Day in the Life

I’m overdue for another day in the life post, so no better time than the present!…er, or at least last week. Here’s what my day looked like on Tuesday, June 17!

6:30 My alarm goes off. I hit snooze and roll over.

6:41 Fine, fine, I’m getting up. I ran last night and showered afterwards, so at least I don’t have to shower this morning, which saves me time. I get dressed and pour a bowl of cereal. Jose’s already gone — he had to be at work for a 7:00 telecon so I’m on my own this morning.

6:55 I sit down at my home computer and dial in to a telecon of my own. There’s one topic I need to help out with, and it’s on the agenda for 7:20. Hopefully we won’t run late, or I’m going to be in serious trouble getting Emma to daycare on time.

7:45 Surprise, surprise — the telecon runs late. My topic has finally wrapped up and I can hear Emma babbling to herself in her crib in her room. She’s probably starting to wonder where I am!

7:58 After a complete whirlwind, I have Emma up, dressed and out the door. Yes, I did all that in 13 minutes, which leaves me both impressed with myself and frustrated. I feel guilty that Emma essentially went straight from crib to car. But today, it is what it is.

8:19 We arrive at daycare. For some reason I didn’t make coffee at home, and I didn’t have time to stop at Starbucks. Ugh. Emma and I walk inside, where I get her situated at the breakfast table and give her a kiss goodbye.

8:23 I’m back in the car headed to Building 1, where I’m supposed to be in an 8:30 meeting.

8:26 I park, grab my stuff and start hustling.

8:31 Oof. I sit down in the Space Station Program Control Board meeting a minute late. This meeting usually starts right on time but thankfully they are just getting started today. I settle in to a only-somewhat-comfortable chair because I’m going to be here for a while. As part of the work rotation I’m on this summer supporting the ISS Chief Safety Officer, this is one of the meetings I have to help support.

10:33 The SSPCB is still going. Normally this is an all-day meeting, but this week they broke it into two parts — this morning and tomorrow morning. It’s looking like this morning’s session will go a bit past the scheduled 11:00 end time, and I’m getting hungry. And I’m yawning. And I’m really wishing I’d had some coffee.

11:29 Whew. The meeting is done and after a lot of interesting discussion, four major safety-related documents have been approved and will be signed by the ISS Program Manager. I walk outside to a bright sunny day. Now to find lunch!

11:50 I arrive at my desk for the first time today carrying my computer bag and a BLT I just picked up from Jimmy John’s. I’m trying to shake a foul mood that developed over the course of the morning thanks to being tired and some career-related frustration.

11:51 I raise all the blinds in my cubicle area to let in a little more light. For a while, we had to leave them down, especially at night, to help keep migrating birds from crashing into the building. (Not making that up.) Ahh, light. That feels better already.

1:33 Man, it has been kind of a slow afternoon so far. I’ve been catching up on email (a neverending task) and preparing for a meeting I have tomorrow. This work rotation has me learning about a LOT of different topics, and I feel like I’m drinking from a firehose.

2:06 I started a pomodoro timer and just hit my first 5-minute break after a 25-minute work segment. I’ve started using the pomodoro technique to help me stay on track on days when I’m at my desk for extended periods of time or otherwise having motivation issues. It doesn’t work every time, but overall it’s been a surprisingly effective technique for me.

3:06 I head into my boss’s office for my yearly performance appraisal.

4:27 I had a really good conversation with my group lead and branch chief during my appraisal about a lot of things and I’m feeling positive about the year ahead where my job is concerned.

5:18 The work day is done and I’m on my way to pick up Emma!

5:32 Emma’s snug in the back seat and we’re driving off-site headed home. I cue up an episode of the Manic Mommies podcast that MelV recommended in the comments of my podcast post. I’m hoping I’ll like it and have another podcast to add to my rotation!

5:55 Hooray — we’re home! Jose is already here. We turn on the World Cup game we tivoed during the day. It’s the Mexico-Brazil match and the result hasn’t been spoiled for us yet, so the outcome will be a surprise.

6:20 Jose starts making dinner. Emma reads a book briefly and then starts asking for the iPad. I give in, and she plays happily on that while Jose and I talk about work. He had his performance appraisal today as well (it’s that time of year) so we talk about those for a while.

6:34 Dinner is ready! Tonight it’s salmon burgers (sans bun), frozen veggies and a roll.

6:59 We’re all done with dinner and just hanging out. You know, taking selfies. As one does.

7:15 We usually skype with my parents on Sunday nights, but we were busy a couple days ago so we do a quick skype session tonight. Emma tries to mess with the screen a lot, but fortunately she hasn’t hung up on anyone — yet.

7:42 Bath time!

8:09 Annnd after bath, brushing teeth and reading books, Emma’s in bed.

8:30 I talk to my sister on the phone for a bit. Her brother-in-law and his wife are unexpectedly in Houston this week.

8:38 I’m at my sewing machine, working on altering the smoked dress my mom made for Emma. I am really no good at alterations, but I should be able to cobble this together well enough to be wearable.

9:17 Uggggh! Seriously, I suck at alterations. But I’m getting closer.

9:21 Ok. The only thing left is hand sewing, and I’m making the executive decision to put that off until another night.

9:41 I wet some fabric I’m planning to use for another project and put it in the dryer to be pre-shrunk. Now I’m parked on the couch writing a blog post! These days my blog posts often come together in bits and pieces, living as drafts online until I finally wrap things into a cohesive string of thoughts.

9:55 I had started working on another post about job-related ponderings, but I’ve realized there’s no way I’ll finish it tonight. I write about “my favorite quilt” instead. In the past few months, I’ve started scheduling my posts — as in, writing them and then scheduling them to automatically post the next morning, or later in the week. I’ve never done it until now, but it helps me post more consistently and I’m liking it.

10:10 Jose just made me some (decaf) coffee. He puts more creamer in it than I usually do and mmmmm. It’s good.

10:45 It’s definitely time to put down the laptop and get ready for bed. Sometimes I realize that my life basically revolves around computers — I’m on one all day at work, and then jump back on one at home. I tell myself for the umpteenth time that I should start having a “screen free” night at least once a week. We’ll see if that actually happens.

11:05 I’m in bed and reading a chapter of my book. I’ve tried to be a bit more consistent about my reading lately by spending 10-15 minutes each evening with a book.

11:21 Good night world!