portrait of a morning

my alarm clock went off at the ungodly hour of 6 a.m. this morning. there was no happy Texas sunshine streaming in through my blinds to greet me. three little birds were not singing on my doorstep. instead, I fumbled around in the dark to snooze once (okay, twice) before dragging my ass out of bed and into the shower. it reminded me of winter mornings back home when I'd purposely get ready in the dark for as long as humanly possible so I could delay the painful moment when I had to turn on the excruciatingly cruel bathroom light. in fact, I did the same thing this morning... washed my face in the dark... peed in the dark... brushed my teeth in the dark... hell, even put in my contacts in the dark. I didn't turn on the light until right before I jumped in the shower because I had done a hair experiment the night before (sounds serious, doesn't it?) and I decided that my desire to see the results was worth the pain of turning on the light (in case you were wondering: the hair experiment was going to sleep with my hair in a bunch of braids to see if that would make it curly. it sort of worked but the OCD part of me was bothered that the top half and very ends were straight, so I don't think the plan will live past the experimental stage).

thankfully, the shower worked its usual magic of erasing the last remnants of sleep and getting me fully awake for the day ahead... although let's not get ahead of ourselves... it's not like I jumped out of the water singing songs or doing jumping jacks or anything. I had my eyes open -- that was victory enough. the usual post-shower routine followed... apply lotion... blow hair dry while checking the crackberry... apply make-up... stand in closet half-naked while I try and scrounge an acceptable outfit together... make bed and roll out.

once I was out and about (with a steaming vanilla non-fat latte from my neighborhood coffee joint in hand... the shower can only do so much sometimes), I felt a lot better and drove to work with the windows open and NPR on the radio. I got a sweet spot in the parking garage, headed into my office, collected my laptop and notebook and project folder and crackberry and trekked over to the main building for my 7:30 am meeting (WHY GOD WHY).

the meeting was a success. they loved most of the work, and it's all systems go. boo yeah, etc. I had another meeting immediately following that one... which brings me to now. 10:23 a.m. it feels like I've been here for an entire morning, although I must (begrudgingly) say that I've already gotten a lot done.

the main problem of getting such an early start? is that it's only 10:23 (well, 10:24 now) and I'm already starving for lunch. if I didn't have another meeting in five minutes I would so be at whole foods right now buying a slice of pizza or something.

mmm... pizza...