Day In The Life | You Signed Up For What?!

Today it’s a double-whammy, a two-fer, double linkup trouble. It’s Friday so it’s my regular linkup with Courtney from Eat Pray Run, DC and Mar from Mar on the Run with a Friday Five. But there’s also a bonus because I’m doing a Day in the Life theme. In September, Jill and Angela hosted a Day in the Life linkup – bloggers wrote a post about a day in their life and linked up with each other. It was fun to see what other people’s days were like. I wrote one that you can find here. They announced another Day in the Life theme for today, and since I really enjoyed the first one, I decided to do a hybrid Friday Five/Day in the Life!

INTRO: I chronicled Thursday/yesterday, my first day back at work since having surgery two weeks ago. And like a typical over-doer, I worked a 13-hour day. Real smart, Cynthia. I’ve been in my bed all or part of every day for two weeks and today I went and worked the full workday plus a concert in the evening. Dumb. I figured I’d be sitting at my desk or in meetings all day, and then I’d start the concert and go back to sitting. Ha-HA! – the universe played a trick on me! You’ll see if you read on…

So today I give you Five Moments In My Thursday!

1. WAKEY WAKEY!

The alarm sounded at 7am. After two weeks of sleeping in, I was so un-awake that I washed my hair with shampoo and then conditioned it with body wash. Um, that took a while to wash out! I spent extra time on my hair since the body wash made the texture super weird.

I fed the kids, and our au pair walked my daughter to school with the boys in tow. Bye, kids, have a great day!

2. OFF TO WORK!

My wonderful dad drove to me to work. Thanks, Dad!

I commute into DC every day and I’m lucky that I get to see the Washington Monument daily on my drive. It’s out of its scaffolding but this truck blocked your lovely picture.

3. THE WORK DAY!

I sat at my desk, I sat in meetings. I was overwhelmed with catching up on work after two weeks off.

I brought leftover Thai food for lunch, which tasted way better than its first appearance as mediocre restaurant food yesterday. Maybe it just needed to mellow and blend a bit in its flavor. It wasn’t a lot so I had apples to go with it.

I tried and tried to resist temptation from holiday chocolates that were literally everywhere in the office. And I succeeded.

Confession: I succeeded with those chocolates, but we won’t talk about the caramel popcorn and holiday cookie…

I did minor surgery on my stapler using a letter opener and pliers. This could have ended very, very badly.

But thankfully it was a success – I fixed it.

4. THE CONCERT!

I figured I’d sit at my desk all day, then go backstage and start the concert, then sit down once it started. The universe decided that I should be taught a lesson and jinxed me for saying it was going to be an “easy” night for my first day back.

Why? A bomb threat at the Swedish Embassy meant that many roads were closed in DC and it was nearly impossible for people to get to the concert.

Lots of running around and coordinating. Not much sitting. It was crazy.

5. GOODNIGHT!

Thank goodness my dad was driving me home, because I was toast by the end of the concert. I got home at 11pm and poured wine immediately (yes, into a jelly jar).

And practically fell asleep in my clothes.

I got into bed with my wine, laptop, heating pad, and the aforementioned pillow pet (I think I’ll name him/her Buggy).

I’m going to try to scale back today and not overdo it. And maybe, just maybe, I will wear comfy pants instead of a suit to work today.

So link up your Friday Five here:

Friday Five Linkup with Eat Pray Run, DC and Mar on the Run!

Or head on over to Jill or Angela’s blogs to link up your Day in the Life!

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Tell me about your day!

Last week, I was reading a post on Happy Fit Mama and she announced a linkup with Jill @ Fitness, Health, and Happiness – A Day In The Life. The idea? Take pics and describe snippets of your day, and link to it on their blogs. It sounded pretty fun, so I decided to write up a snapshot of my day today! It wasn’t that interesting of a day in my life, and it wasn’t the healthiest eating or the best example of morning workouts (I overslept), but here you have it: my Day In The Life.

6:10am – This is the time that my alarm was supposed to go off for a morning workout. Did it? I wouldn’t know, I’m still sleeping at…

7:00am – The two older kids burst into my room, pushing each other out of the way as they run to my bedside. Usually one of the boys is up by now so i was glad to sleep until 7! Chill out, kids! So my 7.5 year old daughter snuggles nicely while my 4-year-old son jumps around on top of me and I am pretty sure he gives me 50 bruises. Eventually I persuade my son that his big sister can make him breakfast so I can get in the shower. He usually whines if it’s not Mommy doing things for him, but somehow he agreed. I shower and get ready for work.

7:55am – what is my 1.5 year old still doing sleeping?! He’s usually up way before this. Time to wake him up, change the diaper, and get him dressed, he has speech therapy services at 8am!

8:00am – Speech therapist/teacher for 1.5 year old is late. I start to worry that my morning will be thrown off. She calls at 8:10 saying she’s 5 minutes away. Time to rally the troops! Daughter is making a Rainbow Loom bracelet for her brother rather than packing her lunch yet. GET READY FOR SCHOOL! I do some dishes, help her pack her lunch, and feed the dog. No time for a sensible breakfast – I finish toddler’s homemade bread machine toast (I can’t resist it!) and eat a banana.

8:40am – Speech therapist finally arrives due to horrible traffic. This does not bode well for my commute. I participate in toddler’s therapy briefly, where he learns to talk a bit better so that he can eventually compete for air time with his older brother, who never shuts up. I leave for work much later than planned.

OMG the traffic. It sucked.

10am – So here I can tell you about my work: I work at an orchestra in management. I love my job. We have a small staff of really hard-working people, and everyone is passionate about it. Some days are exciting and action-packed dealing with conductors and musicians and producing concerts, but some days are just meetings, contracts and budgets. Today was the latter.

When I finally arrive at work after the aforementioned traffic, I meet our new staff member who is starting today and take her for all the first-day things people need to do (HR orientation, ID badge, computer training, etc.). In between all that running around, I send a few emails, work on a contract for a concert we’re doing, and prep for a big meeting that I have tomorrow. Coffee time with my favorite mug (a wonderful mother’s day gift from our wonderful au pair!):

I’ve been on a short business trip with a chamber music group for a couple days, and one day out of the office at this really busy time of year set me back a little bit. I was getting really hungry but wasn’t going to have lunch until after 1pm. What to do, what to do…

As Olive To Run stated in a recent post, I rarely remember to take pics of my food before I eat them. And I’m not sure I want to photo-document my food – I already log it all on My Fitness Pal. The only exceptions are fun, healthy, creative endeavors like Brussels Sprouts with Figs and Zoodles!

So yeah, I found a snack in my purse, and yeah – you get to see the empty wrapper. Don’t get too excited – it was tasty but it wasn’t really a good mid-morning snack – too dessert-y.

And yeah, I ate a turkey burger for lunch. And no, there isn’t a picture. There was also an apple on my plate and nobody really needs a picture of an apple. You’ve seen one Red Delicious, you’ve seen them all.

1:30pm – I go to My Fitness Pal to log my afternoon latte and wonder: “Hmm, is there a problem that my top two frequent afternoon entries are coffee and latte?”

I no longer put sugar or cream in my coffee, so those option should start to fall down the list as time goes by… and what’s with a fudge brownie? I don’t remember ever eating one in the afternoon so why is it showing up in frequent entries?! The mysteries of MFP.

I attend my 3:00 meeting, my 3:30 meeting, my 5:00 meeting, and my 5:30 meeting. My husband says I should be nicknamed Head Meeter since I have so many meetings. We’re working with our IT department on various projects so half of those meetings were IT/website-related. And one meeting was about lockers for musicians. I work on some rehearsal and concert schedule things, update the website we’ve made for our musicians, and prep for a presentation I am doing tomorrow for 100 people.

As I leave my office, I wonder why I have a ball gown, bike helmet, yoga mat, and 2 old suit jackets by my door. I think that pretty much sums up my work life – ball gown one minute, bike helmet the next, and behind on the dry cleaning.

Hit the road for home, and check my traffic app. Not excited for the commute. Here’s me SO not excited:

OMG the traffic.

I think the sun blinds everyone and they are paralyzed with the inability to drive a car facing directly into the blinding sun.

Have you seen the Exorcist? I drive by the Exorcist Stairs every day to and from work. As I sit in yet more traffic, I wonder if I saw that movie when I was younger. I honestly can’t remember.

7:30pm – Arrive at home. Sorry, kids, I got home late tonight. Prepare for evening to be totally thrown off. 1.5 year old always wants to be held a lot when I get home, and he loooves playing with hair. Maybe that will come in handy when he’s older and save me $ on hair cuts.

I eat a quick dinner one-handed with toddler on my lap – usually my husband cooks on weeknights, but tonight it’s half of Trader Joe’s Palak Paneer and some leftover salad. I wonder what day this salad is from, how long you can keep leftover salad, and whether I will get sick. Decide it’s fine.

7:45-8:15pm – Snuggle with kids on the couch while they finish their TV show, talk about how their days were, and watch my daughter perform crazy dance moves in the living room before telling her she’s getting the boys totally worked up and it’s time for bed.

8:30pm – I put both boys to bed. 1.5-year-old is awesome at bedtime, as usual. I sing You Are My Sunshine and put him in his crib, cover him with a blanket, and he rolls over and goes to sleep. A dream come true.

The 4-year-old is challenging. Lots of arguing and coming up with excuses. Finally get his pull-up on, jammies on, wash ketchup off his face, and while he brushes teeth, I put on exercise clothes.

Read story and sit with him as he falls asleep. I try to muster up the will power not to also fall asleep since I’m in workout clothes and have a plan. I check out Facebook and play Candy Crush while I sit there to avoid falling asleep.

9:10pm – He’s finally asleep. But he’s fallen asleep ON TOP OF ME. I carefully extricate myself from the position and sneak out of the room.

9:25pm – Running shoes on. Hop in car. Drive to gym. Listen to a little pop music to get me motivated. Yes, I listen to Radio Disney without my daughter in the car, I’m not ashamed to admit it!

9:35pm – I’m so tired, how will I manage a workout? I should have just fallen asleep putting K to bed…

10:10pm – Leave gym after a 30-minute, medium-intensity workout on the exercise bike where I played Candy Crush the whole time, and wonder if that workout was worth the trip. Some calories burned is better than no calories burned?

I tag my husband and say “you’re it!” and he leaves to go to the grocery store.

I’m hungry and realize we have baguettes direct from France that our house guests from France brought us this weekend. The bread is a little hard so I heat it in the microwave and top it with homemade marmalade from France. Seriously, why did I go to the gym, this is not a good post-workout snack so late at night. Dumb, dumb, dumb…

I eat my snack as I catch up on old Tivoed Master Chef episodes (maybe that’s what made me so hungry?) and write this blog post. Get a bit down that it was such a carb-tastic day and vow to be less carby tomorrow.

12am – I go to bed. Stayed up too late, probably ruining my chances of a morning workout.

Zzzzzz….

So there you have it, a day in my life. It’s not the most exciting, not the best example of health and fitness, and not the most time with my kids. I’ll have to do another Day in the Life where I rock the food, rock the workouts, rock the mom stuff, and work a rocking symphony concert that would really be more impressive, but this is a real Day In The Life of a working mom.

Did you do anything exciting today?