Friday, June 18, 2010

My Day

Tuesday was a typical day of my life in every way except that I wrote down everything I did.  Even the stuff about Adam's birthday is typical in that I have unexpected emergencies every day.  This is what I mean by fractured time:

  • The cat woke me up so I pet him for a half hour and thought about my story idea.

  • Woke up Sammy.

  • Laid in bed with her and snuggled.

  • Dealt with her minor tantrum regarding getting dressed; helped her get dressed.

  • Dressed in my workout clothes.

  • Coffee.

  • Breakfast for Sam (I can’t eat first thing in the morning).

  • Read one email.

  • Cleaned up humongous milk-spill (BP has nothing on Sam!) while Sam changed her clothes. Left the wet chair for later.

  • Gathered tennis shoes and water for the gym, and an apple for Sam to eat in the car.

  • Decided to write up “my day” and started recording everything I was doing.

  • Got Sam out the door for summer school.

  • Ate some nuts and Sam’s leftover half apple for breakfast in the car.

  • Walked Sam into school and filled out permission slip for Thursday’s field trip.

  • Gave the teachers a brief review of the Farm Vacation and talked to them about whether it would be a good thing for the elementary students to do.

  • Two important phone calls in the car on the way to the gym.

  • Worked out for 45 min and thought about my story. Noted some ideas on my voice recorder.

  • Picked up an Umberto Eco book at the gym's library.

  • Listened to 6 minutes of Leonard Peikoff podcast on the way home. 

  • Took a shower.

  • Jumped out of the shower to reset my (really loud) alarm clock whose settings had been inadvertently changed while we were on vacation.

  • While dressing, talked to Adam about his latest idea for his OCON lecture.

  • Snack.

  • Spent 10 minutes helping Adam find his car keys.

  • Spent 40 minutes transcribing voice memos to my task list and story notes. 

  • Did some research online for future blog post.

  • Picked up Sam from summer school. Listened to the end of LP’s podcast on the way there and told her a Little Bear story on the way back.

  • Made a quick (20 min) stop at the playground on the way home since it looked like it would rain later.  While there, read a few emails but mostly played with Sam.

  • Prepared and ate lunch with Sam.

  • Opened two packages that had come while we were on vacation.

  • Read one page of my book while Sam went to the bathroom.

  • Read Sam 2 books and got her down for nap.

  • Read my book for a half hour.

  • Put away the things from the 2 packages that I had opened earlier.

  • Emptied the dishwasher, did the dishes from breakfast and lunch and straightened up the kitchen.

  • Made a bullet list of things to remember from the Farm Vacation. 

  • Finished transcribing my voice memos.

  • Cleaned the chair.

  • Took photo of the "2 d's" (I'll tell you that story later) and was about to send an email about it when I realized that...

  • It is Adam’s birthday tomorrow and I don’t even have a card for him and I need to tell the babysitter what time to come!

  • Called Adam about seeing a movie but decided the movies are crap so we’ll just go to dinner.  Advised the babysitter.

  • Frantically searched for a gift idea for Adam and planned a trip to the mall.

  • Cleared out some new emails and spent 5 minutes on Facebook to try to relax.

  • Tried to make an appointment for a blood draw that I’m over a week past due for, but the lab’s web site is down. Decided to take a chance and walk in tomorrow.

  • Sent the email about the "2 d's."

  • Woke up Sam, who had been sleeping for over 2 hours.

  • While she was waking up, pulled the sheets off our bed.

  • Put Benadryl cream on the 7 mosquito bites Sam got at the playground.

  • Listened to 10 minutes of Jenn and Kelly’s podcast on the way to the mall, where we planned to buy a present for Adam and get ice cream.

  • Dealt with a poop in the pants (not mine) at the mall and realized that I had not restocked my purse with extra underwear and pants after our vacation.  Sam goes Commando.

  • Dealt with a 15 minute major tantrum in the bathroom when Sam learned that we would not be getting ice cream since we had to spend the time cleaning up her poopy accident.  MAJOR tantrum, but wonderful resolution.  I did a good job and it was the proudest moment of my day.

  • Got the gifts and came home. 

  • Hid the presents.

  • Backed up my blog database.

  • Got Sam a snack of yogurt since we never got the ice cream.

  • Set Sam up with some paper and crayons to begin making a card for Adam.

  • Got a new set of backup clothes and wipes for my purse.

  • Let the dog out for the first time since the morning.  He's a sport.

  • Helped Sammy finish the card – cutting and gluing were involved.

  • Helped Sammy hide the card so her dad would not see it before his birthday.

  • Got the steaks out of the fridge for dinner and then decided to check Facebook for a few minutes of rest, but then Sammy pooped in her pants again and I spent the next half hour helping her clean up and take a shower.

  • Gathered the laundry while she was showering. 

  • Adam came home and took over the steaks, so I popped some mashed potatoes in the microwave and popped open a beer.

  • Zoned out on Facebook for the 10 minutes it takes the potatoes to cook.

  • Sorted the mail (2 Geico ads, 1 Triple-A ad, and 1 community college ad, all sorted into the trash can).

  • Dinner.

  • Played with Sam for a half hour while Adam cleaned up from dinner.

  • Kissed Sam goodnight (it was Adam’s turn to put her down).

  • Finished up the dishes and started a load of laundry.

  • Wrote a short blog post.

  • Put new sheets on the bed.

  • Cleaned the toilet.

  • Did some clutter-clearing and restocking of supplies.

  • Read my book for 2 hours and went to sleep.

8 comments:

  1. I'm not entirely clear about the reasons, but I just love "day in the life" posts! Your day sounds like a pretty typical day for a Mommy. How did you record all of that--I think if I did something similar I'd have to use the voice recorder on my phone. Which come to think of it, is probably what you did. :)

    Fun post. Maybe I'll try to do one soon--I've done them, but not quite in that much detail I think.

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  2. I'm like Jenn - I love these kind of posts! I should do one soon. Although your day is not typical for me. If I did that much housework in one day, Aaron would come home and have a heart attack. I wouldn't want to cause that, so no housework for me!!!

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  3. Side note regarding "Backed up my blog database." I know that you're using WordPress and most likely using the WP-DB-Backup plugin (it might be included by default). There's an option to have your backup scheduled and then the backup file emailed to an account you specify. I've got The New Clarion on a twice-a-day backup sent to a Gmail account, which has more than enough storage to accommodate it.

    The peace of mind that I get from having that done on all my blogs at least once a day is an absolute pleasure. I upgrade with impunity now because of it.

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  4. "Sam goes Commando."

    That by far was my favorite line!

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  5. This is fun!

    I'd love to join you ladies in your "day in the life" posts.

    - Sat up in bed, little birdies brought me my robe.
    - Tuxedoed manservant brought me an asparagus frittata, bacon, coffee, and Fage (full fat) yogurt with blueberries on a bed tray.
    - My children excitedly gathered 'round me clamoring to help with the chores so that I could spend time reading.
    - The phone rang and it was the President telling me he got my letter and that he's sorry and he needs my assistance to fix the country.
    - And then I woke up. . . and realized that it was just a dream.

    I never sent any letter to the President.

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  6. Jenn - yes, voice recorder is the only way I could do it.

    Kelly - now that you mention it, I might have cleaned the toilet just so that I could brag that I did it. :)

    Bill - the emailing and scheduling functions don't work for me. I'll update my version of the backup program and see what happens (yes, that's the one I use). I've been manually backing up weekly for years. Have you ever done a test restore? I found that my host made the process just about impossible, so I don't have total confidence in my backups.

    Lynne - you'll note that I made plenty of time for reading!

    Who is this Adam guy commenting on my blog?

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  7. Yes, I have. Once. But I've also used the backup to create a test environment for working on new ideas.

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  8. [...] Mossoff presents My Day posted at The Little Things, saying, “A “day in the life” post. A pretty typical [...]

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