Routines!

Everyone has a morning routine. What’s yours?

Me? I tend to slovenly crawl out of bed at the crack of noon. Stumbling from the bedroom while blinking sleep from my eyes before realising that it may indeed be to hard to travel the entire distance downstairs to the kitchen for breakfast/coffee and instead stumbling into my office, which is conveniently across the hall from my bedroom, slumping into a chair before my computer, and then faddling with the wonders of the internet for a half hour or so.

You may have picked up, that I’m not a morning person (I get my best work done while others are sleeping, but then so do burglars and car thieves, so it’s not an elite group).

My fiance, however, is a little more bubbly at that time of the morning, with her first task of the day being to check what the weather may be doing. Now I understand that this may be related to that odd female dilemma of ‘What-to-wear’, but as a guy, I solve that same dilemma of ‘What-to-wear' by simply picking up the first pair of trousers and a shirt I trip over on my way out of the bedroom, and if they pass the sniff test, then I’m dressed for the day. Alternatively I have a wonderful, fluffy dressing gown that is rather comfortable and pleasantly warm.

What astounds me about her morning habit of using the interweb to check the weather is that quite often she will have opened the bedroom curtains prior to this, giving her a panoramic view of the sky. And just in case she had missed some ominous weather related signs, she has also had the opportunity to look out the office window that overlooks the other 180degrees of the sky.

So, having had both A- a very good look at the entire sky, and B- felt the breeze/temperature coming in from outside she then proceeds to visit the local metrological pages for weather related information.

So while I, a guy, now knows everything I need to know about today’s weather from the brief glance out the window, she, as a woman, feels the need to confirm this through the aid of the interweb. Which makes me wonder what the difference is?

Then I remember this is all related to the ephemeral question of ‘What-to-wear’, And very weighty question that seems to dominate the lives of many women. And when I say dominate, let me be clear, I have never seen a man, even a gay man ask “do I look fat in this?” or change his outfit 5 times prior to leaving the house in order that the ‘right look’ has been achieved, and would likewise suggest that doing both of these things means you are giving way too much importance to the idea of clothing.

And that the reason that women give such importance to this is that they generally have less self-esteem than men. Now that’s a big call, and I’ll probably get flamed for it, so let me say that, yes, men can also be incredibly damaged specimens, it’s just we’d never let anybody else know this, and generally have a lot more confidence in ourselves.

So while I can be confident after having looked out the window, that today will be mild, with a chance of showers, and that perhaps I will want to take a jacket, that a woman it the same position will begin asking “What if I’m wrong” and seek a second opinion.

Which leads me to offer one of the fundamental, fortune-cookie truths of human nature – that belief shapes our individual universes, so whether we believe we are wrong or we are right, if it will end poorly, or not, we are inevitably right.

And if you disagree, remind me to tell you about the magic bird poop story sometime.