Clash of the Titans – morning person vs. evening person

I am not a morning person. When I get up I would prefer that no one talk to me for a while. I need some time to transition from the state of unconsciousness I was in to the standards of being awake and alert. It’s not that I don’t like people, it is just I need time to reboot the wasteland I call my mind and have it available to process and regurgitate information coming in. I cannot deal with questions at this moment of cognitive vulnerability. There is a disconnect between my brain and my mouth that even a jolt of coffee is powerless against. I just need some time to manually remove the cobwebs, sweep up the floor and get ready for the day. This typically takes 15 minutes or so, to move from unconsciousness to the first stage of “awakeness.” At this stage, I can usually grunt in response to questions but rarely express more that 3-4 words strung together. The DW is aware of this malady and if she needs to ask me a question, or have me listen to a statement usually adds the imprimatur (Wiki: An imprimatur (from Latin, "let it be printed") is, in the proper sense, a declaration authorizing publication of a book. The term is also applied loosely to any mark of approval or endorsement”) that “I know it is early but could you just listen for a second…). I appreciate this, she gets me. She understands that in this state of confusion I CANNOT find her keys, ATM card, nor plan lunch, dinner or the rest of our lives together.

Mrsfabp is a morning person. She hops out of bed and while sipping coffee plans her day, reads her blogs, checks out the rest of the internet for signs of anything important happening while she was asleep. In the 30 minutes after she has awakened, she has finished a list of things to do, has done some, revised her list and started to look for her ATM card, cell phone or keys. She is up and ready to start her day. I’m still trying to remember how to breathe and which foot goes where in order to walk.

Evenings are the exact opposite. I have decompressed after work after my little ride in the country (see CoME Episode 10: A commute to work). Mrsfabp has collapsed into the big recliner in the living room (complete with heat for those oh so frosty New England days…) I am looking forward to doing something with my evening, a little Halo, reading, writing, maybe some MSNBC. She is enjoying her nap and figuring out when it would ok to go to bed. By 10 pm I am just starting to wind down, she is already 4 dreams into REM sleep and chatting away in the sleep between them.

Remarkably we continue to do a pretty good job of communicating. We both just have to remember the rules – no talking about serious before 8 am or after 7 pm. Otherwise you will get the blank stare of complete and total WTF… I am glad we can be so flexible.
BTW, both of our children I suspect have inherited my “evening person gene.”CollegeBoy continues to do his best work after most of us are fast asleep. MillieJupiter hates to face the morning sun and on weekends gets up in time to have breakfast for lunch.