To those of you who read my blog everyday, it may seem to you that I have a charmed life. It might look like all I do is spend time blogging, baking, preparing wonderful meals, entertaining, and completing great before and after projects with my organizing business.
Ha! Do I have you fooled! This is a small part of what happens everyday, in reality my days can be quite interesting. As today progressed I thought I would give you an idea of what a normal day in the life as Amanda Kuzak is like. Let me know if you enjoy reading this post. Here it goes…
July 20, 2010
5am: My sister texts me to let me know she was getting a new car, very exciting news but not the news I was expecting. My sister’s sister in law was in labor at this time so I was expecting that the text was to let me know the baby was born…I was wrong. That news will come later.
7:30am: Harper wakes up and she wants breakfast and a bathroom break. She is quite demanding in the morning. We let her out but we have to keep our eyes peeled for rats that might be lingering in our yard…yes, I said RATS. I will get to more of this story later…
8am: Check my email and respond to 40+ emails responses for the bakery sale I am holding this Friday. Any question you can imagine is being asked, and I mean ANY question. I respond to the relevant emails as quickly as I can. Here is a photo of the lobby of the bakery…(I will let you know how the sale goes next week).
8:30am: Publish my blog post about Farmer’s Market Jam. I wrote it the night before and couldn’t wait to publish it. I think the pictures turned out great.
8:35am: Hop in the shower and get ready for work.
9:30am: Get in my car to go to work and notice the “low tire” light is on. I check my tire pressure and it seems fine so I continue on my way to San Jose to work with a client.
10am: Arrive at my clients house, we are scheduled to sort through her home office but when I get there she tells me she forgot to do the “homework” I had given her the week before. We still have lots to do, we spent the next few hours sorting through her old bank statements, tax files, personal files, and miscellanious items. It is amazing what you learn about a person when you go through all of their personal stuff. I am glad my clients trust me with all of this information. I wish I could say more but I keep all of my clients information highly confidential.
1pm: Leave my client’s house and notice right away that I have a flat tire on my car. Instead of getting it towed, I decide to drive it “very slowly” to the nearest dealership which was 6 miles away. Not the best idea, now it has to be completely replaced. On the way 2 people pull up next to me to let me know that my flashing lights are on. I was like, “No kidding?” Apparently they didn’t notice that I was also driving 15 miles per hour with a flat tire?
1:30pm: Arrive at the dealership, they tell me everyone is out to lunch so I should waste time until 2pm. I decide to walk to Starbucks, and on my way I notice a nail salon that has a sign in the window indicating that they do mole removal. Yes, that is what I said, mole removal! I almost went in just to ask more details but I keep walking past. When I walk into Starbucks, the Barista asks me what is wrong. I proceed to tell her that I just saw the most ridiculous sign for MOLE REMOVAL at the next door nail salon. I quickly feel bad for saying anything because she has a giant mole on her face. Fortunately for me she starts cracking up. She tells me that she has noticed this before and she is also concerned. We joke for 10 minutes about the dangers of getting your moles removed at a nail salon and then I take a few minutes to enjoy my delicious drink. I always order the same thing, an iced grande non-fat sugar-free upside down caramel macchiato. Yes, I know that is a bit long for a drink order but it is fabulous.
2pm: I head back to the dealership and they tell me they have to keep my car overnight and need to give me a loaner. The cute shop guy showed me to my loaner car and asked me if I needed anything else out of my car. I quickly remembered that I needed the horse saddle that is the trunk so I tell him, “Yes, can you grab the horse saddle out of the trunk of my car?” He looked at me completely puzzled and then asked why I had a horse saddle in my trunk. I took a second to explain to him that I am a professional organizer and I sell the things that my clients don’t need on eBay or Craigslist for money back in their pockets. He looked at me laughing and said “so, do you only sell horse saddles?” I tried to explain some of the items that I sell but he just kept laughing. He then went inside to get the saddle out of my car helps me put it in my loaner.
2:20: I agreed to meet the guy who was buying the horse saddle in Livermore, a town on the east side of the Bay, it is about 40 miles from my house. I start on my journey, saddle in tow…
3:15: Park at the In-N-Out Burger parking lot in Livermore and hand off the saddle to a really nice guy who owns a ranch near Nevada. He drove several hours to meet me for the saddle which was funny to me. I pull up and see that he looks normal and has his kids with him so I decide it is safe enough to continue with the transaction (you never know who is out there!) I handed him the saddle and he gave me the cash, it probably looked a bit suspicious to people in the parking lot. I normally don’t meet people that far from my home to sell things but this saddle was very expensive and heavy so I didn’t want to risk shipping it. I do anything for my clients!
3:20: Check my email in the car and respond to 20 more emails regarding the bakery sale.
3:45: Head back to Mountain View, stop to do some banking at my local bank where I have to dodge my personal banker “Angel” who is always trying to get me to sign up for more accounts. I just want to tell her that I am not stupid, I know that she gets a kick-back everytime I open a new one. How many accounts does one person need, geez!
4:45: Finally get home and let Harper out in the yard to play. She stops to look up at the tree that no longer exists in my yard and looks back at me puzzled (she is a very smart little pooch). My landlord had the tree cut down in my backyard last weekend because it was infested with rats, yes, I said RATS! I reported it to her and after I saw them for a few weeks my neighbor Sam who rents the cottage from her that is behind our house started to see them in his house. After a few nights he saw 10+ rats in his kitchen. RATS! So gross. Anyway, apparently they are coming to our house to eat nuts from the almond tree in our back yard so my landlord cut it down. In the meantime my neighbor’s cottage has been deemed “infested” and he had to move into a hotel. I think the only reason we don’t have rats in our house is because of Harper our dog. Her scent must keep them away. THANK GOD! Here are some before and after photos of my back yard, it looks SO different without the tree…
Before
After
6pm: Give my mom a call to see what is new in Cass City. Same old stuff, I tell her about my day and she laughs about everything telling me I need to write a book. In the middle of our conversation we each receive a text from my sister letting us know that her sister-in-law Stephanie delivered a beautiful baby girl, Norah Kathryn, Congrats!
7pm: Hang up with my mom and realize I should probably get something started for dinner before Chris gets home from work. I was too exhausted to make something fancy so I made a pizza with the pilsbury pizza crust that has been hanging out in my fridge. I also got a cocktail out of the freezer, my sister sent me a lemon-wine freeze last week, yum! It came in a little pouch and you just mix it with wine and freeze…
7:15: With my fingers crossed I check Hulu to see if there is a new episode of “The Real Housewives of New Jersey” and much to my happiness there is! I decide to kick back for a minute and enjoy this awesome reality show with my awesome lemon-wine freeze while looking out the window into my backyard to see if I see any potential rat movement in the ivy where the tree used to be. Yes, I said RATS!
7:45: Chris rides in on his bike and I pull our delicious pizza out of the oven and we sit and eat it on paper plates at the computer watching the rest of the New Jersey Housewives. Yes, I said computer. We still don’t have a TV.
8pm: My sister Ashlie calls me to tell me more about Stephanie’s baby!
8:30pm: Chris and I decide to each get some work done. I answer more craigslist emails about the bakery sale and other miscellaneous items I have online for other clients. He is working on Google audit stuff.
10:15: I start to think about my next blog post and decide that this might be fun (writing about my boring yet interesting life).
10:40: My neighbor Sam emails me to let me know the jam I gave him was delish and that he hasn’t seen any new rat droppings at his place so he is moving back in. Yes, I said RATS!
10:45: Lights out, I have to get my beauty rest for another crazy day tomorrow. Who knows what will happen.
