My mornings start inhumanely early.
First, we could talk about how a certain ginger-dog will wake me up at any time between 2am and 5am because he "needs" to go outside. He just likes to go out and sniff around because he's bored in the middle of the night.
Second, my alarm goes off at 5am. You see, I have to leave for work at 7am. Half an hour of my morning time is usually eaten up by playing with the dogs and feeding them. I feel bad for locking them up all day so I try to amuse them a bit in the mornings.
Another half hour would be me getting ready.
The hour portion of that 2 hour window would be me sipping coffee, eating breakfast, watching the news, and just relaxing before a busy day ahead.
I know it's strange, but I can't just get up and go in the morning. I used to back when I was in high school and college, and even my first year of teaching. But now I know that my days aren't really my own because I'm held to a pretty rigid schedule from 7am when I leave the house to 4:30pm when I get home from work. I don't get a chance to relax or run errands or just be, so I've adapted to becoming a lark (a term from Gretchen Rubin's book) and getting up early so I can fit that time in.
We bought our Keurig in November of 2011 and I love it. I couldn't see us ever going another way. In fact, I'm not even sure how to use a regular coffee pot. I never measure it out correctly. I don't pre-set the Keurig, but I fire it up as soon as I get out of bed.
My favorite mug is this Penn State one that I got around the time we bought the Keurig. We had two but one broke in the dishwasher. I care more about the structure of the mug (big, heavy ones are best) than what's actually on the mug. I own prettier ones, but this has been my favorite so far. Odd, right?
My preferred coffee these days is Dunkin Donuts K-cups. To be honest, the first thing I do after I add a tablespoon of Coldstone Sweet Cream creamer to my coffee is sit down at my laptop to see if there's an email from Scott. Isn't that kind of sad? But 'tis the life we live I guess. Sometimes there is, sometimes there isn't. Regardless, I browse through this or that online or maybe read a chapter of a book while the local news plays in the background. Checking the weather is a must for me. Then a certain ginger-pup starts whining and that means I need to feed the dogs and start getting ready.
Sometimes I think it's really odd that I've turned into a morning person because this is a recent development, just within the last 3 years. Before that, I was a get-up-with-just-enough-time-to-get-out-the-door person. However, I've realized it's now the most relaxing part of the day...here's a day in the life post from last fall. It's pretty much the same now.
What's your morning ritual? Where do you drink your coffee or tea? ASAP in the a.m.? Or do you wait until you get to work or school? At least once a week, I stop for another drink at Starbucks on the way to school.
