Wow. 10 days since the last post. That is not good, my friends. And I haven’t even been doing anything that should keep me away, other than trying to go to bed early so I can get up earlier. Which has worked a couple of times. Gotta start somewhere, right? It would be nice if I could be lucid enough in the mornings to post then. I read somewhere once that morning is a good time to write, even if you are not usually a morning person. I know that I usually feel more creative at night, and am more likely then to write or have some nutty idea that I attribute to creativity (although it might just be nuttiness), so I was hesitant to try the morning writing. The idea behind writing shortly after waking was that, having just left slumber, you would be closer to a dreamlike state than at other times in the day and therefore more likely to be creative. I actually tried it a couple of times, but only a couple of times, so I can’t exactly base any results on that. I can’t even remember the results, although I am pretty sure they included being late for work and determining that no theoretical boost in creativity was worth lost sleep. But, I might have to revisit the idea. Up at 5 and to the Y from 5:15-6:00, and write from 6-7? Sounds a little ambitious for the likes of me, but hey, ya never know. Did you ever think about how changing something like the time of day that you get up could alter your whole life? Change who you see on your way into work, how close or far you are to an accident on the interstate, what you hear on the radio, etc., and therefore changing you? It’s so hard to change, even small things like your waking hour. We really are creatures of habit, as badly as I hate to admit it. I like to think of myself as free and unconstrained from routine, but that’s just not true. Oh, I win the fight in some areas - I don’t balance my checkbook, fill my car with gas, buy groceries, renew my tags, or do household cleaning on any discernible schedule. (Now that I look at that list, maybe I should.) But it’s a rare week-day morning that Bob and Sheri do not accompany me on the ride in to work, or that I don’t hit the snooze in the morning one too many times and arrive at work later than I wanted to, leave later than I planned, and watch Fraiser re-reruns at 10:30. And I’m not exactly dashing off mid-week on wild unplanned excursions. But, I’m fighting the fight. Melissa vs. Routine. Today, Melissa -1, Routine-0. Stay tuned.