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Lockdown Morning Routine

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My morning routine in lockdown has fluctuated and changed in the past five weeks since starting lockdown. With a changing work schedule, strange dreams, and moving out of my flat, mornings have gotten tough. But I also find that having structure helps me feel in more control of my situation and lessens my anxiety. Now that I’ve settled in more to the home in Buckinghamshire, I’ve developed this morning routine that gets me out of bed early and leaves me feeling refreshed and ready to face the day.

7:15am: Wake Up. I am trying to wakeup earlier and earlier during lockdown so I can do more in the morning for myself before getting to work. One thing that has been helpful is setting ‘Downtime’ on my iPhone from 10pm – 8am, which means when I wakeup at 7:15, I can’t just roll over and start scrolling through social media apps and waste an hour in bed. When my alarm goes off, I usually roll over and pull open the curtains to let the morning light in.

7:15am – 7:30am: Get ready for the day. The first thing I do is my skincare routine. I don’t wash my face in the morning, instead starting with a toner, then a Vitamin C serum and a hydration serum, ending with eye cream and moisturiser. I’m currently using Drunk Elephant products which I bought through Space NK – they had a good deal on a travel pack. After my skincare routine, I make my bed and get dressed for the day. Now that I’m working from home full-time, this varies between joggers, leggings, and bike shorts with a bralette or sports bra and a soft tank or sweater. Comfort is key for me, especially in the morning.

7:30am – 8:15am: Yoga Practice. I have practiced yoga on and off for about seven years, never really being super dedicated to my practice. I have decided to incorporate a morning practice while in lockdown to counter my anxiety and to feel calm and refreshed in the morning. I either do this in the back garden or in the living room depending on the weather (England is known for rain after all). I watch Yoga With Adrienne on YouTube, starting with her 30-day Home series (it’s perfect for beginners!). The videos range from 15 minutes to an hour, so you can choose depending on length, or they all have a specific theme for each day which you can cherry pick from as well.

8:15 – 9:00am: Breakfast and the News. After yoga, I walk over to the kitchen, pop the kettle on and start to make breakfast. Usually this consists of a piece of fruit (banana, avocado or mango) and toast or a bagel with a cup of English Breakfast Tea (splash of oat milk). While I’m waiting for my toast and the kettle, I do a bit of cleaning that was missed the night before – empty the dishwasher, put dirty dishes in the dishwasher, or wipe down the counters. This helps me feel productive and I like a clean working space. I usually take my tea and breakfast on the couch and watch the news to start the day.

9:00am: Get to Work. After putting away my breakfast dishes, I make a second cup of tea and settle down at the kitchen table to start my work day.

Depending on the day and how I’m feeling, this schedule may change a bit, but I am trying to make a commitment to myself to stick to this because I feel better when I do. Developing a nurturing and soothing morning routine is so important in these challenging times. Whether it includes everything that I have or you only have 15 minutes to yourself, I really encourage you to take the time to start your day with purpose and intention.

Enjoy this side by side of my WFH outfits depending on what I’m doing. The left is what you’ll most likely find me in for 90% of the day.

  • My WFH outfit most days.
  • My WFH outfit when I’m on air.

Living Under Lockdown

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This is week five of lockdown in the UK and I’m still adjusting. The first three weeks were spent quarantining with my boyfriend, Conor, in my London flat. Since then, we have moved to Conor’s mom’s home in a small village in Oxfordshire where there is more room, a back garden, and a dog.

Golden hour, Snapchat filters, and painted nails.

The last four weeks have been full of Zoom calls, work calls, late nights, late mornings, fewer workouts, more drinks, vivid dreams, sad days, long walks. I’m sure my experience of lockdown isn’t anything special compared to those on the frontlines of the NHS, those classed as ‘vulnerable’, or those who have lost a family member. While not particularly special in that sense, all of our experiences are still valid.

I miss my family the most. They were all quarantined together at our home in California before one of my sisters returned to her university housing for the remainder of the school year. But, still the rest of the family is together in our childhood home with our puppy, trying not to kill each other while learning Tik Toks. My oldest sibling is the first to spend her birthday in quarantine, as San Francisco has been on lockdown just as long as London. But, my brother, mom, and youngest sister are all going to be celebrating their birthdays in lockdown. A small, seemingly insignificant thing, but a day when usually the extended family comes around along with friends and neighbours to celebrate. It will be different. Many things will be different, already are.

I’m living for the Snapchats of my puppy, Bailey. Pictured here enjoying the California sun with not one, but two of her favourite balls (look closer).

During this time, I am lucky to still have my job. I work for a small events company and my boss has made it clear to all of us that we will be fine and our salaries will be protected. I am one of the lucky ones. But, I’m also learning new skills as we venture into the world of digital events. There are way more things that can go wrong than I thought and we are learning most of them the hard way. I’ve spent countless hours on Webinar Jam with my boss testing all the different settings and trying to figure out everything that can go wrong and sometimes discovering cool features that are surprisingly helpful. So my weekdays are actually quite full with full-time work, frustrating phone calls and many a ‘can you hear me?’.

My wonderful boss thanked the team for our hard work at setting up the digital events with a cute Fortnum & Mason basket! I’ve always wanted one!

Additionally, I have been finding time for other hobbies. While there really is no need to being doing this, I have always been a planner/organizer/reader anyway. With my friends from Ohio State, I have started a book club to accompany our weekly Skype calls – first up is The Alice Network (if my copy is delivered in time, stay tuned). Conor’s family does weekly Zoom chats as well and each week we are tasked with some creative project so I’ve been painting more as well. And obviously, I am writing this blog. I took a bit of time off from writing when all this stuff first started happening – it was too overwhelming to be doing anything other than living a bare minimum daily life. Now that I’ve found more structure and time in my days, I find myself returning to my hobbies, picking up new ones, and wanting to be more mindful of how I spend my free time.

Just a couple of paintings I did while at my flat in London – playing around with ideas for multiple canvases to decorate my sad walls.
The task for week 2: Put yourself into a famous masterpiece.
Conor and I have been experimenting with our meals because we have the time to put towards cooking more delicious and complex recipes.

Life under lockdown has been very easy in some ways and very difficult in others. I recently produced a livestream with Elizabeth Gilbert who had this advice for us during these trying and uncertain times –

“If there’s anything I could want for you all, it is to give yourself mercy.”

Find something that brings you the kind of joy that produces a Liz Gilbert Smile.

Three things I am grateful for this week:

  1. My morning cup of tea.
  2. A sunny afternoon in the garden.
  3. Conor’s cooking abilities.
I ordered cupcakes on one of my really low days because they are my comfort food and they were delivered like this – all I could do was laugh at this and grab a spoon.

Grad School Abroad- What I Didn’t Expect

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I moved to England 38 days ago. It feels like years ago. I have nestled in to my one bedroom apartment above the famous Fitzbillies across the street from Pembroke College, my new home. Pictures hanging from string lights adorn my walls and the softest velour throw pillow lays haphazardly on my bed. My planner is filled with notes from each day, quickly scribbled as not to forget the memories as time flies by here.

There were so many images that filled my head when I thought about grad life before moving here. I pictured lonely nights in my room because friends would be hard to make in the graduate program. I pictured endless hours in the library with no reprieve because graduate school is incredibly difficult. I pictured a previously very involved student becoming solely focused on her program because there would be no time for anything besides books. I had built up these expectations of grad school being scary and hard and nothing like my undergrad because that’s all I had been told by mentors and friends.

Well, they were wrong. All of it was wrong…sort of.

I am at home here. In my month of being here, I have forged some of the strongest friendships I have ever known. I joined the university women’s football team and my college’s May Ball committee. I don’t spend countless hours in the library. Not because my program isn’t hard and doesn’t require work, but because I only have one class a day and a lot of time to prioritize. I’ve had many sleepless nights, due mostly to friends and club nights, rather than studying and stress-induced insomnia. In fact, I’ve only cried twice since being here, and one of those times was listening to the cast of Wicked sing “For Good”. Don’t get me wrong, I do get homesick quite often. The amount of times I have looked at my phone screen and quietly whispered to myself “I miss my dog” is too many to count. But I also have created this incredible support system here, fostered through shared experiences and the art of listening. And this is just the beginning.

As a graduate fresher I am constantly asked how I like it here so far. Sometimes it feels a little arrogant to say that I absolutely love it here and there isn’t anything I don’t like because I know that is not the case for everyone. Maybe I am still in the honeymoon phase and the homesickness hasn’t fully hit me. But I would like to think that these feelings are real and they are here to stay.

I truly love grad school, and that was not a sentence I ever thought I would utter.

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Moving Home After College?

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Moving home after college? Don’t.

Kidding.

Sort of.

Here’s my take on moving home after college and what people don’t tell you about it:

1. The Honeymoon Phase

You are going to love being at home because of all the things you missed– your parents, your pets, that mom and pop donut shop down the street. This nostalgic driven love for your home will last approximately one week. Then you are hit with the fact that you may or may not know when you are moving out, but it is not soon enough.

2. Back in Time

All of sudden you go from no curfews, no rules, no supervision in college to asking your parents if you can borrow the car or them asking you who you are hanging out with. Telling your parents that you are about to go meet up with a stranger you met off Tinder for drinks who you will most likely never see again can be a bit awkward, depending on your relationship with your parents. So you lie, or you don’t. I still haven’t figured out which is the better option. And just like that, living at home sends you back five years to when you were a little high school girl with more rules than colored pens.

3. Your parents become your best friends

This one rocks. I honestly don’t know who is more excited for me to move out, me or my parents. As much as they love me, I’m sure spending every waking moment with me talking to them, wanting something from them, or interrupting them has gotten old. But at the same time, I have never been closer to my parents, which makes moving out that much harder.

4. Your pet also becomes your best friend.

Don’t get me wrong, I have real live friends, but they live thousands of miles away or are working a full time job in the city. Once you leave college have 24/7 friends becomes have 1 hour every month friends. This is why your pet becomes your best friend. They love you unconditionally, are always happy to see you, and can’t get rid of you no matter how many times they get up and move across the couch from you. Leaving my little pup in the fall is going to suck, too bad I can’t bring her to grad school in England but the rest of my family might hurt me if I tried.

5. You will be sad.

Maybe not all of the time, or right away, but it will hit you. Your friends are miles away, your life is on temporary hold, and your family members have lives of their own. Fast forward to me scheduling time to see my sister because her days were already booked with fun girl trips, boyfriend time, Bachelor in Paradise girls night, etc. One time I picked her up from a friends house and we got ice cream, it was awesome. Another time, she cut our girls night short because she was “tired”, which I found out later was code for “my boyfriend texted me and wants to go get ice cream so how do I get rid of Dana.”

6. You will grow, a lot.

Due to this loneliness that my puppy could cure only so much of, I grew even more independent than I already was. I became a morning person, mostly because Bailey wakes up at 6:30 and someone has to feed her. I read more than when I was in school. I got really tan (even my sister’s friends noticed something different about me). I became a Starbucks Gold Member (my addiction for chocolate croissants knows no bounds). I ate healthier and exercised more because there’s no excuse not to when all that you can think is “I’m bored” (which I thought a lot this summer). I became a blog reader because why not I have the time. And I actually began to accept a lot of parts about myself that I didn’t like very much. This summer I had the epiphany that I actually really like my small boobs, even though for the past decade I have been at war with them, that was liberating.

So, give yourself the space to grow and be happy and sad and stressed and confused. Be kind to yourself, it’s not every summer you go through one of the biggest transitions of your life. You are lucky to be home, surrounded by people who have to love and support you (hopefully). Use this time to truly assess who you are and where you want to be, then get going- life waits for no one.

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