Yesterday I went off on how right-wingers are loudly complaining about how the Obama administration does nothing while doing everything in their power to thwart any effort to do something, by the Obama administration. What led me there was my co-worker across the hall's rantlet before I had even finished my coffee. Truly, he has the ability to annoy me even in the afternoon with this kind of stuff, but a real source of annoyance yesterday was the earliness of the sneak attack. There should be some kind of fail safe device to prevent this kind of thing.
There are morning people and there are evening people. This is an unescapable truism. Clearly I am one of the latter. The fact that I have been able to hold down a regular job that requires me to function and think at 8 AM is nothing short of a minor miracle. No less a miracle is the fact that for the last 24 years I have lived with a woman (married to her for 23 of those) who is a genuine, dyed in the wool, morning person. This is a woman who is perfectly comfortable getting up at 5 or 6 in the morning and going to sleep at 8:30 or 9 in the evening.
When Babs and I first met, I took her to a midnight showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. She fell asleep, although she admits to only nodding for a moment. I knew then and there that I would have to adapt certain practices in my life. I'm sure she feels much the same way about my lack of coherence at the breakfast table. For me, in the early morning, "Uh huh." and "Huh?" and "Mumble" serve as conversation. This is usually juxtaposed with a woman across the table who is actively devouring the New York Times and actually asking me to think about concepts she has gleaned from these pages. Do we make it work? Somehow...for 24 years.
Mind you, there are some very nice things about 2 people of opposite time orientations getting together. I get to see sunrises as well as sunsets, and some are quite spectacular. It's just that my verbal response to these glorious episodes is usually limited. She gets to see fireworks at midnight on New Year's Eve when she might otherwise be inclined to go to bed earlier. I actually get necessary things done before noon on weekends, leaving afternoons and early evenings to do more fun things. She sometimes gets to experience the fun of a party that goes on until 4 or 5 in the morning. (There was a time when I thought sunrises were supposed to be experienced only after having been up all night.)
At any rate, we have reached an equilibrium after 24 years. Reality means I have to go to bed earlier because I have to get up early for work. Sometimes I even arise before Ms. Morning Person. But I don't have to like it, and I definitely won't be at my best in mental acuity at that time of the day. And all any night person asks of all you early people out there is to recognize that. We who are creatures of the night by nature get better as the day goes on. We may be able to do a great many things that do not require the utmost of our attention early in the day, but the creative juices do not flow until later. I routinely write my posts here just prior to the dinner hour. Babs complains of having used all her creative energy way before that time.
If I didn't have a job that required me to get up at 5:30 AM, and if I were not living with another person who is a morning person, I could probably do my writing at 11 PM or midnight or later. That would be alright. As it is, I need to squeeze in my serious thinking between 10 AM and 6 or 7 PM. That I can do. Had an emergency meeting immediately after work today and there were obviously some morning types there who were having a hard time planning and strategizing after a full day of work. I was at the top of my game and ready to go. Those 8 AM meetings I go to? I'm worthless. Let me drink my coffee and I'll get back to you in a couple of hours.
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