Beginning to stabilize

Ahhh, I’m finally starting to settle into a routine.

The apartment has been lived in for nearly two months. Morning rituals are set. I rise at nearly the same moment every day. Roommate Adrian’s cat does her “pounce on my feet” thing every morning once my radio sounds. Cute.

There’s a rhythm at work. Class in the morning, lunch, grading in the afternoon.

After arriving home in early evening, there’s the run/weight thing for an hour/hour thirty. Then more grading until 10-ish. Then the free time before bed.

For as hopelessly impulsive as I am, I find a lot of comfort in routine. Not that I’m a glutton for excessive work loads, but if there’s a general pattern of tasks and time, I grow at ease, knowing what to expect during the days. It’s how I got through Iraq with its seven-days-a-week schedule, and even how I got through Hood with the “we expect you here at night and weekends” approach. Getting a groove helps a lot.

When things like new mandatory PT hours at work come into play, I’m surprised at how frustrated I get, having been removed from my normal pattern. I never saw myself as one of those OCD types, but I might have more of that in my makeup than I’d originally thought.

I don’t sweat small, temporary changes, but I’m not a fan of larger mix-ups—things like moving, daylight savings time (make me run in the dark…thanks America), etc.

Also adding to my general serenity is my growing comfort with the paperwork side of work. I’m obviously not as quick as many of my coworkers, but I hope I’ll shave some time off of my evenings for the occasional weeknight out. I still haven’t experienced the full-bore blast of grading our “feature” assignments, where students turn in exceptionally long stories. I’m sure there will be some later nights, but I’ll get those times down too. Just practice, I’d imagine.

So maybe it’s the muscle relaxers talking (fyi, trying to “max” on a Nautilus machine just tears muscle), but I’m definitely feeling the calm, healing light of the universe and all that crap.

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