day in the life: monday

After a year of trying to write this post, I’ve finally done it!

I’ve gotten a few questions about what a typical “day in the life” looks for me, so on Monday I made an effort to jot down all of the madness. I’d say it was a pretty typical day, but then again, every day is different — especially in the evenings when Anthony and I actually have free time. That said, here’s a list of everything I did on Monday. It’s REALLY thrilling stuff, guys. Thanks for asking me to write this!

4:50-5:10: Wake up, brush teeth, put on comfiest sweatshirt I own. Take clean towels out of the dryer and fold them while Anthony makes two coffees and two pieces of toast.
5:10-5:40: Eat a small piece of butter/jam toast coffee while I start editing photos and drafting the day’s blog post. Turn on the heat and get nice and cozy.

5:40-6:00: Change into gym clothes and kick off my morning lunch-making madness. I made a batch of black bean burgers on Sunday for us to eat for lunches this week. One for me, one and a half for Anthony! We usually have some variation of soup, salad, or sandwiches for lunch.

6:00-7:05: Go with Anthony to the gym. I usually run on Mondays but am switching things up this week. Anthony does his workout while I do my thing. Usually there are no more than five other people at our gym this early, so we love having all the space to ourselves!

7:05-7:20: Arrive home, shower, put on real person clothes. My outfit for the day, which I now see weirdly matches the colors of our bedroom. I must be subconsciously wired to match plum and beige?

7:20-7:30: Finish packing lunches, decide that I’m going to go all out and make some juice (I try and make fresh juice a couple times a week, if I have enough time!).

7:30: Juice ready! I pour Anthony a cup and pour some into a travel bottle for me to have later. Anthony leaves for work — he has a longer commute than me and works slightly longer hours as well. 7:30-7:50: Unload and reload the dishwasher; and then wash a ton of dishes (mostly the juicer components… arghhhhh) 7:50-8:05: Write the rest of Monday’s blog post while I also cook an egg sandwich. I’m not entirely sure how I did that, but that’s what I have written down!

8:00-8:15: Hair, makeup, purse, lunch, phone, and a couple final dishes (do they ever stop?) Then get in the car! 8:15-8:40: Drive to work. NPR for the road. Ebola and ISIS, plus an interesting story about life in Crimea.

8:40-12:30: Eat breakfast while I check emails and get to work. I’m a writer at an advertising agency. It’s pretty fun.

12:30-1:00: Lunch break! To get some fresh air, I take a stroll outside my office building. I stop to take a photo of the pretty trees by the Frist Center… and then noticed that the car in the bottom of the photo wasn’t moving at all.

This poor young guy had stalled out, right in front of me. I came over to offer “help” (because really, what help can I offer? I have no mechanical skillz) and could see that he was really distressed. Apparently he was on his way to a job interview and completely unfamiliar with the area. Since I couldn’t offer any auto advice, I did what I could do best, which was to go approach complete strangers. I rounded up about five people and we all helped push his dead car into a nearby lot. I got to manually drive! Ha.

1:00-1:30: Okay, second half of lunch break with actual lunch. Black bean burger hit the spot! I also think my first attempt at making potato buns turned out pretty well. Broccoli kiwi = eating my greens, literally. I read What Alice Forgot while I ate.

1:30-3:15: Back to work! 3:15-3:20: Break for a green tea and granola bar. I tried making the bars with a new type of raisin this week. Surprisingly tasty, though I think dried apricots are my favorite so far. In case anyone was wondering.

3:20-6:00: Back to work! 6:00-6:20: Drive home, listen to more NPR. Really interesting interview with a Wired author about his story on “content moderation” which sounds like the worst job ever. 6:20-6:30: Put leftovers in the oven while I clean up the kitchen. Right now I’m having a serious battle with orange stains from carrot/apple juice in my plastic water bottle. I tried a homemade mix of white vinegar baking soda yesterday and was surprised to see everything explode out the top in a foamy mess. #science

6:30-6:35: Put out stuff for our church small group. We started hosting a few other couples for Monday night meetings/Bible studies. I made cookies on Sunday in preparation!

6:35-7:00: Sit down and chat with my mom on the phone. She’s in Colorado right now with my sister, who just had the most adorable baby! 7:00-7:25: Anthony comes home. We eat leftover chicken and catch up on all the very exciting Monday news

7:30-9:15: Church group time! It’s been nice getting to know some other young couples in our neighborhood. 9:15-9:45: Anthony and I clean up, get ready for bed, chat a bit more. 9:45-10:00: Read and then fall asleep in about two minutes. The end. And that’s how it all went down! Highlights were definitely driving someone else’s car and creating a chemical explosion in my kitchen. Oh, and the cookies of course. I’m off to New Orleans this morning. See you from down South!

• What was the highlight of your Monday?
• Favorite fruit flavors in a granola bar?
• Last time you helped a stranger?