Getting Uncomfortable

I woke up this morning about 5:15 am, which was 15 minutes before the alarm clock was scheduled to wake me from my dreams.   I said to myself, I’ll just go back to sleep, and I sorta did, at least until the alarm actually sounded.   Okay, I’m awake, no excuse not to go on this early morning walk with my girl.  After all it was my bright idea anyway.  I didn’t oversleep and I don’t feel overly tired despite working overtime yesterday.  But, it was still dark outside; which means you’re still supposed to be asleep….Right?  I’m just not a morning person.  Ultimately, though I couldn’t come up with a good enough excuse to stay in bed.  However, my brain does not function at this hour….why didn’t I pick out my walking clothes last night? Where are my tennis shoes?  Nyah calm down, stop jumping, I’m confused too, why am I stepping on dog food?!  … Where did this giant pimple come from on my cheek? Is it cold outside this early? Do I need to wear pants? Where are my freaking SHOES?!  I had to calm down.  I took a deep breath, rinsed my mouth out, didn’t care that my hair was standing on top of my head, and put on an uncomfortable pair of sneakers I found under the bed.  As I coached myself to the front door, I saw the unthinkable….RAIN! If you read my blog you know I hate rain.  It’s gloomy and wet,  it’s just ugh.  Well, I’m up now I rationalized with myself and I’ve stuffed my feet into these shoes, so I might as well run back up and get the umbrella.  Luckily, by the time I made it to my friend’s house the rain had stopped. 
She is the complete opposite of me, a total ray of sunshine in the morning.  She regularly gets up at 5 o’clock or earlier.  “Good Morning Friend!” She giddily exclaimed, “I’m so excited even though this is so late.” (It was only 6 AM y’all) Then she explained how she picked out a red towel for me to wipe my sweat because she knows I like red.  I could barely put on shoes, and she was up color-coding! LOL….  After a few minutes of walking around the park track near her house, I finally started to wake up.  She said “Carli, you have to get uncomfortable”  I was still grouchy and cut her off before she even finished her sentence.  Being my best friend and accustomed to my morning moodiness, she said, “No, just listen.  You have to get uncomfortable if you want to see a change.  Right now, you’re out of your element, but this is the sort of thing that’s going to make you to see a difference.  Right now you’re doing things that you’re comfortable with, and maintaining, but for the real change, you’re going to be uncomfortable.”  Her thoughts were profound.  It was the first thing that made sense all morning. Because, it was nothing but the truth that she was preaching.  If you do what you always did, you’ll get what you always got….We were able to power walk 2 miles, and catch up on life details, even though we talk daily as much as Oprah and Gayle. 

 I went to work feeling like the toughest part of my day was over, that was until I saw my co-workers congregated in the lobby.   “What’s going on? “ I asked.  They told me that all of the elevators were down.  We’d have to do the unthinkable, worse than getting up when it’s dark, worse than walking in the rain…we would have to climb 9 flights of stairs to the office.  I thought about how ridiculous it would be to stand in the lobby when I have two functioning legs.  Just show me where are the steps are.   I climbed all nine double flights,  198 stairs to be exact.  When I reached the top, winded and starting to shine, I wished I had my red towel.  I peeped my head in the HR guy’s office and panted, “I think I deserve over-time pay for this.”  He replied, “Oh, it’s part of the firm’s new Wellness program.”  Yeah okay, I laughed.  These slick lawyers always have the right thing to say! But, I can’t complain, because I knew for sure this time that the rest of the day would be down hill.