Tick Tock

Bazaar runs a column where they interview a celebrity (designer, artist, actress, model, editor, etc.) about his/her daily routine.  I find this fascinating.  More often than not, the uber-creatives lead very structured/habit-oriented lives, eating the same breakfast week-on-week and, for example, only sleeping on a certain kind of sheet wearing a certain kind of nightgown.  I suppose it’s a bit voyeuristic of me to take such interest in this column, but then again – we do live in the world of Real Housewives and Keeping Up with the Kardashians, so I suppose we’ve come to feel entitled to such glimpses into the private lives of the rich and famous.  Why not democratize that and share a bit about myself in the same way, and then y’all can reciprocate in kind if you so desire…

6:30 a.m.  I usually wake up just before Mr. Magpie’s alarm goes off — it’s strange that I’ve somehow trained myself to anticipate the alarm and wake up just before.  He and I are early risers, even on the weekends, so it’s rarely a struggle to get up and at ’em.  Mr. Mag and I have a funny routine — he’ll wake up to grind coffee beans and brew the coffee, and the minute he comes back to get in the shower, I get up and assemble his breakfast (always the same thing: yogurt, fruit, granola, orange juice, coffee, vitamin…sometimes I surprise him with an almond croissant from Floriole, my favorite bakery in Chicago, or some other breakfast baked good from scratch).  I don’t eat breakfast.  I know it’s bad — but I’m never hungry in the morning, and I hate feeling “weighted down” that early in the day.  I’m still in my PJs — love this pair of Eberjeys ($58 for top, $40 for bottoms), though I have lived for months in this J. Crew set ($95), which I had monogrammed.

7 a.m. Skim work emails at the kitchen table and check my schedule for calls, meetings, and must-dos.  I’m hyper organized and have to-do lists organized by calendar day.  (So, for example, if I know I need to check on something in a week, I’ll add that to my to-do list for a week out. By the time I get to a given day, I’ll usually already have a list of 5-15 items I need to accomplish.)  Mr. Magpie eats breakfast at the island just behind the kitchen table and usually reads me headlines and other news of interest.  I am a total Apple geek.  I have my Macbook Air, my iPad, and my iPhone all laid out in front of me next to my Moleskin Volant notebooks (I take copious notes for work in the largest size — love them because they are light-weight and fold open easily — I need a big, flat surface to write!) and my stack of colored Le Pens.

7:30 a.m.  After packing Mr. Magpie’s lunch (usually leftovers from last night’s dinner) and seeing him off to work, I make the bed, tidy up the kitchen, wash my face, and then get dressed for the day.  Though I work from home when I’m not in the D.C. office, I always get dressed for work as if I’m going into the office.  I hate feeling like a slob-kabob.  My uniform these days has been oversized/blousy white caftans/tunics (the one below — $195 — but I’ve had good luck finding others from Zara, like this one or this one, and J. Crew has a ton of great ones out this season, like this and mama mia, I need this little guy when it goes on sale — and this Madewell style is sweet), skinny white jeans, and then drama in the form of a statement necklace ($34) and a pair of fun flats or sandals (love this pair from Avec – on sale for $142):

If it’s chilly out (it still gets chilly in Chicago in July…), I’ll throw on my denim blazer (on sale for $130 – plus 40% off!)

8 a.m.  I make my morning latte and settle in for the workday — typically, a series of calls, sometimes meetings downtown, and what feels like hundreds of nonstop emails.  I try to front-load my day — I’m always freshest in the morning! — so I usually stack up as many calls and meetings as I can during the first half of the day.

12 p.m.  Lunch break!  I compose a salad or some sort of leftover lunch from whatever’s in the fridge, or I will walk down the street and pick up and everything bagel with cream cheese – my all-time favorite lunch in the world.  I could have this every single day and never get bored, much to Mr. Magpie’s eternal disappointment.  I often stop by Gepperth’s, the 100-year-old butcher shop around the corner, to pick up protein for dinner.

12:30 p.m.  Jog.  Our office closes for an hour at lunch, so I typically take a 30 or 40 minute run during the period of time I don’t use for eating.  I have a great route that takes me through the Lincoln Park Zoo over to the lakeshore and back.  It’s about 4 miles round-trip, and it’s beautiful.  I live in Target’s C9 for Champion sports bras ($12) and either running shorts ($15) if it’s hot or my Nike capris (love this pair):

I wear Hanes little boys’ tees to work out in – soft, tagless, and cheapity-cheap ($11 for pack of 3) – and Nike running shoes ($65):

1 p.m.  Quickest shower known to woman — and these days, I’m obsessing over DryBar shampoo and conditioner ($23 each — loveee the smell) — and then back to work!  I like letting my hair air-dry as much as possible during the week to avoid heat damage.

3 p.m. Snack break.  I am a grazer by nature, so it takes a lot of restraint to keep me from snacking all day long since I’m so close to my kitchen!  I love either cheese and crackers (favorite: manchego and stone wheat thins) or, if I’m being very naughty, Jiminy Chips from this great produce market in Chicago, Stanleys (amazing prices — just yesterday, limes were 10 for $1 — helloooo margaritas!) — Stanley’s makes these Jiminy Chips in all different flavors, including mustard and ranch, two of my favorites, and they are ridiculously addictive.

{Napkins by Caspari – $5 per pack; cheese knife by Laguiole, $32 when purchased in cheese knife set.}

5 p.m.  Since I’m on CST, the D.C. office is shutting down around now.  I usually take a break to get dinner started and get freshened up for Mr. Magpie, which usually means adding a coat of mascara (I’m now obsessed with Lancome’s mascaras by Alber Elbaz, $29), a bit of blush (I love Bobbi Brown’s bright pink — $25), and a swipe of Nars’ Roman Holiday ($26).

5:30 p.m.  For another hour or two — until Mr. Magpie comes home — I finish up with work and set my schedule for the following day.  I find myself with a strange burst of energy around this time of day and usually give one final push to whatever project I’ve been working on during this late hour.

7 p.m.  Mr. Magpie comes home!  We usually put on Pandora (I am into the Robin Thicke station and the Otis Redding station these days) to have a glass of wine and catch up and then he pokes around the kitchen to see what I’m making for dinner.  Lately, we’ve been into drinking wine out of glass tumblers, rustic Italian-style, though I know everyone’s all obsessed with the super-long-stem wine glasses on Scandal.  (I guess we’re rebels like that?)  I picked up some inexpensive juice glasses from CB Outlet ($12 for set of 6) that we’ve been using.  I have no idea why I love drinking wine this way!  I’ve also been loving Nero D’Avola, a delicious Italian varietal that tends to be available on the cheap side.

If Mr. Mags had a light lunch, I usually make some kind of appetizer — we’ve recently gotten into a very unhealthy habit of pre-dinner charcuterie — there are some amazing charcuterie providers in Chicagoland, and our favorite is Publican, although the butcher around the corner from us carries a really good quality chorizo that I slice and heat up briefly in our Lodge cast-iron skillet (p.s., if you don’t own one of these — buy one ASAP.  You season it over time — basically, you never wash it — and anything you cook in there is about 50 times better because of the residual grease and salt and all that. It sounds slightly gross, I know, but just wait until you taste something cooked in a seasoned skillet and then talk to me.)  Then I toast up some baguette in the chorizo drippings and it is RIDICULOUS.  My mouth is watering. Mon dieu, the Midwest knows pork like none other.

8 p.m.  Dinner.  My favorite meal of the day, my favorite time of the day, with my favorite person.

8:30 p.m.  We’ve gone around the corner for ice cream a couple of times this year — great way to finish the day off — but only if we aren’t too involved in our bottle of wine…

9 p.m.  The last few weeks, the T.V. in our living room has been out of order and it’s been a strange blessing in disguise — we don’t watch nearly as much TV anymore.  But – we have been on a House of Cards kick lately, so we’ll watch an episode or two.

10 p.m. Wind-down.  Scrub face, brush teeth, and then spend an hour or so skimming work and personal email, reading, playing around on Pinterest, checking my flash sales sites, etc.

Tell me: what quirky routines do you have?!