A Day in the Life

I woke up late today, so while I made my morning cup of tea, it's sitting in a mug in my refrigerator instead of in my stomach.

I also broke my glass water bottle getting out of bed and my body feels like it's been hit by a truck.

I write this at 8:30am from a subway bench where I keep having to remind myself to breathe. I'm not sure if it was the long, jolty bus ride from DC back to Bobst or the jolty subway ride from Bobst to my basement in Brooklyn or just overall travel, but I feel super sick and have quite a day ahead of me. I did manage to down a cup of cereal and pack 4 bars and a popcorn snack before I dashed out the door today.

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It's 11:26am now and I'm on the subway eating meal 2 and headed to my next stop--observing a social justice art teacher in Queens. When I left off writing earlier, my train had arrived at the St. John the Divine Cathedral in the upper west side where a professor of mine had organized a tour with one of the women who curated "The Value of Food" exhibit that is currently on display at the cathedral. It was an amazing exhibit and incredible content. I learned a ton about food, where it comes from, who is making it, the inequities that come with such a large topic, how little we know about where our food comes from or even what it's made of.

I am feeling a little better than I was earlier, though still not 100%. Living the run around life makes a lot of things really exciting- I'm always at a new place, always meeting new people, always experiencing something I've never experienced before. Yesterday alone, I lobbied at Congress in Washington DC, had lunch in Delaware and sleepily picked up my laundry and did household chores before falling asleep in New York. This is fun, but it means I'm constantly tired, constantly trying to catch that second and third and fourth wind, and having a really, really difficult time being consistent with my eating habits. I will be back in the classroom as a high school English teacher this coming Fall- and at least that means 7:30am-4:30pm will be consistent every Monday-Friday. Right now, it's a constant battle of checking off a million different checklists, not knowing for sure what tomorrow or even tonight looks like and living in a way where time feels more like a giant pool of water that I'm slowly drinking rather than a linear timeline that has a clear beginning, middle and end. My bad eating habits have seemed from this, I think. I literally have gone up to 48 hours without eating in the past, only to gorge myself when I finally did find time to eat food.

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Meal 3: It's 2:27pm and I'm on a subway headed to the lower east side from Queens. Observing Emily was great and we had an amazing conversation about social
justice curriculum and I got to see her students in action. Inspired by The Arrival and American Born Chinese, her students are working on graphic novels about their own migration stories- her students are all immigrants.

I am headed to the printer to pick up 30 copies of a book I am showing and selling at Raised Pinay at Palladium Saturday. After that, I have to pick up a time sheet so I can fill in my hours for work these past two weeks. I'm going to eat a bar right now. Everything is so go go go, it's so crazy to write it down!

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3:32pm: Just picked up the books- they're amazing. Standing on the subway platform waiting for the train to take me to my job. Managed to grab a cup of green tea at the Starbucks next to the printer. Ate meal 4 because I know the next few hours aren't going to be super friendly to me taking some time for myself!

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11:03. Just finished 3 hours of swing dancing at a dance studio across the street from Madison Square so it's time for meal 5! Swing was super fun and it was nice to see a lot of familiar swing faces! I'm headed to Oh Toshi to eat my lean and green before heading back home to Brooklyn to get the sleep I need so desperately!

It's 1:32am and I finally finished my shower and I'm headed to bed. See you tomorrow morning bright and early!