In the morning I wake up faithfully around five minutes before my alarm goes off. I don’t know why, it has always been this way. In high school I didn’t even have an alarm despite having to go to zero hour class and teenagers famously sleeping late. When I worked Costco mornings my alarm told me that I had twenty minutes till I had to clock in, I would always be awake to hear it already. Today’s alarm tells me it is six and that means I have about thirty or thirty-five minutes to leave my house to comfortably make the commute to work with out stressing on the drive. Ill spend twenty minutes scrolling every form of social media I can, five more going to the bathroom and weighing myself, seven minutes getting dressed after looking for a pair of pants I forgot was dirty, four more minutes grabbing my work things, and finally ten minutes searching for my keys. I left them in the pants I wore yesterday. I decide to give up finding my wallet and just promise to not buy anything today, that’s probably better anyway.

I work a nine-to-five job now. Its interesting, I have worked quite a few alternate schedules already and I miss not having to battle with everyone else doing things on this standard time. But nights left me tired. Nine-to-five means that you go to work at seven and leave at four. The eight hour day does not include a lunch hour, so I will be at work for nine of my waking hours. Work this month has been slow, incredibly slow. I would try to fly under the radar and relax, but I feel like people are watching me not work. Also every day I get little done is a little more of my job I forget how to do, I’m a little worried that when it picks back up I’ll have forgotten how to do even basic things since I’m still so new. I’ll walk around and ask my coworkers if they need any help instead. I use corporate language. I tell them I have the “capacity” to cover some of their meetings, and I say I can “take point” on a new project. Work is still slow when I do this, I can’t trick very many people into letting me do their work for them.

Lunch hour is at noon, I’ll take my book and head down to the café. I work on the top floor, and I’ll end up stopping at every floor on the way down as the elevator picks up more people. I fill a cup with whatever diet soda I feel like having today, and silently wonder if this “aspartame is a possible carcinogen” is something I should pay more attention too. Sixteen ounces of diet doctor pepper. Ill grab a banana if they have some, or an apple if not and head outside to the courtyard. I sit in the courtyard for lunch no matter how hot it is because I feel like I don’t get enough Sun. My cubicle is three away from the windows. Mike says its fine cause it gets hot in the Sun next to them anyway. On a good day at lunch, I can read about fifty pages. That was about a quarter of annihilation, but its not even ten percent now that I’m reading last argument of kings. I’ll stop at every floor on the way up as the elevator drops off more people.

The last three hours of the day after I get back to my desk are always faster than the first five. The office is a little louder now, more people get up and move around. At three the silent battle is won and now more conversations are social than work related. I like this. Now when I’m not getting much done, I’m just another person easing into the evening. At three fifty-two I wonder if its too early to shut off my computer and slowly pack my things. Some people are already down to their cars. When I do leave I fiddle with the remote start on my car, I get it running and cooling down a full ten seconds before I could have if I just did it normal.

In my car I head home, it’s the opposite direction from the gym. In the ten minutes I spent looking for my keys I could have thrown shorts and a new t-shirt in a bag. The drive home is always longer than the drive to work. I’ll get mad at someone for driving slow on Coors with no car in front of them. When I get home from work I change in to shorts, I always wear long pants to work. Four forty-five. Its time to make dinner.

I like to cook. I’ll make chicken, eggs, cheese, and a tortilla in every possible combination over this week. Every other recipe requires some ingredient I have no chance of finishing before it goes bad. I’ll eat a cup of yoghurt while the chicken cooks. I bought a food thermometer this week. Its fun to use. I’ll eat standing up. I don’t know why. The food is good, I’ll debate if I should pack up the rest of the chicken or eat it now. I box it up in these little Ikea containers I have, I wish I had more, but I don’t live where there’s an Ikea anymore and I don’t think the shipping is worth it.

Its six now that leaves me four hours before I need to get to bed if I want to get eight hours of sleep. On the night this can be many things. Sometimes I’ll spend this time disc golfing, I want to score zero on the Roosevelt Park course this year. Rosie is the same course I have played nearly every round I have played. Sometimes the night can be scrolling short form media till eleven thirty before forcing myself to bed, those are my least favorite. Tonight, I’ll get on the Xbox with my friends.

I’ll get off the Xbox around nine fifteen, I don’t want the light from the screen to mess with my sleep. I immediately pick up my phone. When I lay down I’ll get up four more times because I don’t remember to do things all at once. The first time I get up to use the restroom, then get up again to fill up a cup of water and wash my hands, third time I brush my teeth, fourth I wash my hands again.

I’ll sleep well tonight. I smile as I fall asleep.