Thursday, July 1, 2010

Morning Reading


Every morning I get up and do pretty much the same thing. (There are only so many options in the getting-ready-for-work department, and I am quite the creature of habit.)

I wash my face, start brewing coffee, and put on my makeup. This all takes a grand total of maybe 15 minutes. Then I spend the rest of my morning reading the front page section of the newspaper while eating breakfast. 

Breakfast is exactly the same every morning: yogurt with frozen berries and Grape Nuts for crunch, and apple slices with peanut butter. And I’m not going to lie, if available, a breakfast cookie is totally acceptable as well.
After breakfast/newspaper, I get dressed, brush my teeth and hair, throw some lunch-ish food into my purse, and head out the door.

Except for some mornings, when inexplicably my routine doesn’t take as long as normal. In which case I may make the very dangerous move of lying down and reading my book for a bit before leaving.
This is not dangerous in the way you may suspect – there is absolutely no way I can fall back asleep after drinking the amount of coffee that accompanies my yogurt. The danger comes in the “reading my book” part. Because if it’s a good book, then those precious 10 minutes can stretch into 15…and then 20…and before I know it I’m running out the door to get to work on time.

That’s what I love about reading a good story – it can suck you in and make you never want to leave. I have quite the multi-tasking mind, so often while I’m reading a so-so book, I catch myself thinking about other stuff (what to bake next? What do I need to get done at work? Should I run today or tomorrow? How far? Do I need to do abs? What about my other job? What am I going to blog about next? What’s going on this weekend? Have I called this person/sent this email/etc? Welcome to the inside of my head. It’s a scary place!).
So I know a good book when my mind doesn’t wander at all – when I’m totally transported to wherever that story takes place and I’m 100% engaged.
Is this escapism? Maybe. But everyone needs a little escape sometimes. I take mine in the form of good literature!