I wanted to do a day in the life once I was working one real job full-time so here you go

Wednesday, March 24, 2021

5:55 I wake up for some reason, so I cut my first alarm off.

6:10 My second alarm goes off. I put on a sweater and boots and go to feed/walk the three dogs (and three rats) I'm keeping for three different families while the school district is on spring break.

6:45 I get home and get back in bed, where Mattie is waiting. I'm wide-awake, so I read my book. By the time I'm tired enough to fall back asleep, my next alarm is going off.

7:20 I make up my bed, feed my fish, get dressed and ready, and eat breakfast. My mom is starting lily seeds in little cups on the windowsill. I deposit my stimulus check when my mom reminds me of it.

8:15 I usually have a picture-worthy packed lunch, but last night I slacked off, so I get water, silverware, and some frozen food and leave for work.

8:27 I'm the first at work. I unlock the door, turn off the sign, refill the dog's water, and power up my computer.

The morning is filled up by the following things:

—Working through the daily pinned tasks on my computer, which always have to do with policies that have issued, people that haven't paid, and text message reminders that need to be sent. This takes about an hour on a normal day.

—Sorting through memos that underwriting emailed to me.

—A coworker telling us that the actress in the Phantom of the Opera movie is his wife's cousin.

—Another coworker playing and singing Phantom songs as a result

—Sitting on hold on the phone a lot as I call underwriting to try to understand their memos

—Eating birthday cake

—Worrying that my teeth are getting cavities because due to work I only brush them twice a day now and due to pandemic reasons I haven't seen a dentist since October 2019

—Calling someone to gather details about an accident

—Calling Safelite (we call Safelite a lot)

—Just in general dealing with so much underwriting

—The phone ringing incessantly for a 20-minute period

11:12 My boss has been at the store for over an hour, a coworker has left on break, and my other coworker randomly goes to Lowe's to buy a ceiling fan, so Charlie the dog and I are alone. I finished my tasks and all that's left to do are sales, but I don't want to do sales calls when all the agents to actually transfer them to are gone.

Someone calls and needs all the details of their auto policy. I can barely read the symbols of an auto policy but I fake my way through it. Afterwards, I spend a long time on the Internet and make a sheet to teach myself how to read it.

11:50 I print out a study guide because my boss thinks I should get licensed to sell life/health and actually profit off all my own sales. I feel nervous about it. I'm still alone and I've run out of stuff to do and I'm bored so I warm up my lunch.

12:10 Everyone finally gets back one at a time. I take a payment someone calls in, walk Charlie around the building outside, and start working through sales calls now that the agents are back.

My boss leaves again. I call a claim handler for someone. My coworkers and I talk about the Challenger Deep, global warming and ice ages, the space station, Kepler-22b, and black holes.

1:00 My boss gets back. I am tied up handling something on the phone but I don't remember what.

1:10 I finally leave on break. I walk around the lake at the library, which is like three minutes away. In my last few minutes, I go into the library to say hi and they're having a book sale and didn't tell me in the usual email. I browse it for a moment.

2:08 I get back and change clothes in my car. I sit on my keys and make the alarm go off.

The afternoon is basically:

—A few successful sales calls

—Handling two different claims

—Me feeling disorganized because I need to keep working but don't really have a set of tasks right now so I just keep organizing the life board and making sales calls

—A lady calling in mad at my boss because she claims she sent an email we ignored. It's in no one's inboxes and when my boss has her check her "sent" box it isn't there.

—My boss is waiting on a callback and says he's going to get his hair cut next door while he waits. We think he's joking until he steps out and goes to the walk-in salon next door. We can hear him talking through the walls. He's back in fifteen minutes and the instant he steps inside the phone rings with his call back.

4:35 I leave and take the rest of the cake with me at my boss's urging.

4:45 I get home. I want to collapse. Mattie wants to wrestle. After lying around just a moment I have to go feed and let out the three dogs. The big, young one also gets a walk.

5:50 I get home just in time for my tutoring appointment. Three of the five kids I work with took spring break off so I just have one appointment tonight. This is a first grader who was getting really frustrated on Monday so tonight we play some reading games.

6:35 I check my email for the first time and have an invite to submit my book to a new book recommendations website. THE SUBMISSION PROCESS IS SO FUN and the highlight of my day. I'm almost done with that when we eat dinner. It takes me awhile to clean up afterwards.

8:00 When I finally finish cleaning, I'm very rapidly running out of time in my day so I sit down to read. My goal is to finish my current Libby book.

Then I realize I HAVE NOTHING TO EAT TOMORROW *head bang* *table slam* *tears down wall* I consider filling my fake bento box (actually a takeout box I keep washing and reusing) but very quickly realize it's going to be another frozen food day tomorrow. I don't even know what's left in the freezer and I don't care.

8:22 My mom doesn't let me do the after-dark dog run alone and she hates going out late so she makes me do it now. It takes everything in me to leave the couch.

8:50 We get back. I realize I need to mail a Kid Lit Exchange book back. I can't figure out who it needs to go to and finally realize the next person who requested it isn't even a real reviewer. This confusion takes forever.

I take a shower. My boss group-texts us that he's in the ER because he broke his son's arm. He trash talks me because I got mad at him for going hog wild and eating all my almonds today. (I buy Melissa wings, I give her cake, and she gets mad at me over almonds...seems selfish but what do I know.) I say, "Says the man who body-slammed his preschooler." The other two are like "Ooooh!" and start trash-talking him as well, for example, "What kind of masculinity can brag that he's now broken a preschooler's arm?"

9:30 I really really really want to finish my book but we're two nights late for When Calls the Heart due to work and such, so we watch it tonight. I haven't liked this season very much. However, this episode turns out to be better.

10:45 I have two chapters left, but it's way later than I intended to go to bed. I'll have to finish the book tomorrow. My Goodreads goal slips further from my fingers while today slips into tomorrow.

And then it repeats, this is pretty typical of my life Monday-Friday.