In fact, I woke up at 3:30 because my poor roommate had managed to lock himself out of the building when he ran back outside to look for something he thought he had lost (he works late nights). We ended up talking for about 20 minutes, then I found that–surprise, surprise–I couldn’t go back to sleep. I’d gone to bed at a shocking (for me, especially), 11 p.m. last night.

I stayed up and read part of Netherland by Joseph O’Neill (which is an absolutely fantastic read so far, by the way) until about 4:30 a.m. Then napped and snuggled with the kitty (don’t diss it) until about 5:00 a.m. Then I got up for real.

So what’s the point in me describing my morning to you so far? It was early, and I love it. And I feel like I’m in a constant struggle to establish a morning routine that I enjoy.

Too often, I’m waking up at 7:45 or even 8:00 a.m. and then forced to rush through the whole morning getting-ready process. No breakfast, quick shower, brush the teeth and out the door. By the time I get to work not only am I not awake, but I’m irritable from having to rush and even more tired from all the rushing. No fun at all.

This week I’ve been waking up around 6:00-6:30 a.m., and it’s nice. It’s given me a little more time to get ready in the mornings, grab a bite of breakfast, read the paper, catch up on e-mail, and prepare for the day. But I’m finding that 5:00 a.m. is really my sweet spot. Waking up that early gets me genuinely excited about being awake. There’s something incredibly special about enjoying those last minutes of darkness, watching the sunrise, experiencing the city still slumbering around you.

But waking up at 5:00 a.m. obviously isn’t easy to do. Every once in a while, like today, I can pull it off, but obviously it’s much easier to do when I crashed at 11:00 p.m., as opposed to my normal midnight, 1:00 or 2:00 a.m. bedtime. I’ve tried all the tricks: leaving my alarm on the opposite side of the room (even in an entirely different room, in fact), drinking water before bed, drinking water as soon as I wake up, jumping immediately in the shower… you name it. More often than not I wind up back in bed, at some point, and find myself groggily rushing toward the door when I finally snap out of it.

So what’s a busy college student to do? I’m not sure I have much of an answer. I need to work on going to bed earlier instead of staying up to do work, I think. I find that I’m not only more productive early in the mornings, but I’m happier while I work, too. At night I’m tired and sometimes a little irritable and well, I’m probably not getting much done.

And I suppose I’ll keep trying the tricks, and seeing if I can start finding this morning routine. Getting into a pattern of sleep at 11:00, waking at 5:00. A good six hours of sleep (more than enough for me, generally) and a nice fresh start to the morning. Wish me luck.

So just wanted to toss out a quick update this morning as I’m sitting here waiting on NOI’s Roots Camp to begin. So far, so good! I biked down here about 20 minutes ago (it’s a beautiful day, by the way) and now I’m sitting in the atrium of the National Education Association waiting on the festivities to begin!

It looks to be a fun-filled day of learning, talking, networking and organizing. For those of you unfamiliar with Roots Camp, it is, in a lot of ways, just a look back at the progressive organizing of 2009, what we’ve learned and what we can do better. Expect lots of talking Twitter, online organizing, as well as the “old” methods of offline organizing!

Roots Camp is what they call an “unconference,” a really cool, somewhat new format of conference where, quite literally, the participants set the agenda. When you walk in, they give you a blank card with the words “Session title:” and “Your Name:”. The participants create sessions (as many as possible!) and then arrange them on a giant grid in the atrium to fit with the pre-set schedule. Then you just go to it! The schedule may change and fluctuate throughout the day, and yes, it’s a little chaotic, but it’s also fun and gets everyone participating.

Another quick thing: my friend Chris Golden pointed out that the infamous Glenn Beck is speaking at the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) here in DC. Interesting contrast, I’d say.

More to come later on, possibly today, maybe tomorrow, maybe this week… who knows. Regardless, you know you can always find me tweeting (and I’ll be tweeting about Roots Camp all day with the hashtag #RC10).