Friday Five for August 1, 2003

1. What time do you wake up on weekday mornings?

It depends … if it’s an insomnia free night of sleep, then I start my day at 5:00 a.m. If I’ve had one of my insomnia attacks, then for some reason, I’m usually not able to fall asleep again until close to 5:00 a.m., so I wake up at 6:45 a.m. in those cases.

2. Do you sleep in on the weekends? How late?

Not really intentionally. I wake up when I wake up. Usually the same time frames for the weekdays apply to the weekend. About the only difference is on the weekend, I’ll honk around on the computer in the morning much longer than I will on the weekdays.

3. Aside from waking up, what is the first thing you do in the morning?

I go use the bathroom. Usually I’ve had to do that once during the night too. Since Sprio has come into my life (and I’m not referring to former, corrupt vice-presidents), when I wake up, the bathroom is always my first stop.

Then I switch on the coffee as I walk to the sliding door off my kitchenette to let my dog out for her morning bathroom break ! 🙂 I feed my dog and give her water dish a fill. Then I brush my teeth and pop my pills, sprio, proscar and finally sliding my 8mg of estradiol underneath my tongue as I take it sublingually in an attempt to spare my liver any unnecessary damage, hehe yeah right, as if college didn’t already do the damage 🙂 … as the chick tabs are slowly dissolving, I surf the net, checking out my field correspondents’ sites, then hitting the general news sites, seeing what happened overnight, I check my e-mails (both Joe Hairdy’s and mine). Once my pills have dissolved, I get myself a cup of coffee and then let my dog back into the house. I then go to my bedroom and do my morning set of crunches, usually 100 and I’m crying in pain, I then get the set of underwear I’m going to wear for the day and head to the bathroom. If it’s after 6:00 a.m., I tune in The Phil Hendrie Show on my satellite radio, if it’s before 6:00 a.m., I settle for the Adult Comedy Channel instead. I’ll then grab some tweezers and make sure my ears, brows and nostril hairs are properly plucked. Then it’s shower time … I like my showers HOT … and throughout the shower process I’m practicing my voice, starting out with just vocal exercises and sounds and eventually working my way to having some conversation with myself, I’ll get myself nice and wet (hehe) and then wash my hair first, with one of two different shampoos I alternate between, then I’ll condition my hair, again, with one of two different conditioners I alternate between. Then depending on the day and what I have planned, I’ll shave my legs. Always right leg first, then left. Then I’ll lather up and wash myself, closing with rinsing the conditioner out of my hair. I towel dry, step outta the shower and then make goofy faces and poses to myself in the mirror for a while. Then if it’s boy-mode for the day, I do some serious hair gelling, get dressed and hit the road. If it’s girl-mode, I’ll dry and style my hair(as much as I do), darken my eyebrows slightly (they are blonde, you can barely see them otherwise), shadow and liner. I’m not a big mascara fan, nor am I a fan of foundation or blush, but on some occasions I’ll use, mainly it’s just next to lipstick and gloss though. I get dressed (usually I have my top on before I do my hair or make-up, don’t wanna damage the result afterwards by pulling it over my head !!) and then do whatever I’m going to do. Throughout this process, I’ve usually consumed a pot of coffee.

4. How long does it take to get ready for your day?

Depends – boy mode anywhere between 15 minutes and 1 1/2 hours; girl-mode between 30 minutes and 2 hours. Generally speaking, with all my goofing around, surfing the net and doing my exercises and plucking, it usually takes me about 1 hour 15 – 30 minutes regardless of whether it’s Joe Hairdy or me getting ready in the morning.

5. When possible, what is your favorite place to go for breakfast?

If it’s by myself, I really enjoy just doing the drive thru at McDonald’s … two breakfast burritos and a saugage/egg Mcmuffin, coffee of course. If I’m meeting Shaft, I love this place called Just Breakfast, it’s just a locally owned restaurant, those are the BEST !!! In our younger days, Shaft and I used to do it frequently, it rocks. You get so much food that you explode (it’s just a thin mint … wafer thin) !! They have great joe and their staff usually is totally cool. If I’m meeting my parents, we meet at one of the Perkin’s in the area. It’s okay, nothing super special, I do like it better than IHOP, but the best part of those breakfasts is just hanging out with my family, regardless of the breakfast venue. If it’s just my Bro, then this one Mobile truck stop on the south side of town is great. They have this one omelette where when you read about it on the menu, your arteries actually start to clog. The only downside, and why we rarely go there, is because you smell like you rolled in cigarettes afterwards.