Night person

I'm a night person, not a morning person. Obviously, or else I wouldn't be making a post at this time of day. Every morning I have multiple alarms go off to wake me up. Sometimes I don't even remember turning off the first one or the second one.

I don't arrive at work at 8:00am like a lot of people. My scheduled start time was 8:30 am, but when it became regular for me to work more than the minimum 7.5 hour workday I started coming in at 9am. Sometimes Lori comes in at 9am. Especially on nights after Wednesday when LOST was still on tv. Sometimes my boss comes in at 9am. I don't think we are incredibly consistent. Which works fine.

I'm becoming acutely aware of different schedules and start times because I have a new co-worker and he gives me a hard time about "strolling in" at 9 in the morning. What's funny is when I'm "strolling in" at 9 in the morning I'm passing by him out front of the building on a smoke break already. I said to him "Isn't it kind of early to be taking a break already?!" We're both smart asses so it's all in good fun.

Today when I was sitting at his desk talking him through some work I said to him "You realize nothing happens until later in the day around here, right? No emergencies come up until the afternoon or at the end of the day, and it's always something that has to be done right away and it might require staying late." He is actually listening to me and taking me seriously at this point. I continue, "if I have to stay late for work I might as well come in late. There is no point in coming in early and staying late, that would cause for longer and longer hours." He says "good point". So maybe he'll realize I "stroll in" at 9am for a reason...more than just the fact that I'm not a morning person.

Another reason which I didn't mention is it isn't until the end of the day that my boss hangs out by us and actually gets some good conversation in. It doesn't matter if it's about work or personal. We just finally get some time to catch up if we haven't lately. Which in my mind is just as important (if not more) than producing reports at our desks.

Back to the fact that I'm not a morning person...I HAVE to drink caffeine every morning. I usually drink coffee, I've had bouts of trying to drink diet pop but sometimes the caffeine kick never seems to last long enough. I tried tea but that was even less effective than diet pop. The only reason why I try pop and tea are for reducing caloric intake. When I drink coffee I can't drink it black. It's just too ____ for me. (fill in blank with some adjective). I need the sugary stuff with the 2 shots of espresso. At least now I'm telling the barista to use nonfat milk...

When I've gone cold turkey on caffeine I have either started to fall asleep at my desk or ended up with a headache. Damn, this caffeine really is a drug. A headache from withdrawals? Ugh. I can't afford falling asleep or having a headache distract me at work because I actually have to think at my job. So I go get a coffee.

I know I'm not the only one that needs caffeine in the morning, but do you think other people need to set multiple alarms? How about take a nap when they get home? Then afterwards wake and be so incredibly productive at night? I'm the least productive early in the day and the most productive later in the day. I think this is the way I've always been. I know I had times where I suffered and made myself commute to work super early, but I think it was because I was younger and incredibly determined, then I would crash to sleep as soon as I got home.

Do you think that night people run on a different clock and can't help it? I'm starting to think so. I have always slept in on the weekends and then my awake hours would be shifted to staying up later. If my workdays had the same time schedule as my weekend days I think I would be perfect. Not going to happen anytime soon...the freakin' American workforce does the 9-5 thing. Or at least the kind of workforce I fit in. If starting at 10 am and going until 6 or 7 was "Ok" in our society I would jump right on it, but different schedules are usually associated with "different" careers such as bartending, freelancing, etc. all of which don't fit in with my skill set or goals.

Hmmm, I'll need to think about what I should do with my "night person" predicament.