...the Journal

The Guest
Refrigerator Door

For the next few weeks, we'll be seeing magnets from Ned & Marta's refrigerator door.

Here's the companion "Poppin' fresh" magnet.



Here are some of my theatre reviews, if you're interested.

Updated 3/10/01

(I just realized the link has been wrong all this time...sorry! It's right now!)



WHAT I'M READING...

The Brethren
by John Grisham


WHAT I WATCHED...

West Wing
Law and Order
Weakest Link



That's it for today!

 

SLACKER ROUTINES

19 April 2001

One thing I remember about my mother, in the years when I was growing up, was that she always got up, went into the bathroom, washed her face, combed her hair, put on makeup and then went to the kitchen to make coffee, and by the time I got up, she was sitting at the kitchen table reading the newspaper.

Her routine today is pretty much the same as it’s always been. It must be nice to have "normal" routines.

I suppose I have a routine. It just is different from most people’s. I usually wake up at 4 a.m., either with or without an alarm. I’ve always been a morning person, so I don’t need any "waking up" time. No lounging about for just a few more minutes for me. When I wake up, I’m awake and up and doing.

The reason for getting up so early is usually to finish the work that I probably didn't quite finish the day or night before. Somehow I get more accomplished between 4 and 6 a.m. than I do most of the rest of the day.

The TV is on in the background. At 4 a.m. it’s Conan O’Brien reruns (some days I’m awake at 3, so it’s Tonight Show reruns, followed by Conan). At 5, I switch over to the radio and listen to the first hour or so of Ned’s program. "The Arrow Morning Show with Bill Fox and Ned." (Ned wanted to be a one-name celebrity, like "Cher" or "Sting") I used to listen to the show longer than I do now, but they recently went into a "seven song superset" mode so there is more music and less talk and since I don’t much like the "classic rock" format, the less talk there is, the more likely I am to turn it off.

I manage to sneak in a few checks for e-mail while I’m working and then at about 5:45 I make coffee. Some people don’t understand how I can work for two hours without coffee, but since I am a morning person, I don’t need the caffeine stimulant to get me going.

When the coffee is finished, I take a cup upstairs to Walt to wake him up. Then back down to the computer again to try to make one last rush to finish the work that goes out into the pick-up box for the psychiatrist to get on his way to work.

The next phase of my morning varies depending on whether it is daylight savings or not. When it’s not daylight savings, my hour-long chat with Peggy usually starts and ends before Walt finally comes downstairs for breakfast. Since there is no daylight savings time in Australia, from now until fall, the chat usually starts before Walt arrives, but is interrupted when Walt comes downstairs so I can go fix him some toast and get his lunch packed for him.

Once Walt leaves for work, my routine becomes nonexistent. Which to tackle? The mountains of stuff that need straightening? the dishes I probably didn’t do last night? the laundry that needs folding? the rest of the work?

or just do one more check for e-mail...?

Saundra, who also works at home recently wrote about her week’s routine and said, I have different tasks I do during the week. Early in the week, it's maintenance cleaning- dishes, dusting, vacuuming, that kind of stuff. Later in the week, I do the heavy work like laundry and curtains and bathrooms. This is so (ta da) when the weekend comes, I don't have to do -any- housework.

I’ve sometimes thought it would be nice to be so organized, but "discipline" was never an attribute that I acquired. I can spend all day working diligently on transcription or playing around making slide shows, or deciding that that 10 year accumulation of **whatever** needs to be straightened up right now (admittedly the latter option occurs rarely!)

At this late date, it would take something pretty major to change my "routine." I can picture it happening, but somehow there just never has been sufficient incentive. It’s so much easier to just do one more check for e-mail.


One Year Ago:
Where Have You Gone, Jimmy Dean?


Some pictures from this journal
can be found at
Club Photo


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Created 4/18/01 by Bev Sykes