Day in the Life - 2022

Every year I do a DITL (I skipped 2018 and 2019 but I've been back on track for a couple years now). Through the years, I photograph an entire day, usually around Valentine's Day, simply because that happened to be the day that I started it all in 2011 or so. So, there is like a decade of a typical day in February to look back on. Here's this year's.

I wake up at 6:45 a.m. to get the kids ready for school and myself ready for work.

It's colder than usual this week.

I keep a log of how much water I drink a day to try to get it up to 8 glasses, though I've since learned I don't actually have to drink 8 glasses a day. That said, I continue to be chronically dehydrated no matter how much I drink, so I keep going.

Kids' breakfast.

         

And lunch.

Then I take the dog for a walk.

We see Ibis in our yard

And bark at neighbors.

Then I get dressed for work as the girls finish eating and getting ready.

I drive to work while already in a meeting. I'm supposed to be there at 8:30, but we have a deal while the girls are in middle school that I will be a little late because we never know if the bus is going to pick them up these days.

Welcome to my office.

Impromptu meeting with sales.

Then my production team and I make and edit a commercial for a local shoe store. That's Gator and Jon.

Jon teaches, Gator takes notes, I oversee.

My work to-do list for the day.

This is a sponsorship promo spot I'm working on called Scholar Athlete of the Year. We partnered with an attorney's office to present one high school athlete with a $5,000 scholarship to college. That's my writing on the check, lol. We did the presentation, then I produced a :30-promo about it. It airs starting Monday.

I tweak the script before final edits.

I take the first half of my lunch break to work on a story for a freelance client about the Watchman procedure, in which doctors place a device into the heart through a vein in the groin.

Then I go home for the second half of my lunch break. I love these satellites. We still use them. They're a lot more reliable than the internet, tbh.

Once home, I grab some Advil because I have a raging headache.

I set the night's menu so everyone knows what we are having for dinner.

Say hello to the dog.

Carlos is also having lunch. I start running the vacuum in a vain attempt to clean this house a little.

He works from home, so back to the office for him.

I water our dying houseplants.

Then I have to run back to work because I have a meeting, so I grab a quick bagel and take it with me.

Conference call time.

This is pretty interesting. It's one of the steps of how TV programming actually gets on your television. We program the shows and the ads through a localized system, then I go through and put in the promos for the stations: stuff like clips of shows you'll see later, local news topicals, weather, sports teasers, etc. I fill the rest of the time on the logs. I send it in, and master control goes and finds the clips, puts them together, and plays it all on air.

Then I have a corporate Teams meeting on marketing and promotion.

I use those computer glasses sometimes lol

I eat a snack. (This was also breakfast. Dry Life for life)

Then I fill out the sponsored content log. This is where our news programming gets segments sponsored for money by clients. Like when you see "tonight's sports brought to you by Subaru" or whatever. We have to mark that down meticulously so that news and commercial does not get mixed up.

That's it for my day. Got some of the stuff done. Time to go home.

I find my children already there. Natalina bought an anime poster at the book fair and she is stoked.

Dulce hangs with the dog.

Off to the gym for a Body Combat workout. Fellow instructors Jen and Kate say hi!

I teach the standing option when we do pushups and burpees because I'm lucky.

By the time it's over, it is dark out.

I say hi to my lovelies. And tell them to do their homework.

Then I get ready to make dinner.

A quick change of clothes but no time for a shower...yet.

I listen to my podcast while making the food.

Carlos reads.

Hit my move goals while chopping peppers.

I mix up the ingredients, then throw them in a casserole dish and bake for 20 minutes.

While dinner cooks, I sort some laundry.

Dinner is served!

And eaten!

After dinner, we are regaled with stories from the school day.

Then I walk the dog again.

I call my brother just to check in, while we're on the walk.

Come home, shower, fall into bed.

But just because I'm ready, doesn't mean the girls are. One last selfie for the day.

If you want to check out our DITLs through the years, they can all be found here. It's interesting to see the changes. This is the first year since I've been doing this that I have been working outside the home, for instance.

2021

2020

2017 

2016 

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

Resolutions -- 2022

My resolutions for 2022:

10) Drink at least 8 glasses of water a day. 

Increasing this from last year, from 6 glasses to 8. I think I'm ready.

9) Exercise consistently 5 times a week.

I don't know if I can keep this up. We'll see.

8) Keep my nails nice.

Now that they've been not bitten for six months, let's see if I can keep them that way.

7) Get good at this job.

Now that I've got a job, I want to really improve. I've only been there a couple months, but there is so much I don't know.

6) Fix three things about the house

I'll keep this one.


5) Make $100,000.

I'll keep this one, too. Just to see if I can do it with my job and my side gigs (which will have to pay me almost as much as my job to pull this off.)

4) Work on my freelancing book

Now that I'm not teaching the course this would be based on, it's time to put it to paper. Especially before I get too far away from the freelance life.

3) Read 10 books

Dropping this WAY down. I think the only way I'll be able to do it is if I put read a chapter on my to-do list a couple times a week.

2) Get this house clean

I don't know how I will do this, and I don't care. Through hired help, or weekend work, or having my kids actually do chores, but this house is far too messy and it's getting worse and worse now that I'm not home as much.

1) Fix all landscaping and back deck.

Overgrown, mulch doesn't stay down, weedy, too close to the house, and I haven't even TOUCHED the back, which is just barely hanging on.




For my kids and I, I resolve the following:

5) Help them navigate tween-teen years, be someone they can trust and love.

Keeping it

4) Get their rooms cleaned and organized so they can decorate the way they like

3) Save $10,000 more each for them.

Keeping. 

2) Have one conversation with that that lasts 10 minutes or more a day. (Dinner doesn't count.)

1) Teach them to cook

We used to do a thing during home school where one would help me with a dinner every night, switching. I'll dial this down a little because I like to listen to podcasts, but once a week for each one should do it.

Resolutions check-in

Every year, I make resolutions, and every year, before I do, I check in on last years. 2020 was a bust, but I tried to do a little better this year.

10) Drink at least 6 glasses of water a day. 

Done. I drink 6-10 glasses a day now. (And I'm still dehydrated, lol, what?) 1

9) Exercise consistently 5 times a week.

Done. Just barely, but done. Not sure I can keep that up in 2022 tho. 1

8) Stop biting my nails.

Done. Again, not sure if it will last, but I have had nails since August, so not a bad run so far. 1

7) Do some kind of yoga, meditation, self-care three times a week.

Nope. I tried, and did pretty well for the first month or so, but, yet again, just did not have the time. 0

6) Fix three things about the house

I think I'll count this. I fixed the front arches, front wall, and side rotting windowsills. 1

5) Make $100,000 and/or get a full-time position somewhere.

I did both! This year, with teaching, many freelance contracts and clients, some traditional freelancing, and a full time job starting in November, I made $102,698. Of course, I have to take taxes out of a lot of it, but it still counts!

And I'm now the Creative Services Director for our local CBS/NBC affiliate. So, I'm counting it twice. 2

4) Publish 50 pieces

I just made this if you count all the client work I did. Like just made it to 50 exactly. 1

3) Read 50 books

HAHAHA. I read 3. And I started Catch 22. 0

2) Watch less TV

I will give myself half a point because I started watching less TV when I started having to be at an office all day every day. .5

1) Start a new creative endeavor and get it off the ground

NOPE. Not enough time. 0

I'm pretty proud of what I was able to accomplish this year.

7.5/10


For my kids and I, I resolve the following:

5) Help them navigate tween-teen years, be someone they can trust and love.

This has been so hard, but, really and honestly, through a lot of patience, and taking a lot of negativity in and neutralizing it, I really think I have done this. 1

4) Integrate them into my life more now that we're all home

I also did this, up to a point. Then they went back to school and I went to work, so it's not as frequent, but it's not nothing. .5

3) Save $10,000 more each for them.

Done. 1

2) Do something with them every day.

Not every day. That was too much. I'll amend this one for next year so it is doable. 0

1) Have them help me with one unpleasant thing a day. (Like chores or projects)

Again, not every day, and this one much less than the one before. I don't like having them do unpleasant things because of how unpleasant it is for me. 0

2.5/5

Day in the life -- 2021

Every year, I do a Day in the Life, or a DITL.

I skipped 2018 and 2019, but I've done one every other year from 2011 on. It's cool to see the years in this way. Here is 2021's, March 11.

Wake up at 7:30 a.m.

Water. I keep a log now of how many glasses I drink.

I wake the kids up and make them breakfast. Coffee and fruit yogurt today.

Then I walk the dog as the kids start getting ready.

Dulce likes coffee quite a bit.

Natalina likes the yogurt.

Carlos wakes up and gives the dog a good morning hug.

The girls want to take a picture of me since it's 'picture' day.

The girls are still eating, so I make their lunches.

Goodbye girls! (They are going back to school after an entire year at home)

Finally some coffee.

Laundry.

Now I do some quick work, emailing some freelancing clients about edits.

Time to fix my cable situation, by which I mean, cancel it and get faster internet instead. This took forever. Seven phone calls to Cox, and I bought a modem without a router, and ugh.

As I'm wrestling with that, Carlos takes off to get his COVID vaccination, yay!

I have to run across town to buy a router. Sigh.

Ah. The router isn't connected properly, you don't say. I call Cox a few more times and we get it straightened out.

Lunch break.

Next up, some work for a small news room where I do election integrity management.

Then, grading. I have too many jobs.

Time for some dishes.

Then I get to pick the kids up from school.

Snack. (not pictured the donuts I also had).

Natalina making cookies, Dulce consulting.

At 6 p.m. I work out, body combat at home (no going to the gym these days)

That completes my move, stand and exercise goals.

At 7:30, I call my friend for our every other week happy hour over the phone.

Made shrimp peri peri for dinner.

Called the kids for the meal.

Then family dinner, wrapping up around 9 / 9:30 p.m. when everyone goes to bed.

Like I said, I do these every year. Some of the pictures have gone missing, but here is the gist throughout the years.

2020

2017 

2016 

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

Resolutions - 2021

My resolutions for 2021.

10) Drink at least 6 glasses of water a day. 

I almost do this. I'd like to do it do it.

9) Exercise consistently 5 times a week.

I got up to a little over 4 times a week this year. We'll try again.

8) Stop biting my nails.

I had done this, but lapsed in 2020. I'm going to try to do some vitamins, too, to strengthen them.

7) Do some kind of yoga, meditation, self-care three times a week.

I'm trying to get away from gleaning my value from my accomplishments.

6) Fix three things about the house


5) Make $100,000 and/or get a full-time position somewhere.

Didn't quite make it this year.

4) Publish 50 pieces

This is a large goal, but with teaching less, and counting regular clients, maybe I can make it.

3) Read 50 books

This year, I read two, so.

2) Watch less TV

I think if I spend at least one hour of my working time without Netflix on, I can do this.

1) Start a new creative endeavor and get it off the ground

Working with a friend on a possible podcast, and I have a book I want to write. But anything will count.




For my kids and I, I resolve the following:

5) Help them navigate tween-teen years, be someone they can trust and love.

4) Integrate them into my life more now that we're all home

3) Save $10,000 more each for them.

2) Do something with them every day.

1) Have them help me with one unpleasant thing a day. (Like chores or projects)