Monday, March 11, 2024 – Timeline of my day.
I like to stay up late and also sleep late. Staying up late to me is going to bed anytime between 24:00 and 02:00. Sleeping late is getting up between 09:00 and 11:00. This is only a problem on Monday and Wednesday mornings. I get up at 06:00 because I have early classes at 07:00. Of course, working from home, I really don’t need to get up this early. I get up this early because I like to linger with a hot cup of coffee, do the Wordle, do a couple of other word puzzles, and mentally prepare myself for the day/week ahead. I get my coffee pot and my day’s lessons ready the night before. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I try to go to bed by midnight. On Sundays, I never make it before 01:00 because Thursdays start my downhill cycle and it is almost always between 01:00 and 02:00. Which means I only get between four and five hours of sleep before my 06:00 wake-up on Monday. Why I am telling you this? You probably don’t even care, but, today’s timeline isn’t my usual Monday schedule.
We have a client of my language school, Eklektika, for whom we offer additional language practice. These are called Speaking Clubs and they allow a maximum of four participants to have an hour-long conversation on a given topic. I sign up each month to lead some of these groups. I enjoy them because my topics almost always deal with travel or food. I’ll get back to why these are important in a minute.
Usually, on Mondays, I have three classes in a row starting at 07:00 and finishing at 09:45. Because I don’t get the seven to nine hours of sleep that I like, when these classes finish, I take a morning nap for an hour or two to catch up. When I get up from my nap I make a late breakfast or an early lunch. I also have a few hours to run and do errands and go to the market before my 15:30 afternoon class.
That is my usual Monday morning/afternoon timeline. Today, no nap for me. I went to bed at 01:30, woke up at 06:00, and went through my morning ritual of coffee and word games. I had my three regular morning classes, finishing at 09:45. I filled in my online documentation for these classes (attendance and material covered). These classes were followed by four Speaking Clubs at 10:00, 11:00, 13:00, and 14:00. I opened my email for my Zoom links for the Speaking Clubs. I then noticed there had been a change in the original schedule, the 11:00 group had been canceled. To be honest, I was happy because I wasn’t looking forward to eight classes today. After the first Speaking Club, whose topic was “All Inclusive Holidays” ended at 11:00, I heated up leftover spaghetti for lunch. That left me an hour but I dared not take a nap, you know how I love my sleep.
I answered a couple of emails and then reviewed my PowerPoint presentations for the next two Speaking Clubs which were, “Airports – A Blessing or a Nuisance?“ and “Historical Sights around the Mediterranean”. Those two groups went great and we had a lot of interesting conversations and finished at 15:00. I took the next half an hour to complete my online documentation for those and prepared for my 15:30 lesson. After that lesson ended, I made baked broccoli and rice casserole with kielbasa and topped with cheddar for dinner. Chatted with my flatmate while it baked, then we both took bowlfuls and had dinner.
Here it is 18:30 and I’m working on day twenty-two of the writing challenge. What does the rest of my timeline look like? When I finish writing, I will shower and put on pajamas. Then I will get my coffee set up for the morning, and make sure all my lessons are prepared. I’ll pack away any leftovers the guys didn’t eat and tidy the kitchen. I can’t go to bed without doing two things…getting my coffee set up and making sure the kitchen is clean. The rest of the night is hit or miss, I’ll scroll Facebook, read a little, work on memorizing country flags and capitals (I do this every night in bed), and maybe have a snack.
There you have it, my timeline for Monday, March 11, 2024. Nothing too exciting today, we’ll see what tomorrow brings.
Down the Rabbit Hole 