Musings from the ever-changing, ever-amazing and occasionally ever-baffling Fort McMurray, Alberta.

Saturday, February 9, 2013

A Day in the Musings Life

There are so many things I could/should blog about today, but I decided to indulge myself instead and blog about a day in my life. I've had people ask about what I do every day, and I think it's really pretty dull, but here it is so you can judge for yourself. This is a pretty typical day, although now that I am going to rejoin the working world with a full-time job there are some changes ahead. For now, this is the life of a Musings.

5:15 am - Alarm goes off. I like early mornings. I often get my best writing done before 9 am, and so I try to get up early every day. And besides the Intrepid Junior Blogger gets up early too (teenage girls take their time to get ready for the day, as I have discovered).


5:16 am - First cup of coffee. Thank god for Keurig once again.

5:30 am - Second cup of coffee. Open laptop and check emails. Find several. Two invitations to events, accept. Three story requests, one about non-profit organizations and one about minor sport, accept. Third and final request will require lawyer for probability of being sued, reject with nicely worded email about not particularly wanting to be sued. Three comments on blog, two about stories and one calling me a poophead (in slightly stronger wording). Poophead one is anonymous, of course. Publish first two, defer last one to mull over for a bit. Be thankful all comments come to me for moderation before publishing because I've been called worse over the last two years. Often. At least this one didn't contain a threat.

6:00 am - Third cup of coffee. Wake up IJB with one of her ferrets. Ferrets like this game of crawl all over small sleeping human. All fun and games until the tiny teeth come out. I wish I meant the ferret's teeth but the IJB is baring hers at me so it's time to skedaddle with weasel in tow. For our own safety, really. IJB not a morning person.

6:15 am - Start writing. Blog work, work for weekly newspaper, check in on Twitter, reply to tweets, check in on Facebook, get distracted by kitten video and memes. Close all windows and re-open Microsoft word. Try to focus.

6:45 am - IJB comes upstairs. Wants food and directs me to not speak to her as she does not wish to talk. Well ok. More coffee, stat.

7:45 - Writing work accomplished, drive IJB to school. Still demanding I not speak. Or hum. Preferably not breathe in her presence.

8:00 - 12:00 - Writing, tweeting, Facebooking. All fueled by coffee.

12:30 - Cold call someone for a telephone interview. I have never met them but when I introduce myself they indicate they know me. Hope they did not leave the poophead comment on blog. Am relived they seem to like me and conduct interview smoothly. Once I find the pen I dropped under the sofa while on the phone, which the dog has now stolen and is playing with under the table. Sigh.

1:00 - Finish up some writing work, and do some reading online about new project ideas. Research another story. Suddenly recall IJB snarling about lack of clean clothing. Must do laundry before she arrives home and discovers no socks again.

2:00 - Discover dog has peed on kitchen floor. Again. Clean up pee and decide next person to call me a celebrity gets the honour of cleaning up dog pee. See if they still consider me a celebrity then. Scold dog who looks depressed over entire incident. Feel bad and hug dog.

3:00 - Phone rings, another interviewee calling me back. Perfect. Once again cannot find a damn pen. Dog claims innocence but there are pen bits under the table and ink on the floor I just cleaned.

4:00 - IJB arrives home and allows me to speak. I get two sentences and am then dismissed in favour of x-box and internet.


5:00 - Make supper for IJB and then get ready to head to banquet I have been invited to. Thanks to interference of dog and IJB's sudden need for a conversation about the philosophy of role playing games am late to leave. Get caught in traffic which is heavy for absolutely no discernible reason. Arrive late at event and discover have entire table to myself. Plus side is I don't have to ask anyone to pass the water jug. Negative side is there is no one to pass the water jug and I'm kinda lonely. Chat with people in the buffet line up and discover one is from Thunder Bay, close to my previous home in Red Lake Ontario. Discuss how unfair it is that when I lived there we had no Tim Hortons and now they do. Good for them, but I'm still slightly bitter about the whole thing. We had to drive three hours for donuts.

8:00 - Leave banquet quietly to head to another event, this time a house concert. Arrive on time at this one and find myself delighted to be in the company of friends and two great musicians from Antigonish. Find myself chair dancing, tapping my foot, and close to the end of the night starting to fall asleep.


12:00 - Drive home and arrive to find IJB passed out on sofa, cell phone still in hand. Guide her to bed and tuck her in. Kiss her because she isn't awake enough to tell me to cut it out. Forgive her completely for all harsh words said in teenage hormonal fits. Let dog outside, and then cuddle her. Forgive her for peeing on the floor and eating pens.

1:00 - Climb into bed and think about the day. Think about how life is good, and how this place is home. Think about all the things to do tomorrow, but realize that in order to do them need to sleep. There are emails to answer, and stories to accept, comments to publish, and tweets to be sent. Push all aside and fall asleep, surrounded by this place I call home, under the northern sky and dancing northern lights. Feel pure contentment.

2 comments:

  1. Forget about those anonymous cowordly haters...just enjoy the Positive YMM friends you have. :)

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  2. Sounds to me like a pretty nice way to spend a day ... except for the dog leavings, that is. And the teenagery attitude which, they say, kids do grow out of, given the chance. But working from your home office and being organizer of your own day is the absolute best. I do the same, and love it. As a matter of fact, it's time I got out of my fluffy green housecoat and got some work done.

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