Morning Routine

I have class at 8AM every day this semester. On the weekends, I have to be at drumline by 9AM. I don't have any time to sleep in, ever, and I always have to be ready to go early in the morning. So I try to plan out a morning routine so that I can sleep as much as possible and still get to class on time.

The first couple of days I was here, Bill [my roommate] wasn't here, so I didn't have to worry about waking him up or disturbing him or anything. But starting on Monday morning, he was there, and I had to try to be very quiet about all my movements so I wouldn't wake him. I think I woke him up the first morning with my alarm, but I've turned it on "Soft" now so I think that's a lot less likely to wake him up.

So basically I get up at 7:10 every day. I put my blanket underneath my feather comforter so people don't see it or touch it. My dresser is in the closet near the back of the room [near the door that leads to the hallway] so I go over there and get dressed in the dark. Jeans are in the bottom two drawers, so I pull something out of there. I can't see what color or design are on my shirts anymore because the lights are off so I don't wake Bill, so I never really know what shirt I'm going to be wearing. I don't put on socks yet because I have to go to the bathroom and they'd get wet and gross.

After I'm dressed, I grab my cell phone and keys and pencils and wallet and put them in my pocket, then pick up a towel and my bathroom caddy thing. Then I have to get the milk out of the refridgerator, but the door opens towards Bill, so I lean over it, open it as little as possible, get the milk, and then close the door and hope I didn't wake Bill with the refridgerator light. I used to take the cereal box with me, but now I just pour the cereal in the bowl the night before and take the bowl with me.

Then I go out my door and to the right, down about three doors, to the pressing room, which is where we keep the iron and vacuum and things like that for everyone in the dorm to share. The door is usually closed and the light is usually off and it's usually empty, so it's not weird to eat my breakfast in there. Usually, when I sit down, I also take my retainer out [I usually haven't done so by then]. Then I pour the milk in the bowl and have my cereal, and usually I check to see if I got any text messages overnight at this time [usually 7:17] and answer them. I usually eat Life, Frosted Mini-Wheats, Smart Start, or Cheerios.

There's a sticker on the light switch that says "LIGHTS OUT!" It makes me feel guilty when I leave the light on when I go to the bathroom, but with the light off, I would see that I left the milk in there. The bathroom is really far away, so going back to my room then to the bathroom would be really inconvenient.

There's usually someone else in the bathroom. It makes me feel a little self-conscious because I shower at night then sleep on a pillow, so my hair is totally ridiculous, but I guess people just have to deal with that.

I think this is the worst part of my morning routine so far. So usually I do my hair in the morning by just soaking it with water, drying it off a little bit, shaking my head, and being done. But the sinks here are totally defective. Instead of having one faucet for the water to come out of, the sinks have TWO faucets. One of them is for hot water, the other is for cold water. So on the left side of the sink, you can get water to come out at about 160 degrees. On the right side is water coming out at about 50 degrees. There is no inbetween. You can't mix them. They come out of different faucets and you can't moderate the temperature. So when I needed to do my hair in the morning, what was there to do? I had to either burn my head off or freeze it off.

For the first few days, I just froze it. It sucked but at least I didn't have to go to the hospital. One day I asked Bill, my RA, what to do, and he said to just stick my head in the shower. So I put a towel behind my head and wrapped myself up in the shower curtain and did that once I got the water the right temperature, and it got my hair wet, but it got my feet and jeans and body soaked, too. I had to go back to the room and change my pants because they were so wet. So that didn't work.

After that I think I complained to Gina about it, and she said just turn on both faucets and close the drain and dunk my head in it basically. I didn't really want to try that, but I didn't have much of a choice, so I did it. It does actually work, but it makes me feel really self-conscious. What would you think of a kid that just shoves his head in a sinkful of water every day? Yeah, me too. Oh well. At least my hair looks good.

Peace out.