3:30 a.m. 

I get up to pee and then back into bed. I know from experience I’ll be awake for a while. My thoughts bounce around from people I haven’t seen in a long time to a problem I’m having with the novel I’m working on. I fall back asleep.

8:00 a.m.

I wake up from a dream that’s completely forgotten by the time I brush my teeth. My wife is already up and has made coffee. I check the headlines on my phone to see who has died, who hasn’t died, and wonder why they haven’t dropped dead yet. I would have settled for a stroke or a coma.

8:30 a.m.

My wife and I sit on our screened-in front porch and drink coffee. We watch hummingbirds drink sugar water from the feeder and neighbors go by on their morning walk. Our house is on a hill so the neighbors don’t know we can see them unless we yell at them. We don’t yell at them today. I tell my wife the problem I’m having with my novel. I’m on a chapter where the main character gets a call from his seventeen-year-old niece to talk about a problem she’s having. I don’t want the niece to sound childish. My wife suggests I do a free write.

9:30 a.m.

I alternate between having either cereal for breakfast or cottage cheese. Today is a cereal day.

10:30 a.m.

I go to the grocery store. The Kroger I go to used to have a bar, but it’s been replaced with video gambling. I admire the management’s dedication to bad ideas. The vegetarian shelves are empty and there’s a sign on the shelf that says to ask for assistance for these products. I ask a Kroger employee for assistance. I tell her that I need fake bacon and extra firm tofu. She goes into the back and returns a few minutes later with the bacon and tofu. She hands them to me like we’re making a drug deal, but drugs are more fun and less healthy.

12:30 p.m.

After coming home and putting the groceries away, I cook a chicken. My wife hasn’t eaten meat since before Obama was president, so this is just for me to have for lunch during the week.

1:30 p.m.

I don’t take a walk because it’s too hot. Let me correct that. It’s too damn hot. Instead, I do the free write my wife suggested I do. She’s right. It helps me figure out how to write the chapter. The chapter comes together well but I worry that only five people are ever going to read this novel.

2:45 p.m.

I take a break to play with our gray medium hair cat, Addy. One of my mottos is, “there’s always time to pet the cat.” If Addy has a motto, it’s probably, “there’s always a chance that begging for more food will pay off.”

3:00 p.m.

I do a drawing in a 2012 pocket day timer I found in one of the many free libraries in my neighborhood. I’m using color markers which is tricky for me because I’ve always been more confident drawing in black and white.

3:30 p.m.

I take a nap for an hour, wake up and decide I’m not done, and sleep for another hour. If I had a dream, I don’t remember it.

7:00 p.m.

It’s my wife’s turn to make dinner. While she’s cooking, I lift weights. This sounds more impressive than it is. I do a simple workout with light weights every other day. It’s a reminder that so many things in my life alternate. I alternate between what I have for breakfast. I alternate which days I make dinner. I alternate which days I lift weights. I alternate between wishing someone would drop dead and wishing he’d have a stroke that takes away his ability to speak.

8:30 pm.

After dinner, my wife and I take a walk. It’s finally cool enough and walking after dinner is something we try to do every day. While we’re walking, I ask her something I try to ask her every day. I ask, “Did I tell you today that I love you?” She asks me the same thing.

10:30 p.m.

I get into bed and read until I can’t keep my eyes open.

Mickey Dubrow is the author of The Magic Maker, Always Agnes, American Judas, and Bulletproof. For over thirty years, he wrote television promos, marketing presentations, and scripts for various clients including Cartoon Network, TNT Latin America, and HGTV. His short stories and essays have appeared in Prime Number Magazine, The Signal Mountain Review, and Full Grown People. His first novel, American Judas, won the 2024 American Legacy Book Award in the category of Science Fiction: Parallel Universe/Alternative History. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia with his wife, author Jessica Handler.