Early mornings

And by 'early mornings' I mean EARLY MORNINGS. Try starting your day at 5:30, waaaay before the sun is even an insinuation of pinkish light in the horizon.

5:30 AM in the winter is, literally, the middle of the night. Even the proverbial 'early birds' are still cozy and warm, catching Zs in their little twig-made homes. Aside from one or two other poor sleep-deprived innocents that have to start their days this early, I'm basically alone onthe drive to work. Now, this is one perk: no traffic makes for a home-to-work trip in less than 10 minutes (at least 15 on regular work hours). The other perk: I get to leave early. In theory, anyway.

That's where the perks stop.

The worst is not the utter inability to get out of bed, or the inescapable dependence on massive doses of caffeine just to keep myself from dozing off throughout the day. The WORST part is that, when I'm forced to start my day this early, I end up operating with half a brain ALL DAY LONG. It's like my poor braincells are in such pain and shock from the attack on my biological clock, that they refuse to work properly. I figure that as far as they're concerned, THEIR sleep has been interrupted, therefore they flip me the finger and go back to bed. What's left is only a minimal crew of neurones on reserve willing to complete the bare essentials as far as brain function goes: breathing, walking, driving, getting coffee, completing repetitive tasks... All hope for creative thought is stunted until the evening, and then we (braincells and me) are so tired that we can't really make much of it.

Oh well. This shift is temporary.

This shift is temporary this shift is temporary this shift is temporary...