Tuesday, February 02, 2010

Compatibility

My wife Jilda and I are two of the most compatible people on the planet.
Our views on politics, religion, family, friends, hobbies, music, and food are almost interchangeable.
Everything seems to be in sync except our circadian rhythms.
I’m a morning person and she’s a, “DON’T EVEN LOOK MY WAY UNTIL I’VE HAD A POT OF COFFEE,” person.
I wake up around 4:30 a.m. almost every morning and when my feet hit the floor, my mind is already in high gear.
I’m ticking through the things I need to do, working out schedules, contingency plans, and what-if scenarios before the coffee pot stops gurgling.
My lovely spouse rarely gets up until around 5:30 a.m. and she is the polar opposite.
If you could do a cat scan of her brainwave activity at that time of morning, it would be just a tad slower than frozen molasses. 
We’ve been married for almost 36 years and you’d think by now I would have learned to let her wake up before peppering her with “thoughts of the day”, but NO.
This morning after she got up, I poured us a cup of coffee, and started gibbering like a spider monkey cranked up on Jolt Cola energy drinks.
She looked at me as if I were speaking in Mandarin Chinese.
I tell you it’s only by the grace of God, and the fact that I never taught her how to crank the chainsaw that I’m still among the living this evening.
I know for a fact, that she thought about cutting my tongue out of my head this morning with a paring knife, and feeding it to the chickens out in the yard.
“I’m not sure what happened officer, I hadn’t even had my first cup of coffee when he started yammering about budgets and iPhone apps and I just snapped!”
“You hadn’t had your first cup of coffee?” The lawman would ask. “Well then, this looks like a clear-cut case of justifiable homicide. I’ll call the coroner, and tell him to bring a mop.”
I’m not sure why, but early morning for me is a magical time.
There is no time of day my thinking is clearer. I make connections, get inspiration, and feel like I can accomplish anything before ten.
I love sitting on our screen porch in the springtime and watching the earth come alive before the sun peeks its head above the eastern horizon.
The sights, the sounds, and the smells are like no other time of day. It’s like a new beginning; another chance to do something remarkable.
 If I want to continue to enjoy early mornings in the future, I gotta learn to allow my wife to wake up and embrace the new day at HER pace, or they will be walking slow and singing sad songs by my grave.
The way Jilda sees it, the early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
I don’t think she would have such a hard time with early mornings, if they started a little later!

2 comments:

  1. I laughed as I read this. It's taken you nearly 36 years to figure that you should give her time to become cognizant? Rick, you are either overly enthusiastic in the morning (very early in the morning) or you're a slow learner! I'm voting for the former. You're lucky Jilda is a morning person at all! What if she was a night owl and didn't wake up until after 10?!! :)

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    Replies
    1. Truer words have never been spoken :) How did you stumble upon this older post?

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