Routine.

You might find this shocking but I tend to feel most comfortable when I’m adhering to a well-thought out routine. Now I’m not talking about anything with flaming batons or silk flags, however, at times that does sound appealing, but rather, I like it when I have some sort of structure and a sense of what to expect in the next several hours of my life.

But what about your spontaneity? Well, I enjoy being spontaneous when I plan ahead for it. It’s kind of like looking at the calendar on my iPhone, noting that I have four hours of free time on Saturday, and deciding to go up to the beach and run through waves while remaining completely clothed. We’d all get a chuckle from that sort of adventure and it would be a spontaneous gesture on my own terms.

I like my own terms.

Because I am used to a routine and I tend to stick to said routine, I’m finding myself struggling a little bit with my lunch hour activities while I telecommute. Now, there is a Dunkin’ Donuts about a mile from the house (on the other side of the bridge of civilization demarkation) and I was there at 12:10 p.m., just as if I had been working from my office and gone to where my iced tea is occasionally waiting for me.

My iced tea wasn’t waiting for me. I was going to brief the counter person and his cohort about how I enjoy my iced tea to be prepared and how it could be a regular occurrence if they play their cards right, but they were busy tittering about my mustache. They thought they were talking softly, and they were, but the fact of the matter is, I can read lips.

My mustache nor I are threatened by the tittering of those that can not grow that which I have.

But I digress.

The fact of the matter is, I didn’t have a sandwich made for lunch because the bread had gone bad (but the birds apparently still love it) so I ended up completely breaking my routine by ordering an iced tea AND one of their deli sandwiches. The good thing was that I paid with the same Dunkin’ Donuts card that I use when working from the office. The tittering staff was not quite as jovial as the folks behind the counter at the more expensive Dunkin’ Donuts near work nor was there a woman with her wig on backwards. The tuna was tuna.

As I strive to build a new routine so that I feel more comfortable with my telecommuting adventures three days a week, I find myself realizing that I might have to come up with something spontaneous.

Perhaps on Friday I’ll go to the Dunkin’ Donuts in the next town.