Looking back on The Mezzanine, especially after writing the pastiche, I noticed one of the things it made me think more consciously about is my routines. Howie spends a lot of time appreciating objects, but he also talks about his routines. Every time one comes to he analyzes every step, noting things he discovered and added to the routine because they save time or are produce better results or simply are more enjoyable.
I think morning routines are one of the most interesting kinds because while I know people who try to take different routes every time they go somewhere, I imagine that even people who love spontaneity don’t change their morning routine every day. However, the routines differ from person to person. Some people shower in the morning rather than the night before, because for them, the pros (wakes you up, makes you feel fresh, no bedhead, etc) outweigh the cons. I shower at night because I don’t like to go to bed sweaty, but mostly because I can’t find the time in the morning to take a shower.
Currently I wake up to my cell phone alarm. The reason I started doing this: I can only plug in two things by my bed. It used to be my lamp and my alarm clock, but I like to listen to podcasts on my phone before going to sleep and it was a pain to get up and plug it in on the other side of the room. I need the lamp but now the alarm clock is permanently unplugged, and occasionally out of habit I look at it for the time only to see a blank black face. When I still used it, I would put it behind my nightstand where I would have to get up to turn it off, in order to make myself get out of bed. Before that, I hit snooze two or three times on my alarm clock (nine minutes each, so sometimes I would sleepily do simple addition to figure out when the alarm clock would buzz again) until my dad came in to make sure I get out of bed. This kind of progression makes me happy, as if someday I’ll achieve the perfect routine. I know realistically this won’t happen, which is also kind of fun, knowing I can experiment with it forever. I have routines for other parts of my life, too: this year the only times I stop at my locker are lunch and before and after P.E., but last year I would plan out my locker stops (after this class I go to my locker but after this class I just go straight to the next class) and it changed throughout the year as I figured that for one class it’s better to get there earlier, but for another it’s a little awkward to be one of the first ones in the room. I said earlier that The Mezzanine made me think more consciously about my routines - looking back I’m not sure that’s true because like Howie, it’s always something that runs through my head every so often, popping up when I have a spare moment to consider it.
The important distinction here, I think, is between routine that is by definition automatic, unconscious--the stuff that blurs in our memory and even at the time we're doing it because it's so familiar and, well, routine--and the daily, routine actions that we consciously think about, recognize, and even appreciate and aim to "perfect." In some ways, seeing your morning routine as a potentially infinitely perfectable sequence, with unlimited aspects that could be altered and fine-tuned, maybe makes you more "mindful" and aware of what you're doing every day. Maybe it turns this potentially tedious stuff into something more like an artform.
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