Photo by Growth + Co. on Unsplash
Another week in the books, and this one was a reminder that life is a balancing act between chaos and comfort—between AWS meltdowns and Japanese takeout, between one-on-one meetings and long overdue naps. Somehow I made it through with my sanity mostly intact, a few small wins along the way, and plenty of caffeine to prevent a total system crash. Here’s how the week unfolded, one day at a time.
Monday
Took the day off to match my wife and kids’ day off, which meant turning off the alarm and waking up a full hour later than usual—a luxury I don’t take for granted. I skipped the gym and traded it for a longer, slower breakfast. I still checked Slack every couple of hours, mostly because I just knew the whole AWS meltdown would affect our plans for the day, but—surprise!—the world survived just fine without me. After some grocery shopping and sneaking in bits of reading here and there—I even finished the book I had started on Sunday—I decided to stay home and relax instead of visiting my parents (I had already gone over on Sunday to watch a soccer match with my dad). Solid day of rest and recharge.
Tuesday
Remember the whole AWS meltdown from Monday? Yeah, turns out the aftershocks were still rumbling, and my first day back from PTO felt like walking into the sequel of a bad dream. On top of that, this is my heavy week of one-on-one meetings with my team, so by noon I was in dire need of a strong dose of caffeine delivered intravenously. Since I don’t happen to own a medical-grade caffeine IV kit (yet), I settled for a soothing cup of tea instead. The evening had nothing scheduled—finally—so the plan was simple: watch the hockey game, read a bit, maybe write a little, and possibly catch Monday’s recorded episode of The Daily Show, assuming I didn’t pass out first.
Wednesday
A slower start at work with fewer meetings and—believe it or not—an actual moment of peace and clarity after finally landing on a solution to a problem that had been eluding us for days. Date night with the wife was exactly what I needed. We had a great conversation, mostly about some things she’s been thinking about regarding her job. Funny enough, that talk connected perfectly to the post I published the next day about choosing where we invest our time, energy, and attention—because life’s too short to waste any of them. Oh, and there was another hockey game. My team won their sixth in a row. I’m still waiting for the universe to punish me for this happiness.
Thursday
A rare day at work where a few meetings just vanished off my calendar—poof!—creating a glorious 30-minute free window in the afternoon. I used it to invite my mom over to enjoy the dulce de leche cake I brought home yesterday. At 75, she’s become pretty reclusive and rarely goes anywhere without my dad, so the fact that she came over on her own made me happy.
Game night dinner was Japanese from Mr. Tokyo, and I tried (unsuccessfully, I might add) to convince my daughters to play Monopoly instead of Scrabble or the trivia game. We even have the Animal Crossing edition, which I shamefully thought would give me leverage. I was wrong. Trivia game reigns supreme. My youngest was a little grumpy and opted out—sleep + homework = cranky—but the rest of us powered through.
Friday
Holy moly—what an absolute circus of a morning at work. A perfect storm of recent changes to our team’s release process collided all at once, and by 10 AM I was knee-deep in a cascade of chaos that no one could have predicted—but everyone had to deal with. You know those days when you start off confident and productive, and then somehow end up staring into the void asking, “How did we get here?” That was today. One tiny hiccup triggered another, and another, and another—like cosmic dominoes mocking my existence. Thankfully, we managed to find some kind of resolution by the end of the day, but it was… a journey.
Tonight’s plan: finish the online course I started earlier this week and wrap things up before the weekend begins. We may even get the grocery shopping done when the wife gets home so we don’t have to leave the house for two days straight.
Looking back, it wasn’t a flashy or dramatic week—no life-changing events, no lottery wins—but it was real life in motion: hard work, family rhythms, quiet victories, and a few messy moments sprinkled in just to keep it interesting. If there’s a theme this week, it’s persistence—just keep showing up, doing the work, and squeezing in the moments that make it all worthwhile. Onward to next week.