By time this routine is up, I�m ready to start my work day. The brain is warmed, my personal business feels taken care of, and the fingers are finally un-numb and defrosting. This has become a very important part of my day, putting me in the right mindset to tackle the rest of my day.

However, yesterday morning I didn�t get my usual half-hour of jacking around before my nose had to hit the grind. And I�ll truthfully say that I�ve been off-kilter since then.

It�s amazing how much everything is involved in how those morning actions go. It affects my mood. It throws off my eating schedule. Even my dreams were crappy.

I was once again met with emails and IMs littered with exclamation points. Top Priority! Attention Needed Immediately! Please Help! You�d think that I was spammed by people trying to sell me longevity pills, sexual salami stretchers, or something to increase my boobulars. No siree. I would have gladly hit delete without so much as reading about those messes, but I have to face these people eventually.

I checked with the big boss, got my priority list, and get to working.

I checked something off my list and came across a question for the second project of the morning, IMing that project lead for the starting point. I was given crappy directions (that took much yanking and re-explaining on my part to get to a point where I could discern what it was that he wanted done), and he asked a follow up question that boiled my blood.

�ChicagoJo, why did it take so long for you to get back with me? Aren�t you working on this 100%? This is due this afternoon.�

I took the requisite deep breath, thereby inhaling the urge to say, �Because I�m not a fucking mind reader,� and replied with a professional and sufficient answer. But gawd-damn did I feel like throwing things afterwards.

That�s just one example, but, yeah. The mood. No good.

I also have a very specific eating schedule that was also thrown off yesterday. Usually I have myself a little snack (Wheat Thins, of course) around 11, followed up by lunch at about 1, followed up by fruit around 3. This seems to be a good spread, giving me the right amount of energy and blood sugar balancers and whatever else it is that controls me not turning into a carnivorous wolf or a zonked-out zombie by time I leave work.

Working distracts me, food gets ignored, and I suddenly find myself wanting nothing but cookies and brownies and ice cream and Easy Cheese. I don�t usually eat these things. I usually have no desire. But skipping meals really brings out the worst for me health-wise.

By time I worked out and then went home, I found myself arm-deep in the Wheat Thins, a third of the way through a small container of ricecream, with a big bowl of spaghetti, and a huge bowl of Alphabits. I may not have been carnivorous, but I did eat like a wolf.

Eating like that put me late into the evening, thus affecting my sleep. I had the initial must not fall asleep at 8 p.m. thoughts, so I fought through them. Usually a sleepy spot hits me again at 11, but such was not the case. I stayed up until 1 o�clock reading and petting the kitties, and probably just laid there until nearly 2 in the friggin� morning.

Seeing that I get up for work at around 7:30, this makes for a dragging Jo. And if waking up after not getting enough sleep isn�t enough to make me grumpy, the dream I remember having certainly was.

Whereas I usually find sex dreams interesting, seeing what the inner slut in me thinks up, last night�s was just crappy. Crappy crappy crappy. Imagine screwing Hilter on a pile of kittens. It was that kind of crappy.

So, yeah, I woke up again in a bad mood.

Luckily, though, I got to my routine this morning before anyone could say otherwise. The day can only get better from here.�