« Who's to Blame? | WILLisms.com | Happy Berfday, Will Franklin! »

Creatures Of Habit

Something happened the other day that threw me for a loop. It made me think and I have been thinking about it for the past day and a half and it finally hit me this morning in the shower.

We, you and I, are all creatures of habit. Gee, you don't say? I know, I know. That was not very profound, but after what happened the other day, I started noticing how I do things. You know, what steps I take to get something done. It was rather frightening to see how predictable I am and seeing that, how utterly boring I am.

Every morning the alarm goes off at 6:20 AM. I roll out of bed, grab a pair of underwear from my sock drawer and turn the shower on. In the shower I bathe the left side of my body first, then my right, then my right leg, then my left leg. I wash my face and then my hair. Then I shave. Even that has been ritualized. I lather the shaving cream on and start with the right side of my face, then left, then upper chin, then upper lip (center, right, left) and finally under my chin and jaw line. Getting dressed I put my right leg in first then my left. Same with my shirt. I brush my teeth, kiss the wife and kids and head to work with a pop-tart for breakfast.

This happens EVERY SINGLE work day. Every day. The same thing. Nothing changes. If my life were a computer program, someone would have written a programming script to handle the first 30 minutes of each work day morning. When the alarm goes off I should be able to hit Ctrl-b to jump to where I am dressed and in my car on the way to work. But instead, I have to manually go through the steps each and every morning.

The end of my days are just as predictable. Luckily, my work day is anything but predictable and routine.

That is until lunch.

That brings me to the other day.

There is a Subway® 30 steps from the back entrance to our office building. It being so close and because I could eat a sandwich everyday of my life, I am a frequent customer. The three girls that work there (the manager and two helpers) are extremely friendly and they know their customers. Just walking in draws hellos and jokes. They always know how I like my sandwiches and their friendly smile is a bright spot in my day.

So imagine my shock and horror when I bopped on in the other day to find new people. Where were the familiar faces? Where was the friendly banter? Who the hell were these people and what had they done with the people who were supposed to be there? I asked them these questions and I got an answer that the manager is opening a new location, one girl quit and the other transferred so we are your new people.

It just was not the same. Something felt wrong. I ordered and enjoyed my meal, but something just did not feel right. It sounds silly, but a small wave of depression swept across me. I know it is ridiculous, but it happened. Why? I was not friends with the now gone workers. I never had a beer with them. I barely knew their names and that was only because of their name tags. But in some ways I felt I knew them. I knew they had kids and one was having problems in a relationship. But still, I did not KNOW them. Yet, I was sad when I found out they were gone.

Creatures of habit.

When I gave up blogging a month or so ago, I walked away from something I had done every day for over a year. I just walked away. Yet I was sad. There was a feeling of loss. But now, even just one month away from making that decision, it seems like a long time ago and I am left wondering, "Was I ever a blogger? Strange. It seems like I recall doing that, but it was so long ago".

The same with my Subway® friends.

Did you even ever exist?

WunderKraut is trapped in an infinite loop at WunderKraut.com

Posted by Wunderkraut · 13 April 2006 12:38 PM

Comments

Posted by: Hoodlumman at April 13, 2006 02:17 PM

Posted by: Zsa Zsa at April 13, 2006 05:24 PM

Posted by: Zsa Zsa at April 13, 2006 08:32 PM

Posted by: demerol at April 30, 2006 03:41 PM

Posted by: depakote at May 1, 2006 12:19 AM