Day in the Life #15

It has been a crazy week. Not in the best way, but the worst is over. I usually show you a typical day in the life, whatever that looks like, but this time I thought I’d show you a more unusual one. It’s not what I’d have planned for a day, but sometimes you just have to take what life gives you and go with it.

An atypical day in the life

12:37 am – You read that time right. I wake up about an hour and a half after falling asleep and check my phone out of habit. Oh, yay. My friend texted me that the homework we spent the last four days doing is, in fact, wrong. (We kind of knew that before, but we didn’t know how to fix it.) I debate fixing it in the morning, but decide I probably won’t be able to sleep without knowing how to do the derivations. Nerd problems. Perfectionist problems. Roll out of bed, grab my notebook, and slip into the living room. Proceed to fix my homework.

1:40 am – Finally finish. It makes sense, at least. However, I did it while wearing my glasses, and my eyesight is so bad that glasses don’t do what my eyes need them to do, so my head is pounding. But yay. Sleep at last. I fall asleep sometime after 2:00.

4:30 am – Wake up. Too freaking early. Plan out my morning. Thankfully fall back to sleep.

5:28 am – Wake up. This time for real. Lie in bed and question how I’m going to get through my long day of classes. Ugh. And this is why I’ve never pulled an all-nighter over schoolwork.

5:52 am – Get out of bed, change clothes, and head to the gym.

6:16 am – Get to the gym, warm up on the elliptical. I alternate lifting weights with short bursts of elliptical-ing. It takes a while to really get into it, but after about 20 minutes I’m glad I’m here. That said, it kinda feels like my sleepiness is affecting my strength (is that a thing?), so I ease back on some of the weights.

7:12 am – Leave the gym, walk back to the dorm. As I’m heading back, I see a guy who looks like a standard jogger from afar, but as he gets closer I realize he’s wearing nice business clothes and shoes. Interesting. Also, I learn that the plows that make our lives so easy when it snows on campus also splash the puddles out of the way when it’s rainy. It’s a funny sight, but much appreciated by those of us who don’t have to wade through lake-sized puddles just to get to class.

7:24 am – Back to the dorm. I head upstairs and shower and put on my makeup. Frankly, the makeup feels kinda hopeless on as little sleep as I got, but whatever. I try. 

7:55 am – Dry my hair, turn on the electric kettle for my tea, straighten my hair for the first time since Friday. That’s also hopeless, since it’s all rainy and humid.

Again, I try.

8:08 am – Open my computer and fix a problem in my econ homework write-up. Save it onto my flash drive. Get dressed. Put a giant Japanese sweet potato in the microwave for 7 minutes. Run downstairs to print off the computer part of my econ homework. Run back upstairs, make tea, staple my homework together. 

8:25 am  – Eat a Brat Hans Spinach Chicken Sausage. (The link says Spinach + Feta, but there’s no feta. They’re Whole30 and they’re amazing.)

Cut up my sweet potato and let it cool a little bit. Gather up my stuff.

8:33 am – Leave for class, sweet potato in hand.

I don’t have a whole lot of time to sit down and eat breakfast on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This works. Sometimes I also bring along roasted veggies.

8:56 am – Sit down in Intro to International Econ with the friend I worked on the problem set with. We’re relieved that this assignment is over. It was much more complicated than anyone expected.

9:02 am – Class starts.

{First homework assignment for which I felt the need to attach an appendix.}

We turn in problem sets and talk about the Ricardian Model of trade, comparative advantage, and gains from trade. It always sounds straightforward in class. We’ll see how the homework shakes out.

10:16 am – My teacher says he just has two more examples to go through. Class is supposed to end in four minutes. I text my friend from my next class to save me a seat.

10:31 am – Get to Ancient Empires a minute late and sit in my reserved seat in an over-full, way-too-hot classroom. The teacher spends the whole lecture reviewing pretty much everything we’ve gone over in the last four lectures. Ordinarily, this would be annoying, but it’s actually really nice since his lectures are all over the place.

11:50 am – Class ends. We wonder what the rest of the quarter will be structured like since we’ve basically made it through most of the Ottoman Empire chronologically. Guess we’ll see.

12:02 pm – Get back to my dorm. Chat with my roommate and make lunch. I have no idea what I’m doing, but I toss ground bison into a skillet and season it with a lot of random seasonings, tasting as I go. This is how I cook about 75% of the time. It’s good, but I decide it’s not what I’m in the mood for. I save most of it for later, and then add kale and Rao’s Arrabiatta to the skillet. While that heats up, I reheat half an acorn squash. The squash becomes the bowl. Ta-da.

I also eat pistachios with lunch because I eat them with lunch almost every day and adore them.

1:03 pm – Start reading for Inequality later. One of the authors of this paper is our lecturer for the day.

1:25 pm – Get hungry. I know, I know. I said on Whole30 I don’t need to snack as much. From my very scientific observations, I can tell you that this does not hold true when I don’t sleep. I am constantly hungry when I don’t sleep. I eat an apple, some sunflower seed butter, a banana, and another small handful of pistachios.

2:08 pm – Finish reading. Call my mom for an energy boost or something. I have class in a little over an hour. We chat. I lie on my bed, half asleep.

2:30 pm – We hang up and I decide I need more sustenance for class. I heat up the other half of my acorn squash and drizzle it with almond butter and cinnamon. Good decision.

2:48 pm – Mmm. I’m gonna need more carbs. Just being honest. I cook up a small sweet potato, cut it up, and leave for Inequality about 10 minutes later. I always get there early because there aren’t exactly enough seats for everyone.

3:16 pm – Get to Inequality. Talk to a guy who used to live in my house for a bit.

3:30 pm – Class starts. Today is part two of two on inequality and education, and whether education perpetuates inequality or amends it. Totally fascinating, and I could talk about it for ages. If I have to have one, I’m so glad this is my afternoon class. It’s engaging enough that I actually want to be there and don’t want to fall asleep. 

4:50 pm – Class ends.

I walk back to the dorm. When I get there, I talk to my roommate about the apartment she’s looking at for next year and set about roasting a spaghetti squash to have on hand for a couple days. Around 5:30, I start writing another response to a reading for my creative writing class. I also play a few games of Candy Crush.

7:00 pm – Make dinner. I’ve been loving spreading a little Tessemae’s Classic Caesar on a salmon filet and searing it. Also, steamed broccoli and cauliflower for ease. I eat quickly and do dishes. 

7:33 pm – FaceTime with my mom and just hang out for a while as I start this post. Write this post and write and write. 

8:45 pm – Call my dad as he drives home from a hockey game.

9:10 pm – Change into pajamas. I’m not super hungry, but I need something to digest my medicine with, so I go for my standard apple + sweet potato + nut butter (well, tonight is sunflower seed butter, but still). Finish this post as I eat.

9:42 pm – Email my creative writing teacher my assignments for tomorrow. Clean up my dishes and get ready for bed.

10:10 pm – Bed. What a long long long day.

So, there you have it. Was it a standard day? No way. Was I exhausted? Yep. At 7:00am, I had no idea how I would make it through three classes alive awake. Okay, slight exaggeration. But you do what you can. And I’d say it went pretty alright.

Not every day goes as planned. Sometimes you have to roll with the punches. #FitFluential #fituniversity Share on X

Your turn:

Does sleep (or lack thereof) affect your appetite?

Do you follow recipes or throw ingredients together and hope for the best?

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