A Day in the Life…

Every year (this is year two), Trish hosts a day in the life post with the idea that it will accomplish the following: “Here’s to celebrating our differences and finding our similarities. Here’s to sharing a little piece of our own “behind the scenes” and connecting with someone else on a deeper level. Here’s to coming together as a community. Here’s to cheesy music in my head and group hugs.” I hesitated to do this because I forgot to track my day before I went on vacation, and then I worried it would be thrown off to track it the first day I got back, but it ended up being decently normal. So…for your reading pleasure.

7:00am. Alarm goes off. I am not a morning person, but I sneak out of bed and try not to wake my youngest, who climbed into bed around 6 (before I was willing to get up with him). Normally I get up a little earlier, but it’s spring break for my kids, so they don’t need to be to daycare until 9:15, as opposed to 8:00am school.

7:10am. Breakfast, which consists of greek yogurt with raspberries and half a banana with extra crunchy peanut butter, served with water. I switched to a gluten free diet on January 1st and it’s been difficult for me personally, but I have seen some improvement with my arthritis. I check in with the social media world (which for me means Facebook and Instagram, get back to a few messages, and read a few blogs, but don’t have time to comment (yet)). I get my kids’ breakfast set up and then go get them out of bed (half a bagel, banana, strawberries, and greek yogurt, with water).

7:20am. Kids are up eating breakfast while I do a thirty minute workout.

7:50am. Workout done and I have to remind my kids to take their plates to the sink. I get them dressed, teeth brushed, and hair combed (I have wild haired children, so this can be a task). I set them up with a 22 minute episode of Ninjago so I can hop in the shower without worrying about fights. About 20 minutes to shower and another 25 minutes to get dressed and do my hair, etc. I go downstairs, pack my lunch, force my kids to get their shoes on (with 50 billion reminders), and get in the car.

9:00am. Leave for daycare, then drive to work. For what it’s worth, I once figured out I earn about $25 when my kids have spring break and I have to pay for drop in daycare. Public service jobs for the win.

9:45am. Arrive at work. I am a science librarian in a special library here in Denver (which will be pertinent in a bit). I settle in, read all the emails I missed over vacation, and tell the other librarians about my vacation (which included a skunk and a tire blow out).

10:00am. Library opens, my job is a mix of public service, cataloging, and rare books.

10:45am. We (library staff) have a long meeting today, and a volunteer will be covering the library I set her up with a couple of easy projects and teach her what she needs to know while we are gone.

12:00-2:00pm. I have a two hour webinar covering risk analysis and mitigation for moving special museum collections. Two. Hours. I don’t fall asleep, I’m calling that a win. It’s not to say it’s not interesting, but it covers things like methods of loading carts to transport materials down the hall. Very informative, very dry. I eat lunch (quietly) during the webinar, it’s chicken soup with chipotle peppers and potatoes.

2:00pm. A blizzard is predicted for the next day, which is my day off, except I’m an instructor for an evening class (a group discussion on ornithology, I am the moderator, it’s sort of a guided science book club). We come up with contingency scenarios in case we have to cancel (we did, 16+ inches of snow in blizzard conditions).

3:00pm. I go out for a walk, because it is a gorgeous 70 degrees outside and I can’t stare at my computer anymore. I got a FitBit in December and I work hard to make sure I meet my 10k steps per day (and my goal is to get in at least 13K, but I don’t meet it today), which can be tough with a desk job.

4:00pm. On Monday, I’m contributing to a portion of a new exhibit going up for a Victorian event. My portion consists of supplying the rare books for a glass display case that will be up for a week. The case will have the books a Victorian botanist would’ve likely had, such as Darwin, Linnaues, and Gray. I complete the list of books that are up for consideration, I will pull them Saturday to assess their condition and, assuming they can be out of the rare book room for a week, I will display them Monday. The night of the event I’ll add a few good condition exploration books that people can look through (under supervision). It’s good outreach for the library, everyone seems to love rare books.

5:00pm. Commute home. I leave Denver with seemingly every other person who lives west of the city and sit in traffic. Good times.

06:00pm. Grocery store. In case my name didn’t give it away, I’m Irish. We were traveling on St. Patrick’s Day, so I didn’t get to make dinner. I am making Cottage Pie tonight, instead (I use this recipe), since I missed the holiday.

07:00pm. We play go fish, which is as exciting as it’s ever been.

07:30pm. Bath time. I bathe my kids, get them in their pajamas, and ready for bed. We go to their room and read. My older son is reading Werewolf in Fever Swamp by R.L. Stine and my younger son is read Earthquakes in the Early Morning (a magic treehouse book). While I’m reading to them, my husband does the dishes and puts away some of the laundry (there are mountains of it post vacation).

08:30pm. I put my younger son to bed and let my oldest stay up a little later (because it’s spring break).

09:00pm. After he falls asleep, we go downstairs and watch an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and share some ice cream.

09:45pm. I take him up to bed and wait for him to fall asleep, I nod off a little while I wait.

10:15pm. I leave his room and go to my own and start clearing off the laundry piles that are on my bed. I will need to sleep somewhere. I start getting sleepy and my husband clears the rest off. I get ready for bed and lay down to read A Thing with Feathers by Noah Strycker, one of the books we’ll be discussing at tomorrow’s meeting. I nod off twice before giving up.

10:45pm. Go to sleep. This is an estimate, I didn’t check the clock.

*Of note, over the last couple of months, I’ve been hit with the flu, a nasty cold, and allergies. I’m still trying to get back on track after these, but I’m still extra exhausted (my normal bed time is about, comfortably, midnight). Every day feels like a marathon. Also, bonus points for anyone who read through the whole day.