Adaptation

The last week has been a little hellish, workwise. I'm really not a morning person, and I've had to be here earlier almost every day, and have stayed late, too. The morning thing has been horrid - I have had to set the alarm 45 minutes earlier every day, and have left the house about 1 hour earlier every day.

This is not to say I've been getting up early, by any stretch of the imagination. The secretary who sits by me gets up around 5.15 to exercise before leaving the house at 7 - a time at which I've usually been asleep, although this week I've been indulging my final snooze for the morning. But for me, it's been really rather early and horrible. People always bisect the population into morning and evening, and I'm neither type. I'm sleepy in the mornings, and sleepy at night - it just depends on what I've been doing for the past few days as to whether I'm zonked by 7 or sprightly and up at 9 on the weekends. I don't need to sleep until 11, but I like sleeping until 9. My brain really cannot handle working past 11 at night, but it can sit up until 3 watching tv, playing guitar hero, reading, or being out and about dancing. It's all... contextual.

I've often read those articles that state that you should get up at the same time every day, and I've understood that they're probably a good idea. Nonetheless, I have always ignored them as being really not applicable or desirable for my lifestyle. This morning, however, I noticed that getting up that early was unpleasant but not as bad as usual. I'm still a bit sluggish and resentful, but it's not as bad. Usually I struggle to get myself to the pool before work, but this morning, I was there, swam, got breakfast and then to my desk by 9.30 without too much pain. That's not bad, for me.

Am I turning over a new leaf? Fat chance. But it really has been remarkable to feel a transformation this week. Me and the alarm clock shall venture forth into next week and see what happens.