day in the life post Archives - Page 2 of 2

Day in the Life – Chicago Edition

I’ve been blogging a lot recently about my new life/routine in Chicago. I’ll stop soon. Promise. Just not today!

I think these ‘day in the life’ type posts are ones that people like to read because [when written honestly] they give real glimpses into someone’s every day life. Even if it’s very routine and “normal.”

With that, I present you with a day in my Chicago life (and after this I will pick a new set of topics to blog about!).

5:25 am – Vishnu’s alarm goes off. I wake up first, roll over, and ask him to turn it off. I lay in bed for five more minutes before throwing the covers off and getting started with my day.

5:40 am – After changing into my workout clothes, I make Vishnu a breakfast shake, and head to the gym in our building for a date with my friend the dreadmill.

6:30 – 7: 30 am – I shower, get ready, make my shake, drink my shake, and head out the door.

7:30 – 7:50 am – It takes me 7 minutes to walk to the train station. Thankfully, it’s not too hot outside (yet!). Surprisingly, the train is super packed, but I’m ok with it because I only have to endure being a sardine for two stops.

7:50 am – 12:00 pm – Work, work, work, work, work with a side of catching up with co-workers. My morning consisted of a series of calls and meetings. It was one of those days where instead of crossing things off my to do list I ended up adding a bunch of stuff.

12:00 – 1:00 pm – Two of my coworkers and I headed to Taco Bell for lunch. Yes, you read that right. We consciously chose Taco Bell for our lunchtime meal. And I’m not even going to lie…it was so good!

1:00 – 3:30 pm – More work, work, work, work, work.

3:30 pm – Our company gives out coupons for free fro-yo (a well-kept secret!), so a few of us headed downstairs for some kefir fro-yo. I topped mine with toasted almonds and chocolate chips. Yum!

3:45 – 5:30 pm – More work, work, work, work, work.

5:30 pm – Before heading home, I stopped by Walgreens to pick up a prescription for Vishnu along with some lip balm (also for Vishnu!).

5:40 – 6:05 pm – As I’m taking the train home, it starts pouring. Thank goodness I had an umbrella in my bag. However, after this wet/gross walk home, I decided that I need a new bigger umbrella.

6:05 – 6:45 pm – I help my sister troubleshoot something and then hang out with Vishnu for a bit before heating up our respective dinners.

6:45 – 8:00 pm – We watch Chopped while eating dinner (African peanut stew for me and turkey chili for Vishnu). I also throw in a load of laundry during commercial breaks.

8:00 – 8:30 pm – I clean up in the kitchen and make Vishnu’s lunch for the next day.

8:30 – 9:45 pm – I’m super tired but manage to stay awake long enough to type up this post, chat with Vishnu, and watch a little more TV.

9:45 pm – We get ready for bed (man, we’re old!).

10:00 pm – LIGHTS OUT!

And that, my friends, is a typical day in my Chicago life. It’s not super exciting, but I’m interacting with 20x more people on a daily basis compared to St. Pete, so there’s that!

Your turn – What time do you usually wake up and go to bed? What do you do for a living? What’s your office culture like?

A Day in the Life of a Stay at Home Full-Time Working Wife

written by Parita 13 Comments

Quite the title, huh? But that is what I am at this moment in time.

Many of my real-life friends ask how I’m adjusting to this new (and short-term) role I’ve taken on – a stay at home full-time working wife. They know me well and know that I love being around people and having a set routine. And obviously, our current situation has been challenging on both fronts.

Honestly though, I think I’m doing ok. Some days are better than others, but I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. We’ll be in Chicago soon enough, and I’ll have many more opportunities for connection then (which is what I’m craving most at this time!).

With that being said, I wanted to share what a semi-typical day looks like for me. As I’ve said many times, my schedule changes every four weeks with a change in Vishnu’s rotations. And this month, it’ll change twice – he’s on days for the first two weeks and nights for the last two weeks. It’s all about agility, my friends!

Without further ado, here’s what January 12, 2016 looked like for me…

5:30 am – I wake up, stretch, say a prayer, brush my teeth, and make Vishnu breakfast (just a shake…nothing complicated or too involved!)

6:15 am – Vishnu leaves for work.

6:30 am – I go down to the gym for a treadmill interval workout. While I really dislike running on a treadmill, I need something quick that will have me in and out by 7:15.

7:40 am – After showering, making my breakfast (again, just a shake), and starting a load of laundry, I enter my “office,” write my list of things I’m grateful for this morning, and finally start my work day.

8:00 am – 12:00 pm – The usual – emails, calls…work stuff*! I’m super hungry by 11:30, so I decide to reheat some leftovers (a lentil, farro, veggie, and tahini sauce bowl) and eat and work at my desk. Not something I usually do!

12:00 – 1:00 pm – I decide to use my actual lunch hour to fold laundry and pack for my trip to Atlanta (I fly out tomorrow evening and fly back on Sunday afternoon). More on this in a later post! I also enjoyed a piece of super dark chocolate while running around the apartment. Mmmm…

1:00 – 5:15 pm – The usual – emails, calls…work stuff*!

5:15 – 6:00 pm – I prepare and make enchiladas for Vishnu to eat for dinner and also to have as a dinner option while I’m gone for the next few days.

6:00 – 7:00 pm – My friend Ankita and I have a phone date scheduled, and we catch about pretty much everything – life, husbands, her pregnancy, books, ‘Making a Murderer,’ etc.

7:15 – 7:45 pm – I clean up the kitchen and put the dishes in the dishwasher. Still waiting for Vishnu to get home!

7:45 – 8:00 pm – While I wait for Vishnu to come home, I check work email.

8:10 pm – Vishnu’s home! While he eats dinner, I get started on the second meal I’m cooking for him – crock pot chicken tikka masala. If it turns out good, I’ll remake it and share the recipe!

8:30 – 8:45 pm – Vishnu and I clean up and close down the kitchen for the night!

8:45 – 9:15 pm – I put the finishing touches on this post!

9:15 – 9:45 pm – Vishnu and I hang out for a bit and watch TV/chit chat.

9:45 – 10:30 pm – It’s time for me to get ready for bed (phew!). I go through my nighttime routine, get into bed, and read for a little bit before calling it a night.

And that is my semi-typical day in a nutshell!

*As a project manager on a fairly small team, “work stuff” can vary by the day. Currently, we are in the middle of preparing for our global conference. The conference is in three weeks in Panama (the country, not the party city in Florida!), and there’s so much to do for it. My life is pretty consumed by this one event!

What does your day look like? Do you have a set routine every day?

Hour by Hour

written by Parita 11 Comments

Every so often I think about writing a day in the life type of post. But I don’t because my weekday life is pretty routine – wake up, work out, get ready for work, go to work, come home, make dinner, hang out with Vishnu, eat dinner, clean up, watch TV/read, go to sleep…repeat the next day. Personally, I love the simplicity of it, but our M-F shenanigans wouldn’t make for a very interesting blog post.

Enter the hour by hour post, where I share a picture for every waking hour of a particular day. I didn’t come with this post format, but after seeing a few bloggers use it, I thought I would satisfy my need to share a microscopic glance of my life in this more creative way (read: non-boring way).

Hour by hour – November 5, 2013

The 6:00 a.m. hour
My morning started with a super windy outdoor run. I think I covered a little under 2.5 miles. Not too bad after almost a week with zero exercise.

The 7:00 a.m. hour
Breakfast was my favorite mocha protein smoothie. YUM.

The 8:00 a.m. hour
Coffee. My savior. Enough said.

The 9:00 a.m. hour
A little PowerPoint to start the work day.

The 10:00 a.m. hour
All my essentials in one place.

The 11:00 am hour
I went grocery shopping during lunch. The store is ~.25 miles away, so I walked. Not a bad idea going there, but on my way home I broke a sweat!

The 12:00 p.m. hour

I forgot to snap a picture of my lunch. It was delicious though – 1/2 an avocado, salsa, a sweet potato, and 2 fried eggs.

The 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. hour
I found this new to me Kind bar at the grocery store and devoured it somewhere in the 1:00 – 2:00 pm hour.

The 3:00 p.m. hour
The group chat my college friends and I have going is the best! It took the five of us a while to jump on the group text bandwagon, but I’m glad we did.

The 4:00 p.m. hour
Our office is ALWAYS freezing, especially where I sit. So today I decided to warm up with a cup of hot chocolate. Not the best but it did the trick.

The 5:00 p.m. hour
I’ve been wanting to make something using won ton wrappers for a long time, so when I happened to come across them at the store, I tossed them in the cart. So glad I did!