Tuesday, October 1, 2019
7:55AM: I wake up for the first time, but I don’t need to get up yet and I’m still tired. I get up for a glass of water, tell the cat it’s not time to eat yet (he’s not thrilled with that answer), and go back to bed.
8:03AM: I’m not quite ready to fall back asleep, but I know I want to. I grab my laptop and start reading random articles on Wikipedia for about 15-20 minutes before I start getting sleepy again.
8:20AM (roughly): Sleep, Take 2.
10:45AM: I wake up again and this time figure I should probably getting out of bed. I grab breakfast out of the fridge—a mason jar of overnight oats (oatmeal, almond milk, chia seeds, blueberries) and add some chopped walnuts. The cat gets fed finally, too.
11:15AM: I’m on the couch, trying to work up the energy to start doing things. I have none. The cat joins me and falls asleep on my lap for a few minutes.
11:45AM: I finally make it to the dining room table with my laptop and start answering emails, preparing for my 3:30PM class, and generally trying to organize my life.
12:15PM: I’m getting a massive headache, so I take some Advil and try to work more.
12:30PM: The headache’s getting worse and the laptop isn’t helping, so I turn it off and end up lying on the couch for a while with my eyes closed. The headache starts to ease up, but I stay there a little too long and end up falling asleep.
2:00PM: I wake up and realize I’ve been asleep for about an hour. I need to be on campus in an hour, so I get up, take a shower, and then remember that I didn’t finish making the PowerPoint for my class, so I throw on some clothes and sit down to finish it up.
2:50PM: The PowerPoint’s done, so I go finish getting ready—brush my teeth, put on shoes, grab my wallet and cell phone—and start packing up. I realize I won’t have time to eat lunch before my class, so I grab the food I meant to eat for lunch—I’ll have it after my class during my office hours, since I plan to make up for my lack of work earlier by sticking around for a while—and a protein bar and head out to my car.
3:00: I eat the protein bar while I drive to campus and then park. I drop my food for later off in the office fridge and then walk to my class.
3:30-4:45PM: Teach.
4:45PM: I clean off the white board, shut down the classroom computer/projector, then start heading back to my office.
5:00PM: I have two graduate students waiting for me when I get back. We talk about their progress on first major project (due later this week) for a while, then talk about their experiences teaching this semester.
5:30PM: Grading. My office fan (for both background noise and temperature control) starts making a weird noise and I try to fix it, but end up making it worse. I get on the Target website and order a new one to pick up later tonight, then get back to grading.
6:00PM: I’m starving (the protein bar only helped for so long), so I go in and head up my late lunch/early dinner (black beans, onions and peppers, salsa; I add crushed Fritos after microwaving it) and then eat quickly in case a student shows up at the last minute.
6:04PM: I get a notification that my travel reimbursement went through and I can finally afford to buy things again, so I order a new pair of pants from Bonobos to wear to my friends’ wedding this weekend and double-check to make sure they’ll arrive in time without paying extra for expedited shipping.
6:06PM: Back to grading.
6:23PM: The headache that’s been gone for most of the afternoon is starting to come back and my office chair/laptop situation is making it worse. I decide to call today a wash, before it gets worse, and just make up for it with extra office time later in the week. I save what I’m working on, pack up a couple of things I can do from home later/tomorrow morning, and head out.
6:25PM: I get a notification that my Target order is ready when I’m walking out to my car, so I head there to pick up my new fan. Then I remember that I’m out of black beans and a couple of other things that I eat daily, so I stop at the grocery store after, too.
7:05PM: Get home, unpack groceries, take out garbage, pet cat.
7:30PM: The headache has gone away again. I realize it’s probably from sitting at a desk and I can’t remember the last time I did anything resembling exercise, so I take a walk downtown.
7:45PM: Some friends are playing bar trivia and wave when I walk by. I stop in to hang out for a bit and end up with a glass of wine.
8:30PM: All hope of being productive today is lost. I have a second glass.
9:45PM: We play euchre, then we switch to rummy when the other two players leave.
11:00PM: Walk home. I realize I didn’t really eat dinner, so I make a small bag of popcorn to tide me over until morning.
11:40PM: I set up my planner for tomorrow and make a to-do list of everything I need to accomplish before my class meets at 5PM.
11:45PM: Shower, brush teeth, take medications, get in bed.
12:00AM: I set my alarm for 9:00 so I can get an earlier start and then watch Netflix until I fall asleep at about 12:30.