I am a creature of habit.  Do not try to get me out of my routine or I will go thoroughly OCD on your ass.  My morning routine was a sacred time for me for many years.  I’d wake up extra early, throw on a pot of coffee, grab the morning paper and crawl back in to bed.  I did this religiously and without fail for nearly 10 years.  God help the person who called/interrupted me while I was drinking coffee and catching up on the day’s events.  I’d easily spend 45 minutes in relative calm before officially starting my day.

Last year … all that changed.

I suddenly realized even though I was a morning person, I was insane to get up forty-five seconds (let alone forty-five minutes) before I had to.  So much for the paper and coffee.  Now I race downstairs and make some hot tea.  I quickly check Facebook for any pressing matters while waiting for the water to boil.  Then I race in to the shower and out the door.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I teach a weight training class at 6am.  It’s a class that involves heavy weights and compound movements.  And, yes, it all happens before the sun comes up.  I’m like the Army.  I do more before 9am than most people do all day.

My mom is a notorious morning person.  I must get my early bird-ness from her.  Although, there have been times I’ve wanted to beat her senseless with a box of Wheaties for making noise in the kitchen while I was trying to sleep.  Now, I’m on to her.  I sleep with a box fan precariously perched near my head to add necessary white noise to my slumber.  She’ll get up ridiculously early to make coffee and smoke outside.  She was like a chimney.  She’d smoke more by 9am than most soldiers do all day.  By the time I got up (roughly around 8:30am), she’d be getting ready to take a nap.  So while I got her odd ability to be productive in the morning, I did NOT get her addition to nicotine.

For the last nine months or so, I haven’t even opened my morning paper.  I even went so far as to cancel my subscription to the KC Star.  They still call me once a month asking me to come back as a subscriber.  Yet, even though I’ve canceled my subscription TWICE, a morning paper still lands on my front step every morning at 5am.  I’m not sure if it’s a sign the paper misses ME – or I should miss the paper MORE.  Whatever the case, it goes directly in to the recycle bin.

I had my A.M. routine down to a science.  Do I miss it?  No.  But ask me in five years when I’m tired of running around like a chicken with my head cut off every morning.