A Random Day in the Life of Naomi

For my new bloggie visitors. I'm Naomi! An almost-27-year-old single girl from central Pennsylvania. I work full-time. Own a little house that I call "Sunnyside Cottage" and share with 3 roomies. Lead a youth group and a worship team. Am an aspiring photographer, among other things...


5:45 am. My alarm goes off... I'm trying to get back into the habit of a little more time in the morning, to eat breakfast, read my Bible and just generally not hurt myself by rushing through the house at a breakneck speed... but this morning, the lack of sleep (from the last 5 nights, at least) got to me. I ignored the alarm for a 1/2 hour. Ignoring for me = resetting my cell phone alarm to off in a few minutes. I don't know how to use the snooze button. And because I have a roommate, who actually shares a room with me --- I don't use snooze anyway because it might wake her up! .... okay, now I'm rushing. On to a 10 minute shower, 2 minute lunch packing, and out the door...

6:32 am. I'm on the road to work. Generally I don't turn on the radio or any music. It annoys me --- I know, strange attitude for a musician and songwriter, but I like the silence. And also time to pray. Sometimes I dash on a little makeup at the stoplights. But this morning I'm being more responsible and only put on a little mascara right before I walk in the door to my office.

7:00 am. I'm at my desk at the HVAC, plumbing and electrical service company that I've worked at for the last 7 years. Even after all that time, I still know very little about HVAC, plumbing or electrical. But I DO know a little about accounting and data entry, since that's my job. So I'm unforwarding our 3 phone lines from the answering service. Checking various inboxes around the office. Murmuring "good morning" to various coworkers that also work the 'early shift' - 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. for me. We're not much for conversation until later in the day... I'm convinced that early mornings make people cranky & antisocial. :) After I get a little breakfast from the vending machine, I feel happier... no, that's not a usual occurence. But no time + no milk = no breakfast at home. :(

9:15 am. Still working. Data entry takes alot of finger energy, but not alot of brain power. So I'm always thinking about life, relationships, jobs, family, situations, people, and a myriad of other things. My brain is going non-stop. So I have to keep a post-it pad at my desk to write down any details I remember while at work.

11:00 am. It's time for my lunch break.. but I have people waiting in the conference room for a meeting and a rather persistent salesperson holding for someone... so I wait.

11:03 am. Loose ends are all tied up. And so I head out of the office. On a five-minute drive over to the local YMCA, I chat with my mom on the phone. Yup, I talk to my mom almost every day. Sure, I see her several times a week but that's just not enough! I always have plenty to ask her/tell her/joke with her about... a quick smile to the former coworker at the YMCA's front desk, then I change into workout clothes and go to try out the elliptical machine. My conclusion: Didn't burn as many calories as running, but I didn't hate it as much either. :) Working out at the gym usually means --- avoiding eye contact with everyone and catching up on ESPN news. The other TVs are tuned to major news networks (too depressing), entertainment news (stupid), and the Ellen Degeneres show (gross). So sports is my best bet! And I like it. And it rarely makes me angry like the news channels. And it means I can converse semi-intelligently about sports. Which I also like. Random sidenote: After working out and ignoring the "pebble" in my shoe the entire time, I realized that it was actually an earring. Weird!

12:00 pm. Back at work. Warming up some leftovers for lunch. Coworkers comment because the leftovers smell good. I guess that's a compliment. :) I always feel slightly guilty that I don't have enough to share...

2:47 pm. Speaking of feeling guilty, we realize that we missed my supervisor's birthday yesterday! BAD. There are mutterings about ice cream cake.. Pleeeease.. I guess that will happen later in the week. Darn it. Anyway, this inspires me to talk about Christmas. It is only 58 days 'til Christmas, after all! I hum a few bars of a Christmas song, talk about the Christmas tree displays at Walmart, and how my roommates watched Elf the movie on Sunday night. Which all contributed to my sudden burst of Christmas spirit. I don't tell my coworkers this, but my personal reason for starting my Christmas season in October---I hate Halloween and so I ignore that 'holiday.' And therefore, I want to focus on better things and feel completely justified in focusing on Christmas early!

4:00 pm. Work is over (for this job), and I quickly change into casual clothes - because now I am going to do a senior portraits shoot for one of the girls in my youth group! :) On the drive over, I chat on the phone with my sis. Yes, I have a daily call with her, too!! She's making cookies with her two little girls while we talk, so the conversation goes something like this, "how was your day?---no, (older girlie) don't lick the sugar!--yes, (small girlie) Mommy will help you--I'm sorry, Naomi." Of course, I laugh and listen to the little girl requests for cookie dough to eat and in between, my sis and I talk about everything from funny stuff, mundane life stuff, important Biblical thoughts, etc. She's my chief encourager in life and I'm very grateful for the consistency of her friendship. My blood sister is my sister-in-Christ and that is awesome!

4:33 pm. I am super-excited about this photo shoot, because I haven't really done a senior picture shoot for a high school senior since last summer and because I love this girl's sky-blue eyes and because I have some creative ideas for locations/posing!... Of course, it was FUN. Lots of joking and sillyness and creativity. I feel like I'm starting to "get" this photography thing. I'm still not very good--mind you---but the lightbulbs of understanding seem to alight fairly often in my brain! In the meantime, we wandered through the park, onto a railroad track, in a field, on some steps in front of an old schoolhouse/now apartment building, and a brick wall. And I shared Sour Patch Kids with the girls. :)

6:13 pm. Back at home. YAY. On Monday and Tuesday nights, I'm at home for the evening---which means cleaning, studying, general house work, computer work and fun stuff like that. Wednesday and Thursday evenings are church meetings. Generally, every other Friday is a youth group event. Saturdays are always different. And Sundays are all church... needless to say, I'm happy to spend time at home. :) Anyway, tonight I was surprised by one roomie & her friend leaving. Like BOO-surprised. :) Unloading the dishwasher. Straightening the kitchen. Because I like it when the kitchen is clean. :) Making my version of taco salad for supper...

6:37 pm. One roommate arrives at home from work, and tells me about the drama of her day. I am appalled at the craziness of people these days and commiserate with her and encourage her that "wisdom is vindicated by her deeds." That's one of my favorite verses and I always apply it when I have done right and yet the response is wrong/negative/etc. Sometimes you just can't help what people do, and so you must simply continue to do right! Anyway, we continue to chat about random things as I sip my new favorite drink, IZZE - sparkling blackberry juice! :-D

7:15 pm. I haul all of my stuff upstairs. Everyday, I carry a backpack, book bag, purse, lunchbox and (today) camera bag with me... and so after work, everything is dropped in the dining room until I take it upstairs. *sigh* I guess, the saddest part is that every single object I carry daily---is black. Because I like to match. :) ... spend some time being distracted by some light reading.

7:45 pm. My Bible and journal come out. I'm reading in the Gospel of John right now, been focusing on learning more and more about Jesus. Who He is. And truly knowing Him.

8:10 pm... I'm pretty sure that sitting on my bed to read my Bible was a bad idea tonight. As well as being sleep-deprived, because I fall asleep...

8:47 pm... That was a nice nap. I feel refreshed! And a little confused that my Bible is now 2 feet away from me. How did that happen? Hmmm. Anyway, back to reading after apologizing to the Lord for not focusing. Remember how I felt guilty about not sharing my lunch? Feeling guilty for falling asleep while reading my Bible is like 100x worse! ... but God is gracious to me anyway. :)

9:11 pm. I made a decision last week that watching television during the weeknights is not a good thing for my productivity level. Great in theory. Hard to practice. The only night that I really miss it is on Tuesdays, because I like the Navy crime dramas - NCIS and NCIS: Los Angelos. And it seems incredibly shallow to write about TV. So all that to say, I didn't watch any TV... I get out the camera and start uploading photos. From last night's family shoot and tonight's senior portraits. My computer is soooo slow; this takes forever. I try to multi-task at the same time, checking email and writing sermon notes for youth group... but that just slows down the computer further.

9:45 pm. I'm still uploading photos. It's chilly in my room, so I'm buried under the blankets on my bed with the laptop and camera and books around me. It's a good thing this is a double bed! ... my (literal) roommate comes home for a few minutes to pickup some clothes before she spends the night at someone else's house. She also brings one of my youth group girls with her---who shows off her new short haircut! Shocking., but I remember doing crazy things when I was a youth group person.. so 'whatever floats your boat,' as my daddy would say. :)

11:07 pm. I'm a hermit who hasn't emerged from her room in several hours... some of my to-do list still remains undone. Of course, that's a perpetual problem so I try not to think about it. The last thing I do... write this little blog entry to give a glimpse into my very-random day. Let's see how long this takes... :)

Goodnight.