Seize the Day...

I haven't slept much this week. Why, you ask? Well, I am back on the 9-to-5-plus-commute grind. I tend to sleep most deeply around 10 a.m., which doesn't work so well at the office. You'd think that several days of fatigue would force me to fall asleep earlier, but no. It's always the same routine of tossing and turning until 2 or 3, and then nodding off in my cubicle the next morning.

However, I live with two fanatical morning people. You know the type. The people who insist on jogging at 5:00 a.m., because they love the magic of the sunrise, the dew on the flowers, the sweet birdsong, etc. etc. etc. The people who actually meet their friends for breakfast on Saturday morning (none of that sissy brunch stuff). The people who constantly brag about everything they accomplish before lazy good-for-nothings like me are awake.

And that's the one thing that bothers me about morning people. I mean, I'm glad they're so happy. I just wish they wouldn't be so smug about it! Because, really, there is no morality involved in a person's sleeping habits. In past centuries, the mantra “early to bed, early to rise,” had a certain point to it. You needed to wake up early to milk the cows and walk those 15 miles to market. You also had no electric lights, so you had to do most chores during daylight hours.

However, now we have electricity, and, for the most part, no cows to milk. Science has shown us that different people work best at different times of the day. However, we are still stuck with this idea that those who function best at 6:00 a.m. are models of virtue, while something is wrong with those other weirdos who function best at night.

Take my fanatical early risers. It doesn't matter what they do at 6:00 am. They could just be watching music videos, but because they are up early, they are automatically Seizing The Day and Making The Most Of Life. However, despite the fact that I too am a responsible, hard-working citizen, they will always see me as an overgrown teenager because I prefer to get up around noon. “When you grow up,” they say knowingly, forgetting that I'm in my mid-20s, “you will come to appreciate the beauty of the morning.”

Sigh...two more zombie-like days until the long weekend.

Random side note...

Despite the fact that I despise mornings, I also despise coffee. Everyone tells me I should just force myself to drink the vile stuff. But, I can't think of a single benefit it would give me. First, I would go broke buying those $6 Starbucks concoctions. Second, as a dessert fiend, I definitely do not need any more sugar in my diet. Thirdly, and most importantly, I would have to get up earlier in order to drink coffee! Those 15 minutes that I would spend brewing coffee, waiting for it to cool off, and then drinking it, are 15 minutes that I could spend sleeping!