It Takes Me 4 Hours

I’m soooo tired of it taking so long for me to get up and get going in the morning. It takes me 4 hours. Yes, 4. I’m not exaggerating. And I’ll be honest, sometimes it takes me longer. If I don’t take that 4 hours to do it right than something suffers and there have been quite a few times this has happened for whatever reason. Sometimes things just don’t go as planned.

Why does it take me so long? Well, let’s see. When I wake up I can’t just jump out of bed. I have to take some time to stretch and meditate to get my head and body in line a bit and to try to loosen up. Then there’s feeding Cleo Kitty and taking the first round of meds with some food. I can’t eat all at once. I have to take my time because otherwise my belly yells at me. (I have recently learned that I have a lot of food allergies and have dealt with a small intestine bacterial infection off an on too along with other issues that I’m sure will come up in another blog.) Then I need to set up all the creams and things given to me by my dermatologist (yes, I have skin issues too) and of course I do have a bit of vanity (just a bit) and I want to wear some jewelry (the sparkly and colorful the better) and make sure my hair isn’t scary. Oh and then somewhere in there is my shower which can wear me out. A 5 minute shower can really take a lot out of me and it’s very rare it’s only 5 minutes. Then I need to put on special lotion since my lupus reaction to the sun is that I get very itchy (as if I’m allergic to it) and then comes the sunscreen which must be applied to the full body. Whoo. I’m tired just writing this. So then somewhere in there comes the next round of meds and eating some more and drinking a special anti-inflammatory tea and some much needed rest. If I don’t rest here and there then I’m really in for it. Resting includes some time in quiet and some time looking at Facebook and Twitter, of course, and my favorite weather sites and sometimes I check the news headlines to make sure the world hasn’t ended yet. And somewhere in that 4 hour period of time I need to do at least 45 minutes of stretching. I am truly committed to this because if I don’t stretch than my body has a bad day. And at some point there are some other things like getting dressed and things that might be considered TMI. You know. We all go through it.

So yeah. Those are just the basics. It’s a wonder I have any time or energy to do anything else but I usually do if I keep all of the above mentioned things as part of my routine.

But we all gotta do what we gotta do to live our lives and apparently this is what I need to do. I try to just go with it but sometimes I just wanna be able to get up and run out the door and start my day and not pay for it physically and mentally. Or maybe I could try to cut it down to 3.5 hours instead?