24 Hours in Chicago

Everyone has their own habits and ways of living. Everyone has a different routine and it’s cool to see the uniqueness. Here’s a 24 hours in Chicago from an average working 24 year old’s perspective. I always see the type of posts and enjoy reading them and thought why not just make my own to share. It’s nice to be able to peak into someone else’s life. This is an average working day for me, let’s get into it.

24 Hours in Chicago – February 23, 2022

• Morning
• Afternoon
• Evening

Morning

6:00AM

I usually wake up around 6 or 6:30 but today I woke up a bit earlier. Luckily, I work remotely for my full-time job but my partner works a hybrid schedule and has to go into the office 2-3 times a week. I told him I was creating a 24 hours in Chicago post and thought it was a good idea. That gave me a little more motivation to create a good post to have the readers feel comfortable. Today he’s working from home. I wake up this early so my partner and I can spend at least an hour chilling and talking before having to log on.

I first get up, and check on the pup in the living room and run to get some water from the kitchen because I am usually dying of thirst for some reason. My partner usually gets up and heads to the bathroom first thing (lol). We both shower and all that jazz. Then we both get cozy back in bed and while I turn on some tv and check my blog and my partner watches Tik Toks. I swear that app is going to be the death of me, I just can’t get into it. 

7:30AM

My partner is working from bed today since it’s a cold day in Chicago right now, we get a bit lazy. The weather has been fluctuating between high 40’s and then drops back down to 15 degrees. During this 24 hours in Chicago day it was mid teens but the wind chill it felt way more colder. We’re so ready for spring, the winters are rough here.

I’m usually writing content for my blog at this time since I do not start until 8AM. I like to just see what I need to get done. My focus right now is giving you all great content, so I’ve been trying to write more and organize. 

8:00AM

I log on from my bed today lol. Working remote does have its advantages not gonna lie. My company is based out of New York so I am an hour behind everyone. So usually when I log on everyone is already online. I always rush to check my emails since some things need to get fixed first because of reporting or time sensitive. I won’t say what I do, but I’ll let you all know that I work in the housing industry. 

Quick story time

The funny thing is I never thought I’d be doing what I’m doing today. It was pure luck, my first job in this industry I had just dropped out of college and came back home to live with my aunts. My family was going through a hard time and I was putting myself through college and I wasn’t able to focus. After several mental breakdowns during my last semester of college, I decided it was better for my mental health and myself overall if I just took a break to get my life together.

I am a very ambitious and goal oriented person. I was working at Chipotle down by my school and transferred to one near Chicago, but I knew I couldn’t keep working at Chipotle. Wasting my talents/skills on something that doesn’t have meaning to me was. One day I was on Facebook and I had joined several career groups and would check this daily as well as apply through LinkedIn. LinkedIn was my best friend back then lol. Then I actually found a job that was pretty interesting and a huge step up from where I was. I messaged them, networked a little and got a call for an interview (my last company) and the rest was history!

8:30AM

I take a break from morning tasks to go get the pup’s food and water ready. Her name’s Doja. Yup, we named her after Doja Cat lol. We are/were obsessed with her music when we first got our dog. 

Before I open her crate to let her out, I make sure I have all of my winter gear on so that all I have to do is put on my boots and her harness and leash when I let her out. She does this dramatic stretch every morning when she gets out of her crate, even though we recently bought her a bigger one. 

Doja Morning Quality Time

If it’s freezing out like it is this morning, we do a quick in and out because we both hate the cold. Hmmmm, maybe me more than Doja, but hey she gets 3-4 walks in a day and there’s also a dog park right across the street from my apartment building.

Love the dog park, it makes my life so much easier when she has random spurts of energy. I say that she gets a lot of time play within 24 hours in Chicago or even some times we take her to the forest preserve in the Chicago surrounding suburbs.

We take a little walk up and down the block. I live across from a park so we walk over there and try to enjoy the sunshine a little. It’s so relaxing in the morning. She does her business and we head in, both with a little extra pep in our step. She comes back and chows down.

I wonder sometimes if she’’s breathing while she eats lol. We got her a slow feeder bowl to slow her down, but she devours it still. So work in progress lol. She’s pretty easy to train so I have her sit and wait for me to say “eat” then she runs to her bowl. Always wanted to train my dog to do that seeing it in movies growing up.

9:00AM

Come back and start working from my laptop again, but I decided to move to the living room couch to give Doja some company. She’s one of those I want to cuddle and get petted all day kind of dogs lol. I start to tackle some lengthy projects so this keeps me busy for a good while.

11:00AM

I take a break, the first couple of hours are usually super busy. I usually like to work on my content for my blog during my work breaks. One, it helps me redirect my attention elsewhere for a while and it also helps my blog itself. I’m still fairly new, so I’m in the stage of trying to get out as much quality content as I can.

I warm my partner up some of the leftover pizza we had from Bacci’s Pizzeria. Bacci’s is a must if you are looking for good quality big slices of pizza. It’s oddly cold in my apartment today because of the wind chill. So I turn on one of the heaters I cut off because if you’ve ever had radiator heating, you know how unbelievably hot it gets sometimes. 

I don’t eat anything because I had pizza last night, stomach is in shambles lol. I’m very lactose intolerant but can’t seem to give up cheese. I grab some water and then log back on.

Afternoon

12:00PM

My partner and I both take another break from work so we can chat a little bit before he heads to his grandma’s place. She fixes us food every week, enough for a couple days! Love her so much, her food is amazing as well and always packs sweets for us because she knows I have a raging sweet tooth. 

We never asked her to cook anything for us, but my partner grew up in the hispanic/thai culture. Food is huge in both cultures. If you don’t get anything else, you will always be fed. My culture is the same way. So I’m always thankful.

1:00PM

I have a department meeting that I completely forgot about (booooo). Not a big fan of those. It’s always so cringe, and I’m pretty sure I’m the youngest person in the department which is no big deal since I don’t really talk to my co-workers as much since we are remote. We just don’t have that much in common.

1:40PM

My department meeting is finally over. They always make us play this Kahoot game at the end with 20 questions and answers and I think I lose a bit of myself every time. Definitely not my cup of tea.

Anyways, I text my partner because he’s been gone for about an hour and a half and his grandma’s place is about 20 mins away. I know he likes to talk to them for a while as well, so just wanted to see when he’d be back. I had finally gotten hungry and my stomach was strong enough again for me to eat. Being lactose intolerant is such a pain. 

No response from my partner and my texts are green which was odd but I paid it no mind. I eventually called him and he forgot to pay his phone bill and couldn’t access any wifi to pay it until he got home lol. It was a bit funny because usually I’m the forgetful one with bills.

2:20PM

Partner is back and I take my lunch and check to see the food that his grandma gave us and was drooling immediately. She packed us shrimp Alfredo, beef salad, pineapple spicy chicken wings, rice, chips, a fifth of whiskey, a ten pound bag of French fries, salmon, donuts, and brownies. When I tell you all I was in heaven.

We both decided to try the new pineapple wings and they were so good and did not disappoint. After, we both had a donut after as well. We have more chicken left and I can’t wait to dig in again lol.

3:00PM

I’m mentally clocked out in my head so I quickly make sure I finished all the tasks that needed to get done today and then decide to work on some of my required annual training courses. I hate these with a passion, but they must get done. 

4:30PM

My partner and I both clock out from work. My partner’s job is a bit more hands on than mine and he fixes a lot of operational processes and is in charge of a few programs as well. So he’s usually off at 4PM but stayed on later to finish up a project.

I chill with my partner as we like to decompress for about an hour from work.

Evening

5:30PM

I get off the couch and and go get my stuff prepared for the gym. I love working out and the last year or 2 with COVID crisis knocked me off my game. But I’m popping back into shape thanks to muscle memory. Been feeling good and like my old self when I used to work out religiously. So I’ve been trying to keep the momentum going.

I’m one of those people who shower before and after the gym. So I hop in the shower, put on my gym clothes. Pack my water bottle and put my gym shoes in the my backpack. Then I take my multi-vitamins since I always forget to take them in the morning. Better late than never I always say. 24 hours in Chicago and I do a lot some days so these multi-vitamins truly give more energy when I take them. I then take my immunity gummies and take my pre-workout. I’m one of those psychos who just scoops it in my mouth and chugs it down with some water. 

Side Note

This is my usual pre-workout routine. The pre-workout, multi-vitamins, and immunity gummies are all from Alani Nu. Great company ran by even better people.

Coat is on and I make sure I have my headphones and mask and head out. I go to Planet Fitness unfortunately since it’s the closest gym. I’m LA Fitness all the way, but making it work. My neighborhood has terrible parking so I usually just walk since it’s only four blocks. It’s freezing right now, so I speed walk there and it only takes me 10 minutes.

This is my favorite time of the day. I can just focus on working out and block out everything else for an hour or so. The gym is definitely one of my happy places.

6:45PM

I finished my workout about 10 minutes ago. Made it back home and I take the dog out and feed her again. I come back and warm up some of the salmon my partner’s grandma made for us and we eat and watch Next Level Chef, highly recommend. 

7:30PM

I shower and then clean up the kitchen while my partner uses our carpet cleaner to wash our dog’s crate bed and floor bed. I swear she’s so spoiled lol. 

Night time

8:30PM

My mom drops some money off so I can send to my brother in Iowa *eye roll* lol. I talk to her for a bit and then head back upstairs and sit down on the couch to write content for my blog. I spend about 3 hours writing. This a new blog post so I had to do some keyword research and choose a subject. Then I just free write because I know I will have to edit the entire post at the end.

11:00PM

My partner and our dog are both sleep cuddling each other. Cute moment, I smile and get up and Doja wakes up and goes to her crate on her own which is rare lol. I know she was tired. I tap my partner and he goes to lay down in the bed. I’m too tired to do my night routine lol. So I turn on my alarms and then I lay down.

Reflection – 24 Hours in Chicago

So this was just an average work day for a 24 hours in Chicago post but that was my point. I do work from home so I guess there wasn’t much that I did, but I don’t usually get bored unless I’m super unmotivated.

Wanted you all to see an average 24 hours in Chicago day for a young adult. I have a corporate job but also have my own aspirations I want to achieve. I don’t plan to be working a corporate job forever, just until I can make at least the same amount of money I make working in corporate as of now. Who knows what the future holds!

Very proud of how far I’ve come. Growing up in the west side lower income neighborhoods in Chicago, I only dreamed of having my own place and dog. Now that I have it, I’m very grateful. Trying to live more in the moment and slow down with working so much to enjoy what I have accomplished.

Hope you all enjoyed my 24 Hours in Chicago.