4 days in the life in Spring-y Brooklyn.

Spend Thursday through Sunday in my shoes.

Let’s hang out! I thought I’d take you along for a day in the life— or 4 days in the life, I guess— while my life was “normal” ish for a few days. I’ll be jetsetting to Portugal and Spain this week and writing you from afar for a few weeks, so I hope you enjoy a little normalcy in the neighborhood with me today. Stark contrast to Friday’s letter… but I contain multitudes.

Thursday

I drag my exhausted carcass from bed much later than I’m proud of. All my friends have agreed that we are unusually tired this week, I’m getting so much sleep and still I feel like I’ve been hit by a bus when I wake up each morning. Is this allergies? I can’t figure out the reason, but it’s increased my caffeinated beverage intake substantially.

I throw some makeup on, pull a comfortable but acceptable outfit on (Donni pants, freshly monogrammed J.Crew button-up— on sale and holy grail to me) and then go downstairs to feed my Chow Cattle Dog mix, Canela, and make my coffee. For the first coffee, I do the Javvy protein instant coffee, and then I pour a shot of espresso over it, add in some ice and a healthy glug of Tache pistachio milk. It does the trick.

Canela and I go for a short walk while I catch up on podcasts, and then it’s up to my desk to do a brief (VERY BRIEF) journal entry, write out my work priorities for the day, and clock in.

I have less meetings than usual today, which is good, because I have a lot of editing to do for my boss’s podcast. I get frustrated because a few of the recording files appear to be corrupted, and I start to panic! I wish I had left myself more time to do this— she had wanted to go live yesterday, but the recording tool we use says it needs 24 hours to “recover” the audio file… 🫠

A cozy corner of my office.

After hours in Riverside and Figma, I am in a decent enough place with the podcast. I have a few calls, and then I go for a short walk to Kijitora to pick up my favorite matcha and stretch my legs. The rest of the workday FLIES by— I have to rush away from my desk in the early evening to go get my hair colored. It’s my first time covering my greys, which is not a fun thing to pay for at all, it turns out… I pass out like an actual baby in the shampoo chair and wake up drooling. (I wish this was a joke.)

After my hair is blowdried and sparkling, I meet my friend Sophie for a walk around the park. We do this at least once a week, it’s the best. Today is short and sweet, but I’m glad we got two walks in together this week.

At home, João and I order pizza and Caesar salad from Mo’s General, and he goes out to the bodega to buy us two Diet Cokes.

We catch up on The Valley and Summer House while I frantically work to get some videos and podcasts edited and over to my boss before bed. I watch TikTok in the fetal position on the couch until João comes downstairs to make Canela and I go to bed. (Sometimes I need extra encouragement to get from couch to bed.)

Friday

I wake up LATE and TIRED again! I read a few chapters of a new book on my Kindle in bed, then assemble a Minimum Viable Outfit (J. Crew pointelle pants— on sale for under $50, AYR tee, vintage denim button up paired with Rothy’s clogs for outdoors and my trusty Bombas slippers for indoors). I speed through skincare and makeup and take Canela for a short walk. Protein coffee in hand, I rush to my home office to take my hour long Portuguese lesson before work begins in earnest.

After Portuguese, João and I book our rental car for our upcoming 3 weeks in Portugal & Spain (the agenda: weeklong destination bachelorette party, checking out some wedding venues for ourselves, a few days of working remote from a warm place, wedding in Sevilla!).

The work day takes off and every second of my time is spent in meetings— I steal 15 minutes in the afternoon to run to Kijitora for an iced vanilla matcha again. I’ve recently nailed matcha at home, but I really like taking a walk and I’m willing to buy matcha out a few days a week when the weather is good so I can enjoy walking to get a little treat— one of life’s greatest pleasures, if you ask me.

Kiji!!

Back at my desk and right into more meetings. I like being busy, but I’ve felt behind from the second I opened my eyes this morning and I don’t love that feeling. I’m relieved when a meeting cancels and I can reclaim 20 minutes of my time.

Can you believe this coworker is ASLEEP ON THE JOB???

Highlight of my work day: one of my favorite brands reaches out with an opportunity to partner! Lowlight of my work day: a newsletter draft that I had unwittingly scheduled goes out and gets sent— I did not want that one to go out! I want to crawl into a hole and die. Lucky for me, it was relatively well-edited and a bunch of people actually like it and become paid subscribers. That said, it’s always discomfiting when you find out that you’ve mass emailed thousands of people on accident.

I hang up from my last meeting already 15 minutes late to meet my friend Sophie for dinner! She’s waiting in a line a BLOCK long by 5PM in hopes we might get a table at The Snail… they quote her a three hour wait (I hate New York sometimes…) and we pivot to dinner at Bonnie’s instead, where I walk in and am seated instantly.

Sophie and the one thing you must get at Bonnie’s, the sundae.

When I get home, João is watching a movie that I’m not crazy about, so I fold laundry and watch TikToks in our bedroom until it’s lights out.

Saturday

First Saturday sleeping in (read: skipping 9 AM pilates) in months! João brings me my protein coffee and I watch Ina Garten’s cooking shows in bed and play around on Pinterest until it’s time to meet my friends at the park for pickleball at 11 AM.

I think about bringing a purse or trying to wear a cuter pickleball outfit but in the end, I’m late and I pull on leggings and a tee and grab nothing but the pickleball net. This ends up being a huge mistake.

Taking a beat in between games.

We pickle for 2 and a half hours-ish and the park is so alive with pickleballers! It’s the first nice Saturday I’ve had in New York, temperature-wise, all year.

After we’re done playing, Becca and Emily and I go to Talea where we order snacks and boozy slushies. Life is so divine.

1 hour turns into 2 which turns into 4 which turns into… I cancel João’s and my dinner reservation and we go on a bar and burger crawl. The girls and I are having a chuckle at how sweaty and gross we are but how fabulous and magical those NYC days are when you leave the house in the morning with no real plan but find yourself out on an adventure 12 hours later.

Me and Emily at various bars in our pickle clothes...

At 11 PM I peel myself away from Connect Four at the dive bar and trot home. Taking off leggings I sweated in over 12 hours ago feels really essential.

Sunday

I’m sad that I have no plans and nothing I do today will measure up to how fun and full everything was yesterday. I feel a little bit off, and I wonder if it’s because I lied in bed too long— or because I’m watching too much TikTok? Or because I watched TikTok while lying in bed too long? Probably the last one.

João goes to play soccer and I try to jumpstart my engine by putting on my favorite lounge shirt and pant set and endeavoring to take myself on a long walk to my favorite matcha spot (Brooklyn Ball Factory). I put on a new audiobook that Becca Freeman recommended and enjoy perusing a thrift store or two.

After a pitstop at home for lunch, I shlep a bunch of packages into the busy part of Williamsburg in hopes I’ll be able to handle a few wedding guest dress returns. It’s Easter! I forgot that everything— including Sephora, gasp— is closed. Annoyed that I’ve been lugging 20 lbs of cardboard around on a miles-long walk, I get grumpier.

Anyone who leaves out these parts of their NYC “day in the life” recaps is full of shit, by the way— living in the city is 99% lugging crap you ordered online to a print and pack. It’s like the one true experience, maybe besides the subway, that unites all New Yorkers. The ones who don’t have personal assistants at least, I guess.

To turn things around, I get a pedicure, and the technician lets me sit in the electric massage chair for however long I want. This is a huge victory. I really get my money’s worth from the experience.

At home, it’s time for an everything shower (after which I don a still-new-and-fuzzy-on-the-inside sweatshirt, heaven), a clean-up, a long leisurely lap on TikTok, and a little bit of work on my computer before we put on Flip Off, the house flipping show where Tarek El-Moussa and his Selling Sunset star wife Heather Rae El-Moussa compete against his ex-wife Christina Haack to see who can flip a house… better? It’s a perfect, perfect show. We gobble three episodes down greedily and then pass out.

What I learned from keeping track of this to share with you?

• I am spending more money on matcha than I probably should, and I do not care.

• I am spending more time on TikTok than I probably should, and I do not care.

Thanks for playing! DITL content is admittedly a different vibe entirely than the longer form pieces I’ve published recently on how to find a job and how to sell a business, but I stand for ~diversity of vibes~ over here.