We all have our habits, good and bad. I’ve already discussed my tendencies to be a cleanliness freak. Some would consider my sanitary habits to be a good thing. Others might complain that it can be annoying when I immediately rinse their cups or move items that they have left on the kitchen counter to their normal spaces. I won’t lie. I tend to be almost fanatical about keeping things tidy but if we happen to discuss my junk drawer all bets go out the window. I learned long ago from my friends, Pat, that every home should have a place where we can just throw things in with abandon. Mine is the drawer at the end of the counter where I store odds and ends that don’t seem to have a logical home. Right now it looks fairly organized because I straightened it up a few weeks ago. Give a few more weeks and it will be obvious that I just toss everything in with no rhyme of reason other than getting it all out of the way. 

Another of my habits is rising early in the morning to enjoy my tea and breakfast before anyone else wakes up. I like the silence because I have never been a morning person. The best days are the ones when I have a couple of hours before anyone else joins me. I play all the different word games in The New York Times and then check Facebook to see whose birthday it is. After that I visit the site of my email account and end up reading articles from various newspapers and magazines. I love the mornings most when it is cool outside and the sun has not yet peeked over the horizon. I enjoy listening to the children in the neighborhood eating for the school bus. I miss them whenever school is not in session. 

When someone interrupts my morning habit by getting up earlier than usual and begins talking and turning on lights the dark side of my habit comes through. I am as grumpy as can be and I don’t mind letting people know that I don’t do conversations until later in the day. Most of the time I try not to over sleep so that I manage to get enough “me” time to be quite pleasant when the house eventually fills with sounds. 

I mostly run my days by calendar entries and lists that I create weeks in advance. I can’t seem to get past the idea of carefully planning each hour much like I had to do when I was still working as a teacher. It seems to be baked into to my very personality even though I have been retired for quite some time now. Scheduling and making to do lists keeps me centered and makes me feel useful. My mood becomes quite blue when I have nothing to do. I have to keep exercising and writing my blog each day. I have to learn something new, reach out to friends, keep meaning in my life. I suppose that the downside of it all is that I have always been obsessive about accomplishing goals and just relaxing is very difficult for me. 

When I was a child I had Saturday chores that I still relegate to that day of the week. I get up in the morning and clean all of the bathrooms and the kitchen until they are sparkly. I remember how my mom taught me to get under the rim of the toilet and how to reach behind the commode to clean the floor and the the tile on the wall. I am machine like in my attention to details, so everything is pristine when I am done. Then I treat myself to shopping or a trip to the beach or some other fun place just as my mother rewarded me way back in the day. Some habits never die once they are imprinted on our psyches. 

I seem to be the most prolific on Mondays. I get so much accomplished that if doing so were an Olympic sport I would earn a gold medal. On Sundays however I allow myself to be a slug. I can remember when all the stores were closed in honor of the Sabbath. Sundays were for reading the newspaper from the front page to the last page of the last section. Of course there was always first going to church. Now I can pick and choose many different times for worshipping and if I am feeling a bit under the weather I can still view services online. 

My husband and I used to catch dinner whenever the urge to eat prompted us to cook. We might sit down at five in the afternoon or wait until eight or nine in the evening. Our habit was to have no set habit. Since my father-in-law came to stay with us we have lived by a rather strict routine. He likes to sit for a bit of wine and conversation at five followed by dinner at six. We rarely deviate from that now and I have adjusted even though I am one of those people who might even forget to eat if I were on my own. A formal meal each day truly has little or no appeal to me but I’ve been responsible for my husband and my children over the years so changing my ways for my father-in-law is working out fine. It has kept my on my toes serving healthy meals that are really better for all of us. 

I don’t drink too much and I’ve never smoked. I have never once taken any kind of illegal drug. I suppose that some would see me as being uptight. In defense I would argue that I really do adhere to the idea of minding my own business. I do my thing and advocate for everybody else to do theirs. As long as we all get to do the things that make us happy without overdoing or hurting someone else, I’m good. Habits are personal and I admit to mine. Whether they seem good or bad they are just the way I am. As far as everyone else goes, my motto is to each his or her own. I am who I am and so should you be.