The alarm clock. Ah, an amazing invention. Unfortunately, the alarm clock and I have had a love/hate (mostly hate) relationship. I remember receiving my first alarm clock for Christmas when I was 8. I was so thrilled. Then the realization of the purpose of the alarm clock set in. This evil contraption is designed to interrupt your peaceful dreamy sleep. It makes you start your day way before you really want to. I realize that some people are morning people (i.e. Doctor and my Dad) and hooray for you. I am definitely not! Enter the next love/hate (mostly love) item, the snooze button. I had a love affair with the snooze button. The alarm wakes you up, you hit the snooze, and your back in dream land. The problem is, my body became so accustomed to hitting the snooze, that I would never actually wake up in order to do it. I tried moving it across the room so that I would have to get out of bed to turn it off. That worked for about a week. I tried the volume up all the way. All this accomplished was a family full of annoyed people. I tried the buzz feature to no avail. My parents inevitably had to come down, squirt water on me, and drag me out of bed. Another great start to my day. For an alarm clock to work, I discovered that it would need to be set at least an hour and a half before I actually had to be awake. That is literally how long it took my body to recognize that the alarm was going off, and I had to be awake. When I got married, it never occurred to me that this practice might be difficult for my sweet spouse. The poor guy endured months of agonizing snooze pushes (at least an hour and a half of being woken up every 9 mins) before he snapped. Needlessly to say, I had a really hard time making it to school on time because I slept in alot without my alarm clock. Well, my wonderful children began entering my life and the need for a device to wake me up was no longer necessary. I enjoyed 5 good years without it. Then............kindergarten. Dude needs to be at the bus stop by 7:15. So, I began setting the alarm for 6:30, so I could get up, make breakfast, and help Dude get ready. The alarm that Doctor and I have is one that can be set for 2 different times. This is super convenient because he has to be out of the house by 5 or 5:30. He wakes up very easily and has the volume set at a comfortable listening level. The problem is, I don't hear it. When it goes off at 6:30, I usually don't hear it and recognize it until around 6:50. This usually isn't too bad because my first wake up typically occurs when the girls get up at 6. The alarm is really a back up in case the girls sleep in.
Okay, with that background....here's the post. Phew! My incredibly considerate daughters have begun to wake up, not come get me, and when the alarm goes off, they very sweetly come in and press, gasp, the snooze button. The past two mornings I have woken up at 7:15. This means that I gather up all the children and drive Dude to school. I wouldn't mind too much if it wasn't 2 degrees outside and gas wasn't $3/gallon. Seriously, though, if this is all I have to complain about, my life is pretty great.
As a side note, when I was a teenager, my mom discovered that I always woke up when the phone rang, so she did call me in the mornings and tell me to get up. That worked pretty well. So, if anyone would be willing to call my house at 6:30 on weekday mornings I'd sure appreciate it! (Not really. Don't call me. Seriously.)
4 comments:
AHH, I remember the days well. I think Brent had the worst of it having his room right next door. Are you sure you don't want a wake up call?!
I recall the alarm clock vividly. Oh, the loud noises at 5:45am were annoying, but it was the extra long showers my dear daughter had to take, singing every song on the radio, that I recall most. This usually resulted in a late start to my day and a very "chilling" shower experience - at least until I installed a second 55 gallon water heater. Gads, with all the recent posts, I'm beginning to wax nostalgic, and looking back, it was all worth it and these are truly the memories I hold most dear. And I'm so very proud of all that you've accomplished and who you are. Thanks for letting me be a part of your life.
Love
Dad
I can't believe that you failed to mention the immense abuse and pain that you inflicted on me when I would try to wake you up. I guess maybe it is because you aren't the one who is permanently scarred from it.
Yaaaa..memreeeze......
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