Routines | Quiet Background Listening for Work or Relaxation

In this gentle episode of The Insomnia Project, hosts Marco Timpano and Amanda Barker settle into a calm, meandering conversation about routines, habits, and the quiet rhythms of everyday life. If you enjoy slow, relaxing conversations that help quiet racing thoughts, this episode offers the perfect background listening for winding down, easing anxiety, or drifting off to sleep.
The conversation begins with Amanda reclaiming the word “mundane,” celebrating the beauty of ordinary moments and everyday routines. Marco shares his love of making lists while Amanda reflects on how routines help bring calm and structure to daily life. As always, the discussion wanders comfortably into unexpected territory — including Marco recalling the word “mendacity” from A Streetcar Named Desire while hilariously struggling to remember the name of actor Burl Ives.
Along the way, they talk about watching a local television channel that isn’t very local at all, figuring out the weather based on forecasts from other cities, and the journey of a fancy espresso machine finding its place in their daily routine. Marco also describes his preferred vessel for heating tea water, while Amanda shares an example of a small routine that works perfectly when you discover it.
The episode continues with a surprising detour into macadamia nut trees, a discussion about different types of sugar they’ve tried, and Amanda reluctantly revealing the audiobook she’s a little embarrassed to admit she’s currently listening to. In a final cozy moment, Marco and Amanda discover they are both waiting for the same book from the library.
As always, The Insomnia Project offers slow, calming conversation designed to help listeners relax, unwind, and gently fall asleep. If you drift off before the episode ends, that’s the highest compliment you can give us.
You can also enjoy ad-free episodes of The Insomnia Project with a free trial at theinsomniaproject.supercast.com.
Follow along and stay connected:
Instagram: @theinsomniaproject
Twitter/X: @listenandsleep
Website: theinsomniaproject.com
Quotes from the episode:
“The key to happiness is not… I don’t remember now.” – Amanda
“Moo-cadamia.” – Amanda
“You sometimes have a heavy hand with the maple syrup.” – Marco

​Routines
(Original airdate: March 29, 2023)

 Welcome to the Insomnia Project. Sit back, relax and listen as we have a mundane conversation to help you drift off to sleep. We're the only podcast we hope you never get to the end of. And thank you for joining us today. I'm um, your host, Marco Timpano.

Amanda:  I'm Amanda Barker. I feel like we are reclaiming the word mundane.

Marco:  Yeah, we are.

Amanda:  You know, because you say mundane and there's an immediate, um, you know, connotation with that word, that mundane means obviously boring or less than. But I think for us, and I haven't looked up the actual definition in the dictionary.

Marco:  Sure.

Amanda:  I think mundane is. There's a level of comfort in the mundane. A level of, um, organization, symmetry, you know, um, that type of normalcy that we sometimes need.

Marco:  Something that's ordinary. That's why we intentionally picked mundane versus boring, because we're never trying to be boring, because that would feel false. But rather we just want to talk about ordinary things that can help you just sort of not think of anything else.

Amanda:  I like thinking about, um, especially when I'm trying to sleep, but kind of always when I need some comfort. I like routine.

Marco:  Okay.

Amanda:  I'm a creature of routine. I find there's a real comfort in routine, the mundaneness of routine. Do you find that as well?

Marco:  Yeah, I do. I like. I'm a list maker. So if I can go through my lists and so I have my list that I accomplish every day. For example, my. While I was waiting for you to come into the booth today, I was actually going through all the emails that I have received and knocking them off my list. And I've recently. Or I continue to sort of pare down the emails I receive so that there's less and less coming my way.

Amanda:  I think lists. List making gets a bad rap sometimes.

Marco:  Oh, really? I never heard it getting a bad rap.

Amanda:  I listened to a book very recently. I finished it yesterday. I wasn't in love with the book.

Marco:  Okay. So you don't have to mention it.

Amanda:  No, I don't have to plug it or anything. Um, but it really kind of talked about this one woman's journey where she was like, oh, I was just a. I was a slave to my lists. And. Okay, I get it. I mean, I think there's room for spontaneity in this world. Of course I do. But I do think, um, you know, and maybe this comes from the fact that you and I do live

Marco:  some,

Amanda:  uh, would argue a more spontaneous or unpredictable life. That we are the people that most want and need and crave lists. Routine. Is mundanity a word?

Marco:  Sure.

Amanda:  Mundane ness. Well, it's a word now.

Marco:  Mendacity.

Amanda:  Oh, I like that. The audacity to be mundane.

Marco:  Sure. Mendacity is actually a word.

Amanda:  Does it mean the audacity to Be audaciously mundane.

Marco:  I don't know. I know it's from, um. Big Daddy says it in A Streetcar Named Desire. He says, you have the mendacity. I don't think it's a positive thing. I don't know that because I. I've

Amanda:  seen that play like three times live and I don't think I've ever remembered that particular line.

Marco:  So, um, the actor who played Big Daddy on the screen.

Amanda:  Mhm.

Marco:  Is the singer who sings that. Those Christmas carols. I can't remember his name. Pearl Ives played Big Daddy.

Amanda:  Okay.

Marco:  And the way.

Amanda:  I didn't know that.

Marco:  Yeah. And so when he does that sort of grand, grandiose speech where he starts sort of putting the male character. I forget who it is. Not Stella, obviously.

Amanda:  Oh, um, the guy with a broken leg.

Marco:  The guy with a broken leg played by Marlon Brando.

Amanda:  It's like cat or kid or Marlon Brando.

Marco:  So he says mendacity. I remember that speech. And that's the word that I remember the most from that speech. That sort of puts me in that if I was to play Big Daddy or when I think of that Big Daddy role, I m. Think of how he says that. So it has always sort of stuck with me.

Amanda:  Um, Mitch. Is that his name? Mitch? Stanley Kowalski. Is it Stanley?

Marco:  Well, I don't know, but mendacity means the quality or state of being mendacious.

Amanda:  I think it's Stanley. Yeah.

Marco:  To blow the whistle. Or mendacity and hypocrisy. So not so great. The quality. Yeah. Mendacious.

Amanda:  I didn't even know that word.

Marco:  I know now I'd have to look up mendacious. It's, uh, given to. Or the characterization by description, uh, or falsehood of divergence from absolute truth.

Amanda:  Oh, interesting. Okay. All right. Well, that's a different meaning, I think. Um, but for me, I think, you know, I'm really. I need to connect to routine and mundaneness. Uh, to me it's a comforting life raft as I sail through this life.

Marco:  Sure.

Amanda:  Yeah. So one of the things I was thinking about this morning was morning routines.

Marco:  Okay.

Amanda:  And the comfort of a morning routine as you wake up from your slumber. Yeah. For us, for you and I, on a day, again we have. Every day is different for us because we, like so many people, we are what you would call, I suppose, freelance.

Marco:  Sure.

Amanda:  I've never thought of myself that way, but I guess that's what it is. Freelance workers. So, you know, depending on the day, we have, uh, a different employment, different company. Some days we have Off. Some days we don't. Um, I really just.

Marco:  Some days we're doing two jobs in a day.

Amanda:  For me, this week is mostly about filming. I'm filming a project right now, so that's. I'm not doing it today, but I'm sort of preparing for it today.

Marco:  Sure.

Amanda:  And, um, as luck would have it, which I'm happy about because we had a pretty robust weekend.

Marco:  Yes, we did.

Amanda:  So with that being said, um, ah, a comforting morning for me, which is actually, could be a Monday morning, could be a Sunday morning, could be any morning, um, is to slowly wake up and then you and I, actually, we're TV creatures. We like to put the TV on, but we won't put it on anything too alarming.

Marco:  No, we generally put it on a local channel. And when I say local, I don't even mean a local to our city.

Amanda:  Our city is too big for the type of mundane ness that we crave.

Marco:  So we turn on the channel that is of a city about an hour away from us.

Amanda:  Huh. Smaller city.

Marco:  Smaller city. And we listen to them talk about small things going on in that city.

Amanda:  We do. We watch them navigate recipes. We watch them talk about pop culture.

Marco:  Going to the furniture store near that just opened, or the local theater and

Amanda:  what play they're putting on this month.

Marco:  Right.

Amanda:  It's that type of thing.

Marco:  One of my favorite things is when they have the weather person on and we have to sort of figure out what the weather will be in our city based from an hour away.

Amanda:  They're an hour west of us. It's usually what's coming our way.

Marco:  We figure out, okay, if the wind is coming from there. That means we'll probably. So not even looking at our own weather channel, but trying to figure out what our weather will be based on what we watch from another city's weather.

Amanda:  Do you think this is a sign that we should just be moving to that smaller city? No, no.

Marco:  No, I don't.

Amanda:  You have no desire to move there?

Marco:  Not really. I like our city.

Amanda:  Yeah. And as we've said before, our home, we're very lucky in that we have a fairly quiet neighborhood and quiet home in a relatively big and bustling city, so. Well, not relatively. Toronto's big.

Marco:  Yeah. And the crocuses are out.

Amanda:  And the crocuses are out. So part of a morning routine for me at this time of year would be to watch a little bit of that comforting News network. Again, local play. An author, someone from the local hockey team. Again, not local to us, but there's a comfort in the smallness there. And then maybe leaving you in the bed. I might go downstairs, I might put on a coffee.

Marco:  Most definitely.

Amanda:  Um, so for us that means putting on a stovetop, um. Machina. Right.

Marco:  Machinata. Yeah, I guess you could call it machinata. It's an espresso that's a violet sort of.

Amanda:  So everyone has their own coffee. If you drink coffee, that is, or tea. Um, they have their own routine. Uh, with that. For us, our routine is filling up. A stovetop espresso maker. Yes. We've even been gifted fancy espresso machines in the past. Secondhand. Uh, I should say it's. We've never asked for a fancy espresso machine. It wasn't something we registered for when we get married or anything like that.

Marco:  Right. We've had two sort of machines that sit on your counter that you have to then use pressurized water and make sort of a barista style coffee. And they never quite come out the same. And so we always go back.

Amanda:  They're hard to clean. Yeah.

Marco:  And they take up room.

Amanda:  Yeah. Which we don't have a ton of.

Marco:  Truthfully. Yeah. And there's. They just don't work for us. We've tried them and uh, we have lots of friends they work for and more power, in fact.

Amanda:  No. Some people love their machines and the routine of operating that machine.

Marco:  Certainly that last machine we received, we were the third person to receive the machine. So the original owner friends of ours, but they were very good friends with our good friends. So it went to our good friends Trevor and Dale, who we often mention on the podcast, who then gifted it

Amanda:  to us or said, no, no, you've got it wrong.

Marco:  I don't have it wrong.

Amanda:  Yeah, you do. So that machine, unless I'm talking about a different machine, maybe we are. Um, was from Daniela and Joel. No, we gave it to them. Right. Oh, I thought it came from them.

Marco:  No, see, that's where I was bringing it. So it came to us from.

Amanda:  So I remember the journey backwards, I guess.

Marco:  Yeah. Ah.

Amanda:  I really thought it came from them.

Marco:  No.

Amanda:  Okay. I reversed it in my brain. I apologize.

Marco:  It came to us and then.

Amanda:  Mhm.

Marco:  Daniela asked me, she just so happened to ask, do you know where I could pick up.

Amanda:  Mhm.

Marco:  One of those machines? Because her partner really enjoys that kind of coffee. And I said, we have one. Do you want it? And I said, do with it what you will. And um, they've been using it and she's been enjoying. Went to the right person.

Amanda:  So it started with Frank and Aaron. Then it went to Dale and Trevor. Then it came to us, Amanda and Marco. Then it went to Daniella and Joel. Oh, that's really funny. I didn't quite realize that. I apologize.

Marco:  And Joel really enjoys that coffee. Mhm. And Daniela says he knows how to work the machine, so she only lets him sort of deal with the coffee from there.

Amanda:  Well, that's their morning routine in Calgary.

Marco:  You know, it's in Toronto.

Amanda:  Oh, is it?

Marco:  Yeah.

Amanda:  Right. Uh, they split their time, um, location.

Marco:  Where did that machine end up?

Amanda:  Uh, yeah. Wouldn't it be great if it traveled the country? Um, so for us, um, we've realized, and I think there's some grace in that. Realizing that this for. For you and this may not be a coffee, might be an espresso machine.

Marco:  Sure. Um, a tea kettle.

Amanda:  A tea kettle. A home. You know, I think there's some grace in learning that a smaller version, which sometimes we're told, you know, not to aspire, you know, we are supposed to aspire for bigger or, uh, more.

Marco:  Sure.

Amanda:  Just isn't the right fit for you. I recently was watching one of my favorite design shows, Hometown.

Marco:  Can I just say that like the kettle, for example, I prefer to drink my tea from the kettle pot that you put on the stove that boils and whistles versus the one that has the coil. The coil.

Amanda:  The plug in.

Marco:  Yeah, the plug in that you have to press the thing down. I think tea tastes better for me with that whistling kettle.

Amanda:  On a stove.

Marco:  On a stove. I don't know if it's the whistle that does it for me. Just the sound. M. You know, a auditory sound. There's the watch. You don't burn yourself as you pick it up. So there's that element of danger and how. How bubbly the water is or how heated the water is when you pour it onto your tea. That, that for me, I just want to say is my favorite.

Amanda:  Well, absolutely. And different people have different things. Some people use a microwave to microwave their water hot and then. And then put a tea bag in it. That's not my journey.

Marco:  Sure.

Amanda:  But that's maybe somebody's routine.

Marco:  Hey, listen, if it works for you and it makes you happy and it sets your day, by all means.

Amanda:  The plug in kettles are great for work. Or um, you know, a countertop place where you don't have access to a stove or burner or hob, as I found people in the UK call it.

Marco:  Sure.

Amanda:  From again, the various design shows that

Marco:  I watch or if you set up like a coffee tea station in your bedroom so you wouldn't have to go down. That probably would be useful.

Amanda:  You and I have discussed that possibility. There isn't a ton of room to it in our bedroom, but there's one tiny little corner that could maybe be utilized. But then we would have to put a hob. I'm going to start using that word now. Um, but for our UK listeners, we don't call it that. We usually call it a burner or, um, a stovetop. I don't even know what we call that. A stove top or a hot plate.

Marco:  Hot plate, I guess. Yeah.

Amanda:  Hot plate. Yeah.

Marco:  But you were saying about Hometown or something.

Amanda:  Well, I was just saying that sometimes the smaller version that we societally often think of as less than is the right one for you. And I think there's a real comfort in knowing that the smaller, cheaper, less version is the one that fits for you in your life. And in Hometown, they were actually talking about homes. And of course, they're renovating homes, and that's the show. And they find a home for someone and they tell them, okay, here's your budget, and here's what we can do with that budget. And of course, it's part of the allure of, uh, that show is that it's set in Mississippi, uh, where homes in that particular town are relative inexpensive compared to, say, Chicago or Los Angeles or London. Yeah, exactly. Um. Um, but one of the things I thought was really interesting is I heard, um, they were doing an interview segment, and the people who are the hosts of the show, the Napiers, is their name? Aaron. And, uh, I was gonna say Mickey, Mick McNapier. Somebody from our world.

Marco:  Yeah, Aaron.

Amanda:  An improv person.

Marco:  Yeah.

Amanda:  Ben.

Marco:  Ben. Yeah.

Amanda:  Anyway, they were. She said, you know, this woman wanted a big home be perfect for entertaining. And then they asked her about her home, and she said, oh, no, I don't want a big home for entertaining. I have a small kitchen that fits six to eight people, and that's how I like it. And I thought that was really lovely because we're just conditioned to say, oh, you want a kitchen that can fit 12 people for Thanksgiving or whatever it is. And, um, you know, our big brunch on, um, the weekend, or host a party.

Marco:  Sure.

Amanda:  And there's. That's lovely, too, if that's what you want and that's what you have. But I think there was a real grace to saying, that's not what I want. So that's not what. I could have that, but that's not what I want.

Marco:  Bucking the trend that says this is what's desirable for what suits your needs.

Amanda:  And also having. Taking comfort in what you do have. Having what you want, you know, wanting what you have. Uh, or what? There's an expression in that. I forget what.

Marco:  That wanting what you have, it's.

Amanda:  You know, the key to happiness is not. I don't remember now, but I guess

Marco:  you won't find the key to happiness.

Amanda:  The key to happiness is wanting what you have. Not sure.

Marco:  Having what you want.

Amanda:  I'm missing a piece of this. Okay, I'll have to look it up. Anyhow, um, so in our morning routine, we have, uh, an espresso gets made.

Marco:  Yes.

Amanda:  Usually in the morning, milk gets frothed for that espresso.

Marco:  Today was mental. Today was macadamia milk. Mac nut milk, as they say. Who says in Hawaii they were calling

Amanda:  it Mac nut milk. Oh, interesting.

Marco:  Macadamia nut milk.

Amanda:  Yeah, we have some. And I just thought.

Marco:  What's funny is, when I came home with the macadamia nut milk, Amanda says, you don't like that. I'm like, what? She's like, we had it before. And you said you. Absolutely.

Amanda:  But you know what? The one we had before, I believe, was a different brand.

Marco:  Yeah. Because this one's actually quite.

Amanda:  I like this one.

Marco:  Yeah, me too.

Amanda:  I guess it depends on the brand.

Marco:  With nut milk, I think it's called milk. Milkadamia, I think, is what this brand is called.

Amanda:  Milkademia. Is that what it's called? I think you're right. Or M. Moocadamia.

Marco:  Ah, I doubt it's mookadamia.

Amanda:  I think that's what it is.

Marco:  Like moo is in a cow. Moot. Moose. Moocadamia. Okay.

Amanda:  I don't know. Anyway, that's something. It's a play on macadamia and milk. I just don't remember what the play is. Same as I don't remember the key to happiness.

Marco:  The interesting thing about macadamia trees, macadamia nut trees, is that they were native to Australia, but they weren't commercially, um, grown in Australia to be consumed. And when the tree was brought to Hawaii, that's when it became more of a consumable product. And then what happened was it became popular in China, and so the price of macadamias went up. And what China has done, or so I've been told, is they have planted and are growing macadamia orchards, which should be coming into fruition, I guess, or coming to fruit or bare nuts in the next few years, which could. I was going to call you Daniela. Which could Daniela Lascalik, if you're listening or Amanda, drop the price of macadamia nuts throughout the world. So pay attention to the price of macadamia nuts, which is pretty high now, and what will happen in the next five years.

Amanda:  Oh, my goodness.

Marco:  Took a little detour there. You weren't expecting.

Amanda:  Back to our morning routine. And actually to the quote that's been sort of, um, gnawing at me. There's a few versions of it.

Marco:  Um, laughs, and the whole world laughs with you.

Amanda:  Uh, the first version is, I should say, attributed to Rabbi Hyman Schlattel, which is, happiness is not having what you want, but wanting what you have.

Marco:  Okay, I like that.

Amanda:  Uh, but the one I've heard more is, success is getting what you want, but happiness is wanting what you get.

Marco:  I like that, too.

Amanda:  Yeah, so I think there's a few things with that. But anyway, that's pretty cool. But we're not really talking about success, too. We're talking about. Well, I mean, success in your own comfort and happiness.

Marco:  Sure.

Amanda:  And how you navigate your life through your morning routine. Um, so anyway, a coffee gets made.

Marco:  Coffee definitely gets made. Coffee gets drunk.

Amanda:  We have a few different versions of sweetener that we put in the coffee. Sugar. Um, but we have honey sugar as well. Today I actually used brown sugar.

Marco:  Oh.

Amanda:  I've been exploring the cabinets and seeing what we need to sort of use up.

Marco:  We tried to use blackstrap molasses. I liked it because our friend Trevor told us to do that.

Amanda:  And actually, it's good for me because I need iron.

Marco:  Okay. I think there's iron, so maybe we'll get more of that.

Amanda:  You didn't like it, though.

Marco:  I know, but that's fine. Just. I just maybe have to get used to it.

Amanda:  M. So, um, we've tried that. Xylitol, of course, when we have it.

Marco:  Um, honey sometimes.

Amanda:  Probably my favorite sugar substitute. Uh, honey sometimes.

Marco:  For me, my favorite is maple, um, Syrup.

Amanda:  Yeah.

Marco:  But you sometimes have a heavy hand with the maple syrup.

Amanda:  Well, I just think maple syrup is delicious and makes things delicious. But, yeah, I'm heavy handed in general.

Marco:  Sure.

Amanda:  With all my pores, as you know.

Marco:  If you ever get Amanda to pour you a cocktail, you'll only ever need that one.

Amanda:  I do have a heavy hand. Um, anyhow, and today, part of our routine was I brought that coffee back up to you. And actually, during the coffee, waiting for it to percolate on the stove. M. I put on a soothing audiobook that I started yesterday.

Marco:  Oh, what book is that?

Amanda:  Um, you know, it's it's, um, almost. I'm almost embarrassed to be listening to it. But it was what was available at my library, which is what I listen to.

Marco:  Sure.

Amanda:  Because I listened to them through the Libby app, and the one that I was listening to today was called the Latte Factor.

Marco:  Oh, I like this.

Amanda:  So it's basically saying, you know, you're richer than you think.

Marco:  I know this thing. This is the theory of this gentleman, I believe. Yeah.

Amanda:  But it's got a lot of, um, backlash, certainly in the last few years. It was only written four years ago, which is interesting to me, because I think the backlash has existed longer than that. But what I came to learn was that he was a speaker on Oprah, and So he probably 20 years ago or so introduced this theory. Basically. Um, I haven't gotten that far into it yet, but basically, if you can afford a latte every day, if you can afford to buy L out every day, then you can afford a house or whatever. But it's gotten a lot of backlash because of.

Marco:  It's a bit simplistic.

Amanda:  It's a bit simplistic and maybe doesn't take into account things like, you know, privilege and inflation, et cetera.

Marco:  Are you enjoying the book, though, so far?

Amanda:  I actually am. Um, I thought my theory with any book, any TV show, any movie, put it on for 10 minutes, see how you feel after the first 10. If you're still engaged and still, even if you're, like, not sure about it, then no one's making you listen to that book or watch that movie. You can always turn it off. So I figured yesterday I couldn't find anything else available that I wanted. Sure, I put a bunch of things on hold, which is good practice, um, because sometimes I forget to do that, and then I have nothing to listen to. It's a library, so they take a while to become available. But this one was available right away. And so I thought, well, it's only four hours of my life. Let me. It put. Listen for the first 10 minutes, see what it. You know, I have to listen to the reader if I like the voice.

Marco:  Right. Of course. There's a lot of elements. Are you in the mood in that particular time of your day? Night, week?

Amanda:  Exactly. Am I going for a walk? Am I making dinner? What type of thing do I want to listen to somebody speak on? So anyway, I actually have to say I'm probably about 30 minutes into it at this point.

Marco:  Oh, wow. I didn't realize that.

Amanda:  I listened to it while I was cleaning up after dinner last Night. And I'm kind of enjoying it.

Marco:  Listen, that's fine.

Amanda:  I'm comforted in the same way that we're talking about mundane conversation and comfort. There's comfort to me in re examining. I always like to re examine my relationship with money.

Marco:  Sure.

Amanda:  Whether it's taxes or for some people, that's not their thing. But I find it very comforting to just relook at things, maybe look at it from a new light. Is there any opportunities for me to adjust my thinking or my spending or any of those things? I enjoy that.

Marco:  That said, we did go to a Starbucks because you wanted the extra points. So they do hook you with details like that. I'm looking at a book. Yeah.

Amanda:  But now I have a free Starbucks.

Marco:  Fair enough. Um, I have a book that I'm interested in examining that a friend of ours, Megan, posted on social media that she was enjoying it.

Amanda:  Put a hold on.

Marco:  I put a hold on it.

Amanda:  That's so funny.

Marco:  And there's like a. I'm assuming we're

Amanda:  talking about the same book.

Marco:  Yeah, it's called how to Keep House while Drowning. And what's funny is there are 26 copies at our library and there are 119 people waiting for. Waiting. So both of us are in that 119 waiting for the.

Amanda:  Let's see who. It's a race to see who gets that library.

Marco:  Is it available on, uh, Libby. On Libby, yeah, it is. Okay.

Amanda:  And it's only three hours, so immediately when I saw that one. Great. I'll put a hold on that. So I did. So that's in my queue.

Marco:  I haven't done that on Libby yet. I put a hold on the actual book.

Amanda:  Yeah. You're more into the tactile books. I haven't done that in a while. I find if I want the tactile book, I find more lately that I'll buy the book. But if. If it's an audiobook form, I'm finding that I can't really listen to fictional narrative on audiobook. I don't know why I prefer to read that, but fair for listening. Anything in the biography, self help world, even personal essays, narrative stories, that type of thing. Uh, those are the types of books I like, especially the personal narratives and that type of thing.

Marco:  Anything nonfiction, I prefer if a audiobook version is available to listen that way.

Amanda:  So I put that book on waited for the coffee to percolate. That doesn't really percolate. I guess it does.

Marco:  Brew is, I believe how we say it in the coffee world.

Amanda:  It is kind of A percolate, though. Yeah, it is, because it pops up a little bit.

Marco:  But I believe brew is what you use.

Amanda:  I'm waiting for the coffee to brew, and I, uh, unloaded the dishwasher because last night I thought ahead, and I like to put it on a little timer so it goes, you know, so that I can add after dinner. We might have more dishes to add. For example, I made a little plate of grapes and cheese last night to bring to bed so you and I could have a watching TV in bed

Marco:  snack, which I know you're not supposed to do. Watch TV in bed, but that's what suits us.

Amanda:  Well, again, some people would say you're not supposed to live by your lists, but I find that comforting. Or you're not supposed to have your espresso from a stovetop, uh, but rather from a fancy machine. All that matters is that you do what is right for you.

Marco:  I agree with that.

Amanda:  So, grapes and cheese in bed for me, not every night, but some nights. And TV in bed is the right choice for us. And for us, the comforting choice, actually.

Marco:  Indeed.

Amanda:  So that's what we do, you know, not every night. Um, but, um, anyway, that was my morning routine. And then I unloaded the dishwasher because it was all nice and clean. And just when I put the last fork and mug away, coffee was ready. I heated up that macadamia milk and made you a latte, and up the stairs I went, and you were watching, you know, the local weather of a town an hour away.

Marco:  There you go. Well, whatever routine you have in the morning, we hope it works well for you. Until next time, we hope you enjoyed this episode of the Insomnia Project. Please rate, review and subscribe. Tell your friends about our podcast and we hope you were able to listen and sleep.