A Somewhat Different Daily Routine

The first refractions of light haven’t even begun to peer through the shades as Jeannie gets up. The house is so quiet, every tiny step sounds as if she is an elephant stomping around, and everything she touches or sets down seems to reverberate loudly, as she tries to quietly mill around without awaking the others, who are enjoying the benefits of having no internal alarm clock. Of course, there are benefits of that in that many things can be accomplished by being the first to arise, but it can also be a double-edged sword in that everyone begins to enjoy the fact that you are getting things accomplished before they arise and therefore it’s off their to-do list, but that’s another story altogether. Every morning, this is the way – she wakes up, sometimes lying in the bed hoping to convince her tired self to sleep a little longer, only to give up and start her morning routine of trying to take care of all the things she left undone the day before. She has done this since she graduated from college, (Let's be honest - even the most well-adjusted college students would not purposely wake up without an alarm!) She does use an alarm clock, (or should we say, she has one by her bed which can produce the needed sound to awaken someone,) and she snoozes it at times, but it really is an illusion that she has gained herself extra sleep. The truth is that daily she opens her eyes moments before the alarm goes off, never to fully commit back to sleep, until she gets up. This morning, however, is different than usual. It is not mere minutes before the alarm. It is roughly two hours before the alarm, and it is the third awakening and attempt at returning to sleep. When she realizes that she is just marking time, fighting the awakening, she finally gets up. This morning she has joined the world of steroids. These are not the performance enhancing steroids that get so many athletes into trouble, although it seems on these, she might possibly compete in a race and win a world record. NO, no no...not those! These are the steroids for medical purposes. If you have never had these, the best description would be a medication that can stop an asthma attack, help with lupus and many other chronic illnesses, but has a grocery list of side effects, including weight gain, irritability and being hyped up to the point that one could clean an entire city block if their body had the physical strength to handle it! Added to this new situation is the fact that Jeannie is a visitor at her brother’s new house. As she quietly wanders through the house, she makes her way to the kitchen and decides to take advantage and help them by washing the dishes. Once done with that, she will get a shower. After two days of driving, this will be of benefit to all around, since people might enjoy her company more if she cleans off the travel smell. Before she does that, she decides to get some water from the fancy water dispenser in the fridge. Jeannie is not known for her grace, so wandering around an unfamiliar house, while attempting to be quiet can prove quite hilarious, as she trips, runs into and over furniture and carpet. If that's not bad enough, she has a case of fumble fingers and the dropsies. If that's not bad enough, it is also a problem when you are the one who chose to miss the tutorial your brother on how to get filtered water from the fridge, because you assumed it could not be that complicated, and you even wondered why it was even necessary to stop what you were doing to see the lesson. Pride and stubbornness lead us to unnecessarily difficult situations at times. It is quite a humbling experience to stand staring at a fridge, behind, under and through every compartment, looking for something that even looks remotely like a water dispenser, and realize you could have prevented this in the first place. In reality (as she would find out later from her son,) it was a teeny, tiny spout in the side of the door, something one could have their hand over and never notice. Having failed the water search, she decides to head to the shower. Again, this is a new house she has never been in previously. She gathers her things and thinks of the benefits of getting showered and ready before anyone else arises. She starts the water and leans down to push a button or such to activate the shower. She sees nothing and proceeds to contort her body to find any sort of “something” to activate the shower head. Clearly, there has to be a way, because people are not in the habit of installing shower heads for decoration. As she stands there, she’s thinking how ridiculous it is that she can’t figure this out. Does she throw back on her dirty clothes and give up? The prospect of waking her brother for directions doesn’t seem to be a good idea, as I am sure he prefers to sleep until the alarm goes off. The good news is that she found the way to start the shower, but it added to the growing list of reasons she would have loved to stay in bed. After her shower, the sun is FINALLY sending little bits of light through the window. At least with sunlight, there is the slightest possibility of others waking soon. Already she feels like she has had a full day. She sits back and tries to relax a bit. She knows now what to expect for the coming days of being on this medicine, and thinks of things she might do tomorrow when she awakens early, because it seems that's going to be the new routine for at least a week or two. Her hopes, though, are that it will be a little less eventful than this morning.