Day #11 – That Whole Morning Thing

Once again, no idea what words are going to come out of my fingers now. I’m just writing. Am I doing it right? I sure hope so.

My morning routine goes as follows.

My alarm is set to go off sometime between 5:45 AM and 6:05 AM. It’s actually an app that runs while the phone is on the corner of my bed and it’s supposed to keep track of my sleep cycles and wake me up at the perfect point in my cycle. That’s the theory. In practice, I either wake up just before 5:45 AM, disable the alarm, and go back to sleep; or I get jarred out of sleep at 6:05 AM, where I disable the alarm and go back to sleep (today was the former).

Going back to sleep isn’t disastrous because I have a secondary alarm that is set for 6:15 AM. It’s supposed to be a hard line: wake up now or Bad Things Will Happen. Today, I did not ignore it, but the mornings where I have ignored it are getting more frequent. Twice this week.

Once I’m out of bed, I get my slippers and robe and go downstairs, where I start some coffee, and turn on the oven, pre-heating it to 375° F. I put some aluminum foil on a cookie sheet and lay out some strips of bacon.

While the coffee is perc-ing, I go back upstairs, weigh myself. Today I weighed in at 213.8 lbs. I actually weigh myself naked (because of course) and I do it three times and average the results. Just seems more… scientific? I don’t know. Then I get in the shower and clean myself, brush my teeth, and shave my face.

After all that, back downstairs, where I put the bacon tray into the oven and set a 12-minute timer.

Back upstairs, where I get dressed, then back downstairs. While the remaining 12 minutes are playing out, I get my oatmeal ready. I buy instant steel-cut oats and they’re great if a bit boring by themselves. I add a pat of butter, some honey, and some crushed almonds, along with a pinch of salt. I’ve been trying to cut down on sugar. This is my normal breakfast.

Once the bacon is done, I enplaten it and carry it, my bowl of oatmeal, and my travel mug of coffee upstairs to the computer room, where I sit down and surf, or, as I’ve been doing for the past week and a half, write 500 words. Somewhere in there my “Leave for work” alarm goes off, which I’ve been ignoring lately. For instance, today the alarm went off 9 minutes ago, while I’ve been writing this.

Once all that’s done, I carry the plates and remaining coffee downstairs, put the plates in the dishwasher, top-up my coffee mug with whatever’s left in the pot (if I accidentally made too much), grab my messenger bag (my work badge and phone are in there), grab the faceplate for my car head unit, my sunglasses, and get in my car and drive to work.