HAPPIESTPLACEHQ Task 1 - Routine
Describe a routine day in the life of your character
What is their daily routine?
Sally is a creature of habit, and while it can feel a bit stifling to do the same thing every single day at the same exact hour, she does acknowledge there’s a certain comfort to it, like wearing her favorite, if somewhat old-fashioned dress. Her daily weekly routine goes thusly:
6:00am → Sally’s alarm clock goes off. She usually stays in bed just a little longer, more or less ten minutes more. Then her scheduled phone alarm goes off, she lets out a little sigh and gets out of bed to start the day.
6:20am → Sally takes a quick shower, brushes her teeth and checks on her hair. She used to dye it red constantly, bleaching it and dying it and bleaching it again when the roots showed. She used to do it since she was more or less seventeen, as a way of rebelling against her father’s strict rules about keeping appearances. So many chemicals, though, have kind of ruined it to the point that she hates it so much she prefers to wear a wig, at least until it grows back healthy enough to style it properly.
6:40am → Sally finishes getting dressed and goes downstairs to prepare breakfast. It almost always consists of scrambled eggs, toast with butter and strawberry jam, and black coffee for her father and black tea for her. When the table’s ready she goes upstairs and helps her father get dressed, makes his bed and they go downstairs so they can have breakfast together. They usually spend it in complete silence though, with him checking the mail and reading the newspaper while Sally checks the weather for the day and gulps down her tea while quickly preparing herself her own lunch.
7:00am → Sally accompanies her father to the school. He is adamant about being early, sometimes earlier than any other teacher in Redwood High, at 7:20am. Sometimes, if he’s in a good mood, he’ll talk about something he read in the news; most of the time they remain silent, or comment briefly on some minor surprise on their way to the school: a new bird’s nest, a trimming of a neighbour’s hedges, a change in a shopwindow’s display.
7:30am → Sally arrives at Jack’s Attic Holiday Shop. Whether Zero’s in, she either sweeps a bit (they tend to keep the windows open so it doesn’t feel as shut-in and crowded by decorations and knickknacks as it seems, so that means a fair amount of dust gets in basically daily) or, if he has already swept some, she plays around with the sorting of the inventory, trying new ways to make it look more engaging and attractive, or she checks on the shopwindows’ displays (which are styled for the nearest coming holiday) to see if anything has come out of place, if a cardboard letter may have fallen from its position in a festive sentence, or if a little mechanical toy needs some winding up or new batteries.
8:00am → Sally and Zero open the shop’s doors. Usually the shop’s a quiet, empty place until the six-to-four days before any given holiday arrive, when people usually do their last minute shopping for decorations, so she spends the day either planning projects for the Community Events Committee, chatting with Zero, or sketching ideas for sets, costumes or for her own wardrobe, if she has recently bought any new fabric.
11:30am → Sally and Zero have lunch. She usually buys a tuna sandwich from a nearby store, or brings her own meal. Most often, she also brings something else to share with Zero, even if it’s only half a chocolate bar or a bite of a blueberry muffin.
12:00am → Lunchtime is officially over. Unless someone comes into the shop, though, lunchtime ends when lunchtime ends.
16:30pm → Sally’s shift is officially over. If it’s a lazy, empty day, she says goodbye to Zero and helps close the store; if it’s a busy day, she most likely stays a little longer, usually until around 18:00pm.
17:00pm → Sally arrives home. Her father is always waiting for her there; his class assistant helps him get back to the house at around 16:00pm. While he grades essays and exams, or prepares the next day’s classes, Sally gets dinner going.
18:00pm → Sally and her father have dinner. Again, whether or not her father is in a good mood, they either watch some TV to fill out the silence, or try to talk a little bit -usually he is the one to talk, about some kid who “forgot” to do his homework, the latest teacher’s room gossip, or some other misbehaviour. He is a pretty slow eater.
19:00pm → Sally washes the dishes and changes into her pajamas. Her father watches TV in the living room, and while Sally sometimes joins him if the program interests her, it’s most often than not some old baseball game or a court drama. She prefers to spend this time to herself, reading a book, listening to music, working on a sewing project, or finishing up some drawing or design.
20:00pm → Sally helps her father go upstairs. Since she usually forgets to make her own bed, she makes her bed by this time. After her father brushes his teeth she does the same, and helps him get in bed. He usually reads for some time before turning off his light. Sally, in the meantime, prepares their outfits for the next day, ironing them and setting them aside. Around 20:30pm she is done and goes to bed. She might read if she has any energy left, or write some ideas she may have come up with.
21:00pm → The Finkelstein’s house’s lights are turned off.
How does their week compare to the weekend?
During the weekend, Sally dedicates half her day to working for the Community Events Committee on whatever project they’re currently developing. This is the highlight of her week: she’s at her most participative and creative. The latter half, she dedicates to cooking and cleaning the house, buying the weekly groceries, and, if she has any time left, having a walk in the park to get some fresh air.
What happens if their routine is broken?
It rarely, if ever, happens; but when it does, it’s usually because of some sort of accident: Sally drops a plate or a cup, she burns the eggs, she oversleeps, she gets home late. All of these incidents are further worsened by William giving her daughter a strong-worded, long-winded chiding. She is expected to take it quietly and, when he’s done, fix it and continue with their day as normally as possible. If she talks back, however, it devolves into a whole argument in which Sally always comes out losing. Besides, if she complains, she usually ends up being late to her own job or for her own chores, which means she’ll have to make up for it, so it really is a matter of just how fed up Sally feels whether or not she decides to risk it.
