A day in the life

It's been a few days since I have written, and after you hear what I have been doing (a typical day's schedule to follow), you will understand my void of any insight, and perhaps wish I hadn't taken the time to write this.

7 a.m. - wake up. Look, I might not have much to do, but that does not equal a cure for insomnia. And I did watch three recorded episodes of The OC last night (I couldn't stop!), and my mind was swimming with the drama that is the lives of Ryan and Marissa, et. al. So I'm up, and I decide to read for a bit, wondering why I fancy myself a writer but have yet to come up with phrases and analogies mere fractions as funny or clever as this author.

8:30 a.m. - cereal and coffee while watching the Today Show. I marvel again at the tragedy that is Anne Curry's hair, and then remember my conversation with my step-mother a couple days ago: Me: What's with Anne Curry's hair? It's looks horrid! Step-mother: She cut it off and gave it to Locks of Love. Me: Oh. Oops. So that's why she's been growing it out so long, which is kind of unheard of when it comes to TV anchor women. Well, I'm an ass. Today, it was on to hard-hitting coverage such as how Al tried (and didn't quite make it) to lose 20 pounds and a mock quiz show featuring a 10-year-old who has already published a book on presidential trivia and plans to run for the slot in 20 years. Hey, I may be an underachiever, but at least I'm not a social outcast.

9:30 - 12:30 p.m. - work, also known as putting in a few calls and emails, and spending the remaining 2 hours and 45 minutes organizing and renaming the 900 photos from our trip while listening to bachata on my computer. For three days I've been trying to pare down and arrange the photos for an online scrapbook, but I've only managed to narrow them down to 450, and it's going to take awhile to do captions for all of those. I also took time - about a half hour - to craft a five-line email in Spanish to my friend. It's getting harder and harder.

12:30 - lunch break. I made grilled turkey and cheese sandwiches, with my new favorite food: avocados.

1:30 - 2 - unexpected nap on chair after reading roughly four and a half pages of aforementioned book.

2:15 - back to work. I come to the decision that this freelance assignment due Friday is just not going to happen, what with my sources not telepathically sensing I need to contact them and thus preemptively calling me with the proper answers, kindly saving me from exerting any minute effort on the story. So I email my editor to tell him I need more time and that so many folks are declining to comment, and just as I hit send, two sources finally call me back. Shit. Now it looks like I'll have to file after all.

4:30 - I realize at this point that I am still in my pajama pants, with no plans to don jeans and leave the house. I also begin to feel my eyeballs drying out from staring at the computer screen tiled with 900 images of me, my friends, tropical trees, horses, sunsets and random strangers who we've coaxed to give the requisite thumbs-up pose for each shot. I think my muscles are also starting to atrophy, so I decide it's time to revisit the gym I just joined. Something tells me it's geared to a more life-seasoned crowd, as it's called Forever Young and has an aerobic class called Silver Sneakers, but I'm not daunted. I can stationary bike next to grandma without hesitation. In fact, upon my arrival, I am surprised at the unexpected amount of 20-something jocks (one in particular who looks like he overstayed his welcome at the Fake n Bake by about 18 hours and smells overwhelmingly of vanilla and something close to bananas).

7 - dinner of enchiladas, another variation on my Central American culinary theme, which I have yet to tire from. While eating, we watch a downloaded copy of 8 Simple Rules, the show that should have gone off the air the second John Ritter died, but instead limps on with only sporadically funny moments overpowered by dead father coping family themes. This particular episode was just weeks after his death, which they wrote into the show, and the daughters grapple with returning to school and struggling with the guilt of feeling an ounce of happiness or normalcy in a time when they should be mourning their father. All of a sudden, as I am sucking down a third enchilada, I am catapulted back to the fall of seventh grade when I returned to school motherless, greeted by oh-poor-you eyes and too-eager smiles from teachers and peers when really I just wanted to pretend it was just another middle school days, and oh my gah I can't believe she wore that, and isn't he so cute, and similar teenage dribble drabble. All of a sudden, I felt a lump in my throat, and it was clearly time to get up and do the dishes. Add that to the list of TV shows that hit too close to home and I can therefore no longer watch.

9 - finally the moment I've been waiting all week for: the newest episode of The OC. I wonder how Marissa will get along now that she and Ryan broke up, and what is happening with Mrs. Cooper-Nickle and Summer's dad?! And of course, I won't miss a chance to hear my BF mockingly quip in a high-pitched and comically timed voice "Biotch!" or "Oh snap!"