It’s been a grey, chilly week. The weather has sort of matched my week – dark and unrelenting. It seems like every day this week was something on the home front. The kids were off Monday for President’s Day and it was also my first day of rehearsal for a new show. School was closed again on Tuesday. Not sure why; it was Lunar New Year, but I’m not sure if that was the reason. Wednesday was Ash Wednesday – I worked late, but the husband took the kids to Mass. Thursday we had a site visit for the theatre where we’ll be performing in a few weeks, so that made that day extra long. Friday – Friday felt like a regular day. So I decided to do a “Day in the Life” post based on Friday, February 20th, 2026. More on the below.
Over all, though last week I just felt as if I was doing a terrible job at adulting. Here’s a list:
-I received a W-2 for a job that I realized I had never been paid for. Now I have to write that company and ask them where my fee is. And the job was a year ago, so I feel stupid to not have realized that sooner.
– I opened the bills for this month and was shocked by how high they were, only to realize they were that high because I forgot to pay them last month. Ugh. I think in the brain fog of jet lag in January following our trip to Taiwan, I just… forgot.
-my lower back hurts. I’m very lucky to be pretty healthy and free of ailments, so this constant lower back pain that I had last week was a new experience for me. Not sure what it is. If I make sure I stretch in the morning and try not to sit too much, the pain is usually gone by mid day. But in the morning, getting out of bed is more of a ginger effort that I’m used to.
-The to top it all off… I had gone to downtown DC for that site visit and miraculously I found parking on a street without meters. I was shocked that this street had free parking, so when I saw a parking enforcement agent across the street, I asked her if there were meters on this street. And she looked a me impatiently and said, “The meters are on the other street.”
I was running late, so I said a little prayer for having good parking Karma and headed to the venue.
A few hours later, I get back to my car – which in and of itself was an ordeal because I couldn’t remember where I parked and my friend was with me so we walked around the blocks a few times before I found it. I told my friend as we walked about finding free parking and the parking enforcement agent. We finally find my car and my friend says, “It looks like you got a ticket after all.” And my hear sank with disbelief. She looks at the sign and says, “I don’t know why – it clearly says two hour parking here.”
Greatly annoyed, I look at the ticket. Friends, I got a ticket because my tags were expired. In fact, they’ve been expired for two months.
I shouldn’t have talked to the parking enforcement agent.
Also – I would like to churlishly point out that in Maryland when you get a ticket, they put it in an envelope so that you can mail back the payment. They don’t do that in DC. I guess it is easier to just pay it online, but the principal of the matter….
Anyhow, there are some weeks when the whole adulting thing is just too much for me, and last week was one of them. It’s fine – it will all be fine. Nothing is life altering – it’s just all annoying and the last thing that I want to deal with.
But… on to my Day In The Life Post. This was what Friday, February 20th looked like for me:
6:15am- alarm goes off. I only recently started using an alarm to wake up in the mornings, because I wanted to get my mornings started earlier. Without an alarm I usually get up at 6:45am, so I started with 6:30 a few weeks ago and this week bumped it even earlier. I go back to sleep for a few minutes because I had been at work til 10:30p the night before and I was tired.
6:30p- out of bed for reals. Bathroom. Glass of water. I’ve been trying to get up early for some quiet alone time, but this morning the kids were up before me:
I make myself tea from my brand new water boiler. I’m loving the water boiler. It dispenses water at the push of a button, keeps the water hot all day, and I can set it the night before to be at the right temperature for tea when I wake up. It holds four liters of water so I only have to fill it once a week.
There was conversation and chatter- I don’t see the kids or the Husband very much when I work evenings, so I try to make time in the morning to catch up.
6:50: finally get my reading time while the two little kids eat cereal. Reading Crescent City, still. It is a very long book. I complain to the 14 year old (who recommended it) and she says, “That’s why I listen to the graphic audio version.”
The two little kids eat cereal and chatter about kid things.
7:20am -Then I fit in my daily yoga- just ten minutes today. I’ve been having a bit of lower back pain recently so I’ve been choosing yoga videos that focus on that.
7:40am- how does it take 20 minutes to do ten minutes of yoga? I get dressed and then take the 14 year old to school. She usually walks the mile or so to school, but I offered to drive her today because it was raining pretty hard. Also the Husband was working from home today so I could leave the other two kids at home.
7:55 pm- back home. I pack lunches (kids and my own). Also make myself roti egg for breakfast. I bought a pack of uncooked roti from Costco- the kids don’t like it as much as the paratha from H-mart, but I think it’s tasty, especially if not overcooked. Here’s how I make roti egg:
- Crack egg onto griddle. Scramble it a little, but keep it pretty flat. Pinch of salt. Or drizzle of sesame oil, hot sauce, curry powder. Whatever is tasty.
- Put roti on other side of griddle
- After 30 seconds, flip cooked side of eoti on top of egg and flip the whole thing over so that the uncooked side of the roti is on the griddle, with the egg on top. Cook thirty seconds or so, then roll the whole thing into a tube.
It’s kind of a cheater’s version of Taiwanese dan bing (egg pancake). The two little kids, despite already having breakfast, ask for roti egg too. Good thing it’s fast to make.
My lunch:
While I make breakfast and lunch, we watch the Ski Mountaineering on the tablet. This is Skimo’s first year at the Olympics and I found it fascinating. The athletes sprint uphill on skis, then take the skis off, and strap them to their back, and climb stairs! And then they get to the top and rip these skins off their skis – the skins give them traction for the uphill sprint – and ski down. The whole thing takes less than four minutes. It’s exhausting to even think about.
8:30p- I sit down and eat my breakfast. Finally.
8:57am- the shoes and socks alarm goes off, indicating it’s time to atart heading out the door.
9:11am- arrive at parking lot on trail and walk up the path to school. Notice how high the water is in the creek because of the rain. The rain has stopped for a bit, but the kids still insist on bringing their umbrellas. My kids are obsessed with umbrellas and use any slightly damp occasion as an excuse to use their umbrellas. On the way up the path, run into another parent that I know. He used to work for USAID, so we often commiserate about our similar work situations.
9:30am- I usually take a walk after dropping the kids, but I had a new stage management team starting today so I head in early to allow time to pick up donuts to welcome them. There is a place near work that makes amazing donuts, and they’re vegan! This is the only picture I remembered to take of the beautiful donuts:
10:00am- meet and greet with new stage management team and my big boss.
11:00am- I spend the rest of the morning catching up on email. I send a company wide email welcoming this new stage management team, also noting that it is twenty years to the day that the Stage Manager started with the company. I love that. We both started here as interns, one year apart, when we were in our twenties and fresh out of school, and now we have houses and mortgages and a dog (him) and children (me).
12:50 pm- my brain is mush. Stop at the bathroom. Take a picture because I like my outfit today:
From head to toe: Orange beanie (Duluth Trading Company). Ottoman sweater from Free People (I love this sweater, but I never wear it because it is white. But when I put it on, I am always struck by how sophisticated white looks). Uniqlo Puffer Vest (ubiquitous fashion item for me from Hallowe’en until Easter pretty much). Red Dress from Wool&. Blue legging from Duluth Trading Company. Rain boot – I think they are Bogs.
Go for a walk. Admire the funny sign and cute small town vibes of the area where I work:
About ten minutes into my walk I get a text that our laptops are here! This is very exciting. We’ve been working on our personal laptops for six weeks now, ever since the company shake up. We still don’t have access to printing, but small wins are huge at this point.
2:30pm- In rehearsal. We finish staging Act 1 and then run it. We’ve spent three days putting the first act together one musical number at a time, and it feels really good to put the whole thing together and see what it’s like from the top of the overture to Intermission. We got some new props for rehearsal today:
5:30pm- Dinner Break, just as the sun is setting. I love that we have windows in our rehearsal room so I can see the sunset:
I send a text to my team with this picture, which is the order of the numbers we are going to review in the evening’s rehearsal.
During dinner, we do the jigsaw puzzle:
6:45pm – Dinner break is over. Back to rehearsal. We spend the evening putting the dancers and Supers (non-speaking roles) into Act 1.
This is the view from where I sit. On the travel alarm clock is a Post It reminding me when I have to release certain groups of people from rehearsal. I have to write it down and put it on the clock or else I will lose track of time and if I don’t release people in time, it will sometimes cost the company money. Timekeeping in rehearsal is very stressful for me.
10:00pm – Rehearsal is over for the day. The stage managment team gathers to go over the notes from rehearsal, which I type into a report and send out. It’s a lot of notes like “So and so needs a pocket…” “Change this word to that word” type of things.
10:45pm – walking out of work. I give my colleague a ride home. She came directly from another gig and didn’t have time to drive to us from her home, so she doesn’t have her car and has been taking the metro to work. We finish work so late that I give her a ride home. I’m loving the ten minutes we have to chat in the car on our drive.
11:10pm – home. I sit in the car for a little bit, scrolling – I find I always need a minute alone before I go into the house. I should perhaps go for a walk around the block instead of scrolling – that might be better for me.
It’s a clear, cold starry starry night. I pause in our front walk to breathe the cold winter air and look at the stars.
11:30p – I go inside. Put my stuff down. I notice that the dinner dishes are still on the kitchen counter. The Husband had texted me earlier that night to say that the youngest kid had been vomiting, so I’m guessing they just left the dishes for later while they dealt with the vomit. I go upstairs, give the kids kisses while they sleep, change into my sleepy clothes.
I’m tired and little hungry, so I snack on some cheese, cold cuts, slathered with dill pickle mustard.
I load the dishwasher and wipe down the counters. I don’t mind doing this late at night because I know when I’m not home in the evenings, there is a lot on the Husband’s plate and this is one small thing I can do for everyone.
12:15am – I read a little bit to try to wind down and end up falling asleep in my reading chair.
1:00am – I shake myself awake, brush and floss, and head to bed.
And that’s the day! It was mostly a pretty typical work day, though I’m not often at work for twelve hours so this one was longer than usual.
Grateful for This Week – FIGS Week #3. (Shout out to Elisabeth for encouraging people’s ray of gratitudes.) I felt like I struggled to find FIGS at the end of the day this week. I do remember feeling wonder, delight and gratitude in many small things, and in the moment thinking, “Oh that’s such a good small FIG!” But when it came time to remember these small things, at the end of the day when my brain was fried, I was tired to recall what brought those small moments of joy to me. So, rest assured – there were quotidian FIGS last week. I know in my heart they were there, even if my brain didn’t hold on to them.
But the FIGS I did hold on to:
-Our new Zojirushi water boiler came two weeks ahead of schedule. Just in time for a week of chilly weather. I’ve used it several times a day to make tea. No more waiting for the water to boil! The kids have also started using it when they make ramen.
-The stage management team on my show. They make me laugh. They catch things that I miss. They are damn good stage managers. Also – one day I was really really late to rehearsal – I had forgotten I had to take the 14 year old to voice lessons and miscalculated how long it would take to get to rehearsal from there. The other folks on my team started rehearsals without me and kept the room going. I’m really thankful that I work with people that I can trust to run a room.
-The Olympics. What a fun two weeks of watching people doing things really really well. We watched the gold medal hockey game live on Sunday morning- I always root for Canada in hockey and was so sad for them not to get the gold. AND did you see all the opera at the closing ceremonies? Seeing and hearing all the greatest hits of Italian Opera gave me such delight.
– Taiwanese Pineapple Cakes for Lunar New Year. From Costco(!). Pineapple cakes are a pastry with a shortbread cookie type exterior around a thick pineapple jam filling. I love pineapple cakes, but they are generally only available around New Year. I was so surprised to see them at Costco three weeks before Lunar New Year. I should have bought more than one box because when I asked my friend to pick up another box a few days before New Year, Costco had already moved on to stocking goods for other holidays (Eid. Passover.) These were some of the best pineapple cakes I’ve ever eaten. I took the box to work and shared them with the cast and it was fun to share a bit of something I love with everyone.
-Finding hearts in every day places:
I snapped this picture as I was leaving skating lessons with the 9 and 6 year old. They look so sweet sharing an umbrella, but not two seconds before, one child refused to share, saying the other child had a waterproof coat on and didn’t need an umbrella. I reminded them to be kind to each other and they stopped squabbling and shared the umbrella. Which is when I noticed the skating bag had settled into a heart shape.
-Along those lines – I’m grateful for the inane chattering conversations my kids have with each other. I feel so lucky that all three of them get along most of the time. Sometimes they will get into tearful yelling fights, but then they have a bit of time to themselves and are back to being real tight and when I ask if they’ve made up with each other they look at me like, “What are you talking about? Why would I argue with my amazing sibling, my favorite person in the world?” I know you can’t guarantee the future, but I hope they will continue to be there for each other their whole lives.
-My snow boots that keep my feet warm and dry.
-My Bed Is My Island. The 14 year old can be … reclusive. She really really loves her room and her bed. Some weekends, she emerges only for basketball games, church, food, and to go to the bathroom. So sometimes, we will knock on her door and ask if we can come in. And when she says yes, all of us – me, the Husband, the two younger kids – will pile together on her bed and play “The Bed is an Island.” It’s what a director friend of mine used to call those days when she didn’t have to be at rehearsal, but still had to prep for the next day at work so she would gather her computer, books, and scores, and just settle into a day of working from bed. Anyhow, in our version, we all pile into bed with the 14 year old and laze around. Sometimes we watch whatever YouTube videos she is watching, sometimes we just chat. This week, we ran lines with her for her school play. My Bed is My Island always starts as a mad scramble as everyone finds their comfy place in the family pile; usually at some point we settle into some configuration and it’s actually a quite comfy tangle of limbs and bodies. Often someone falls asleep. Often it’s me. The pile lasts anywhere from two minutes to an hour, and it’s just such a cozy way for us to hang out as a family of five without feeling like we have to drag the 14 year old from her bedroom. These moments are what I want the kids to remember of their childhood when I am gone.
Looking Forward To:
– My parents are coming to visit in April!
– These next two months are busy, but I have a few happy hours on the calendar with various friends, and I’m looking forward to catching up with friends.
-Summer. The Husband and I mapped out our summer and I’m excited for pool time and maybe camping and hanging out with my kids. I’ll be done with shows by the beginning of July, so the summer looks to be pretty relaxed.
-Using my new hot water boiler. Yes, I realize this is the third time I’ve mentioned the water boiler in my post, but I am seriously so very excited for this new addition to my family. I get up in the morning and say to myself, “Oh look! The water is already hot!”
What We Ate – I pretty much worked every night this week, so the Husband did the majority of the cooking.
Monday: Butter chicken. This is the famous Instant Pot Recipe from Usha Pitre. I made it before I left for work – the Husband finished out the recipe and made rice to go with it.
Tuesday: Shrimp Tacos.
Wednesday: Smoked Salmon and bagels.
Thursday: Kung Pao Chicken.
Friday: Pizza (the Husband made it) and Hamilton. It was the 9 year old’s turn to choose the movie, and he chose a re-watch of the musical.
Saturday: Grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup.
Sunday: Dumplings and green beans.
Welp that’s the world here – I hope you have a FIG-gy week
Do you set an alarm in the morning? When was the last time you got a ticket? Any adulting fails lately? How about adulting wins?
I have never gotten a ticket! In my life! More by good luck than good management, perhaps, as my grandmother would say. (My husband has gotten tickets, though… I guess I’m telling tales out of school.)
Adulting can be so overrated. I had a DELIGHTFUL Friday (I called it a Golden Day) and then the last few days have been garbage. So many points of friction, two snow days, sick kids, CANADA LOSING TO THE US (I was heartbroken). There are ups and there are downs. The FIGs don’t cancel out the downs, but they do boost my spirits on the tougher days.
That water boiler looks like a great system! Hot water whenever you need it.
We don’t have a formal name for all getting on the bed together, but our bed is the hub for this and it’s so much fun. We talk and tickle and just hang out.
Jinx! We have twin DITL posts today!
That hockey game! I thought the Canadians played really well, though- they got so many shots on goal. It always makes me sad to see the silver medalists looking so defeated. But maybe in time they’ll realize that even getting to Silver was amazing.
I love these posts, I am so nosy. What a long day you have! Wow. I am in awe! So much stuff! I don’t even know what part to comment on (hope the kid isn’t vomiting anymore?) because you do so much in one day!
There was no further vomitting the next day, just a very lethargic child. But that didn’t last long either.
That water boiler reminds me of most of the guesthouses where I stayed in Taiwan; they all had the hot water machines and it was lovely to have hot water on demand. After traveling in Europe last year, I got my brother and his girlfriend an electric kettle because they were heating their coffee press water in a pot every morning (or several pots) and I love having a kettle, but since I have no home, I foisted it on him, and they love it! It is funny how long we go without sometimes even when there are better tools for the job!
Yes! We were at a National Park near Beitou and the Visitor’s Center wasn’t staffed, but there was a hot water boiler!
Honestly, your adulting fails make me feel better because I do the same things from time and time and always feel so bad about myself! It helps knowing I’m not the only one struggling.
I don’t remember the last time I got a ticket! Maybe in college when I got a parking ticket?!
I *have* to set an alarm, even if I KNOW I will wake up way before it. I just get nervous that it will be the ONE DAY I sleep until, like, 10.
Thank you for taking some comfort in my adulting fails! :).