Monday, April 21, 2014

Trying A New Schedule

As I might have mentioned, mornings are not my most favorite time of day.  But I've been dealing with a little bit of a dilemma this year.  Usually, I get home from work about 5:00.  Before being "done" for the day, I work out and then take the dog for a walk adding anywhere from 1.5-2 hours.  And most days, the thought of two more hours of anything other than sleeping after work makes me sad. This has been a particularly exhausting year between a difficult class behavior-wise and new curriculum that has made me feel like the worst teacher on the planet.  I'm freaking tired at the end of the day.  So I must admit that some days the workout doesn't happen - I'll skip right over that to the dog walk and be done with it, ready to crash.

I didn't have to be at work until 8:00am this morning due to a curriculum design meeting at the district office.  Last night, I initially thought, "Oh, I can sleep a bit longer tomorrow morning" since I wouldn't have to leave until about 30 minutes later than usual.  That's when I came up with my new plan.  Instead of sleeping in, I woke up 20 minutes earlier than usual and took the dog for a walk.  When I set the alarm for earlier, I told myself that I'd probably end of snoozing it because waking up that early in the morning is painful.  So imagine my surprise when I actually woke up about 10 minutes before the alarm went off.  And as I remembered my plan I kind of got excited.  The walking would be completed, and I wouldn't have to worry about it at the end of the day.

That's exactly what happened too.  Rigby and I went on our regular walk.  It was a bit dark at the start, but nice because it was cool (now that our afternoons are hot).   When I returned, there was still time to get ready for work.  All day, I was kind of giddy, knowing that I had already accomplished that part of my day.  There was one drawback, and I worried about it some.  When I did get home from work, I changed into my workout clothes and while I put my shoes on Rigby went into excited mode, ready for a walk.  That made me feel bad.  Maybe she had all day to rest and was now ready to go again.  But the worry was for nothing.  At 7:00, she was out!


So far, the new schedule is going well.  Tomorrow, well that remains to be seen.  I have to be at work at my regular time, which means an earlier alarm.  Fingers crossed I don't fling the alarm clock across the room hit snooze.

6 comments:

  1. I love that dog pose! What a sweetie!
    I am not a morning person either...but a few years back we had to share classrooms to teacher kindergarten. There was an early and late kinder. I had the early and class and since I could not set up for the next day right after class I had to come in early...and after getting used to it, I am now an early person. Sometimes I even get the workout done before work!
    Good luck!

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    1. I don't think I'll ever be a morning person. I'm far more productive in the PM. But 2 for 2...this week anyhow. Once vacation is here I'm sure I'll revert back to my sleeping in ways. :)

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  2. I'd not realised a couple of things. The length of your day for one. And two, I simply thought you were a cranky witch if you were about people on a sparkling morn. But what you're describing sound a bit different, quite a bit different.
    It could be something really simple like your sugar has dipped into the hypoglycaemic range.That you can check by sucking a diabetic recovery sweet and see if it perks you up. The other one that springs to mind is a sleep apnea caused by an allergy preventing you from full sleep.
    There's a point when getting up is just that for normal people. It's a bit like jet-lag, it fixes itself naturally, so anything like you describe may need a bit of a serious looking at. And that's what I took to be going on, where you were bitching about gettin up. Which lets face it is an unconscionable hour of a morning. But were in general OK.

    When the little brats do that belly thing, they know how we react. And I'm utterly convinced they are doing it on purpose. The scamps.

    Oh, in the morning you could be replacing a need for a small amount of sugar with a huge amount of coffee. :-)

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    1. Hmmm, maybe. But I don't know. I think I am just crabby in the morning. I've now been up and walked for an hour and a half and feel awake and less crabby without having had a thing to eat. I'll force breakfast down in a few. I hated every minute of setting the alarm and being jarred awake by it at 5:10 this morning. The not having to do it later today was the motivation, but I was far from bright eyed and bushy tailed. Thankfully none of the neighbors were out that early so I didn't have to be social. :)
      Yes, she knows that I can hardly resist a puppy belly. It amazes me that she can sleep like that. She was even snoring.

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    2. She does it because you've created a space where she feels really safe. She wouldn't expose herself otherwise.

      On the other. I'm not trying to worry you. It's just sometimes we can drift into patterns and behaviors that become so normal we don't notice. It took me years to realise I was profoundly allergic to milk. Where a huge percentage of my living day was devoted to ameliorating it with a battery of tricks and cons.
      Anyone ever tell you you snore. That's a good pointer to problems. But those pressure rings can aid things and aren't anywhere near as intrusive as the mouth guard.

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    3. Bite your tongue! I don't snore...I'm a lady!!!! :)
      No, no snoring. I sleep in the fetal, mostly curled in a ball. Sleep talking is an issue, but not snoring. I really just think I'm a b-otch in the morning. :)

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