My typical day

I start the day dreaming. I'm usually asleep around midnight give or take an hour. During this time I'm snoring loudly, barely breathing, (I have sleep apnea) and dreaming of something more important seeming than the rest of my day. Last night I was in the tombs of Egypt. It was a recurring dream and I was pleased to see that the excavation has progressed and that more mysteries are being uncovered.

I wake up to an alarm clock set 20 minutes fast set to 6:50 because my sleepy mind doesn't always remember that I've tricked myself and so it works maybe half the time. I sometimes wake to see that I've snoozed about half an hour or so. My partner wakes me up often in the morning. We have a very typical complaint exchange but also moments of tenderness too. I don't make the bed. My bed consists of materials that I can tolerate the touch of which are mostly items that are fairly warm for this climate: faux fur materials, etc. I usually go to the TV because the light will snap me out of it. I usually watch weather, news and traffic even though I won't be doing traffic much.

I follow a routine and checklist. I don't always follow it if I think something's a bit trivial on it and I sometimes add something new. I usually eat breakfast and vitamins first. Then I shower and shave in the shower. I then hop out, brush, trim beard and put on my first three items of clothing: socks, underwear, undershirt. Then, I pick out a dress shirt, tie, and suit. I put this on and then check off my list. Keys: check, Wallet: check, and so on. I have almost 20 things on the list. The last thing I do is kiss my partner goodbye and pick up my notebook computer bag and go to my van, and drive out on a back road to the garage of my work which is in the Galleria mall area of Houston. I always pull into the same driveways, use the same gates, park in roughly the same place every day and use the Lower Level through the mall to get to my destination.

At work, I often pick up something to drink and hookup my laptop and start checking emails and load up my IDE (it's currently visual studio but used to be eclipse) and any website documentation so I can start programming. (C#/Java). I often eat lunch alone and it's often just a chicken sandwich without fries or drink or a quiche from a bistro or a salad. On Fridays, I sometimes treat myself to pizza or greasy rice from the various woks/cajun outlets. I sometimes find sushi or French food at the Madelaine if I really want to treat myself or I might go and have Indian or Chinese.

I'm often trying to get home but find myself often staying late until 7pm or on other days, it's 5:30. I go to physical therapy after work but it's a pain to get to in going home traffic. It simply doesn't move. Lights and cars. At 7pm, the traffic is lighter and doable. I sometimes hit the drycleaners or bank or the apartment office. I get home, undress and sometimes end up watching a movie, cooking or spending time with my partner. It's usually peaceful but occasionally, there are little bits of drama to endure and sometimes, I create these bits of drama out of some unmet need.

I try to get to bed around 11 but it often ends up being 1pm. There is also a lot of playing with the cats and sometimes going to the apartment swimming pool for a just-after-dark swim. This is done out of the need to workout some. We may also sometimes shop together at Barnes and Noble, Montrose, HEB, Burlington coat factory, or Wally World. Dinner is often something home-made like stew, soup or occasionally packaged like lasagna and sometimes something simple like a sammich.

We sometimes go out to House of Pies or Taco Cabana. But for a special treat, it's often a brazilian BBQ, sushi parlour/hibachi grill, Indian or steakhouse / seafood house. I'm not so routine in the evening but I often have a hard time figuring out how and when to end my day. What criteria and things need to be done? I sometimes pay the bills and just last night, I installed Starcraft to play online with my partner...something I've done for ages. We go to a dollar movie quite often, rent at the Montrose Hollywood on occasion and sometimes go to the AMC 24 Dunvale theatre and occasionally to the Edwards Marquis.

This is fairly comfortable living for me so far. I do however have some odds and ends from a recent divorce. I visit my daughter on weekends and they are in the middle of moving. Our house is in the middle of a sale. On other occasions, we visit my partner's mom. My mom will call me but otherwise, I have little contact with my family which includes my younger sister who barely ever contacts me. I'm not sure what I'd say to her at this point though. I don't have a huge amount of interest talking to family anymore as they are not very accepting sometimes or tolerant as was the case growing up with other people who were not informed about or understanding of a young boy with Asperger Syndrome who also has diverse identities in many other ways. I get along fairly well with my partner albeit I'm a bit more chasey and clingy and I'm trying to normalize some of my trust issues in my life. He's been wonderful for me and very patient which is extremely important. I'm an INTJ and he's an INTP. This seems to be a doable combo.