2:17 a.m. — First wake up of the night. Stay calm. The thing about sleep, I have learned, is you can’t appear to want it too much otherwise it runs away.

3:02 a.m. — Still awake. Try not to despair.

5:14 a.m. — Second wake-up of the night. Or is it morning? There is no going back to sleep this time. At least no nightmares were involved. Contemplate doing work. Decide against it. Make a mental note to call Mom.

6:15 a.m. — Alarm goes off. No shit …

6:30 a.m. — Finally get out of bed. I have a slight headache. I might or might not have had too much fun last night celebrating an election I didn’t vote in.

6:30 a.m. – 7:00 a.m. — brush teeth. Take a hot shower.

7:00 a.m. — Turn on the BBC World Service (a family habit I carried across the Atlantic). Get dressed. Eat plain Greek yogurt with muesli and honey for breakfast.

7:42 a.m. — Arrive at Saints Rest to write. Order a medium house. It has just been brewed. It’s a sign.

7:45 a.m. — Begin writing. Struggle. Delete bunch of stuff. Begin again! Delete again! Begin …

8:30 a.m. — Maybe a muffin will help? A second cup of coffee?

8:45 a.m. — Leave Saints. Stop by the Bank to get cash.

9:03 a.m. — Arrive late to my coffee date with Karla Erickson. We have fun. What a wise joyous woman Karla is!

10:00 a.m. Meet with a Vivero Fellow about his project. It was once my project. Let it go, Farah!

10:40 a.m. — Meeting ended early. Spontaneous chat with Tess Kerkhof!

10:46 a.m. — S&B Photographer takes my photo. I try hard not to be a diva. I fail.

11 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. — Table for Vivero with the marvelous Liz Rodrigues. We sign students up, we debrief about the caucuses, we laugh a lot.

1:03 p.m. — Arrive late to Partners in Education meeting. Laugh some more.

2:06 p.m. — Arrive late to the Partners room. No students are waiting. No one witnesses my shame.

2:10 p.m.- 3:00 p.m. — Listen to The Daily while answering emails

3:02 p.m. — First student shows up. He has a test on Plato coming up. Glad to no longer be a student!

3:30 p.m. — Brush teeth.

3:34 p.m. — Realize I didn’t eat lunch.

3:55 p.m. — Third cup of coffee. Courtesy of Mears Cottage. The history department is getting ready for a meeting. The kind Sarah Purcell and Catherine Chou give me a big chocolate bar!

4:20 p.m. — Help a student with the library search functionalities. Adventures with Google Scholar. He finds what he is looking for. I momentarily feel good about self.

5:01 p.m. — Two missed calls and a voicemail from unknown number. Wait did I apply to grad schools in Alabama?? Alas, an automated call informing me about my compromised social security number. But what about grad school, Robot???

6:04 p.m. — I am hungry, see entry 22.

6:14 p.m. — Go home. Pick up mail. My tax documents have arrived. #adulting is such a bummer!

6:15 p.m. — I am too tired and too uninspired to cook dinner. I find leftover lentils and sweet potatoes masala I cooked yesterday and eat it with injera the forever-generous Maura Strassberg got for me from the halal grocer in Des Moines. Maashi haal.

6:16 p.m. — Fuck, I forgot to call Mom. It is three o’clock in the morning for her now.

7:04 p.m. — Return to work. Chat with student.

7:11 p.m. — Julia’s back hurts. I offer to sit on her (it usually works for me!). She humors me and I proceed to sit on her back. She doesn’t like it.

8:30 p.m. — Prepare for tomorrow’s team meeting. I make Julia listen to Arabic poetry as we tiringly tackle tedious administrative tasks. أَمشي.. أهرولُ.. أركضُ.. أصعدُ.. أنزلُ.. أصرخُ.. أَنبحُ…

9:30 p.m. — Ask Julia about how one can acquire antibiotics without a good reason. Julia counters by inquiring how she can have bagels shipped to her. Neither of us find a satisfactory answer.

9:38 p.m. — Print readings for GWSS Senior Seminar with Prof. Tamara Beauboeuf.

10:02 p.m. — Decline Julia’s offer to drive me and walk home. The final walk home is always my favorite part of the day. Perhaps, I should just keep walking and start a new life in a farm up state.

10:10 p.m. – 10:35 p.m. — Take out trash, brush teeth, change into comfortable PJs (no bra for 8 hours! Hooray!) .

10:40 p.m. — Continue making my way through Elif Shafak’s 10 Minutes and 38 Seconds in this Strange World. Devastating. Exquisite. But I’m tired as hell, so I give up about 10 minutes and 38 seconds later!

11:04 p.m. — Set an alarm. Make another mental note to call Mom tomorrow. Lights out.