It's 9AM

Does it take time to make time?

Chris Lowry

May 16, 2023

Oh great, here we go again, she said.

It’s my fault.

I am a creature of routine and habit.

After a long day I come in the house and put my keys and wallet in the same spot.

I do this so I spend zero time looking for them when I leave the house.

I put my boots in the same spot.

Same reason.

I follow a loose sort of schedule in my head, and I like to eat around 6:30.

Simple really.

I get home at 6, slip into running shorts and it takes roughly thirty minutes to make dinner.

Then a few hours to decompress and bed before I do it all again the next day.

Mornings are when my mind is most active.

Possibly aided by coffee.

Copious amounts of coffee.

And yesterday it hit just right and the brain went into overdrive.

I like it when creative sparks fly even if all I can do is make note and take notes and plan for the doing in the sacred time off.

But when I walked in the door, I got a schedule handed to me.

All verbal.

Probably snippy after an equally long day and I was uptight from traffic and tired, and not in the best receptive mood to hear much of anything.

Two snips do not make a right.

I probably growled we eat at 5:30.

Hangry.

My own fault because I don’t eat much during the day.

But you know how it is when you have it in your head that things are going to go one way and then the world doesn’t follow the script you wrote.

Everybody around you going off book and off script and doing improv.

10 wanted to play catch, and Mom wanted a few moments to herself and I wanted to stick to a routine we normally followed on Mondays.

The rest of the weekdays were different.

I get a few moments alone on them.

It was a perfect storm of missed expectation and bad tone of voice and poor choice of words that reminded me that even creatures of habit need to be pushed out of that routine.

My routine to drive to work is almost the same.

I take different routes on some days to mix things up and to notice the world around me.

My routine at the job is always the same because I don’t dictate it, and there is little variation from the monotony.

Weekends are different because we’re going to a different ballpark, but the truck is packed the same way, and I get stuff ready to go in the same order.

And when I work at home, the real work, the important work, I am most productive following a routine.

All worked out over time and practice and designed to maximize results in short periods of time.

But I know no plan survives contact with the enemy.

Especially when that enemy is self expectation and self created.

I should just roll with it and let the good times roll.

And I did.

After changing shoes and changing clothes and pouting for a few moments about stupid responsibility and stupid adulthood.

Then I apologized and played catch until it was time to cook, and then cooked dinner which was on the table thirty minutes after I had it slotted in my mind.

Thirty minutes.

I’ve been put off time by half that just on dumb traffic alone.

Hardly worth the mental effort or energy to get worked up over or spend any time on.

It made me think about all the time I’ve wasted getting hangry over nothing over the course of an adult lifetime.

All solved with a simple snack or bigger lunch.

There’s always time for that.

9AM

It's 9AM

Does it take time to make time?

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