Mundane Monday - My Morning Routine

Don't be scared off by the title of this entry - I wont go into the nitty-gritty details of how I wash my face and brush my teeth or put on my make-up. But you might be surprised to hear that I have a very hectic 3 hours before work begins nearly every morning!! Yes, I said 3 hours.

5:00 am - My alarm on my cell phone goes off for the first time (Since moving to my place I've started using my cell phone instead of my old clock radio that I've used ever since moving to Utah. . . and I think I like it.)

5:05 am - Alarm goes off again and I snooze it again. :)

5:10 am - Repeat. Ha! I just can't get out of bed!! (I once had a real roommate, the kind where you actually share a room with her, ask me to not hit snooze ever again because it woke her up too. I quit cold turkey. As soon as we were no longer roommates, I went right back to hitting snooze again.)

5:15 am - Alarm goes off for the last time. I actually get up this time! But not with ease, let me tell you. I lay in bed for a minute or two convincing myself that I will actually be glad that I got up and went to the gym and that it will be so worth it. So I roll out of bed after some serious persuasion.

Then I immediately make my bed so I won't be tempted to get back in it. Get into my gym clothes, put my hair in a pony-tail, brush my teeth, and then fill my water bottle.

5:30ish am - Hop in my car. Turn up the volume on my current favorite song and listen/sing to it all the way to the gym. Yes, my gym is only one song away from my house. So awesome. I don't know if I would actually go to the gym if it wasn't so close to my house.

5:35ish am - Get on the elliptical at Golds. And read. Read? Yeah. I love it. I get so much reading done while at the gym. I read the month's Ensign, Skiing magazine, Backpacker magazine, my current book or even the Book of Mormon. (My ward has had a challenge recently to read the whole Book of Mormon from November 1 through Christmas Eve - and let me tell you: it has been a challenge. But my reading time at the gym has saved me - I listen to it on my iPod and read it while on the elliptical.)

6:25 am - Do some strength training and try to avoid the creepy, nasty guy that seems to pick up on every girl there. Who does that at that time of day?! It use to be the time where only serious people went to the gym and no one talks to any one - in other words, my kind of time of day. But yeah, one time I was writing in my exercise journal and this creepy guy, thinking he was all funny and suave, asked me if that was where I was taking down orders. I don't think I even smiled at him (who smiles at that time in the morning?) and promptly shut his remark down. Ha!

6:45 am - Wrap up my stretching and cooling and listening to relaxing music (my favorites: anything off the Pride and Prejudice soundtrack, Norah Jones, Isreal Kamakawiwo'ole's Somewhere Over the Rainbow, Eva Cassidy, and Enya). And then I drive home and listen to the same song I listened to on the way to the gym - probably. :o)

6:55 am - Hop in the shower and begin getting ready for the day.

7:40 am - Pack my bag with my purse, book I plan to read during lunch, lunch, snacks and breakfast.

7:45 am - Drive to work. While driving - eat my oatmeal (I also drive a manual transmission so you can imagine the fun of driving, changing gears, avoiding pedestrians, speeding through yellow lights, and eating oatmeal all at the same time. Consequentially, I like my oatmeal thick so it won't slop on me while I drive and eat at the same time.) Here is your oddity for you: the street I drive to get to work has 4 lanes, the "fast" lane is always slow even if it has the appearance of going faster. I've learned this over the 4.5 years of working at BYU and living in the same area: stay in the "slow" lane until the very last minute and then get over to turn left onto campus. It's an art. Believe me.

8:00 am - Start work!!