This and that

Since my last post, I've been able to upgrade my digs with some things I needed, thanks to my downstairs neighbor as she was moving out. 

I'm sorry I didn't know her before she left, as she is my age and is an artist and art teacher. We traded contacts, so hopefully we will be able to connect again. She gave me several things from her studio downstairs, including a floor fan and a desk fan, some lovely coffee/tea cups (you know, I have a collection boxed up back home), a handheld steam cleaner, and a few other bits and pieces. 

Just that very morning, I was thinking, gosh it would be nice to have a steam cleaner since I don't have a dryer or an ironing board, to get the wrinkles out of my cotton blouses.  

 As my apartment reaches completeness (I still need a proper desk lamp), I'm shifting my attention from "stuff I need" to "how to live."  

Azaleas at the bus stop near my academy

My schedule here is backwards from what it was in Rochester. I go to work around 1 p.m. and return home between 8:30 and 9:00 each night. I'm up later and sleep later, and it doesn't suit me. 

If I get up after 6:00 a.m., I'm sluggish for the rest of the morning. But I also can't seem to get myself properly in bed and asleep before midnight, so my 8-hour sleep craving self can't seem to get up before 7:00. 

My mornings are mostly formless, unless I have a particular plan to go do something that involves my director picking me up. Example: last week, he took me to finally get a Korean phone number, and then we went to lunch afterwards. But on the days I'm just hanging around (which is most days), I have not been successful at locking in a routine. I've written it out on paper, but I've not been good at consistently following that plan.

 I think the answer is simple:  push myself to get to bed at a reasonable hour, then I can get up early enough to be refreshed in the morning instead of feeling under water. Seems simple enough. I tend to get caught up in this and that after work, and before I know it, it's 11:00 -- and then it becomes a game of "how long can I keep my eyes open," as if I were two years old.

My mornings need some kind of form. I've got my main things to do: coffee, breakfast, pray, write for an hour, lunch, get ready for work. Why then do I lie around and stare at my phone. 

At least this morning I finished an IG reel. And I'm writing this!