try to set aside more time Saturday to write than I get during the week- some days I’m successful at that. Some days I am not.

Depending on the time of year- and the week…I try to catch a race or two of the weekend. I am a motorsports girlie and love to watch it. I spent a good amount of time as a primarily NASCAR  (but any motorsports was fair game) blogger in a previous era of my life. It actually afforded me some interesting opportunities thanks to a program NASCAR had (they may still) for what they called “citizen bloggers.” Anyway that’s a post for a different day as I am digressing completely.  I always watch key races and try to watch as many as I can. NASCAR, INDYCar, NHRA, IMSA you name it, I’ll watch it and probably have both in person and on TV although these days more on TV than live. So I work that into my weekend. Usually this means Sunday. But some races are on Saturday. Depends on the week and what I have going on. 

Sundays are usually prep day. First thing in the morning are bathroom chores I make sure I have what I need for the week ahead- sometimes (most of the time) another trip to the grocery store or a different grocery store is made. Recycling and trash are alled emptied. 

Then I spend a good amount of time planning/prepping my social media post ideas for the week (usually while watching the race). I make any graphics I might need  I tend to do some self-care stuff on Sundays too. Chat time with BFF Misty is in the evening- this is pretty much daily. Bed time is usually earlier- 9:30 or later to give me time to unwind with my book and get a good sleep to get back in the rhythm of the week.