Biorhythmic Conflict

I am convinced that I am strange. Or shall I say, "very different" in a number of ways. I like people but don't like to go to parties, restaurants, or bars. I wear leather often, but do not like to go to Men's leather events (been there, done that... enough is enough.) I own a cell phone, but I hate the cell phone for its cost and seldom use it. I also don't text, and block that service as a money-saving measure. I am in a wonderful relationship with a great guy, but "we" don't have guests over to our home or go visit others, because my partner is very antisocial.

But most of all, what has made me "most different" for my entire life, is that I am a morning person. I mean a "very early" morning person. It is quite common that I rise during the week at 4am, and crash no later than 9pm, or earlier if my partner will allow. On weekends, I may sleep a little later, like until 5am (what a lazy bum I am!)

Living on the biorhythms that dictate my being awake, functioning, and active so early in the morning directly conflicts with how most others (gay or straight) are "wired." Most of my family and friends are on a schedule of rising with great reluctance at about 6:30am, plod to the kitchen and make coffee, then go to work and arrive about 8:30 or 9, work until 4:30 or 5, get home, and have dinner about 7pm. They stay awake until 10 or 11pm.

For me, I bounce out of bed, frequently with a song (seriously, I am one of "those people" who sings in the morning!) -- and don't drink coffee. Can't stand the stuff. I am mentally alert and full of energy in the morning, anyway, so the added caffeine isn't needed. When I was working, I was in my office for about two hours before most others. I arrived home early enough to prepare a home-cooked meal each evening, and serve it by 6pm. (That way, I can leave to attend community meetings that begin at 7 or 7:30.)

When there are times when I have to stay up late, I try to find time to take a nap, because I actually have fallen asleep in a restaurant, or while riding in a car late at night. (Fortunately, I have not fallen asleep while driving, but I know "drowsy driving" is a huge hazard, so I take all measures to avoid it.)

I am so very thankful that my partner is an earlybird, too, or we would be like ships passing in the night.

I wonder, though, if more gay people are typically late risers (and stay awake late into the night) than straight people. I ponder that on two levels -- for how typically gay people show up at bars or restaurants very late (much later than straight people). Second, I get a huge spike in visitors to my website late at night from U.S. visitors who are surfing the web between 11pm and 3am. The volume of website visitors who surf my site that late at night never ceases to amaze me. Are gay people sleepless and surfing? I haven't a clue, but wonder about it.

Nonetheless, I recognize that I am different, and I am okay with it. I realize that I don't engage when others do, and miss some opportunities sometimes, but that's how things have been, and how things are.

Life is short: live.