A friend of mine I went to college with would often call and ask me what I was doing.

“Getting ready,” would usually be my response. He would always laugh when I’d say this, because I think he thought there was something more specific I was doing but not saying. I’m not really sure, but I guess if I remove myself from the situation, “getting ready” is an answer that’s so nebulous at times, it can’t help but be inherently funny. It sounds like something you’d do for the red carpet, for a date, or maybe even for a job interview. Me? Just class.

At any rate, I often was getting ready. After all, if I wasn’t in class, I was usually getting ready for class. And if I was back from class, I was usually getting ready to head down to the cafeteria for some grub, or getting ready to go elsewhere to study. I didn’t spend a ton of time in my dorm room those first few years, but I did toward the back end of my college career. I guess my senior year and grad school are where my hermity traits began to take shape.

These days, I find that I still get ready quite often. For work, for an evening out, for bed, for breakfast, for lunch, for dinner. Getting ready in the meal sense can mean food prep. Dicing, chopping, roasting, sauteing, baking, grilling, mashing, muddling, mixing. Getting ready to go someplace usually involves primping.

Early this morning while I was once again doing some weeding out back, I realized — having not yet primped for the day — that I was still very much in the process of getting ready. Only in this case, I was getting ready for maybe having people over, for enjoying the backyard and the BBQ on a summer night, or getting ready just to be able to relax — because no relaxation occurs when I’m reclining next to a flowbed of weeds. That’s a direct path to irritation, I say.

I was getting ready to be relaxed, and I was getting the backyard ready to be enjoyed. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but someday again soon.

Getting ready is a work in progress. Getting ready implies that you will feel differently — and ideally better than your current state — once the getting-ready is complete. Getting ready means forward motion, action and improvement.

I’ve been doing a number of things lately to get ready for my 40s, even though they’re not necessarily around the corner. I’ve also been getting ready for my retirement. Yes, it’s a ways off, but I’m pretty sure the latter is a big one that you can never really prepare too much for.

Tonight I am thankful for being able to do, to plan, to prepare, to craft, to mold, to shape and for being able to ready myself, my life and my existence for whatever life I wish to create.

What are you getting ready for?

As for me? Bed.