I was inspired by Stephany & Beckett to do a week in the life series! Tune in (or tune out!) for the mundane!

4:52 am – I slept fitfully and wake up before my 5:00 am alarm. Khali, Starbuck, and Apollo are in bed (on me) and when Khali sees me wake she immediately starts purring and wants to be petted. She does this every morning and I love it. Ned shows up and accompanies me to the bathroom and wants to cuddle (or “merge,” as Steven and I call it, since he wants to be RIGHT NEXT TO YOUR FACE). After I go to the bathroom I take my clothes off and weigh myself, change (I put my workout clothes in the bathroom the night before), brush my teeth, take my anxiety medication, put on deodorant, and am ready to go!

5:14 am – I feed Snow Jr (outside) and Tywin (inside) and cuddle with Tywin a tiny bit.

5:20 am – The indoor cats’ feeders goes off. Almost every morning Starbuck sits there and watches everyone eat until I pick up her bowl and put it somewhere private for her, usually on the stairs. She is such a diva. She has trained us (me?) very well.

5:24 am – I make myself the same first breakfast I have every morning – peanut butter and banana open face sandwich. Surprisingly, it never gets old and I look forward to it every morning.

I will only subject you to this photo once!

5:33 am – I drive to class, and listen to my audiobook, Winter Street.

5:45 am – Upper Body Class at WWM. I just did the Saturday Upper Body Class since I missed Monday last week and wonder if I will be horribly sore and am thankfully not. What’s sore is my butt when I sit on a bench from riding my bike Sunday! Surprise surprise!

I’m pleased that the assisted pullups feel easier. Progress! And I’m pleased to see Bobbi in class!

6:50 am – I drive home, listening to my audiobook, and have my protein shake.

7:00 am – I arrive home and feed the cats their wet food and start work. I had taken Friday off and am pleased to see I only have 27 emails and no surprise 7:30 am meetings (like last Monday). In fact, it’s a magical day with no scheduled meetings, and I have the afternoon off for an appointment with my vascular doctor, so I am feeling pretty good about this Monday! I take a quick shower (upstairs). And I let Tywin out into the office with me, because he was crying in the (downstairs) bathroom. Aww.

8:20 am – Chai time! I basically worked and listened to Tywin meow all morning. I wonder if the wind had him worked up.

10:30 am – I make lunch and eat it (a little on the early side!) since I have plans for lunch break. I have a salad and leftover taco from Saturday night. Tywin kept jumping on my desk to try to eat my lunch!.9,<– he even added that message for you – “.9,” must be code for something.

11:00 am – I use my lunch break to post a Fake Meats reel, then I put Tywin back in the bathroom, and go on a 3 mile run on our street. It’s so cold and windy but I’m glad to get some miles in – I hadn’t run since Friday. I listen to more of Winter Street.

11:58 am – I drive to Steven’s warehouse to go to my appointment together, and yep, more audiobook time.

12:24 pm – Steven drives us to my appointment. When I checked the time that morning it said it would take 40 minutes but we get there in under 35, so we’re a bit early.

1:00 pm – I check in and they call me back around 1:10. Steven comes with me to the exam room. My blood pressure seems high, again (it was at the dentist last week too). It’s 135/93. I’m usually around 120/80.

1:20 pm – I go to a different room to have my INR tested. 2.8! In range! The pharmacist recommends I test my blood for Factor II and Factor X, explaining that when you test these three together, you get a good picture of how my body is handling blood clotting. I got back to the exam room and hang with Steven until my vascular doctor arrives.

1:50~ pm – The vascular doctor arrives and asks how I’m doing – I feel great! He says I’m doing well and staying stable, and don’t need to see him for another year unless the Factor II and Factor X results look bad (they won’t) or if my INR ranges start to get wonky. We talk about:

• How my left leg (the leg the clots were in) is larger. He says that’s normal in the clotting leg but it’s possible I have May-Thurner Syndrome if I want to do a CT scan to check. I pass. It’s a cosmetic thing.
• I ask if my high blood pressure is related to being on Warfarin. He says no, but he does not want his patients to have high blood pressure, and mine is likely high from situational stress. He says trust what it measures at at home (120/80)
• I ask about traveling to Europe. He says to get my INR tested before and after I go, and to follow whatever medication the pharmacists recommend while I am there. And to wear my compression socks, drink a lot of water, and move as much as possible on the plane.

2:03 pm – I make an appointment with him for December 19th next year. I think, surely I won’t have any work meetings on my calendar for a date in 2024 – yet, there are four.

2:19 pm – They draw my blood to test for Factor II and X. Then Steven and I drive to Starbucks for a treat!

2:33 pm  – We order a Peppermint Mocha and Salted Almond Chocolate Bites (him) and Gingerbread Oatmilk Chai (me). We sit and chat for a while, which is a treat and feels so indulgent in the middle of the day!

3:06 pm – We leave and I do my rock hide for the day, then we drive back to the warehouse. We chat and I have a banana at some point.

This rock is by @meka.rox from California

3:46 pm – I drive back home and finish Winter Street. I arrive just after 4:00 and feed Snow Jr (the indoor cats’ feeder went off at 3:50 pm), feed Tywin and let him out, then come over to my computer to work on this post.

4:30 pm – Remembering to write that I had a banana makes me realize I’m hungry so I get some pretzels, then finish my book recap and publish it.

4:48 pm – I do some Fake Meats work – trying to figure out why an Illustrator file is RGB and not CMYK. It’s easy to switch the color profile to CMYK but then I need to re-embed images and make text paths in the file, then organize how the files are on the drive blah blah blah. It takes some time!

5:28 pm – I go over to Meta to see if I have anything I want to respond to on Instagram (comments or DMs).

5:38 pm – Ten minutes was enough of that and I leave the office to play with our cats that have been neglected and shut out of the office most of the day. I bring in a package, feed the cats their wet food (Steven comes home while I am), put away all the clean dishes, cut up a pineapple, and heat up leftovers for dinner (leftover homemade mac n cheese, add broccoli, and vegan chicken nuggets).

6:30 pm – We sit down to eat and finish watching The Family Plan (bad, but entertaining enough). Apollo keeps me company. We have pineapple for dessert.

7:30 pm – Steven and I work on Fake Meats blog post and social media ideas (I have an Ocho mini on the way to the office).

8:40 pm – I clean up after dinner (note, I’m usually in bed by this time, ahhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!), take out some trash, and make my shake for the morning

9:01 pm – I take my warfarin, go to the bathroom, brush and floss my teeth and wash my face, put my gym clothes in the bathroom, then change into PJs and read a bit of The Nanny while doing KST (Khali Special Time). I fall asleep between 9:45-10:00 pm.