In the Run of a Day...

My days are often pretty boring; that's one reason I don't talk much about the physical things that go on in my life. It's a combination of me being a very introverted person and me being a very money-conscious person; gas money adds up and my job isn't very lucrative, so I keep venturing to a minimum.

Still, I do have my days and my routines. So, to kill a little time while I'm at work, I'll walk you through my normal day:

My alarm clock runs 2 hours and 20 minutes fast. Why? Because truthfully, if I knew what time it REALLY was when I woke up, I'd deliberately oversleep in an attempt to savor every minute I could. At least with the two hours, I can scare myself out of bed.

I also keep my alarm clock set to a country music station. Why? Because it's not my thing; I don't exactly hate it, but I can't relax and often can't relate to it. So, even if I don't feel like getting up, I'll eventually get up just to turn the music off.

My alarm is set to 10:30ish. No, I don't sleep until 10:30; it's 2 hours and 20 minutes fast, remember? So I actually get up about 8:10, assuming I don't ignore the clock, as I sometimes do. I stay down for a sec to utter a quick prayer, mainly for strength because I really don't feel like living again sometimes. Then I step over the papers sprawled across my floor and hit the alarm clock, feeling across my dresser until I find my glasses.

Next stop is the computer; not to sit long, but I'm curious as to what's going on with friends and the world, so I browse for about 10 minutes until I'm wide awake. I throw on some music, as my computer is in my studio and feeds through my stereo, and hit the bathroom to brush my teeth. I always thought it was backwards to shower first because... well, if you shower AFTER you brush your teeth, it eliminates the need to wash your face. I use this baking soda and peroxide toothpaste; it's not sweet like a lot of toothpastes, but it does have this subtle flavor and a lot of fizzy action... you can really tell the baking soda and peroxide are there in other words.

After that, it's time to hit the shower. But I hafta get the clothes I'm going to wear ready first. Why? The Afro. See, when I wake up in the morning, I can NOT pick my Afro. TRUST me. I have two steel picks and a steel comb, it's not hap'nin. So, I pick it out in the shower. But when I get OUT of the shower, sometimes I wear a pull-over shirt. That just means it's going to get messed up again. So, I pick my clothes out so I can put on my shirt right out of the shower so it doesn't screw the shape up.

As a kid, I showered more in the evening (by parental demand), but now that I'm older, I really enjoy showering in the morning. It gives me time to think and kinda reinforces that it's a new day for me, totally washing off whatever went down the day before. I have sensitive skin and coarse hair; my problem is that I never cared about it. But I do use a shampoo and conditioner for dry hair, just because it's available. Out of habit, basically. And the soap I use, I have no particular reason for using. Again, it's just avaiable.

I soak my hair down until it's less rebellious, then I comb through it with the steel comb, sometimes with the steel pick if I want to pay special attention to my scalp. And, as I said, once I get out of the shower and dry off, I put my clothes on, and then I hafta pick it out again to get it shaped back.

For breakfast... I'm a very light eater, and very health conscious. I like to have something like Honey Nut Cheerios or fruit. Many times, I'm not even hungry when I wake up, I just shoot out the door. Anyway, I usually eat cereal from the cup so I can move as I eat. Back to the studio where I might work on a beat, work in some lyrics, work on a school paper, chat with a buddy, watch a lil TV, read the Bible, who knows...

About 10:00ish, maybe 11 I usually get a call from my homeboy Dav. We chat for a minute as I keep doing my thing. I've got work at about 1:00 and class right after that, so I'm making sure I have everything together because I won't be back home until 8:00 in the evening. Even though I start work at 1:00, I try to bounce early because I like to have a grilled-chicken salad practically every day. I make sure I stuff my pockets with the right items: steel pick/comb, wallet, keys, ear plugs (it's summertime, don't ask), digital camcorder, keys, and a lighter (juuuust in case I need to set it off). If I remember to, I run down and check the mail. Then I shoot to my lil dusty white Kia Spectra.

Usually right now, I forget that I left my CDs in the house. So I run back inside and grab them. After putting them in the car, I find the right one to start me off: A S.W.A.T. Healin' Ritual, Aquemini, So So Def Bass Allstars Vol. 2, Even in Darkness, Regulators, who knows... I sometimes remember to glance to see if the pretty neighbor down the street is sitting cross-legged on her porch. Either way, I'm off.

The first stop, of course, is Burger King for the salad. The greatest part about it is sometimes the girls in the drive-thru are foxes; other times, there's dudes in the drive-thru, which just blows my whole day. Getting back to the streets, I've gotta decide if I'm hitting Bobby Jones' Expressway or taking the twists-and-turns way to campus: Peach Orchard to Lumpkin to King to Wheeless to Highland to McDowell to Walton. You would think I'd take Bobby Jones, but the truth is Bobby Jones actually goes a little out of the way; the twists and turns are actually the more direct way.

As I ride, I flip stations constantly because there's nothing ever on. I might play my own music and practice reciting the lyrics, but I like to sing in my car to anything worth singing. I usually come across about 2 beautiful girls on my way every day, but it's not like I'm gonna talk to em anyway, so I just take it for what it is.

In no time, I'm at the campus. My job starts at 1:00, but I'm usually on campus about 12:40. I grab my salad and my class materials, as well as my Sociology of Work textbook from last semester, and head inside. Either I'll kill time walking around aimlessly, or go right to the facility and surf the computer until my time. I work in the Curriculum Center, which is like a mini-library. We check out materials to education majors basically; every now and then we copy materials and laminate, but mostly just checkouts and check-ins.

When I finally decide to go in, I walk past media services and greet the ladies and gents that work there; they've been around as long, if not longer, than I have for the most part, so we're used to seeing each other. Upon entering the place where I work, the girl who works before me is usually behind the desk. I greet her, then greet Mrs. Britt, my boss. My friend Renae is the person responsible for me ever getting a position here, but the best thing about the job is I have a great boss, easily one of the nicest people I've met in my life.

Pretty soon, the other girl leaves for the day, and I "clock in". Almost immediately, as I eat my lunch, Mrs. Britt and I get into some deep conversation that may very well last an hour (I still can't believe we find a way to do it EVERY DAY! I figured we would've run out of things to say by now...) When we're not talking, I'm on either Facebook, MySpace, Stankonia, Marvel, Romancexpress, or writing lyrics. We usually get no more than 5 visitors a day; sometimes there's spurts where we might have a room full of people, but it's only about once a year.

At the end of the day, I count down the cash drawer and head back out. I might move my car to the other side of campus where my class is, but sometimes I just walk. If I have a craving for something, I'll use the hour between the end of work and the beginning of class to hit a fast food joint or visit my aunt in Highland Park, where I grew up.

Back on campus, I usually bump into a classmate or two before I get inside. I try to go to class early because it's actually a very comfortable setting; there's only 11 people in the class and the class is held in a meeting room, so it's actually kinda intimate. I'll usually find a classmate inside waiting and we'll spark up a conversation about something thought-provoking; out of all my history classes, this is about the only one where I've regularly done this (sociology courses are quite a different story...)

The class I'm taking is Historical Research Methods. I enjoy it because we're not learning history, but historiography--- which is basically the ways that a person can write history--- as well as methods--- the strategies for researching and putting history together. What does this mean? This means that, for once, I can be a sociologist in a history class and it's perfectly fine and, actually, encouraged. We talk about EVERYTHING, and often get off topic; this is okay because it's a 2-and-a-half hour class, so we've got PLENTY of time.

My professor, Dr. Fissell, is very engaging, and is actually encouraged by the fact that several of us in the class are not just History Majors, but what he calls "cross-discipline" students: students who dip into many different areas. I bring the social sciences and the humanities to many discussions we have. Thus far, they have given me great insight to everything we have discussed. If it was only discussion, I'd be done with this class already... but we DO have a paper to write, so that's the monster at the end of the book for me right now.

After class, I usually head straight home... if I don't stop by a certain store to drop a courtesy call to a certain beautiful young lady. The ride home usually goes fairly quickly; not that I speed, I just know where to go to get where I wanna be in whatever amount of time. Actually, I try to drive slow sometimes so I can take in some Anita Baker, or flip my radio to 96.3 and catch the oldies to get in a chill mood.

What happens next depends on the day. WHen I get home, I'm expecting one of two things. If it's Wednesday or Thursday, I'll probably get a call from my homie Ken, who's off of those two days, with a request to visit around 9:30ish; any given evening, the homie Dav is liable to fall through and use the computer around 10:30ish. Once, both occurred at once, and we had a full house, which was pretty cool.

Either way, by midnightish, all is usually chill. I'll probably search the Net for a special friend of mine, knowing I'm not gonna find her, but just finding it hard to break the habit. Might get a message from one or two peeps. I'll throw on some old school tunes while playing a PS2 game to distract myself. Do a short set of vertical pushups (because they're hard as a staring contest with Condoleeza Rice), and stay busy until I find myself napping on the floor. That means its time to go to bed.

I leave the studio--- I think that's the thing I hate doing most in the run of a day--- and close the door behind me. I go find my bed, stepping over the clutter to get to it. Toss my shirt--- somewhere--- and leave my pants wherever I get out of em. Kill the lights, then curl up in the sheets.

I used to have a restless mind before I went to sleep, but it just doesn't happen now. I don't wish to be lying next to anyone; I don't reflect on my days; I don't plan out reports or presentations; I don't fantasize about anything. Maybe I hear a little music, like a little Carl Thomas, deep in the back of my mind. But, by-and-large, my mind is just... clear.

Dat about it. My day in a nutshell. It's nothing special, but it feels alright. I'm looking forward to the day when things drastically change for me, and my days are no longer calm, but unpredictable and extraordinary. But for now, this'll do.