7am -- Get up, trot down stairs and turn on the computer. Make a cup of coffee while I wait the for the ever increasing boot to complete.
7.10am--Smoke (yeah, I am tryin' to quit) and drink coffee.
7.20am--Check email for >>>THE EMAIL OF SUCCESS<<<< (no, not the one that says I have won the Spanish lottery) or possibly the Email of Failure (not so many caps, as these seem far more common). Usually there is nothing but spam. It is so disappointing when it's nothing. I usually press the send and receive button again, just to be sure.
7.30 Shower etc.
8.30 Arrive at work and check Hatrack for any post responses.
8.45 Check Hatrack for any post responses.
8.45-12.00 Think about story lines or plot problems, except when work interrupts me.
12.00 Check Hatrack again.
1pm -4.30 Think about story lines or plot problems, except when work interrupts me.
5pm. Get home and Check email for >>>THE EMAIL OF SUCCESS<<<< or possibly the Email of Failure.
5.05 Check Hatrack for any responses.
5.10-8pm. Write, yet check email and Hatrack every 1/2 hour for reasons listed above. Possibly surf for gadgets. Submissions etc. are dealt with during this period.
8pm Eat supper, while thinking about plotting problems and story lines.
8.30pm-1am Watch TV with wife, write and check email and Hatrack.
Somebody shoot me!
Obviously I do other stuff like...er...well, I do. This is an average night in! Certainly, if I am out I think about checking my emails and Hatrack when I return--possibly a few times.
LOL!
("Except the smoking part, I quit 15yrs ago," she says smugly.)
[This message has been edited by LAJD (edited October 27, 2008).]
7 - 9 am: Wake up, test blood sugar, take medication.
9:30 - 10:30 am: cardiovascular workout.
10:45 am: Shower and etc.
11:30 am: Head to work and pick up brunch.
12:00 - 12:30 pm: Eat while the computer boots up.
12:30 - 12:45 pm: If there's no work, check email and download current WIP to work computer, ope n and save it.
12:45 - 1:00pm: Hit Hatrack and a few otehrs writerly-type sites.
1:00 - 4:30 pm: Write. Unles work hits me up or the sites beg replies.
4:30 - 5:00 pm: Dinner.
5:30 - 9 or 10:00 pm: Write, research or work. Check emails again.
9:15 or 10:15 pm :Go Home.
9:30 or 10:30 pm - 11:00 or 11:30 pm: Bed time kisses, hugs and read the kids to sleep.
11:30 - 2:00 Write in Peace.
2:30: Read a bit to help get to sleep.
Hey, IB, want to design a tattoo for me?
There's more to my life than that, but that covers five of the seven days of the week. There's some variation within the categories, too, depending on what's actually on that day.
Work varies---depending on which supervisor wants me to do what. But here's the idea.
10:00 PM to 10:05 PM---stand around and try to make out what a supervisor is telling us to do.
10:05 PM to 10:30 PM---go to assigned bar code sorting machine (BC) and set up.
10:30 PM to 12:15 AM---run first zone first pass ("the shuffle") on BC.
12:15 AM to 12:30 AM---first break, on the clock; eat sandwich brought from home, one of three.
12:30 AM to 12:50 AM---pull down first zone from BC.
12:50 AM to 1:30 AM---run second zone first pass on BC
1:30 AM to 1:45 AM---pull down second zone from BC.
1:45 AM to 2:30 AM---run second zone second pass ("the deal") on BC.
2:30 AM to 3:00 AM---pull down second zone second pass from BC and dispatch.
3:00 AM to 3:30 AM---lunch break, off the clock; eat second sandwich.
3:30 AM to 4:00 AM---run more first zone first pass on BC.
4:00 AM to 4:15 AM---pull down first zone from BC
4:15 AM to 5:50 AM---run first zone second pass on BC.
5:50 AM to 6:05 AM---pull down first zone from BC and dispatch.
6:10 AM to 6:25 AM---last break, on the clock, eat third sandwich.
6:25 AM to 6:30 AM---go to timeclock and wait.
6:30 AM---punch out and go home.
There's a lot of variety in that---the mail is done when it's done, depending on volume, and if you finish early you have to help those who don't. Also the break times shift a good deal.
And a lot of this depends on who you're working with and whether they know what they're doing or not.
quote:
Hey, IB, want to design a tattoo for me?
Email me about what you want and how skilled the artist is that you want to do it (they will make heavy differences in the design).
7 am wake up, stumble to coffee machine
7 am-7:30 am have coffee with hubby (he works the night shift so he 's winding down for the day. I drink coffee, he drinks his post-work beer.)
7:30 Check Hatrack.
7:35-7:45 am Check my villages, make new assignments (tribal wars)
7:45-8:30 am crit stories, work on WIP, or answer emails, depending on what I have going on.
8:30-9 run to the shower and hustle to get dressed in time to catch the 9 am bus (or walk to work)
9-9:14 wait for the bus. think about stories, or read.
9:30-5:30 work. I generally check Hatrack and my villages at least once and hour. On occasion I have been known to bring my stories to work to work on. Ahem.
5:30-6 catch bus home or walk home, or go to gym.
6-8 write or read.
8-9 make and eat dinner
9-9:30 eat dessert
9:30-11 write, crit, or read.
Bah! Who needs it? My days are like snowflakes, no two are the same.
My day today.
Woke to 4:00 AM alarm, hit snooze (repeat to 5:05)
Climb out of sleeper in truck (man does it need a new mattress), and grab cosmetic bag and head to truckstop bathroom.
Do best to ignore horrible sounds from stalls and brush teeth.
Do brief look around store, decide against coffee and head back to truck.
Look at driving logs, decide I don't need to fudge the truth and head to Miami (130 miles) for last stop on my Aston Martin 'ride and drive' tour. (been on it for 6 weeks). It's 5:40.
Smooth drive until I get to 836 then the speed crawls to 10 miles an hour. Get call from client and I tell him I'm five miles away. 8:15 I arrive.
five guys (one knows english) are there to rip off beautiful Aston Martin decals on side of truck. I unload and I'm finished by 10:00 AM. I check on their progress. They got a five foot square on one side of a 53 foot trailer done. It's going to be a long day.
Through the afternoon, I listen to Howard Stern then Bubba the LoveSponge (yes, I'm a degenerate) and take a nap, crit chapter 13 (600 hundred word crit) of friend Merry from nebraska's novel, and read a bit of friend Todd from New Hampshire chapter 27 and write a bit of story idea I got. All while I talked to wife, boss, set up service for truck in Ft Lauderdale tomorrow and check and help guys peeling decal off truck.
They finish at 7:00 PM. Truck looks like wall just stripped of wall paper (ugly). Business guy informs me that he's got Wi-Fi and gives me password (where was he hours ago). Check email (new rejection) and talk to friend Adam from Bristol England for almost an hour.
Tonight, I hope to write a bit and listen to Monday night football. I am parked in a industrial park in Miami. Tomorrow I'll be at a dealership waiting for the truck to be serviced. I don't know where I'll be heading after that or how quick I'll need to be there. My life isn't boring but I've seen my family a total of four days in the last 6 weeks. Had a friend that visited from england and didn't get to see her the entire two weeks she was here. I drove 12,000 miles, stopped at 17 cities, and crossed 2 national borders in that time.
This can get depressing at times but I'm glad I have a job. I saw my family a lot more in my last one that I left after 20 years last march. It was a good thing because they locked everyone out a month and half after I left and hired scabs. They're still out of work.
It can be lonely but the friendships I have developed online makes all the difference.
Everyday is an adventure. Hope I get wireless tomorrow.
[This message has been edited by snapper (edited October 27, 2008).]
4:45 wake to husbands irritating alarm clock
4:46 back to sleep
5:00 gnash teeth and get up anyway
5:05 coffee
5:10 sit at computer, open one eye, peer at email
5:10-6:50 think really hard about exercising while critting, emailing and writing.
6:50-7:00 feel guilty about not exercising, check work email
7:00-8:00 shower, dress, more coffee
8:00-9:00 drive to current site (am consultant- it varies)- listen to fiction audiobooks in car.
9:00-4:00 Yell at recalcitrant programmers, sooth flighty product managers, prepare bizarre powerpoints. Check Hatrack and other writing sites as much as possible. Boring meetings v. good for this- thank the gods for wifi.
4:00-5:00 drive home - listen to writing books & podcasts in car
5:00-7:00 email, more hatrack, critting - occasional guilt about not exercising- may cook for family- may not.
7:00-10:00 writing, critting and some TV. May talk to family-may not.
10:00-10:05 check work email- knuckleheads tend to be restless in the evenings.
10:05-11:00 read
11:00-> sleepy time
:-)
[This message has been edited by LAJD (edited October 27, 2008).]
And annepin, I'm glad to see you have an entire *30 minutes* reserved for dessert. That's a woman who's got her priorities straight!
Mine varies, too, but my optimal day looks something like:
7:00 - open one bleary eye and agree that the short person at my bedside can get himself dressed and go downstairs to read/play computer/play nintendo DS/watch tv/something other than pester mommy.
7:30 - open another bleary eye and agree that the (other, if you were counting) short person at my bedside can watch tv.
7:31 - wake up again when short person wonders why the box at the foot of the bed isn't glowing with Sid the Science Kid or other hearty AM television fare.
7:32 - drift off again while scrolling through the tv listings.
8:00 - the teltale "gap between shows" music/shuffling wakes me up once and for all, and I stumble out of bed.
8:01 - realize it's getting *really* late and start hurrying the short people. Throw on workout clothes. Can't take the guilt LAJD apparently embraces, LOL. Attempt a glance at email, Hatrack, or any of a dozen other frequent stops. Usually fail.
8:45 - successfully deposit short people at Educational Institution of Glory. Attend PTA meeting if there is one, or other such motherly stuff. Hope the woman I'm sitting next to doesn't notice I smell.
9:45 - hit the gym. Not literally.
10:45 - home, check email, sites, remember that I have a job and check that computer and that email.
11-3 - do some work, get caught up on email. Feel guilty about not writing. Jot down one of the ideas for WIP on a stick note and add it to the Tower 'O Notes. Resolve to finish the WIP so it can be a WID (work is done?) some day soon. The Tower threatens to take over the desk.
3:05 - Realize if I don't leave now I'll be late to get the short ones.
3:08 - Leave to get the short ones (one last game of scramble on facebook won't kill them/me/anyone...)
3:23 - Relieved the short ones aren't mad that they're the second to last ones picked up. Dodged another bullet.
3:45-7 - Attend to the many and varied short person needs, conduct Homework Central, and Messy Art Project central, or alternatively run around all afternoon in minivan screaming like a banshee.
7:10 - Spouse arrives home, late and hungry. Expresses curiosity as to why a meal isn't readily available. Handily dodges sauce-strewn wire wisk. Cleans up the splatter.
7:25 - Dinner. When was it we grown ups ate last? Short ones have been eating nonstop since 3:45.
7:55 - steal another few minutes at the computer while spouse entertains short ones with stories and tales of the sugar bugs that will eat their teeth down to little white stubs if they don't brush *now.*
8:30 - Short ones in slumberland, watch a show w/spouse
10 - Ah. My writing time at last. Check email, boards, blogs. Realize it's gotten to be 11:30 and there are still scramble games to be played, that novel to read, and a hundred writerly to-dos. Crud. Another day.
6:00 a.m. feed baby
6:30 a.m. wake up from feeding baby, carefully put baby back praying she stays asleep, go back to bed
7:30 a.m. both children get up, stumble out of bed, change diaper, get the older one milk and Cheerios, turn on tv, run a quick sweep of the house to make sure it's baby proofed
7:45 fall asleep on the couch
8:00 take a shower, get dressed, get preschooler dressed, teeth brushed, hair done, check her backpack, get baby dressed and fed.
8:50 drop preschooler off at preschool
9:15 feed baby cheerios while I check e-mail
9:45 let baby play while I practice piano
10:00 put baby down for a nap
10:15 clean up toys, start/fold laundry, clean kitchen, finish makeup, check e-mail, check hatrack site, do stuff on my list of things to do
11:15 get baby change diaper, feed bottle
11:25 leave to get preschooler
11:45 make lunch for everyone and eat
12:45 get preschooler to practice piano and do preschool homework
1:30 vacuum, do laundry, clean, do stuff on my list, or practice piano
2:00 get preschooler to clean up toys, get diaper bag ready
2:30 leave for my mom's house to teach piano
3:00-7:00 teach piano while kids play with grandma
7:30 get home, give kids bath
8:00 read stories, brush teeth, play games
9:00 ahhhhhhh, kids asleep, check hatrack write or read
11:30 go to bed (but only until 2 when the baby wakes up)
6.00 am Tea, catch up with news, Hatrack, e-mail
6.15 am More tea. Get brain going--story research, contribute to Hatrack, draft something
7.00 am Absorbed in something--must shower, shave, etc
7.15 am Remember to iron shirt and resolve to do ironing on Sundays henceforth
8.00 am Setup training room, computer, projector, play jazz--loud, for energy
8.15 am Review training agenda, review progress of delegates
8.16 am Call office in panic about something or someone mislaid (optional)
8.17 am Fend off delegates who want to talk while I'm thinking about the day ahead
8.45 am Greet delegates, talk to delegates, listen to their feedback, set mood with music
9.00 am Facilitate learning
10.30 am Tea & jazz
12.30 pm Lunch & jazz
3.30 pm Tea & jazz
5.30 pm End of formal learning signalled by loud jazz; dismantle computer, projector etc
6.00 pm If residential course, drink and dine while usually avoiding delegates -- I need my own space! Else, drive to next venue, dine when convenient, drink on arrival.
7.00 pm Read, write, crit, backstory, research, prepare new course materials, Hatrack; or spend time with colleagues if we're at the same venue
11.00 pm Relax with book or movie or radio show
Cheers,
Pat
and...
@Talespinner: Is a management tutor what we, on this side of the pond, call a business consultant? Sounds familiar!
and...
@all: You guys crack me up.
Leslie
(and when did we start using twitter-speak on hatrack?)
After that, it's pretty varied and unpredictable... oh, who'm I kidding... it's clockwork for me, but no one would read that.
5 am - hit alarm clock, hit husband when he refuses to get out of bed. He mumbles something that sounds suspiciously like "5 more minutes"
5:08 am - hit alarm clock, hit husband - see 5 am entry
5:16 am - hit alarm clock, push husband out of bed with my feet. Listen to him complain as his backside hits the floor and the dog snaps at him for landing on her.
5:20 am - make sure husband made it to the shower. Throw on sweats
5:25 am - let dogs out to pee, try not to get swept out the door with them
5:30 am - pull on boots, trudge to barn to feed horses.
5:40 - 6:10 am - feed horses try not to get trampled as they dash for grain, clean stalls, dump stale water, replace with clean water, dump hay in field for day, let horses back out.
6:15 am - let dogs back in, get swept into house with them
6:16-6:25 - Indoor animal food time - Go to garage, get dog food, make sure the food bowls are the proper distance apart so no one tries to steal food. Act as a police officer while dogs eat. Pat cats who are yelling that the Dogs have been fed and they are inferior life forms. Go into laundry room, get cat food, feed cats. Back to the kitchen to feed the fish. Pat husband on head since he's now in the kitchen and underfoot.
6:35-7:00 Yoga. This will be interrupted by: (1) children, (2) dogs - who think "down dog" means wedge thier bodies between the mat and Mom's stomach so they can get pats, and (3) the husband whose wondering where he left something the night before.
7:00 - 7:20 Shower and get dressed. This will also be interrupted by: children who want a hug and kiss, (2) dogs who want to go back outside, (3) cats who want attention, and (4) the husband who is still looking for the kids' shoes. Sigh.
7:25 - give up on drying hair. Walk down stairs. Do the "finishing touches" on the kids' breakfast, which means make a second breakfast for them after they rejected the one thier father made.
7:30-7:50 try to get kids and husband the @#$^#$ (that's my typing and not an auto correct by the website) out of my house so I can get something done!
7:50 - 8:00 kids and husband are gone. Sit down. Take deep breath. Get up and then grab something that might pass for lunch later today. Load the dishes the family left in the sink into the empty dishwasher. Find where the husband has put my shoes. Sigh! Let dogs back out as I load up the car.
8:00 - 9:30a commuting time. Check emails while at red lights. A few start of the day calls if they can't be avoided. Mostly listen to the radio and try to recover from the morning.
9:30 - 10 a Plug laptop into office dock. Go to kitchen, make tea, eat granola bar, check Hatrack
10 am check email for real
10-6p - all heck breaks lose. The specific flavor of the day depends on which client is having a crisis. Today's is to draft an injunction to enforce a non-competition agreement and a diffrent law suit to keep the next door neighbor from interfering with the use of an easement.
Also in there:
11:30 am consider napping, I'm tired.
12:00ish check Hatrack
1:00 - 2 ish - Walk laps around the lake with co-worker. About 3-5 miles per day depending on how annoyed we are.
3:30 Hatrack/Evil Editor
4:30 - call husband to check who's picking up the kids
6:30 pm - Leave work (if hubby picked up the kids), call husband to make sure I don't need to stop by the grocery store.
6:30-8 Drive time - Listen to books on tape - currently the entire Diskworld series in order. I'm up to book 14.
8:00 p Cell phone left in the car. Dinner with kids
8:30 - 9 p - throw kids in shower, bed time stories
9 - 9:30 watch Futurama, between commercials - feed the puppy dinner, feed horses
9:30 - 11 Either write, read or fall asleep. Sleep's been winning lately. Although on Tuesday's I'm watching the Iditarod on the Discovery Channel and Friday is Sci Fi night with the husband.
11 pm - husband "yells" at me for still being awake OR comes in, turns off TV, takes my glasses and puts them on the dresser and shakes his head because after 15 years he STILL doesn't understand how I can fall asleep with the light and TV on.
1:15- 3 a - wake up, fall back to sleep, wake up, you get the point.
4:30 a - RATS! WHY AM I STILL AWAKE.
5:00 a - I HATE THIS #$^% alarm. Kick husband.
Now if I have court, that generally takes the 9:30 a - 3 p window.
Oh, now I'm tired and depressed.
6:00am: threaten the alarm clock with bodily harm.
6:30am: finally climb out of bed…and apologize to my black Lab for stepping on her (she’s hard to see in a dark room)
6:31-7:15am – figure out where my bathroom was relocated to while I was sleeping, shower, shave (sometimes), get dressed, wake up youngest daughter to the tune of her still-ringing alarm clock, inhale breakfast, make sure the dogs have food and water, get in the truck and say out loud: “Gentlemen, start your engines!”
7:16am – 8:30am: commute (consisting of: listen to sports radio and/or listen to music and/or digitally record any insights I might have on my current writing projects and/or enjoy the silence).
8:31am – 8:55am: sit in the parking lot and do pretty much the same thing I did during my commute. Sometimes I read. I found out my fellow commuters don’t want to see me doing that while I’m driving.
9:00am – 5:15pm: web applications development, along with any number of the following: fielding all the technical-related phone calls and emails (“I can’t log in!”, et. al.), rebooting the digital time clock, editing clock-in times from the phone reps because they forgot to clock out the day before, showing our phone reps why they cannot have open three separate versions of the same email account (and various other technical goofs that make me question why the hell I left retail), inhaling my lunch (on the occasions I actually remember to eat), guzzling way more sodas than I should (I don’t seem to have a problem remembering to chug liquid caffeine), solving any number of network and email server issues, and my favorite: typing snippets of story ideas onto my flash drive.
5:15pm (approximate): drive along the 23-mile parking lot that is my commute home, along with any number of the following:: more digital dictation, listening to sports radio, catching up on phone conversations with brothers or friends or customers, or my all-time favorite: pulling up to a traffic light next to someone playing his hip-hop way too loud, then switching my CD player to a metal song and demonstrating to yet another unknowing victim that, yes, it really is a bad idea to compete in a decibel battle with someone that bears the nickname of CRANK!!!
6:30pm…on a good day: pulling up to the house and greeting my kids and my two hyperactive dogs and/or being greeted by arguments between any combination of my kids
6:40pm: fix dinner and/or upload my digital audio files and photos while waiting for dinner to be cooked
6:45pm: food time!...and I actually get to talk to my kids because this is one of the few times they’re motionless.
7:15pm: clean-up and/or playing games with the kids and/or checking out my kids’ artwork or stories and/or helping the kids with their homework and/or refusing to answer their homework questions for them and/or taking five minutes to explain that they’re the ones still in school, so why am I the one that has to answer the questions? and/or signing permission slips and/or writing field trip checks and/or losing my mind.
8:45pm: announce that bedtime is in fifteen minutes…which is generally followed by chasing my sons off PlayStation and/or telling my oldest daughter to hang up the phone and/or explaining to my youngest daughter that she should not wait until bedtime to start her homework and/or finding a new hiding place for the PlayStation unit because my sons found it again!
9:00pm: Chloroform my kids---er, I mean---tuck my kids into bed.
9:15pm: sit down at my PC
9:16pm: jump up from my PC when I realize one of my kids is still roaming the house and/or one of them is still playing their stereo at volumes that would shame most metal bands and/or one of the kids is antagonizing one of his/her siblings.
9:30pm-to anywhere between 1am and 2:30am: sit back down at my PC and begin writing and/or world building and/or transcribing my digital recordings from the day and/or working on any number of customer or personal web sites and/or spend time on Hatrack and a music board.
2:31am: flop into bed and pass out watching a Netflix disc and/or watching ESPN and/or watching the History Channel
Weekends are an entirely different story.
S!
S!...C!
But for the usual routine.
6:00 am - the phone vibrates, this is the goal - I curse myself for not going to bed at a decent hour the night before, promising to do better tonight.
6:30 am - the backup alarm blasts like an oncoming train. (this alarm is a real monster, and it can't be killed. It even survived the washing machine... long story) If I hear this it means I chose not to rise at 6 to shower so I'll have to shower later.
6:50 am leave for work
7:30 am arrive at work (yeah, I commute like a maniac - think you hate gas prices?)
7:30am-3pm: Work. Long... but I get a lot of free time to write, read, or just stare at the monitor wondering what else to look up on wikipedia--which is what I usually do since I can't write when I'm tired. Did you know that stone henge predates the druids by thousands of years? Or that "King Richard" probably spoke French rather than English. Or that there are more than 7 categories of UFO theories? I digress.
3pm-3:45pm return home.
4pm-6pm: class
6pm-9pm: dinner, hanging out, civilization 4
9pm-1am: I am more awake at this time than any other time, causing me to go to bed late and curse myself in the morning.
Process repeats ad infinitum.
Did you notice the common thread? Most of us don't get writing or "me" time until everyone else is taken care of. So, at any given midnight most of us are awake and writing. Kind of neat.
[This message has been edited by kings_falcon (edited October 28, 2008).]
On top of all that, I run a taxi service exclusively for my children
quote:
There is also a common thread of us checking emails and Hatrack while at work.
If only I had the sort of job that would allow me to do that.
[This message has been edited by darklight (edited October 28, 2008).]
I do use an alarm as backup--an iPod with a speaker, set for 6.30 am, which plays soft music that gently seduces me from slumber into the wonderful new day ahead ...
Pat
agree, it's funny to see how everyone works it all out, and sort of vindicating to see my life is just as busy as everyone else's (and filled with much time of me meeting others' needs before my own, as a previous poster pointed out.)
I get every other Friday off, and all weekends. Those are even better. Life is good!
[This message has been edited by MrsBrown (edited October 28, 2008).]
quote:
Hey Zero, I applaud your choice of Civilization 4. That is one sweet game.
[This message has been edited by TheOnceandFutureMe (edited October 29, 2008).]
I feel like such a slacker. I sleep until 9.