My Typical Tuesday Morning (Back in 2024)

My mornings usually start with a quintessential Filipino breakfast - garlic rice, egg (scrambled, omelette, over easy - depends on my mood), and whatever processed food catches my fancy - spam, hotdogs, longganisa. They have to be fried, because fried unhealthy food go best with coffee and a dash of sugar, poured over the rice, Batangueño-style.

But at this stage in my life, I’ve decided I have to try to cut back, even if just with baby steps. I’ve decided that I’m skipping rice for at least one meal a day, and on most days, breakfast is the easiest sacrifice.

So today, I made myself an egg salad sandwich: one small pandesal stuffed with a hardboiled egg mixed with mayo, a touch of Dijon mustard, a dash of Tabasco, salt, and pepper. I paired it with good black coffee, no sugar, kept hot by my trusted Swell steel container.

It's Tuesday today, so I packed them all in a makeshift lunchbox, before driving to Makati where I can enjoy them in the quiet of my office. In addition to my tasks with CANVAS, I presently work full-time on a USAID Project called BEACON.

Back in 2021, I had the foresight to negotiate a deal that lets me work from home most days and to come into the Makati office only on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Even better, I'm a really early riser so I locked in really early hours: 5:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. It’s the kind of arrangement that’s paid for itself many times over. No traffic stress (on most days), and with the quiet of the early morning, I have time to think, plan, imagine, and just breathe.

Halfway through my drive, I saw that I was running even earlier than usual, so I drove through McDonald’s for a hash brown to pair with my baon. The crispy golden slice of indulgent fried potatoes was the perfect sidekick to my egg sandwich.

So here I am, it's only 6:01 a.m., and I've already been in the office for nearly an hour. I've just had what feels like a satisfyingly-light-if slightly-less-than-healthy breakfast. Spotify's giving me an instrumental work-inspiring playlist, at least so it says. I'm still alone in the quiet of an empty office. I'm ready for anything this typical day will give, and it has so far been off to a great great start.

Sometimes routine is just the kick you need to get the day going.

Wala lang.