Despite Wilbur's wakeup call at 5:16AM, I "slept in" this morning. I think I fed him his high fiber prescription cat food in my sleep. He didn't bother me again 'til 7:00. I fed him again and went back to sleep again. When I woke at 9:00 I was sure I had slept through my 11:00 therapy appointment and probably all of the day. I was quite relieved when I discovered it was only 9:00. I ought to either move the clock closer to the bed or sleep with a watch on so I can see the time without my glasses. My whole reason for putting the clock so far away was to force myself out of bed for early morning meetings when I was working by making it impossible to shut the alarm off from the bed. I don't need to do that now but I still keep the clock across the room from the bed. Of course the outlet near the bed is the only switched outlet in the room and I use it for the lamp but I suppose I could make it a non-switched outlet and have the convenient switch next to the door be connected to nothing.
I don't understand the rationale for the placement of any of the switches or outlets in this condo. Never did. Except maybe the one the stove plugs into. There is no switch near the kitchen door. I have to walk clear across the kitchen in the dark when I come in. Everyone's assigned parking space is in the back - that's where the damn lot is - so the architect's clearly intended people to go in and out through the kitchen door not the front door. For that matter the switches near the front door control the porch light and the hall light - not any of the room lights. There are no switches or outlets in the downstairs bathroom. The outlets in the kitchen are several feet from any place you might want to use a small appliance. I mean, not just me, but any rational person would not immediately think of placing the blender on the stove. Would they?
So, I'm in my usual "why can't you get up in the morning?" "why can't you act like a responsible grownup and accomplish six impossible things before breakfast?" mood that comes on whenever I feel sleepy in the morning or wake up unrested. "Janet, you'll never be able to get a job and function in the real world if you can't get up in the morning!" Gee, I was taught that as a kid and you know what? I made quite a success of myself anyway. The software biz never seemed to require gettting up early. Quality Management did of course require catching very early flights to customer sites and early morning conference calls to Japan to apologize (what quality managers really do is apologize to customers - a whole 'nother story). I survived. My rudimentary Japanese is much better when I'm sound asleep. And there's nothing like an early morning landing at Washington National airport to wake you up! I never had a problem being awake when I got to Arlington, I'll tell ya. Landing at Washington National is like a very scary carnival ride. Scarier than a scary carnival ride. So I managed to do all this cool stuff reasonably well while suffering from "not a morning person doesn't even begin to cover it" syndrome. But now that I'm a fulltime bohemian I still agonize about my "oversleeping".
So, if I don't have a job why do I need to get up in the morning? I guess I read somewhere that if you're unemployed it is vitally important to get up early, put on a suit, and leave the house to look for work in order to stave off depression and loss of self-esteem or worse. Geez. I haven't worn a suit since I quit work except at Kathleen's funeral. I got up early in the Galapagos for the best wildlife photo-ops. But other than that, getting up early and wearing suits haven't been part of my burnout recovery program. I do leave the house almost every day for coffee at Starbuck's (formerly the Coffee Connection) and the daily chance to hunt for Unitarians (my niece calls them my boyfriends, I call them the Unitarians, the Starbucks crew calls them the morning discussion group). I do a shitload of errands and the errands never seem done. My therapist says one can't depend on errands to give meaning and structure to one's life but I'd love to know how I ever kept up a minimal level of errand-doing, housekeeping, adult daily living activitities when I worked at BT. I get up in the morning to feed Wilbur, do errands, drink coffee, and look for Unitarians. About as much structure as today's fatigue/sleepiness level will allow...