CHICAGO — There is some irony that it took winning the presidency for Barack Obama to settle into a schedule that borders on humdrum.
For now, he wakes up in his own bed, works out in the same fitness center each morning, goes into the office, comes home and has dinner with his family -- a far cry from the frenzied campaign life of the previous 21 months. While more routine, his existence is also more surreal, as he moves through Chicago largely sequestered in a security bubble even more robust than the one around him at the end of the campaign.
Still, Obama seems to be savoring his time between election day and the move to the White House, one of the longest stretches he has had at home in five years.
On Friday, he made time to leave the office briefly to pick up a corned beef sandwich and some cherry pie from Manny's Coffee Shop & Deli, a favorite spot for Chicago politicians.
"I'm just glad to be out," Obama said amid applause and shouts of congratulations from surprised diners.
Yet the roughly 15-minute stop seemed designed more to provide a media photo opportunity -- the first in nearly a week -- than to let the president-elect step out for some fresh air.
Obama has made clear that he wants some quality time with family before he is sworn in Jan. 20 as the 44th president.
As Obama settled into his new homebody life, aides had suggested a block of time for political calls during evening hours. That didn't fly. His two daughters would still be awake.
"He said, 'Can we back that up, guys?' " recounted an aide. "He wanted to read to them and tuck them in, so we do the calls a little bit later."
Obama is a man of discipline and routine, and he has gotten exactly that in recent days, even finding time Wednesday evening to attend his daughter's performance at a downtown theater.
After his morning workout, Obama typically heads into his transition office in downtown Chicago's Loop between 9 and 10 a.m. Most days, he's home by about 6 p.m.
The trade-off, of course, is that he has lost some of the few freedoms he had before the election.
Obama now typically sees members of the public only through tinted glass as he makes his roughly 15-minute commute between downtown and his South Side home.
The security restrictions have gradually increased since May 2007, when the Secret Service first began guarding him -- the earliest point in a campaign cycle that it had ever begun protecting a candidate.
