Monday, January 16, 2017

A day in the life.

When I look back at different parts of my life, I always wish I could remember the minute details of my day-to-day, so I figured I'd try to rectify that slightly.

Here's my standard weekday.

Wake up about 6:45 a.m. Shower, eat breakfast, listen to NPR's Morning Edition, read the Wall Street Journal (the newspaper man delivers it to my front door, and it's wonderful). Sometimes take Pollock out for "morning dog."


8:15 a.m. Walk to the nearest metro, which takes about 10 minutes. Along the way, I usually see my nemesis: the Leaf Blower Man. He is out there every day, blowing trash and leaves off the side walk. He makes me crazy because he never ever picks up the trash and leaves, he just blows them into the gutter, and then they appear again. The neighborhood Sisyphus.

Catch the train (the Metro stations make me feel like I am in a waffle cone or a whale's belly - depending on the light), get off at the Smithsonian Metro stop, which even two years in, still feels pretty awesome. During my commutes I'm listening to podcasts (currently my favorites are Death, Sex, and Money and Ask Me Another) or reading my book.

A Metro advertisement I made with a colleague.

My days at the Museum are always different, but I find my work meaningful and engaging. Every day I am writing articles, emails, advertisements, and stories—from fundraising pitches to the content of full books. More and more, I am producing digital content and videos, and I love that most of all. I will say the downfall of what I do is that while I write all day, it makes me less motivated to work on my own writing, which is another reason I've restarted the blog.

Here's a few of my favorite videos my colleagues and I have produced this year:
The Impact of Your Support - We created this for Giving Tuesday
Bringing Holocaust Education to Shonto, Arizona
Holocaust Survivors' Message to New America Citizens


Testing the lighting during a photoshoot.
Action shot - helping our collections team with their filing system.

After work, I tend to head home to tend to my loyal hund, but I regularly play bar trivia (team Narwahl Nannization forever), go to yoga classes, and meet up with a number of arts management happy hours and events, connect with old coworkers, or try to get out and enjoy this beautiful capital city of ours.

Admittedly I watch too much TV, but there's so many good shows out right now. Currently, Westworld, Stranger Things, the Gilmore Girls revival, and Mozart in the Jungle are my favorites. I've never been a night owl (why start now?), so I'm typically asleep by 11.

A wall at the National Geographic Museum at a recent Creative Mornings DC event.
On the weekends, Mike rides his bike. A lot. I have been learning to play the guitar (it's a struggle, but fun), and I also spend my time running, hiking with Pollock on different trails around the city. It is a wonder of DC that within a few minutes I can be in the zoo or in a national park. I, at most, drive myself somewhere once a week. Buses, Ubers, Metros, bike shares (begrudgingly - DC traffic makes me nervous), and my feet are my preferred method of moving around the city.

Hiking with Mike and Pollock at Great Falls.
Weekend nights are usually pretty quiet, but I do try to get out to see live music and shows whenever I can. In 2016 I saw Shakey Graves, The Cure, National Symphony Orchestra, Lord Huron, Johnny Swim, Indigo Girls, The Book of Mormon, and some local plays and storytelling events too.


Whenever I feel low, I go hangout by the flamingos at the National Zoo. Their abundant brightness always cheers me up.

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