Word of the day: rant.

Word of the day today is: rant.

Defined by the Urban Dictionary as: “when someone is pissed about something and they ramble on about it” and defined by a regular dictionary as: “to speak or declaim extravagantly or violently; talk in a wild or vehement way; rave.”

I can’t say that I’m necessarily pissed, or want to speak violently, but nonetheless, I’m going to rant. And I will ramble.

Ever had one of those days where lots of little, tiny things just add up to make you want to crawl back into bed with the pillow over your head? I’m pretty sure I had one of those mornings today.

Now, everyone who knows me on a more than casual level knows, and tolerates, the fact that I am NOT a morning person. I try to be happy and chipper and wake up quickly, but 9 times out of 10, that doesn’t happen. I think sometime during college I decided to stop fighting this fact and just accept it for what it is. Some people are morning people, some aren’t. I definitely fall into the ‘aren’t’ category.

However, if I give myself enough time, caffeine, and stick to a routine, my mornings aren’t all THAT bad. I take my showers at night so I don’t have to mess with the hair dryer (ugg! too noisy in the am!), I have minimized my makeup routine to the bare minimum. I throw on a pair of jeans with the next clean long sleeved cotton shirt, grab a pullover, throw my hair in a ponytail, and head out the door. Easy-peesy! My wardrobe allowed for cooler days in the office and warmer days in the office. I didn’t have to think about anything (which is necessary for a grumpy-free morning).

So, understand my angst six weeks ago when my office decided to crack down on the dress code. Up to this point, we’ve been very lucky in our clothing choices. Pretty much everything went as long as it was clean. Jeans, tee-shirts, sweaters, slacks, polo shirts – they were all good. As a unified team, we fell back onto the ‘we need to be prepared to go out into the field at a moment’s notice’ generalized excuse. It worked.

Never in three plus years was my dress an issue and I got super comfortable with it. It worked GREAT with my morning crabbiness. No ironing, no fussing with which shoes look good with the outfit, no need to dress up period. …that is now over. We are no longer allowed to wear jeans, nor tee-shirts, nor regular street clothes. It’s now business casual (which I do realize isn’t that bad, but it’s all relative, people!!). I know there are worse things to be worried about out there, but until I get into the swing of things, this new clothing rule is definitely providing a major bump in my morning ‘road’.

This morning… My alarm went off, then the second one, and the third (I did say I was not a morning person, right?). I used to be really bad about turning off my alarm in my sleep, so hence the three alarms. And in my defense, I have not turned them off in my sleep in a very, very long time. That streak ended today. About an hour after I should have gotten up, I woke up - late. No problem, I’ll deal (thank goodness my office isn’t strict about hours!). Got up, did my morning stuff, went to get dressed. I knew from yesterday that I needed to iron in general, so I grab the pants and the shirt, go downstairs, and half an hour later, they’re ironed (grumble grumble, did I mention that I hate ironing?). I put on the too-long pants, turned up the cuffs, they look horrible turned up, try different shoes, decide the shoes don’t look good with the pants, try something different. End up discarding the pants in favor of another pair. Hate the outfit, but have no choice because I have to get to the office.

This is now my morning routine: I’m revisiting the high school age where I have to put on three (or ten) shirts every morning with eight pairs of pants to see which outfit works, THEN I have to try to decide if the office is going to cold today or hot today. Do I have enough layers if I get cold and can I take off enough layers if it’s too warm? What about the possibility of going out into the field – shall I bring a change of clothes with me today or not? And the shoes, do I want to wear comfy shoes, the wedges, the sandals…? Do the brown shoes go with the black and grey outfit or do I need to switch shirts so that the brown shoes go with the brown shirt? Are my feet going to be cold in those sandals? Am I okay driving in the wedges if traffic is horrible? If it’s raining, do I want to deal with wet pant cuffs, will they stain? Is my shirt cut too low, do I need to wear a cami? Do I want to wear a bracelet today? No, that necklace looks bad with that shirt, better change the shirt and now I have to change the shoes and the pants. Can’t wear those pants because I’ve been too lazy and they need ironed AND hemmed.

Argh!! I HATE decisions in the morning.

I know I will get into a routine, but I’m just too grumpy to think about it today.  ;)