I sat down to write in my journal last night, and I thought I would write a detailed entry of how my day went - just to provide a glimpse of a typical "Joe" day this year. Then I thought, it might be interesting to post it on the blog. I don't know why, but here goes....
Woke up at 6:50 am to my alarm and Brandi coughing. I got up and showered (the usual long shower), shaved, and dressed in a blue, long-sleeved dress shirt and kakhi pants with black dress shoes. At 7:25, I went into the kitchen and made myself a wheat bagle with light butter (which I ate in the truck on my way to work). I drank a glass of skim milk and made myself my standard lunch (peanut butter sandwich, two oranges, a yogurt, and a bottle of water). Around 7:35, we knelt in family prayer as we do each morning, and I kissed Brandi and the boys goodbye (she reminded me to call the life insurance company today as I left). I put on my winter coat and hat, scraped the windshield on the truck (we've had morning frost for 2 months and I'm ready for it to stop). Annie and Emmy climbed in and we drove the 1.7 miles to the school. Arriving around 7:40am, I opened the office and began checking emails and reading news headlines. After emails I spent the morning doing a variety of things: I called the state office of education about a Title I funding issue; I called DCFS (the child abuse agency) to arrange training for our teachers; I met with a prospective new student and his family in my office explaining the charter school concept and then took them on a tour of the school; I met with a young man in town about to go on a mission who wants to sub; I created 90-day review forms for our non-certified staff, and then I conducted two reviews for our paraeducators - filling out forms and then meeting with the paras for evaluation; I met with a homeless man who dropped off his broken bike last month for our Bike Barn after school program to repair; I met with a student who was sent to my office for repeated bad behavior - I then met with his teacher; I met with the accountant briefly about an issue and signed a couple of checks; I reviewed the report I had my secretary create about the breakfast costs in our federal school lunch program and went over the findings with our Food Services Coordinator; I put the legs on a table we purchased from another charter school in Salt Lake City; I spent some time opening, reading, and responding to our mail. At this point, my day was cut short because I had a chiropractor appointment at 2:00.
I have been having serious problems with my lower legs since beginning my marathon training, so I scheduled a one-hour session with the massage therapist at the chiropractor's office. From 2:15-3:15 I had a "deep tissue" leg massage that felt both painful and liberating (for the first time in a month, I walked out of the house without lower leg pain this morning). After the massage, I had my back adjusted (my back is in a constant state of pain and when it feels like knives are piercing my spine instead of just a dull ache, then I go to the chiro - no exaggeration). Around 4pm, I returned home. Brandi and the kids walked in just after I arrived. I was instructed by the therapist to "not run tonight" and to ice my legs. I sat on the couch from 4-5pm icing my legs and reading Edmund Morris' biography, The Rise of Theordore Roosevelt (I read it 6 years ago, but after just finishing David McCullough's biography of TR called Mornings on Horseback, I decided to read Morris' again - I feel a close connection to TR). At 5pm, Brandi had dinner ready - a hot sub sandwich, apple sauce, and chips. From 5-6 I read some more and iced my legs. Brandi read and the kids played. Around 6pm, we had a psuedo-family home evening. At 6:30pm, I worked on my dissertation for an hour while Brandi and the kids drew pictures at the dining room table. At 7:30, I came out and Brandi was watching American Idol. I made the kids hot vanilla steamers in our new cocoa-latte machine. At 7:45pm we read scriptures as a family (Alma 26) as we do each night. Family prayers, and then the kids went to bed at 8pm, as they do each night. Brandi and I watched 2 episodes of King of Queens on our DVR, and then spent the rest of the night reading. Sometime during the evening, I ate a bowl of graham crackers with milk (I love this snack). At 11pm, I said prayers and turned out the lights.
That's a typical day for me....
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3 comments:
Sounds pretty interesting. You keep busy all day and still have time to relax, that's my kind of day.
A fascinating glimpse. My typical day would bore anyone into a deep deeeeep deeeeeeeeeep deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Up till about a year after we got married, Karleigh had ever present back pain, sometimes dull, sometimes sharp. She had endured it for years. I learned some easy, non-forceful tricks, treated her over a few months, and she doesn't hurt anymore, except occasionally, and I quickly fix it in one to four minutes time.
If your pain and hers is at all similar, I've a book for you. It has a title that may make you wary, but it's not at all scary as it might sound: Spinal Manipulation Made Simple. No forcing and popping, just simple soft tissue techniques that safely bring the spine back into alignment. It would actually require Brandi, or someone else to be willing to read it and apply the techniques to you. Available at Amazon. One of the best purchases I've ever made.
It is beautifully written, albeit it is describing movement, and relationships of bone and muscle, and as such is a tough read due to the technical physiological terms. I had to google search diagrams and look up lots of vocab in order to follow along. The book beautifully describes what to do, but translating the words into a mental image of what is being described took me some effort. And it wasn't a read it, do it, done sort of deal. The techniques require developing a feel for the subtle visual and tactile cues that the techniques depend on. For each technique, it took me a few days of trying a few times a day to apply the techniques, while reviewing the book's description to make sure I was understanding the carefully written words. But Karleigh isn't in pain every moment of every day, so it was worth the effort.
I plan to eventually write a post on my blog that acts as a companion to the book, defining terms, and providing diagrams necessary for those untrained in physiology to be able to understand the book.
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