I love my routines, I'm at my happiest when I'm repeating patterns and doing the same things on a weekly or monthly basis. "Boring" is how one my closest friends described me for years.
My life in Hamilton is good. Each morning has a routine, while go to a different coffee shop depending on the day of the week, I get coffee around the same time each day.
Sunday, Durand Coffee; Monday, Grandads; Tuesday, Linas; Wednesday, RELAY; Thursday, Linas; Friday, Red Church; Saturday, Linas.
There is a rhythm to what occurs each month. Certain meetings occur on certain days of the month. The week of the third Wednesday is always the busiest in terms of meetings to cover. I go card making in Stoney Creek on the third Wednesday as well. The fourth Thursday of the month is a Stoney Creek day as well. Second Fridays I visit a friend in East Hamilton while getting ice cream, fourth Fridays are in Toronto.
Summer has a certain routine and pace.
Is this a boring enough post yet?
My life has been full of instability, to a certain extent, my routines are a coping mechanism I forged as a child to deal with the chaos of my upbringing and to gain control as best I could. I try to be mindful that I can take things to excess.
We are now entering the eleventh month of "new normal". I work at home, sometimes moving to the kitchen counter. I go for walks, I go to get coffee. I have not yet found routine.
The goal for January to March is to adopt a sleep and walking routine. Beyond COVID, the goal will be to find routines but not let myself take them to excess, and to not try to overloading myself to compensate for a feeling that I've "lost" time to the pandemic.
I will continue to mourn the closing of Deno's and my 7:09am breakfast pick-up routine.