Daily Routine

My sleep cycle has really changed since I arrived in Iqaluit. The days of staying up until 2 or 3 a.m. are gone.

My partner starts work at 5:00 in the morning, and her alarm goes off at 4:00. I stay in bed while she showers, dresses, eats, and gets ready for work. She comes in and gives me a kiss before she heads out at 4:45.

I reset the alarm and then do my best to sleep. I usually get up at about 6:30 or so and then restlessly flop around until the alarm goes off at 7:00.

I'm up and showering during the 7:00 news. I get dressed into my working clothes and then usually read until 9:00. Last week, I finished Dan Harrington's book on poker strategy, Harrington On Hold 'Em: Volume 1, and am currently reading George Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier.

I've been supply teaching and I have to be ready to go in the morning if a phone call comes. Sometimes the call comes and sometimes it doesn't. I tick off school stating times throughout the morning: high school 8:05, middle school 8:25, elementary school #1 8:40, elementary school #2 8:55. Usually, if I haven't heard anything by 7:30, then I have the day off. Regardless, I am up early and face the whole day.

Since *** starts work so early in the morning, she finishes her day at 1:30. She is often home by 2:00 and we have the afternoon together. We usually have dinner at about 5:30 and are in bed at 7:30. It's lame, sure. I could stay up later, but I don't really see the point. I can sleep anytime, anywhere, and so I'm usually asleep by 8:30. On weekends or if there is something happening during the week, we'll stay up later.

Television here is completely messed. We don't have cable and only have CBC and APTN. Our clocks are set to the eastern time zone, but because the CBC transmitter is in Yellowknife, our CBC is on Mountain time and is therefore two hours later. The Simpsons that has aired at 5:00 for about 10 years comes on at 7pm. I don't mind that, but all the other evening programming is late. The National airs at midnight, and everything else, no matter how much we may want to watch it, is on too late for our schedule.

Instead, we've been watching Six Feet Under. I brought all five seasons with me and we managed to finish it up on Monday. I was very pleased with the finale, and thought that the ending was very well done. I wish that Alan Ball has written more episodes because, as the creator of the show, his episodes were the strongest. Now we're watching the US version of The Office, which I enjoy immensely. *** hasn't been hooked by the show yet and tends to doze off. When I catch her sleeping I close the laptop and go to bed.