My mother...

I remember the mornings, when I was older and living at home, just me with Mom. Dad had long since passed away. My room was downstairs in the half basement, right next to the kitchen. It was also the furnace room but it was large and mine and private. Even without heat, I loved that room.

We had a little dog then. Dudley. He came to us by way of my sister Terry. Someone gave him to her but when she got him home her husband wouldn't have him in their house. So he came to me. My Mom always professed hatred for that dog. Yet, every morning she would make him a piece of buttered toast all cut into bite sized pieces. And if their were green beans or gravy left over at dinner she would make me stir it into his dog food.

Every morning, it was the same routine with them. I would be sound asleep and Mom would come to the kitchen to start her coffee. In her night gown and house coat she would open  my bedroom door and Dudley would be waiting for her. She'd take him outside and chain him to the fence for a while so he could sniff the new day and eventually do his business. Then Mom would go out and get him and bring him back inside. They would have their toast and coffee together. When he was finished, Dudley would return to my bedroom but he wouldn't jump up to sleep on the bed. Not just yet. First he would sit just around the corner from the open door, just ever so slightly out of eye sight from the door...and he'd wait. My Mom would clean up her breakfast dishes and start to go back upstairs but first she would come to close my bedroom door. That's when it would happen, every morning at exactly the same time. My Mom would reach for the door knob and my dog would rush around the corner snapping, growling and yipping at her like a crotchety old man. My Mom would grab the door knob and SLAM the door shut letting out a string of expletives that would make a Teamster proud. She would always react like she didn't see it coming but it happened every single morning for about five years!

Once it was over, Dudley would casually come back to bed and go to sleep and my Mom would casually go upstairs to start her day. I would be awake by this point chuckling to myself at the shear comedy of it all.

Happy Mother's Day!

Ugh...mornings....

I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, what anyone would call a "morning person". I've known this about myself for a long time now. I hate mornings. Mornings are high on my list of pet peeves. But, over the past 20 years of working where I do, I have created a routine that works for me and gets me through the AM hours without me ending up hurting someone. In fact, I have arranged my work hours to start an hour before anyone else gets to work so that I have one hour of quiet time which I use to get tanked up on caffiene that allows me to face the rest of the day.

However, some people at work have gotten wise to this and now have adjusted their work schedules so my quiet hour is now being ever so slightly imposed upon. I get irritated when those coworkers come to me with early morning questions or chit chat. I'm just not a morning person but I try to remain calm and carry on.

My routine starts long before I even get to work. When my alarm goes off I know I have another 15 minutes before I absolutely have to get up so I roll over and go back to sleep. When the next alarm goes I know it's time. I begrudgingly crawl from my warm  bed and shuffle my aching bones to the bathroom. Usually, my cay, Arnie, is there to greet me so I have an early morning conversation with him. He doesn't talk back so I don't consider it an intrusion. He stays in the bathroom with me all the way through me putting on my make up because he likes to get a little blush on his nose. I think he might be gay but that's okay. Next I shuffle back in the bedroom to get my clothes and get dressed. Once dressed I throw some stuff in a bag that I may or may not eat for lunch that day and down some juice or water with some vitamins and I'm off. I live a short drive from work. Very short. Like 5 minutes short so I don't have to really hurry to get there on time. I'm usually the first one in the building. You see, it's not a complicated routine at all. It's just a quiet routine and one that helps me compose myself to face the day.

Lately, there have been times that Alex has come to work with me. We work for the same agency. Now, as much as I love my hubby, this always throws me off a bit. Suddenly, there is a time crunch so that we both get time in the bathroom and can both get out the door at the same time. Bless his heart, he hates mornings as much as I do if I go by the sighing and grunting he does. But his presences always throws me for a loop. Thankfully, it doesn't happen often and, if I'm honest, I do appreciate it more in the winter because there is always the snow and ice to contend with on the car and he's been a great help there!

When I think about it, I have been conditioned to not like mornings. In elementary school, we lived a few blocks from school so I didn't have to rush in the mornings. I had the luxury of extra sleep because we lived so close. Then we moved and we lived a half a block from my high school so, again, no need to rush. I slept in and got there in plenty of time. And now I work just a few blocks away again so I can take my time. I would have a real problem if I had to commute. Of course, the close proximity to work has nothing to do with my bad morning moods. The only thing that works for that is coffee. And lots of it. I better go get some right now.

Winter mornings...

I"m not a morning person by any stretch of the imagination but I have to get up by 6am every morning so I can be at work by 7am. The irony of this fact is not lost on me. I struggle with mornings no matter what time of the year. In summer, with the nights being longer and brighter, I tend to stay up late which makes getting up somewhat of a hurdle even when it's brightly lit sunshine out there. Yet, I prefer those mornings - if I have to choose - because I tend to wake up faster and get moving faster just by benefit of having sunshine cheering me along.

In winter, (yes, I know it's not officially winter yet but still...) the dark, cold mornings make getting going almost impossible! Like any good bear, I want to hibernate and at 6am, with the morning darkness surrounding me and my comforter swaddling me like a baby, I do not want to move from my bed at all. It takes an act of valor to make that first move out of my warm cocoon. I shuffle around the house sleepily getting things ready in an almost zombie like state. Somehow, I manage to get dressed. Which is a good thing! Somehow I manage to throw together something for lunch and take it with me. And somehow, I manage to get to work on time.

I don't have a shower at home. Just a bath. The other person in my house takes a bath every single morning. The thought of submerging myself in water in the wee hours of the morning makes me shudder so I choose to bathe the night before. I eat no breakfast at home but rather take something to work to eat later in the morning. Who the heck can eat at 6am? My first cup of coffee is at work. It's all I can do to get there so stopping to make coffee is not an option for me!

I know that in a couple of weeks we'll change the clocks and there will be sun in the morning again. It won't help much. Oh, it will be brighter and all that but I'll still be grumping along in the mornings. I've been that way my entire life and it's not likely to happen now!

Not a morning person...

I admit it. I am not a morning person. I never have been yet every single job I've ever had has forced me to get up in the wee hours of the morning to get to work. Oh, there are some things that are typically good about mornings, according to some. Things like:

1. Sunrise. Yes, sunrises are great and living on the lake, as I do, I've seen some spectacular sunrises. But, I've seen just as impressive sunsets so I'm not overly excited about watching the sun rise on a daily basis. Call me jaded, but one sunrise looks pretty much like the next and, frankly, I'd rather still be in bed.

2. First cup of coffee. Yes, that first cup of hot Joe is about the best thing ever. But, honestly, I can enjoy that first up sensation whether I have that cup at 5am or noon. I prefer noon.

3. Breakfast. I'm just not a fan. Brunch - now that's a good thing. And I am a fan of those restaurants that serve breakfast at any time because breakfast for dinner is the bomb! Recommendation: the Ole Skillet at Marina Gardens. Try it! YUM!

4. Quiet alone time in the morning. This is entirely overrated. Maybe because I never seem to get it anyway. Either my husband is up and talking to me or the cats are all over me saying good morning. I like them better when they're saying good afternoon. In the morning, they are not cute...they are annoying.

5. Morning drive time. Now, granted, I live very close to where I work and my drive time is ridiculously short but I hate it. I hate going out to my car in the dark winter mornings. I hate scraping ice off my windshield in the morning. I have waiting for my beater bomb to warm up. I don't have a garage. I have me, in the dark, swearing and freezing my tuckus. It's not pretty.

There are more things I hate about mornings - that moment when I have to uncover and get out of bed, that alarm going off, that moment I realize I've dawdled too long and now I'm rushing, trying to form a coherent thought - it all sucks. I am decidedly a night owl. I can be completely worn out at the end of the work day but when I get home, something happens. Actually, when I leave my office something happens. I wake up! I'm ready! Let's go! I can stay awake very late. In fact, I find it difficult to fall asleep before midnight. So I am awake that late and then have to get up early.

It's a hellish, never ending cycle. Sigh...

It's hard to have a bad day...

...when the first thing you see in the morning is a beautiful sunrise over Lake Michigan.