85 Things I Did Today
The minutiae of my Monday
- Heard alarm after lying in bed half-asleep for several hours.
- Got up, picked up phone, hit snooze, got back in warm bed, looked at a lighthearted Buzzfeed article on phone.
- Heard snoozed alarm, got out of bed.
- Started coffee maker and drank water until coffee was done.
- Watched Coursera videos on music production.
- Hoped that my half-asleep brain would retain anything from said videos.
- Poured and drank coffee.
- More Coursera.
- Got dressed for work, changed my mind, changed my shirt.
- Was pretty much ready to go, but then remembered I was trying to do 40 pushups every morning before I left for work.
- Did 4 sets of 10 pushups. Got out the door at about 7:30 am.
- Got in car, drove to work, listened to a portion of Miguel’s new album War & Leisure.
- Parked on roof of three-story parking structure and entered building.
- Took elevator to 10th floor.
- Dropped my stuff under my desk and mumbled “Morning” at my coworkers.
- Got more coffee and water from the break room.
- Opened my usual computer programs and stared at them for a while because my brain was not ready to do anything.
- Poured a bowl of oatmeal from the container in my desk drawer and went to the break room to microwave it.
- Looked at the break room TV and shook my head at the news coverage of the Super Bowl half-time show, which featured the projection of Prince in the video for “I Would Die For You.”
- Took my oatmeal back to my desk.
- Ate my oatmeal.
- Opened the Word document that was my main task today.
- Made some progress.
- At about 10:15, i grabbed my phone and sunglasses and took the elevator down.
- I walked a couple laps around the courtyard, enjoyed the sun, even though the 8 freeway was about 20 yards away and the roar was constant.
- Texted back a guy from Coffee Meets Bagel.
- Worked a bit.
- Ate a banana.
- Worked some more. While listening to Welcome to Night Vale podcasts.
- Shook hands with two new coworkers. Realized I was still the youngest and only female person on my team.
- Ate a Clif Bar.
- Worked some more.
- Went downstairs a few minutes before 2 pm to buy a small salad and a Diet Coke from the café.
- Took the elevator back upstairs.
- Ate salad. Decided the chicken was old and gross. Drank my Diet Coke.
- Worked more. Felt frustration at perceived lack of progress.
- Looked at clock a lot.
- Calculated how much longer I had to stay, considering I got to work at about 7:45 am.
- Noticed a few other people leaving. Could not recall whether I had seen them at 7:45.
- Packed my bag. Put on my jacket. Awkwardly backed away from pod of cubicles, trying to ascertain whether I needed to make my departure known.
- Took elevator downstairs. Said “thank you” to the doorman of that bougie-ass building. He wished me a good evening. I said, “You too.”
- Returned to the roof of the parking structure, dropped purse on passenger’s seat, and changed uncomfortable work flats for sneakers.
- Drove for about ten minutes. Turned off Miguel CD and sang “Sorry, Not Sorry” by Demi Lovato to myself.
- Parked on side street of hipster neighborhood. Stuffed purse in my backpack and walked into Starbucks.
- Ordered decaf coffee and a scone.
- Sat down and opened the latest draft of my novel.
- Picked up coffee from counter.
- Made a note of the time and set myself the task of working for an hour.
- Texted thoughts on Super Bowl commercial to Coffee Meets Bagel guy.
- Worked on novel from 4:46 to 5:47 pm.
- Made a note of my progress.
- Packed up laptop, threw away coffee cup, walked back to car.
- Drove home while listening to Miguel sing “Pineapple Skies.”
- Smiled at the song’s pure joie de vivre.
- Parked on street by house with old man who only appears to water and mow his lawn.
- Walked toward my duplex.
- Checked mailbox. Empty.
- Climbed stairs to doorstep. Picked up FedEx envelope on doorstep.
- Unlocked door, went inside, opened envelope. Looked at stock certificate from startup I used to work at.
- Changed into gym shorts and a baggy T-shirt that says “I DON’T GIVE A” and then has a picture of a rubber duck.
- Ate leftover fruit from Super Bowl party. Watched YouTube videos and did 4 more sets of pushups.
- Drank water.
- Practiced guitar using an app called Yousician for about 20 minutes.
- Looked up the chords to “Take Me to the River” by Al Green, which had been playing in the Starbucks just before I left.
- Played the chords a few times on acoustic guitar.
- Poured a caffeine-free Diet Coke over a glass of ice.
- Ate stale bread and then baked sweet potato chips for dinner.
- Put on Baby Ballroom, a reality show about British children who compete in ballroom dancing.
- Looked up chords for songs by Etta James.
- Saw chords for “Purple Rain” listed under Etta James’ name and had a moment of total confusion and wondered if it was possible Prince had been covering Etta James, although that seemed very unlikely.
- Googled “purple rain etta james” and saw from results that Etta James had covered “Purple Rain” in 2006.
- Considered the possibility the Etta James could still be alive. But didn’t look it up.
- Made a quesadilla with corn tortillas.
- Put on the next episode of Baby Ballroom.
- Opened Medium to see what was up.
- Checked out some posts. Followed some people.
- Noted that it had been some time since my last post and it was easy to let these things slide.
- Thought about what to write.
- Decided I didn’t have the energy for any of those ideas.
- Thought about this long Monday.
- Thought, “I mean, what’s the worst that could happen?”
- Wrote this post.
- Just finished. It’s 8:36 pm.
- Reread post and tried to appreciate how very fortunate I am to have a day like this.
- Realized I should add a header image. Searched “sunset” on Pixabay.
