There are people in this wide world who thrive in the morning. They do not need caffeinated beverages to start their day. They are cheerful even before they have a warm shower. They enjoy watching the sun come up. Early birds is what they are referred to as. They wake up all bright eyed and bushy tailed ready to greet the world with enthusiasm. I don't know about you, but the description "bright eyed and bushy tailed" brings to mind squirrels. I think of a cute baby squirrel with bight, happy eyes and a well groomed tail that is all fluffy. This squirrel is giving a little squirrel smile and holding an acorn it will probably share with you because it is such a happy, cheerful little squirrel with a good attitude. This squirrel makes me sick. I hope it goes and plays in the street for a little while, but then alas, it probably would do this in the early morning and face no consequences because there is just not that many people driving around at that time of day.
In case you have not guessed already, I am not a morning person. Don't get me wrong, I have tried. I even get up ridiculously early right now, but that does not mean I have to like it. I have tried caffeine to make me happy. Warm showers do moderately well in helping me face the early morning when it is still dark, but I find it depressing getting up before the sun has decided to grace my little part of the world with its presence. If I was a squirrel, I would not wake up bright eyed and bushy tailed. I would wake up more along the lines of bleary eyed and scraggly tailed. My acorn would probably have a parasite in it, and I would be glaring at the world, plus I would not share my parasitic acorn with anyone, at least until I had my warm shower.
I am writing this because just a little before Christmas, I got it into my head that it would be a good idea to workout before work. I would be a the gym before 5:30 in the morning and get my workout in and therefore be on a happy cloud of endorphins for the rest of my working day. In principle, it sounded like a fantastic idea, but oh how wrong I was. I found out my body just doesn't want to function at such a level in the wee hours of the morning. An hour and half of exercise is too much at that time of day. I would find myself saying, "It's ok to take it easy! It's ridiculously early! Don't worry about going all out for this workout! Why push it?" Plus, I was mostly just exhausted afterwards, and though, yes, I did have an endorphin high, I was also wiped out for the rest of the day! So work was not any better. Plus I never realized how much working out after work helped me to be chill for the rest of the night.
It also did not help, that at such early hours in the morning, I was surrounded by happy, cheerful morning do-gooders at the gym, all happy to be in each others' presence. That and they are really cliquey. It felt like high school all over again...uhg, no gracias. I do not need to repeat that little episode of my life. So though they were happy to see each other, they totally ignored anyone new. This may have to do with time of year in which I decided to do this little experiment, right before Christmas and so close to New Years. They may have thought I was a resolutioner, so I can hardly blame them for that (previous blog). Needless to say, my experiment at being a morning person did not work well, and I have retreated with my scraggly tail between my legs back to being an afternooner where I have friends who like to talk to me and who are fairly willing to talk to complete strangers working out next to them.
Now I am not evil in the early morning. I really don't want morning squirrels to be hit by cars either, that was a bit rash of me to say. I wish them well in their morning squirrel squirrellyness. I do fairly well. I know some people that will glare at you with such an angry loathing that your heart stops for a second just for asking them to pass the cereal your way. They will then proceed to slam the box down next to you. You cannot avoid this by just taking the box either because that is their territory until they deem it yours, and you will still get the heart stopping glare of death for that as well. Nope, mostly I just look at the clock, moan and groan about waking up, and then go about my business.
I guess what this comes down to is that everyone functions on their own clock. I wish I was a morning squirrel, but it just doesn't work for me, so kudos to all those who are. I will continue to try at least a little, but it is just way easier to stay up late than it is to wake up early. Sorry for the long winded blog and all that, but thanks if you actually read it!
