My Morning Routine

I used to think of myself as a morning person.

But my husband reminded me that, when we both had to be at work early, I used to ask him grumpily, “Must you bound out of bed like a damn gazelle?”

I guess it depends on what you mean by “awake.”

If you mean curled up, in pajamas, reading and writing, yes, I can be happily awake early.

If you mean bounding out of bed, turning on the lights, jumping in the shower, no.

In recent years, however, I have had be up at 5 am and out by 5:30, to get my son to swim practice.

The only way I can drag myself out of bed that early is to know that Lola the Dog and I are going to pad down the hall and climb into my son’s bed. After a moment, my son will groan, “OK, guys, we really have to get up.” If he didn’t, Lola and I would happily go back to sleep.

It helps that I'm throwing on clothes I find on the floor.

I move toward coffee. If they are doing a “land” practice at their school, I get to stop at the coffee bar on the corner, where, let’s just say, they know me.

Driving to their old pool, I saw a Starbucks under construction. When it finally opened, I was at the drive-through at 5:45. I was alone. By the second day, however, there was a line and even people sitting out on its patio, in the dark.

Scary, how addictive Starbucks can be.

Now, the swim team is using a different pool – and I can find no lattes on the route.

I’m back to making my own.

Theoretically, I could do a 6:30 yoga class.

Yeah … no.