a day in the life

I usually wake up at 8am. I know, don't hate me because I'm a grad student. I do set my alarm for 7:30 just in case I wake up with a burst of motivation to start work early. That rarely (never?) happens so I press snooze twice. By the time I'm up Paul's already at work. He usually drops in before leaving and calls me a different variations of sleepyhead and tells me not to sleep for too long because I will regret it. I grunt back.

There are two variations to my morning. Variation 1) is shower and then breakfast and 2) is (guess?...) breakfast before shower. The variation I pick is usually a product of my decisivness (or indecisiveness) about what to wear. If I can't make up my mind, I eat first.

Breakfast is normally oatmeal (mostly with milk but sometimes water) and bagel/english muffin and a fruit. If I'm feeling especially homesick I have rice, spam/tuyo/longganisa and fried egg. This doesn't happen a lot due to time constraints. Coffee is a constant though. I usually sit and eat my breakfast while watching some of the Today show in hope of learning something interesting. I'm out the door by 9am (some days).

The drive to work is about 10 minutes long. It's actually not a bad drive because I don't need to take the highway and I drive by a pretty golf course. I listen to the morning show at CD 101 and sometimes think of calling in for contests but could never remember the phone number. Also drivers who talk on their cellphones annoy me to no end.

Work is really not much of a routine. I plan my own experiments and am usually doing different things each day of the week. My experiments can be categorized into two a) microscope/cell biology work and b) molecular bio work. I like a) about 10 times more than b). During the day I am also very easily distracted by the internet. and chatting with people. and whatever baked goodie Ali has brough that day.

I usually leave at around 5:30. The drive home is even prettier because of the way the sunset colors the sky. I usually listen to NPR but have stopped doing that since they decided that the only thing really worth talking about is how bad the economy is. So I've since just popped different CDs. I'm now listening to The Weepies on repeat. They go great with orangey-pink skies.

I get home before Paul does (he gets paid more than I do so don't give me a hard time) and I usually start with dinner or make a grocery run if I need something else for dinner. Lately I've also been going to jazzercise classes so I could workout my hips, thighs and buns to the music of the greats such as Frankie goes to Hollywood, Britney Spears and Pussycat Dolls. Don't knock the jazzercise though because I swear in 3 months I'll have Michelle Obama's guns.

Dinner is a relaxed affair with Jeopardy on the background. Paul usually ends up doing the cleaning because he can't stand dirty dishes on the sink whereas I can. And since I usually do the cooking I think that's just fair. We're really not the most exciting couple on the block so most nights we just sit on the couch and watch TV (24 on Mondays) or an episode (or two) of Arrested Development.

We usually start getting ready for bed at around 10. I've started taking after Paul in writing a gratitude journal listing 5 things that happened in the day that you are thankful for. My journal is pink and has flowers on the cover and I use a purple Le Pen to write on it. Paul used to write his on random pieces of paper that he keeps in between random books. Once while I was in Woods Hole the summer after we got married, I found his journalf for the week we got engaged. The day we got engaged his list went

1. Got decent sleep(crossed out) She said yes
2. Got decent sleep
3. Something
4. Something
5. Something else
   

I just thought that was hilarious. And it made me miss him even more. Three weeks was a long time to be away five months after you get married.

For our first anniversary I gave him a 'manly' journal with a fabric cover depicting different robots. He loved it. He got me flowers with purple tulips. I loved him for it.