I have talked about the importance of schedules and routines here on my blog. I think now that I have established a good schedule between work and school, I would like to share with you all how I am managing my mental health all along with managing decent grades!

Like I have said in many of my past blog posts, what works for me may not work for you. I will give you the low down for my past week and summarize my weekly activities and what I do as far as self care goes. I think this schedule that I have now has worked for me thus far because I have really taken self care into account. Whereas when I was doing community college in the winter of this year, I worked my 40+ hours and did around six hours of school before and after each shift. I legitimately could not keep up.

At the beginning of school this fall, I was working two jobs working about 40 hours a week. As far as my school work went, I was getting by… barely. I figured that one of these things had to go and so I left my retail job in order to focus on my studies. My mental health job was not only in the field of study that I am currently pursuing, but it also pays 3.50 more per hour, so the choice to drop the other job was obvious.

So my past week has been actually great since dropping my other job. My tunnel vision toward a deep, dark depression has slowed which is amazing. It means that there is hope. (Well, there is always hope; it’s more of a matter of me actually seeing it or not).

I also want to take a moment to talk about the trend “That Girl” culture on social media. To my understanding, it discusses morning and evening routines of “that girl” or the coveted life of what I think of as the popular girl from high school plus 8-13 years of age. Usually these videos talk about manifestation, yoga, protein shakes, waking up at the buttcrack of dawn, shows their ootd (outfit of the day), etc. THIS POST ISN’T THAT.

I will say that my current schedule is literally a struggle hustle over the past year and a half to figure out what works for me… so without further ado, my weekly schedule:

Thursday, September 9th

8:20am – Wake up

8:25am – Get ready for appointment and drive there

9:00am – PCP appointment. This appointment, I did not change my current medications for bipolar disorder. I was given hydroxyzine for anxiety attacks because I can no longer take Xanax because it’s bad to take a downer like Xanax with an upper like modafinil. I told her the stimulant wasn’t doing much for me anymore. She said I was supposed to take those pills while using my cpap machine at night. Now mind you, I was told at my last ENT appointment that I would need not one, but TWO surgeries to help with my sleep apnea. The first is a more cosmetic nose surgery that may help with airway issues. My PCP said that she had the nose surgery done and that the skin they remove from the nose actually grows back, so she did not recommend me going under for that. She also said that she would refer me to the cpap implant doctor that lives north of Seattle for the surgery that I need. I do, however, have to use the cpap for sixty consecutive days before they deem it medically necessary. She also ordered bloodwork.

9:30am Drive home

10am Check in with mom. She is doing better than she was. Not 100% better, but more like her normal self.

11am Make dinner. I know this sounds weird, but I knew I would be up in my room aka the lair for an indefinite amount of time studying and whatnot. So I made a tater tot casserole because my mom has been craving it and she really does not cook, so if she eats, all she eats are TV dinners and snacks in the house. But I don’t want that for my momma, nobody does! So as any good daughter would, I made some bomb ass tater tot casserole. If ya’ll don’t know what that is, you have a baking dish filled with half a 32 ounce bag of tater tots, pour in either 1-2 12 oz. cans of cream of mushroom or cream of celery or even cream of chicken soup. Then after you brown some ground beef and onions in a skillet, pour those items into the tater tot dish. Mix together. And add the remaining tater tots on top and garnish with a layer of shredded cheese. Bake for 35 minutes and voila!

12pm Eat a little bit and go up to the lair to study. Last week I had a bunch of assignments due that Sunday. So Thursday, I worked on my hardest class which is easily anthropology. I would take breaks every two hours and would give myself about thirty minutes to chill and go on social media and hang out downstairs with my mom. I did this until 10pm when I became very sleepy.

Friday, September 10th – Sunday, September 12th

Basically I woke up each of these days and focused on one subject per day. Thursday was all about anthropology. Friday was based on communications. Then Psychology. And last on Sunday, was drawing. Why am I taking drawing at the collegiate level? Because it is a required undergrad course. Not specifically drawing, but an art class of some sort. So go figure.

Monday, September 13th

I went to a Seattle Mariner home game and they actually won! It was an incredible game. I bought way too much junk food and memorabilia that day between the Costco trip I went on with Diego before I left for Seattle and between the soft pretzel, garlic fries, and Mariner shirt that is a tad too tight.

Tuesday, September 14th

I was excited to be celebrating one year sober from gambling. I decided to do the 100 day savings challenge. I am excited about this challenge because you pull one number everyday from 1-100 and whatever number you pull, let’s say #49, you put $49 toward the savings amount. So every day, you put between $1-$100 toward savings and at the end, the total amount will equal $5,050.00. Because I started this challenge on the 14th, 100 days after that leads me to the day before Christmas Eve. I am not sure if I can realistically reach $5,050 in three months, but what’s the worst that can happen? I save 1-2k which, isn’t 5k, but it is wayyyy better than saving zero dollars!I think I am going to have to repeat some numbers because I can’t fathom me saving $30 a day over the course of a two week pay period. But saving money is good and I think this will be a fun way to get me excited to save. I am a natural born spender of dinero. Like today, despite me doing this savings challenge, I bought a Dyson air purifier which is also a high powered fan. I was told to get one because my allergies are so bad to dust mites and cats which my house is full of. I am hoping that the air purifier will cool my hot as the Sahara lair and get rid of all the vape fumes, allergens, etc. Not to mention the fact that I am already thinking about what to buy everyone for Christmas. I have yet to buy anything, but I like to have all of my shopping complete before October, but I may not be able to swing that this year… we shall see.

Wednesday, September 15th

This is my work schedule when I do work

6am Wake up

6:25am Go to work

7am – 7:30pm Work

8:15pm Get home and shower

9pm Do a bit of homework

10:30pm Chill out

11:45pm Sleep

Thursday, September 16th

I went to my last and final orthopedic surgeon appointment today. She said my foot looks good and the range of motion for four months post op is pretty good. Just gotta keep stretching and as long as I don’t have any issues arise, I have no need to follow up. I drove home and was so excited that I somehow managed to spend 2 hours cleaning and organizing my bathroom. Now mind you, I have not unpacked all of my belongings since I moved back home last August. I think part of me was hoping to either move back out again or move back in with Diego, my ex. Although Diego and I are friends at the moment, I won’t be moving in with him anytime soon. So I cleaned the mirrors, the two sinks, the toilet, and shower/tub. Also the counters. I rearranged the two vanities to my liking. One side of one sink held my display of perfumes and lotions. The other side had all of my facial cleaning soaps and lotions. The adjacent sink held bathroom necessities and the other side held all of my makeup. I got rid of a lot of old makeup that I no longer use or have a need for or that was well past expiration. I have a ton that I got as freebies from past Ulta purchases which means I get to sell the unused products and put the money toward my savings challenge. The rest of this day, I just chilled out. Felt rather sick and nauseous, although I am not sure why.

Today, Friday, September 17th

It is finally Friday. Not that it matters to me, I am essentially an on-call. It is a little after midnight my time as I write this which means my alarm will go off in a little less than five hours for another 12.5 hour fun day in paradise aka work. This schedule will look much like Wednesday’s schedule. So I will omit that similar information and leave it up to the imagination.

…

I know this is not as specific as some of you may have expected or wanted, but I feel as though the course of the week provides somewhat of an average of home I spend my time. A lot of that time is dedicated to school work and is equally dedicated to mental health. By doing three and a half days of school in a row, I countered it with two full days of doing nothing academic. I spent time with my dad at the baseball game, I spent time with Diego and my dog, Poncho. I spent time with my mom. I did a lot of cleaning to improve mental health status and used coping mechanisms.

So to say the least, the phrase “Work hard, play hard” is true.

Much love,

Dani