The Clock

This was my morning view


If you know me very well at all, you know that I am not a morning person.  I am most definitely a night person.  I can get more accomplished between the hours of 10 p.m. and 1 a.m. than most people accomplish in eight hours of work.  But mornings?  Mornings I hate.  I am a chronic snooze button pusher.  I can't remember a time when I actually woke up when my alarm clock said to.

I have tried everything, really.  I have tried setting my alarm clocks ahead, but seriously, how dumb do you have to be to not remember that you set the clock fifteen minutes ahead? Whatever the answer, I am not that dumb.  And so I have always just subtracted the extra minutes and I have always known what time it was.  I have tried placing my alarm clock or cell phone across on the other side of the room.  This was also ineffective.  I would either turn off the alarm or just unplug the cell phone and take it back to bed with me.  My sleeping self is very clever about removing distractions.

And this has caused problems for me.  I have been late for class- I had multiple 7:30 a.m. classes in college.  I have been late for work.  I have left late for road trips.  I have missed fun things at night because I overslept from a nap.  Oh yes, once you are proficient at removing distractions that you can sleep, it bleeds over into everything.

Last week, Target had a one day sale on something I have always wanted.  It was a daylight alarm clock, and it starts glowing lightly thirty minutes before your scheduled wake-up time.  It increases the glow gradually, and by the time the alarm wakes you to the sound of the radio or chirping birds, the lamp is fully lit.  It feels like morning.  Even in the winter.  Even when it's dark.  And so I decided that with the start of a new school year and a new teaching job, I needed it.  It was 50% off Target's retail price.  By the time I got around to attempting to purchase it, they were sold out.  And I was sad.

This week we are at the beach.  And several years ago when I was in Hawaii, I ran across a woman on the beach doing yoga first thing in the morning.  I thought to myself the next time I am on the beach, I will do this.  And I haven't practiced yoga consistently in a long time, but here I am at the beach.  And I did remember to bring my yoga mat, so this morning when I woke up at 6:50 a.m., I decided to drag my lazy self out of bed, change clothes, and head down to the beach to use my little yoga application on my iPhone.  And so I did.  And I was met with beautiful skies and quiet and enough of a breeze to balance out the thick humidity.  After about 15 minutes, the rain that was initially light and sporadic turned steady, and my hands started to slip from my mat.  I had to call it quits on the yoga.  And so I walked around in the rain until it didn't make sense anymore... after all, I had a phone and my Kindle in my bag.

But I did it.  I got up early (6:50 is early for me) and I didn't even have to set an alarm.  Maybe if I lived on the beach, I would become a morning person, complete with whistling while I complete my morning tasks.  Maybe I would get up each day before the sun and head to the beach for some exercise before each day started.  Or maybe I would get used to waves and the sand and the calm, and I would go back to hitting my snooze button every nine minutes, which has always seemed like a strange increment of time to me.  Either way, the chances of my living on the beach are very slim.  And school is still starting in a mere two weeks.  And the first few months are relatively easy, but then winter hits and getting up in the dark always seems so wrong.  So if anyone has a beach condo they would like to give me, I will take it.  But until then, sale or no sale, I think I need the clock.


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