(sneaking in) My day ....

and welcome to it!

I get up at 4-4:15. (And no, the alarm clock never goes off. I'm serious. Maybe once a month I 'sleep in' and my alarm goes off).

If it's Wednesday, Saturday, or Sunday, I go to the gym and work out (swim, lift weights, or run).

Otherwise I get ready for work and am sitting at my desk, drinking my first cup of coffee, at 5:00 a.m. I check email (personal and professional), then do a bit of writing if I don't have a crisis to deal with at work.

I jot down ideas, get plot points ironed out, or review a bit of work. I like to keep my fiction perking in the back of my brain throughout my work day. I peek at my personal email throughout the day, but it's tricky since I'm in a cube environment. i also jot down ideas or do a bit of editing throughout the day, but again, it's tricky.

At noon, weather permitting (and by this I mean it's not life-threateningly cold), I take a walk with a co-worker or get out for lunch. I leave the office at 2:45ish and barring a lot of errands, am home by 3:30. I do chores (feed the animals, haul food out to the wild animals, sort the mail), and by 4:00 am catching up on yet more email. I'm on 80 loops (digest on 99.9%) so I get about 300 email a day. By contrast I only get about 100 emails at work.

I'm good at sorting email.

If I'm not going out that night, I fix something small to eat (snacky) and watch the news at 5:00 long enough to catch the weather. Then it's back to the computer for ... whatever ... for three or four hours. I usually break off at 9:00, by which time my husband is home and we can sit and talk, watch a bit of TV, have a glass of wine, and relax.

In bed by 10:00 and thinking about the next day.

I have 'regular' weekly events: I'm in a Citizen's Police Academy for a couple of months, so that's Wednesday night (and when it's over, I'll go back to dining with friends on Wed. night). On Thursday I meet my critique partner. And on a random Tuesday I got out with a movie reviewer-friend and we see films.

Weekends? It depends. I'm often out of town, traveling to Iowa to visit Mom, or at a writing meeting. I'd say 2 out of 4 a month are busy on at least one full day of the weekend. I spend the other day getting caught up on Stuff (paying bills, grocery shopping, etc.) I squeeze in laundry where I can and we pay for a cleaning service, so I don't have to worry about that (yea!)

Busy? Yep. Organized? I have to be. And getting busier? Yes, because we're going to start a remodel project on the house (but I just have to oversee the contractors, not do the work myself, hooray!)

But overall, very happy with how it has all worked out. I wouldn't change a thing, except perhaps to squeeze in a few more hours in the day so I could get in some more exercise ... maybe this summer ...