Are You A Morning Person?

Answering the questions people have
asked (or I have asked myself) about
my past, present, or future.

Ask me after I have my coffee. For as long as I can remember, I have never been one eager to rise early and often. I relish those times when I can sleep in, not having to get up by the clock. That didn't help me in my grade-school years, when the Queen Mother used to complain about how I piddled around and didn't get up and at 'em.

When I started working nights and weekends in my first TV job, sleeping in wasn't a problem. Neither was getting up. Getting to sleep could be challenging, though, with my adrenaline still pumping from getting a newscast on the air. I would get done with work at 10:30, get home around 11, and not really get to bed until after midnight. Having an internet connection only made my night-owl habits worse. I could spend hours in front of the computer screen, reading all sorts of things online before finally going to bed. It went on this way for nearly two decades.

Now that I'm back to a dayside shift, I have to draw some lines on my night surfing. That line sometimes looks like a curve, and I'll break my deadline more times than I would like to admit. I'm told the blue light from LCD screens doesn't help with sleep. But I get rested enough, and the coffee takes care of what the sleep didn't.

I don't miss working nights. Nights came with other challenges and fears. I'm not working banker's hours, but a 9 to 6 job is about the closest I'll get. Just keep that coffee coming.