Well, I'm back on track with waking up nice and early in the morning. It really does help make me feel just so much more productive, and allows me to get some precious podcast listening time in. I'm up to 17 shows I'm subscribed too, and most of them are an hour or more per episode. It's getting a little bit crazy trying to keep up! I'll put up a list of shows I listen to on my about page.
In any case, you won't know about how I fell off the wagon for about a week with my early morning rises, since this is my first blog post! I've been trying to convince myself to write it for ages, and I kept putting it off, because I wasn't sure how to do the introduction, or whether or not I even should do one. In the end I went with my gut and decided to just write a post, but as we can see, that fell off the rails about one paragraph in. So, I will conclude this little micro-introduction post by saying thank you for reading, and I promise not to be this rambling in every post!
So, waking up in the morning. I've always wanted to be a morning person, and I never thought that I would be able to, but once I forced myself to wake up in those cold morning hours before 6 am I got a little bit addicted. That's been a theme lately in my life, becoming addicted to things. I recently started drinking black coffee, and though I always looked down on coffee drinkers in my younger days, I have since learned the error of my ways and now embrace the dark, steamy embrace of black coffee. I guess that's probably helped a lot in my ability to get up in the morning and go for a run or a walk, but I honestly don't think it's a super big factor. Usually I don't have my coffee until several hours after I've woken up, around 8ish.
Side note: I ordered some new vacuum sealed water bottles along with a "cafe cap" so I could drink my new found obsession out of them. They are positively amazing and I can not recommend them enough. I've always been a bit of a water bottle enthusiast, but I'm just now getting into the steel, vacuum sealed craze, and I've got to say though they are expensive, they are totally worth it. One day I'll do a post where I review all my various water bottles and their strengths and weaknesses.
This is turning into a much longer story than I first anticipated, so I will digress. About 2 weeks ago I decided I was too tired to get up when my alarm went off. I had done a long run the day before and decided that since I didn't have anything to do, I could lay in bed. I didn't go back to sleep, instead preferring to browse Instagram and reddit and Twitter and reddit and Facebook and reddit, then I browsed reddit some more (I have a slight addiction to that too.) This turned out to be a slippery slope though, as I did the same thing the next morning when I was supposed to be running.
"It's fine." I told myself naively. "I'll just run tomorrow morning, missing a day won't kill me." Well, it didn't kill me, but it sure did kill my motivation. The next day I actually just turned off my alarm and went straight back to sleep! I know, right! Serious blunder. Then for the next 4 days I slept in and didn't exercise. I didn't shave, fell into a slump and a really shitty mood. It hurt my relationship with my mom, who I'm staying with until I leave for Germany (next post I'll explain this), and added 6 pounds back onto my body I had been working hard to lose in the previous weeks.
All is forgiven though, because as the wise and noble CGP Grey said in one of his podcast episodes, one of the most important skills to learn is the ability to get back on the wagon. Yesterday I woke up early and went for a 20 minute run, and today I woke up early to get a head start on some chores around the house. I had been at it for an hour when my mom woke up and we went for a walk. During this outing is when I discovered that her house is the breeding ground for a snail civilization. Seriously, these adorable little guys are littered all over her property and the grounds around her, including the walking trail that goes around the entire complex (I can only imagine the snail genocide that takes place here as careless walkers trample them).
I moved a few of my new slow, sticky friends off the path and away from the treading feet of us giant monkeys, but alas I was unable to save them all. There were too many, and too little time. To top all of this off I myself accidentally committed snail murder near the end of our walk, squashing the shell and the snail contained within. I raise my glass to you, my green skinned friend, and hope you find peace in snail heaven.
My day truly became very snail-y when I received some snail mail. I had ordered a custom keycap for my mechanical keyboard awhile ago and it finally arrived... in an enormous (relatively) box. Pictured you will see the single keycap sitting on top of the behemoth it arrived in. I mean, I'm grateful they went through these lengths to protect the product I ordered, but was it really necessary? The thing is metal, a padded envelope would have been more than enough.
I've included a picture of it on my keyboard. I know what you must be thinking, and yes, those are some bold keys. I've actually found them to be a tad too ostentatious for my liking and have a different, more subtle set on the way in the mail. I will be sure to post pictures when they arrive. As for the cthulhu key I ordered, it's a bit disappointing. The key itself is positively fantastic, the detail is great and the build quality is really solid. I just like it on the board a lot less that I thought I would. I'm also not as big a fan of the metal as I thought I would be. In any case, I'll definitely be keeping it and will probably through it on one of my older mechs for now, but it will not be going on my daily driver for the time being.
That's everything that's happened so far today. I'm picking up a good friend who's coming to visit for May long weekend at the airport in a few hours. For now though, I'll be signing off. I look forward to speaking to you all again sometime soon. Leave a comment with any of your thoughts, good or bad, if you'd like. Also, if you enjoyed reading, I would be forever grateful if you shared the blog on social media. I know, I get a bit annoyed when I hear this from others too, and I only want you to do it if you really enjoyed reading.
Cheers!