A Day in the Life of an Assistant Professor (May 2019)
Time for another day in the life post! This particular Monday was the inspiration behind my 2-minute Monday post from a few weeks ago.
Monday May 13, 2019
4:30am (ish): I am wide awake… and Ellie is fast asleep… shouldn’t this be the other way around? Apparently I can’t sleep through the night anymore. I’m also pretty sure I’m getting sick because my nose is stuffy and my throat feels scratchy. Happy Monday!
7:00am: Awake again. I check the time and turn my alarm off before it goes off (it was set for 7:15am). I write down my sleep information for my back to basics “challenge” and then continue to lay in bed and contemplate getting up. I think I can hear Ellie moving around in her room.
7:15am: Ellie gets up and comes into our bed to cuddle for a few minutes. We all slowly roll out of bed.
7:30am: I do a workout (front squats, presses, and deadlifts) while Mike and Ellie make pancakes (not a usual week day breakfast, but Ellie requested it). Ellie has a meltdown after saying “look!” and failing to specify what Mike should be looking at. Mike responds with, “at what?!” And because he can’t read her mind, she loses it. Happy Monday!
8:30am: I’m done my workout and I reheat a piece of my breakfast quiche from our mama’s day brunch. Mike is still making pancakes and Ellie is running around the house. She’s entertaining herself so we do not disturb her.
8:50am: I take a shower and get ready for work. Mike cleans up from breakfast and gets ready to take me to the train station. Ellie has moved on from running to dancing (still by herself).
9:45am: I start the commute, which begins with our drive to the train station. In the car, Ellie says she’s hungry for eggs and broccoli and potatoes (our usual breakfast)… guess the pancakes didn’t do it for her. They drop me off and head back home. I check my email and write a few responses on the ride in. When I’m done with that, I also listen to a podcast. I’m definitely getting sick… now that I have a few quiet moments on the train, I notice that I feel like crap (and the whole day is ahead of me).
10:30am: I stop by the transportation office to ask a question and return my pass for the year (since I won’t use it enough to warrant the monthly price over the summer). I do administrative work (mainly emails) because I have a meeting at 11 and it doesn’t make sense for me to get into anything substantial.
11:20am: I head to the meeting. I’m thinking that I might be a bit late as it’s a little bit of a walk from my building. However, I get there and I’m one of the first people to arrive… which is typical for me, always early (but thinking that I’m late).
11:30am: Meeting starts. It’s a lunch meeting where we’re discussing equity in early childhood and what that looks like in our respective disciplines.
1:30pm: Meeting/lunch is done. I head out to return my old office key to the “key office” (no idea what the actual office is called).
1:45pm: More emailing mixed with a quick check in with a few colleagues in the hallway and writing a note to students in my online class. I also vacuum my office.
3:15pm: I do course prep, mainly administrative things like printing activities for class this week and printing assignments to grade (so I don’t have to stare at a screen).
3:50pm: I start some speed grading/feedback with some computer updating mixed in, which morphs into solely computer updating as I get ready to switch back to my old laptop (although it turns out I’m getting a new one anyway!).
4:00pm: Office hours start and I continue computer updating/grading.
5:00pm: A student stops by to ask a question.
5:10pm: Back to computer updating/grading.
5:30pm: I get ready to head out for the day and plan for tomorrow.
5:45pm: I start the commute home and use the time to stare out the train window and get lost in my thoughts.
6:30pm: We get home and Mike and I debrief about the day. I open mail, change out of my work clothes and read some books with Ellie.
7:30pm: We eat dinner (cod, rice, coleslaw, potatoes and dipping sauce). Trying to get Ellie to eat at dinner is a full time job.
8:00pm: We have left over dessert from mama’s day (a key lime tart). Ellie and I watch a show (and I also try and do some work on the blog). Mike cleans up and then joins us on the couch. Ellie hops from one lap to the next… she is always on the move.
8:45pm: TV off and blog stuff done for now.
8:45pm: Pre-bedtime play time. Ellie exclaims that she has to poop and then requests that either Mike or I tell her a story while she poops (this is a regular thing in our house… she can’t poop without a story). After she’s done in the bathroom she wants to play outside so we set a timer for 5 minutes.
9:20pm: We start the book reading process. My Ellie quote from this day, which I shared on instagram recently was when Ellie told me I couldn’t go to sleep on a moonbeam (which is what a character in a book we were reading was doing)… always keeping things real. She brushes her teeth (with some assistance from us) and we head into her room.
9:40pm: Mike gets Ellie’s sleep sack on and hands her off to me for the bedtime process. We rock and sing songs and I lay her down.
9:55pm: I’m out of Ellie’s room before 10 (even if it’s just 5 minutes before)! I do some last minute screen time before shutting down for the night.
10:00pm: I do some writing for the blog (on paper) and chatting with Mike. Mike also does some work on a dresser that he’s refinishing.
10:45pm: I head back to get ready for bed and then do some more writing (on paper) before bed.
11:00pm: Lights out for me.
11:10pm: Mike comes back and gets ready for bed too.