.: Routine :.

With as much floating around I've done all these years, I've never had a routine. That isn't completely true. If I could make myself a cup of tea, anywhere, then I was home. I've had several homes but little routine or ritual.

Now that I've some roots I also grew some routines. Its logical and so easy. It is almost automatic. I never really thought about it. Sometimes I wouldn't have a toothbrush with me. Or I would just borrow someone else's soap to wash my face. Sometimes I would just rinse my face off and that was that.

I don't want to diminish these everyday things that I do for myself.

I don't want to take these rituals for granted that I now have them.

Sometimes I wash my face first but mostly I brush my teeth first. Don't like getting toothpaste traces on my fresh face. I've been using Tom's different types of toothpaste for a long while. Somewhere I'd read that you could sing the Birthday Song a couple of times in your head as you wash your hands. In that time you would rid your hands of all the dirty bacterial virus-type things. I figure the same thing works on my teeth too. Except I do the Alphabet Song. Three times. When I spit in the sink I make sure that I rinse off all the pasty tracks of toothpaste. I had a boyfriend's roommate complain that his girlfriend did that. He hated it. It was unsanitary. So now I make sure any remnants of my tooth scrubbings are down the drain.

When I wash my face, I splash it with water first. Mostly to get the surface dirt and oil off. I'd read alot of issues of Seventeen and Sassy in junior high, I'm pretty sure that's where I picked up that idea. It might have been in a Glamour magazine that I'd read to use a circular motion upwards with your facial cleanser. I happen to use an Oil of Olay product. Its age-defying. Like I really care to defy age. In the mornings, I'll apply another Oil of Olay product. Probably defies age as well. It has a SPF of 15. At night, yet another Oil of Olay product I probably got in a package with the cleanser. Yet this one does not try to defy age. In fact, it firms. This one I'm sure to apply to my neck. From my decollate, in circular motions, up to my chin and upwards. A roomate told me you can tell the age of a woman in her neck. I can tell I've age spots on my neck. I think I need an age spot defying product.

That's it. That's the routine. It seems silly I'm sure. Silly to those that have had this down pat for years. Please don't laugh. In all the chaos, that is my life, if I can follow this routine, in the simplest way, I've been good to myself. That stuff and making myself a cup of tea.