20: A Day in the Life

My alarm goes off at 6:15 a.m. and I hit the snooze button (well, actually I “lift up” my phone and then put it down again, which is the equivalent of a snooze button for the Sleep Cycle App that I use to track my sleep and as my alarm). Do you use the snooze button? I cannot jump straight out of bed.

At 6:30 a.m. I get in the shower. I usually start my workout around this time, but today is my “rest day” (which I purposefully switched from Monday) because I have an appointment for my mammogram in the morning.

I leave the house at 7:20 a.m. to drive to the medical center. It’s a 15-minute drive through the neighborhood. I am still trying to figure out the best routes to places now that we moved. None of them are ‘quick’ because I have to drive through neighborhood streets, but it’s actually a pleasant drive through beautiful fall-colored, tree-lined streets at this time of year. They don’t call Sacramento the “City of Trees” for nothing.

I get to the doctor’s office right at 7:40 a.m., which is the time I am supposed to arrive for pre-check-in. The lady who checks me in is really nice and greets me with a smile. I appreciate that in the morning.

At 8:00 a.m. sharp, the nurse calls my name. I like getting the first appointment of the day because it usually means there is no extra wait time! The nurse hands me a gown and sends me to a changing room. (“Keep the opening in the front, then wait over there when you’re ready”.)

At 8:05 a.m., I walk into the examination room and get my boobs squeezed every which way for 15 minutes. Not good, not bad, we just have to do what we have to do here. The nurse who’s doing the squeezing is “in training”, so she’s extra careful, explains every step elaborately, and apologizes a gazillion times for pulling and pushing my breast tissue to fit everything on the imaging platform. I find her demeanor endearing and I am slightly amused.

Then we’re done. I am told I can expect the results in about a week and I am sent on my way. It’s 8:20 am. when I get into the car to drive back home.

I am back home by 8:35 a.m. and immediately start making coffee. As you might have noticed, I didn’t make coffee before I left. I save that special moment for when I come back and can sit down and enjoy that first cup while I go through my emails. It’s a bit of a ritual.

At 8:45 a.m. I I take my coffee and a cinnamon bagel upstairs into my very own office to open my work laptop and take a first peek at my inbox – nothing urgent. I sip my coffee in peace and also check my personal email. I have an email from Tanja. Yay.

I am not fully set up yet, but here’s my new desk in my new office. I have a window! I have a door that I can close. I have space! And yes, I will have to get a bigger desk eventually, but this is great for now. So much better than when I was working from the corner of our living room!

I have a meeting coming up a little later where I have to give an update on my work progress for a specific project, so I work on that for a while.

At 10:32 a.m., I get a message from MyChart with new test results. Well, that was a little quicker than a week, wasn’t it? Is that good or bad news? I open MyChart and find that my results are normal. Boobs are fine. Nothing to worry about. Phew. That’s all I needed to know.

At 11:30 a.m., I make myself a quick lunch of rye bread with gouda cheese and forgot to take a picture, so I’ll insert a picture of the bread fresh out of the oven on Sunday. I was a little worried that my sourdough starters, Linus and Sally, had been sitting in the fridge for too long and that they weren’t fully revived yet, but the bread turned out so well! It tastes as good as it looks, and I wish you could have also experienced the smell when it came out of the oven.

I take my lunch break a little early and call my parents at 11:45 a.m. to chat for a bit. I always call them on my lunch break on Tuesdays, but I have to keep it short today because of the upcoming meeting.

At 1 p.m. I have a project meeting with my advisor and another colleague. I give a progress update on my task for the project and my other colleague does the same. Then we discuss next steps.

The meeting is finally over at 3:00 p.m. Two hours is a long time for a Teams Call, but these one-on-one or small group meetings are productive if we take the time to work together and don’t rush through things in 20 minutes.

At 3:05 p.m., my colleague, who was also on the previous call, sends me a message and asks if I have time to talk a little more. I answer in the affirmative, and he calls me back and we chat about the previous meeting and his frustrations with part of the project — the old dilemma: never enough time or funding to do the science right. I agree with him that it’s hard to push back against senior scientists who have more control of the scope of work and project budget.

After we hang up, I continue processing drone data. I am currently putting together multiple drone survey datasets using photogrammetry. It’s a lot of fun and I enjoy the work of stitching images together to create a 3D digital model of the physical world.

I finally call it a day at 7:00 pm and close my laptop. It’s been a long day and I am getting hungry.

I go downstairs at 7:05 p.m. and start dinner. It’s Taco Tuesday, and Trader Joe’s carnitas are perfect for a quick and easy dinner. Not pictured are the refried beans (they look nasty, but taste so good.)

Jon and I have dinner and then I watch the News for a little bit. I am not really committed these days because I do not need to hear which other unqualified person clown Tr*mp has nominated for his cabinet circus. So, I get my laptop and start writing this post. I also try to catch up on more of your recent blog posts.

My bedtime reminder goes off at 9:45 p.m. and I go upstairs and get ready for bed. It was my rest day and it’s ok that I didn’t work out today, but I decide on 20 minutes of restorative yoga class to at least earn my (Peloton) ‘blue dot’ for the day.

Lights are out at 10:20 p.m. – good night.

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I am doing NaBloPoMo this month. 30 blog posts in 30 days. Come join me. #nablopomo2024Links to the Participants List and NaBloPoMo2024 Blog Post Ideas! Happy writing!