More time in your day.

My friend from college, Maryellen, is my friend with benefits. She provides me with health insurance, vacation time and a great retirement plan.

I have been waking up a half hour early each morning this week and I’m really liking it. Here is my normal going to bed and waking up routine:

10:30pm-12:00am Go to sleep
2:00am Wake up to use the bathroom. Take a sip of water using my hands as a cup.
5:00am Wake up and become relieved that it is only 5am
8:00am Get out of bed. Think of what I’m going to wea.Head to brush my teeth
8:15am Eat breakfast [either cereal or a granola bar]
8:25am-8:32am Leave the house
8:36am Catch the bus
9:21-10am Arrive to work

As you can see from my precise schedule, this routine only give me a half hour to get ready in the morning. Once I woke up at 8:15am and got ready and out the door in ten minutes. I was pretty impressed with myself. Once I woke up at 8:45am, which threw my schedule completely off. I remember looking at the time on my phone, seeing it was a quarter to nine, and just being like, “wait, what time do I normally get up?” I couldn’t even remember. The funny thing about that, is I was only 10 minutes late to work.

This week I have been waking up at 7:30am. Two days, I woke up even earlier [to drive my mom to Starbucks before she went to work]. So far, I like getting up earlier. Here is my reformed waking up schedule.

7:30am Wake up. Think of what I’m going to wear and head to brush my teeth
8:00am FREE TIME!!!

I have about 25-30 extra minutes in the morning to relax, eat cereal, and watch television. I don’t have to limit it to those activities, you see, but can also do things like read the mail, take the dog for a walk, go for a run, bake pumpkin chocolate chip cookies [shoutout Marie], soundproof the downstairs of the house and play the piano…or vacuum…or scream loudly to release stress.

In my extra half hour time today, I started a load of laundry [with really hot water that made me nervous about my clothes shrinking] and watched more than half, but not all of last night’s episode of 30 Rock [which was taped live!!!]

I have mixed emotions about that show [sometimes I think it’s funny, sometimes I don’t] but it was definitely funny last night. Here is why:

1. It was live and that always wracks one’s nerves
2. Julia Louis Dreyfus played Tina Fey in the “flashback” scenes
3. Alex Baldwin said, “I swear on my mother’s grape” [instead of “grave”]
4. Whenever they “went to commercial”, someone from Saturday Night Live did the commercial

It was halfway through the episode when I realized something that would make my like 73% better…I want to be Tina Fey. Amy Poehler used to be my home girl, but after today’s episode, Tina Fey is…plus I can never remember how to spell “Poehler”.

I was sitting in my basement, in the semi-dark, as I took this picture. I was laying on the pullout bed that was still pulled out from last week. I tried taking a picture of myself for documentation purposes, but the flash was too bright for my morning eyes. I could not keep my eyes open…

…at first. But then I tried with every muscle in my eyes.

It was a true Fall-Time Miracle. Facebook Defaulttt.

I’m going to go to bed a half hour earlier tonight so I make up for the time I lost today…NOT.