(Pre) Dawn of a New Day

Before I go any farther, let me say that in no way will I complain about becoming a parent. We're lucky to have Caroline, Melissa is fantastic and has taken on more than the lion's share of the work for taking care of her-- and to boot, Caroline is a fantastically well-behaved, sleepin'-all-the-time baby.

But here's an observation today as I was driving Caroline to daycare this morning, and then back to the house to get the her milk that I left, and then back to daycare, and then to work (yeah, its Friday.)

I'm an adult now. No going back.

I know, you'd think that would have hit me earlier.

See, I love sleeping late and assume my genetics are part of the reason God has blessed us with a baby that sleeps a lot. I also love staying up late for no reason. I'll watch movies I own and have seen 1,000 times before for a reason to say up, even if it is on TV with commercials. This has yielded a well-practiced and extremely efficient morning routine. I can pretty much wake up at 7:00 and be out the door at 7:20.

No longer.

I love Caroline and I wouldn't trade her for millions of dollars (really!) but she requires us to change some things. Until now I've been largely unaffected because Melissa has been at home. But now, I need to get up earlier and help with Caroline before daycare and I'm up and ready way before I need to be at work.

(Yawn) Sorry, I need more caffiene...

But today, when I was stupid and forgot to take Caroline's milk with me, I had ample time to go back home and back to daycare. I still made it to the dry cleaners and was at work with time to spare. There's a whole new world of life now open to me -- the ability to run errands in the morning, or heaven forbid, go to work earlier and go home earlier.

But I'm tired at 10. I made myself stay up until 11:30 for no reason last night and will likely crash mid-afternoon, which used to be my best time of day. Letterman's "Late Show" is really late now.

Its not a bad thing, just a turning point I'd avoided for so many years. So look for me at the Piccadilly at 5:30 tonight. We'll enjoy the early-bird special and get some mac and cheese for Caroline...

P.S. In related news, I discovered 5 gray hairs last week.