“Morning is wonderful. Its only drawback is that it comes at such an inconvenient time of day.”
Monday still carries a bit of gloom about it even though I’ve been retired for so long. The Monday horror of the alarm abruptly pulling me from dreamland after two glorious days of sleeping in, the tiny Monday papers and the start of yet another work week dissipates slowly. It took 35 years for the weekday resentment to build, and the older I got, the more difficult it was to drag myself out of bed. I loved my job but, on Mondays, I loved it the least.
I am not a morning person. I love the late nights when I am the only one awake, and everything is quiet. When all the houses around me are dark, I feel as if the night is mine. I’d probably be a great vampire if they really existed. I’d have no problem sleeping all day; however, the biting and the blood would be drawbacks. In Ghana, I actually liked the mornings and didn’t need an alarm clock. The roosters worked just as well, maybe even better as they didn’t need electricity or batteries. It was in the mornings when my school compound came most alive. I could hear the swishing sounds of brooms as students cleaned and swept the grounds then I’d hear the water from the taps splashing into their buckets and the clangs as the students hauled their buckets to the stalls where they’d take their bucket baths. Little kids walked by on their to the primary school and greeted me as I sat outside to drink my coffee. The morning air was always the sweetest and the coolest.
I love mornings in other places, wherever I travel. I remember Santa Fe and getting to the square early in the morning where I sat and drank my coffee and watched the Indians set up their wares in front of the Governor’s Palace. I watched store owners sweep the walks in front of their establishments and realized sweeping is a universal. In Portugal I watched trucks unloading fish and produce in front of shops and stores. I ate fresh rolls and drank strong coffee as I walked. Most places are best seen in the early morning when people are going about their business and the day is unfolding.
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Tags: Alarm clock, coffee, Ghana, Monday, mornings, Portugal, sweet air
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July 2, 2012 at 12:43 pm
Love the title quote, so true.
My mornings (as an extreme night owl):
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lsr9byPwVv1qb2vmjo1_500.png
July 2, 2012 at 1:25 pm
Birgit,
I am definitely the dog on the right. I need my morning coffee almost as soon as I crawl out of bed!
July 2, 2012 at 1:16 pm
I’m a morning person and loves the mornings for almost the same reasons You love the nights 🙂 No one is awake but me and my dogs and everything is quiet. I especially liked the mornings in Paris, before the alarm of million of people going to work started.
That first cup of coffee at some café on a side street. Few things are better than that 🙂
Mondays has never been any problem for me but Tuesdays! I can’t stand them and most of my work friends think the same. On Mondays we still have some weekend in our bodies, Wednesdays are in the middle of the week. Thursdays are almost Fridays and Fridays are weekend 🙂 But Tuesdays?? Nothing 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
July 2, 2012 at 1:27 pm
Christer,
I love all those morning pictures of yours, especially the animals you see on your walks, but. like you, I find the mornings when I’m away the best time to see the local scene before the tourists wake up.
Monday was always a drag. Getting up at 5:15, especially on cold, dark mornings was a struggle.
July 2, 2012 at 1:41 pm
It’s a bit funny really, I hate big cities still I loved the mornings in Paris 🙂 Well I love Paris any time of the day to be honest, perhaps all the fumes makes my head a bit foggy 🙂
July 3, 2012 at 10:45 am
Christer
I am so with you on your comments about big cities in the morning, love to wander the streets find a coffee shop and a newspaper stand. I am staying with my sister near London for the Olympic Games and will be up early and heading to the High Street to pick up the early morning papers.
As for Paris, the D’Aubusson Hotel on the left bank, is the perfect place for wandering over to the Deux Magots heck there is even a Starbucks in walking distance 🙂
July 2, 2012 at 3:43 pm
Hi Kat,
I’ve managed to get rid Monday morning blues. I still have a knee-jerk resentment of having to attend some function on a week-end. How dare they mess up my days off! Like I don’t have any other days off during the week. 🙂
Mornings are my time of day. I’m usually awake by 5 AM at the latest but I am a huge fan of lounging around in bed for a fair amount of time before actually getting up. I can indulge myself now that I’m retired.
Rocky is not a morning dog. He doesn’t get moving until around 9 AM at the earliest and then only if he happens to be awake enough to hear something interesting. After that he lounges around on the stairs for an hour or so while he observes the neighborhood through the window. We make a good mix, I think. 😀
It’s raining right now but at least it’s cooler.
Enjoy the day.
July 2, 2012 at 7:10 pm
Hi Caryn,
I hardly remember which day of the week it is and have to think about it when I wake up but Mondays still have a bi of a hangover.
This time of year I hate everything which takes me out of the AC or off the deck. Even though I might have just one item on my dance card I have to force myself to go. I’m very possessive of my time.
Gracie has driven me crazy lately about mornings. She’ll jump out of bed and scratch the bed to get me up at some ungodly hour. I drag myself downstairs and let her out then go back to bed-she comes right back in and follows me upstairs. I want to break her paw!
No rain, and I just turned on my AC. I came back from an errand and was sweating and uncomfortable. I think it’s the humidity which could mean rain!
July 2, 2012 at 7:11 pm
Christer,
I too love the mornings in foreign cities.
July 2, 2012 at 7:15 pm
What wonderful memories. Mondays of course are always a drag when, like me, still in the rat race. Although this will be a sleeper week in my trade. July 4th falling in mid week only signals the Charter Fishing Boats to maximize their 36 hour tours for big bucks. Every one of them is book through Sunday at the Cape and down at Sebastian Inlet. The forecast couldn’t be better. We will do the pool party thing which has become a ritual for the 4th but started because the grandies were too young to wait out Disney. Here’s to you having a great 4th!
July 2, 2012 at 7:36 pm
Z&Me,
Thunder showers in the afternoon are the forecast for the 4th. That will put a real crimp on barbecues.
The crowds started this past weekend. Every breakfast place on Sunday morning had full lots and long lines. It is definitely the tourist season!
July 2, 2012 at 8:53 pm
I used to NOT be a morning person and enjoyed sleeping late. Now that I am older I can’t sleep past 6 in the morning. I don’t need an alarm clock or a rooster because my internal clock is up and ready to go regardless of what my mind thinks. I have been working on a Monday through Friday 9 to 5 schedule for the last ten years and have become accustomed to the banker’s hours. Before I worked any schedule with two days off the week some of which were not consecutive days off. There are times when I miss leaving for work when the rest of the world is coming home for dinner and driving home after midnight. My body might rebel if I had to put in those kind of days and changing hours at the ripe old age of 65.
Today was cloudy with some rain in the area which kept the temperature in the low nineties.
July 2, 2012 at 9:08 pm
Hi Bob,
My body seems to demand 8 hours of sleep. All the years I worked I must have been sleep deprived as I never got 8. It seems I have had no trouble sleeping beyond my usual work time of 5am. Now I get up between 7:30 and 9 depending on when I went to bed.
I’m glad you got rain!
We were in the 80’s today.
July 5, 2012 at 8:59 am
I agree, I’ve always enjoyed early mornings no matter where I’ve been but here. The rising of the locals going about their business or the sheer quietness of a remote Korean morning watching the frost melt from the tiled roofs always made me wish it could be that way all day and forever.
I miss the early morning rising of the roosters in the PI. Here, they don’t have that many and besides all the buildings are thick cement to keep the outside out. AND it is beginning to be over 100F all night long. I am of course glad to not have to try to sleep in that, but my mornings are not how I would like them to be. I miss the activity. The quiet here is very quiet, until the grand child awakes and starts to demand her breakfast. I think I am getting a little old for that. I do like to see her waking up though. I have time for that now. More so than when my kids were that age. And that seems to make a bit of a difference.
Still, I like my mornings.
Carl
July 5, 2012 at 9:13 am
Carl,
It’s wonderful to have time to watch your grandchildren grow. My sister loves having hers stay at her house.
Ghana too is really hot but in the dry season. Their houses in the towns are cement blocks while in the villages they’re clay compounds. There are chickens wandering all over the villages, and the roosters are darn noisy. I had chickens of my own and the rooster got annoying as he was in the backyard crowing for all he was worth.
I just came inside from standing on the deck in the cool of the morning. It will soon get hot, through nowhere your temperature.