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

4:00 am – My alarm goes off and I pop right out of bed (and give Khali a few pets while standing up) – I don’t have a lot of time to get ready! I’m going to the office today but from a station in Waukegan that’s farther away (13 miles) and gets me to work earlier and home earlier. The train leaves at 5:05 am and I want to be on the road by 4:30 to make sure I have time to pay for parking and get on the right side of the tracks. Blah blah blah.

I straighten my hair quickly and get dressed, wearing my new green sweater for the first time.  I do my makeup and wonder why I even straightened my hair since I put it in a bun with a cute headband my friend Lauren made me. Hmm. I skip waking up Steven to give him a kiss and say goodbye since it’s so early.

Outfit photo from work

4:24 am – I feed the cats their wet food, and grab my shake and put my lunch in my backpack.

4:31 am – I drive to the train and drink my shake while I listen to the newest Popcast episode – “The Overrated Things of Christmas Snake Draft.” I drive by the airport and see a plane flying the pattern and think of Steven (who has a lesson this morning). I text Stephany to tell her how much I am giggling over the Popcast episode.

4:52 am – I arrive and pay for parking and as I am walking to the train I see a festive engine all lit up for Christmas and feel joyful. I respond to texts and start to send a Marco to Val and Tiff then see the train is coming earlier than I thought (I always forget the 5:05 is the departure time, not the arrival time) and cut it short.

5:05 am – The train takes off and I review my Tuesday post and publish it. The conductor asks to see my ticket right away, which I appreciate – on the train I usually take the conductor waits until we’re almost downtown. I realize my watch thinks I’m still asleep so I tell it I’m not and it advises a rest day because I didn’t get enough sleep – you don’t have to tell me twice! I respond to more texts (with people in Europe and on the east coast) and start reading Wreck the Halls and have a fig bar. There’s hardly anyone on the train and I love that it’s so quiet. That is how I prefer my train ride to be.

5:52 am – I register for next week’s Wednesday 5:45 am WWM even though I don’t need to this early – it won’t sell out – but it’s a habit of mine to book my classes a week out (when they open up). I see the 4:45 am class already has 8 people signed up! That class is almost always full. I like the energy of the full classes best but am trying to prioritize getting enough sleep and regularly waking up at 4:00 am does not fit into that plan.

6:22 am – I walk to the office and listen to more of The Popcast. It’s dark out and I enjoy seeing all the festive lights.

6:41 am – I start work. This is my last day in the office (physically) until January 10th! It looks like a lot of people are going to be in the office today, which is nice – and how I prefer my office days (opposite of what I prefer on the train!). I see a pretty sunrise.

7:22 am – I decide to post to my rock Instagram account. I have very little interest in it these days, but I do have a little bit of art left to post! (I haven’t painted since December 2nd).

8:41 am – Steven texts me that he is on his way to the warehouse. I hope he chats me when he gets there to tell me how his second solo flight went!

8:55 am – For the second time this morning my computer is acting funky and typing 0s and won’t let me type anything else. My 0 key seems fine so I google what to do and it requires something with drivers, which requires IT, so I restart my computer again and call them… then they ask if I am hooked up to an external keyboard and I look over at the one I am not using and see my notebook sitting on the 0 key and feel like an idiot. Sigh. I thank them and hang up, and clean up all the google docs that got messed up with tons of 0s. How embarrassing.

9:19 am – Steven tells me his lesson went well. He did takeoffs and landings again – 3 with Josh and 3 by himself. I still can’t believe he is flying solo. So cool!

10:15 pm – I feel inspired by my coworker submitting his leave for the Tokyo Marathon so I submit mine for Europe – 7 days off! And I’ll have the Friday off before the Saturday we leave, and the Friday off after the Monday we get back (and I took Tuesday off too). Woo hoo! I eat a bruised banana to celebrate.

My morning consists of sending an agenda, meeting prep, creating a spreadsheet, contacting people to fill out said spreadsheet, etc. etc.

11:19 am –  I feel hungry early (surprise surprise) and eat lunch (salad and part of last night’s burrito) at my desk and post the Fake Meats post for the day from my phone.

12:09 pm – I remember I need to do my rock hide for the day and leave (making sure the rock is in my pocket) for a short walk. I leave it at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Rock by @jenni.d.rocks from Oregon

1:00 pm – Last staff meeting of the year! We go the full hour, chatting about holiday stuff and telling stories. I tell them about my 00000 problem from the am and we all laugh.

2:00 pm – I pack up and order an Uber to go to Pie, Pie My Darling to pick up Steven’s birthday cake. (I had taken two hours of leave so I could leave early.)

2:30 pm – I pick up Steven’s birthday cake and order another Uber to the train. I have a lovely conversation with my driver about his family, why he and his wife moved here from Morocco decades ago, and his birthday next week

2:54 pm – I wait for my train, which is coming at 3:40. I decide to take the 3:10 train, which doesn’t go all the way to Waukegan but gets me closer. I figure out which platform is going north, then call my mom to talk about a family holiday photo she wants to take Sunday, the day we drive in. I ask if we can push it to Monday when we’re all already together and I won’t be getting right out of a car. I can’t stop yawning while I talk to her!

3:10 pm – I jump on the train and catch up on messages, then get out my Kindle to read.

3:30 pm – I remember to check my health provider app for my Factor II results and see that they’re “low” but have been in the past so I’m guessing that’s where they want to keep them. The Factor X results will be in next week.

3:39 pm – The train drops me off in Winnetka (it’s the last stop) and I walk around a bit and enjoy the holiday decorations then head back to wait for the train that’ll take me to Waukegan.

4:04 pm – I get on the train to Waukegan and get my Kindle back out. The train has quite a few delays and stops on the tracks for a really long time. I feel disappointed – I was excited to get home earlier than usual. I stop reading and scroll on my phone. The train gets to Waukegan 37 mins late. I’m not in a great mood.

5:19 pm – I drive home and listen to Nobody Asked Us with Des & Kara.

5:46 pm – I finally arrive home! I can tell by the cleaning product smell that something happened and Steven says Tywin peed in his cat bed. Tywin was locked in the bathroom all day and the soap container fell in his litter box and we wonder if that is why he peed the bed. Poor little dude. I feel bad he was in there all day.

I change and go to the bathroom and start to bring garbage down (it’s garbage night), then clean up my lunch dishes, help a bit with dinner, visit with Tywin a bit, open holiday cards, and open a package my friend Matt sent me. It’s a Blue Bell Foundation for Cats hoodie, pin, and sticker. What a nice gift! (We visited there with Matt in March.)

6:17 pm – We sit down to eat the dinner Steven made and finish 1994’s Miracle on 34th St. Meh.

We have another package to open, from Courtney and David, with a holiday card for us, a birthday card for Steven, treats for the cats, and for us. What a great surprise! I text her to thank her.

I give the cats some of the treats.

6:56 pm – We get into Steven’s birthday cake two days early, like we always do. It’s snickerdoodle and delicious! I work on this post and all the photos. I am tired and can’t stop yawning. But we still need to clean up and take out the garbage and I want to spend time with Tywin.

7:13 pm – My snister texts me a barf emoji response we got to the Fake Meats post on Facebook. It’s just a photo of food. I don’t get the trolls. I ask if she was there when I was reading our YouTube comments out loud two Sundays ago when we were at her house. She wasn’t. We were all dying (laughing) at how mean the comments were.

7:39 pm – We clean up after dinner, get all the garbage together, and take the garbage and recycling out, then hang out with Tywin for about 30 minutes while Steven tells me all about his flight lesson and solo landings and talking to the tower.

8:41 pm – I get into bed and read a bit of Wreck the Halls but don’t last long. I’m so tired! I fall asleep at 9:03 pm.

~11:30 pm – I wake up drenched in sweat! Ugh! This hasn’t happened in forever! Ned accompanies me to the bathroom (of course), I bring him back to cuddle, change into shorts and a shirt (I was wearing pants and long sleeves) and go back to bed.