Now and then, I become a morning person. I can’t predict what will precipitate this change. One summer in college it was the routine of getting up at 7:00 every day to work at the college bookstore. Another year in Rockville, when my then-pregnant cousin was staying with me, it was the fact that I’d never work out if I didn’t do it in the morning. And one year in D.C, I started waking up at 4 a.m. every day because I was really, really hungry.

But it’s been a while since I would consider myself an early bird. I initially wrote “morning bird,” because I thought maybe that was a thing, because that’s how unfamiliar I am with waking up early right now. It just isn’t happening for me. Have you ever hit snooze 9 times? No? Then you haven’t lived.

This week I did wake up early, once, to run on the treadmill in my building. The evenings were hectic this week and I’m woefully behind on making sure I don’t die during the Brooklyn Half Marathon in May. For a moment, I imagined how amazing life would be if I could always knock out my runs in the morning. (I won’t.) Here’s a list of all the other amazing things I’d accomplish if I could just wake up earlier.

1. Run (see above).
2. Work on my new book.
3. Tackle my current reading list. 
4. Deep condition my hair.
5. Comb my hair at all.
6. Listen to NPR.
7. Or watch 30 Rock.
8. Force Baby Cat to exercise. 
9. Do some Sun Salutations! Or my patented Bootleg Version of Sun Salutations To The Best of My Memory.
10. Meditate.
11. Clean the dishes from 3 nights ago.
12. Make an omelet.
13. Iron an item of clothing I haven’t worn in years because it requires ironing. 
14. Call Mom & Dad.
15. Moisturize. Everything.
16. Recycle the 11 empty toilet paper roll holders on my bathroom floor.
17. Sew on all the missing buttons.
18. Finally create an art project using all the “Remove before washing” tags that I’ve been cutting from clothes and saving for … some reason.
19. Pre-work dance party.
20. Sleep in.

What would you do??