Le petit déjeuner

Le petit déjeuner translated means breakfast. They say it is the most important meal of the day, coming from the thought that you are breaking the fast with this meal. It is typically eaten in the morning, however I guess logically if you got up at noon, your first meal would still be breakfast. This is the meal that is supposed to "provide important norishment and energy for the day" according to most nutritionalists. It is also thought that food eaten early in the day is less likely to contribute to fat gain than food eaten in the evening. Perhaps we should be eating dessert after breakfast instead after dinner.

Marketing breakfast is another story, in a $23 billion industry, every company is looking for the next "hot" breakfast food. With $9 billion of that in breakfast cereals alone, maybe companies are even more importantly looking for the next hot character. These characters define breakfast cereals as we know them. Think about it, what you think of when you hear Snap, Crackle, Pop - Rice Krispies, what about "they're great!" - none other than Tony the Tiger from Frosted Flakes. How about "silly rabbit trix are for kids" - The Trix rabbit. Granted I am also pointing out slogans that go with these boxes of cereal, but these slogans have been so carefully associated with their cereal box characters. I know most of us don't eat much cereal anymore, heck I started off my day at 6:40 am with a chocolate chip cookie. And it was GREAT! Of course that also would not be considered a balanced meal, but just in case you were worried, I did have so real food once I got to work.

In the dorms in college, I lived on cereal. The dorm food was nasty and you couldn't really mess up cereal so it worked out well. I have never been a breakfast person. I was always the type of person that would be up for hours until I finally decided to eat. As the years have gone on, I have become more accustomed to eating breakfast (at least during the week). In college, we did breakfast every weekend sometimes both Saturday and Sunday. Of course our idea of breakfast was still hungover at 1 pm, but it was fun nonetheless. This is what got me thinking about breakfast. My senior year (after I detached from my significant other) my girls and I were going out every night starting Thursday through Saturday. If you have ever gone out with a group of 5-7 crazy girls, you will find that you don't always stay together. Typically most of us ended up back at my house for table dancing and whatever else we could come up with, but breakfast, that was the key. Not only was that the best way to start a hangover cure, but it was always the best way to figure out what exactly happened the night before. I don't go out to breakfast anymore on the weekends. I tend to end up cooking myself pancakes, which is what I always have if I go out anyhow, but I do miss the company at breakfast. It is a good time to relax, talk, and catch up on anything you have missed. Even in my past 3 visits to Colorado, I haven't made it to my favorite breakfast place, Le Peep.

I definitely need to start going out to breakfast more. And it isn't because I don't enjoy cooking. But in order to make breakfast successful, I need great company. Anyone want to go to breakfast?

The Concept of the Toilet Seat

Through the years, we have taught men how to lift up and replace the toilet seat at home. It is only polite. But somehow, we seemed to have missed the concept all together. The point to this is so that the toilet seat is clean for the next person that uses it. I live in the glorious state of California where it is required for all public restrooms to have toilet seat covers. I don't really care if you use them or not, that is your prerogative. But please don't ruin it for the rest of us. SIT DOWN! Don't hover, squat or whatever it is you do, it causes a mess. Use the toilet seat cover or put toilet paper down. It is DISGUSTING to walk into a stall that is dirtied from the last person that was in there. Do you do that at home? If you're going to hover, lift up the toilet seat like the guys do, so the rest of us don't have to deal with it. We have taught men how to use the toilet seat, let's now teach women how to use the toilet seat cover. It isn't as complicated as it looks.

Sleep?

Like clockwork, 5:30 am the alarm goes off signaling another work day is about to begin. And like every other day, I hit snooze for about 15 minutes praying that it be Saturday, Sunday, or whatever other day I have off. The Sleep Foundation says that the average adult needs 7-9 hours of sleep. I didn't get that last night and on most nights I get closer to the minimum than the max. On a good day, I will be in bed asleep by 10 pm. When I first started working these slightly awkward hours, I had a lot of good days, as time has passed, the good days are few and far between. I am lucky to be in bed by 11 pm, and more often than not, I am still awake at 12 am. This means if I sleep soundly through the night, I may get 5-7 hours of sleep.

Then there are the weekends. Every weekend I manage to mess my sleeping schedule up more than I did during the week. It is also recommended that you get up and go to bed at the same time, come Friday, I am going to sleep at the time I normally get up. How's that for regularity? Then I continue to sleep until one of my friends calls me enough times to convince me to get up.

We always say 24 hours in a day is not enough time, but if you think about it, what would we do with 36 hours? We wouldn't rest more, we wouldn't sleep more, we wouldn't have more time to enjoy ourselves, most likely we would work more, sleep less, and continue being tired. Of course you wonder how someone with a fulltime job has enough time for 8 hours of sleep, the recommended daily amount. We spend no less than 8 hours at work, an hour or two in commute time, a couple hours at the gym, an hour for eating (preparation and eating time), get ready time is about another hour if not longer. So overall you are left with 2 - 3 hours of "you" time if you get a solid 8 hours of sleep. That is enough time for one phone call and a movie.

There are many reasons that we don't sleep well through the night and I wish I could pinpoint one because it would make my life a lot easier. Every time I wake up, I have to look at the clock. If I don't, I worry about what time it is and if I am actually supposed to be getting up soon. I did that this morning, 5 minutes before the scheduled time of my alarm, I woke up, only to find that going back to sleep would be worthless. A tip on better sleep suggests that you should never look at the clock in the middle of the night because it causes anxiety. Of course, being that I work very early hours, it is always dark out when I get up, so there is no way of telling how close or far from waking up I am. I feel the utter need to know what time it is, but I guess everything is worth a try.

Maybe if I got on some sort of sleep schedule I would be more attentive during the day. Of course, being young and the word sleep schedule don't exactly go hand in hand. Hopefully I will sleep better tonight!