I'm celebrating because I am awake and the morning is in me. (That is sort of a Thoreau quote with a chicken twist, but let's give credit where credit is due).
Anyway, yes, I am awake and I awoke without the aid of an alarm clock, feeling fully rested.
I don't know about you guys, but that doesn't often happen to me. Usually I wake up 3 minutes before the alarm feeling like I need another two hours. I only wake up then because my internal organs prefer to have me reach groggily around the night stand area in order to disengage the alarm clock rather than jolt my entire nervous system and possibly set off events that may well lead to a premature heart attack. They give me three minutes in which to accomplish this task. Once that is done, we usually all settle right back down into a deep sleep again.
I am not a morning person but I want desperately to be one. Yes, I want to get up, drink a pot of tea, run five miles and bake banana bread before the sun even shows itself. It will not ever happen and one of the great things about getting old is that you come to accept certain things about your personality, such as when you are a morning person or a night person. I am a night person, obviously.
Except I'm not. At least not lately.
Lately, I have been falling asleep at the same time as littleb. I don't intend to. I take him upstairs, we read our usual 1100 inane stories about silly dogs, oddly dressed hippos, and snarky sneetches, and then I tuck him in and I sit beside him for a little while.
And then I fall asleep.
Eventually, an hour or two later, I wake up with cramped, tingling limbs, and drag myself off to bed after, of course, setting the alarm for the next morning. And every single night I say to myself, because I am a not very bright optimist, I guess, "Oh well, tomorrow I'll wake up really early and I'll blog before I go to work".
Except I never do because, read above.
And I've been a little worried about this because, if I recall, as you grow older you tend to require less sleep, not more. I've been waiting for the day that I wake up early feeling well rested and ready for the day. It has not happened. Am I anemic? Did I get bitten by a deer tick? Depressed? Something worse? Yikes.
And then today I woke up. I'm awake now. Let's celebrate.
Chicken out
And just in case you were interested-
To him whose elastic and vigorous thought keeps pace with the sun, the day is always at morning. It matters not what the clock says, or the attitudes and labors of men. Morning is when I am awake and there is a dawn in me...To be awake is to be alive. I have never met a man who was quite awake. How could I have looked him in the face?...We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep. I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavour.
Henry David Thoreau
I am one of those annoying people who is awake to hear the first sparrow fart as the sun comes up. Conversely, I am also a night person and rarely go to bed before 11.30 pm. This does not mean I do anything productive with all those awake hours. And frankly I would rather be one or the other.
ReplyDeleteYep it sucks to be me...and also sucks to be you apparently.
Ah, so you are the one stealing all my awake time. Get some sleep, Lady P! When I was a night person, I didn't do much productive either, but I did drink a lot of wine and wrote some funny (at least I think so) posts, which one could consider somewhat productive. Right?
ReplyDeleteAre you SURE you're a chicken??? I am a morning bird. My advice is to stay away from me because I would be way too annoyng for you. I do not want you to hurt me.
ReplyDeleteI'm sad to say that I was forced to become a morning person after having kids. I desperately need my coffee and morning news first thing every day and in order to do that, I'm up at 5:30. But I wake up NEVER knowing where I am, what day it is, who that person is sleeping next to me and usually I jump about 10 feet in the air when NPR on my radio alarm clock starts yelling in my ear about that oil spill in the Gulf. After all that, there's not a CHANCE of me going back to sleep!
ReplyDeleteKatie and I are more and more alike every day.
ReplyDeleteI used to be the night owl of night owls. But, now I'm in bed by 11:00 and I'm up at the crack of dawn, all bubbly and sunshiny and new. Although, as much as I'd like to, I can't blog in the morning at least until I have a good 2 cups of coffee. Before that, my words just don't fit.
I thought your Hallelujah was going to refer to Lee's triumph on American Idol last night. Even if you don't watch the Idol, he did a spectacular version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" a masterpiece as lovely as Thoreau's poetry. Take a gander at my blog for a link to his song, if you're interested.
Hi BB-I am the black chicken. Get it? Anyway...I somehow just knew you were a morning person.
ReplyDeleteKatie and Joann-I also am a morning person because of kids but my nature is that of a night person. I am up early but I'm not sure that has much to do with being awake:-) Joanne, I didn't see Idol. I used to love it but I haven't been able to watch it for the last couple years as it interferes with nightime duties as outlined above. I love Leonard Cohen, though, so I will be over to visit soon!
Okay now Blogger is F*cking with me, Joanne. It says I have six comments and I do, because I wrote the sixth one and now it is MISSING. This is the SEVENTH comment. We'll see. Maybe the internet boys have given up on you and decided it is my turn!
ReplyDeleteGreetings Chicken from a devoted night owl. Mornings for me are death. Even my two espresso have little effect getting me going. I dig your selection of Thoreau. Hank rocks. I firmly believe that we should all leave our existence at some point in our lives and go live alone in a one room shack to think, write, be. My favorite HDT quote is "Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined."
ReplyDeleteI am a night chickadee. And I shall remain a night chickadee. 9 out of 10 chickadees prefer Crest and night blogging by the Chicken.
ReplyDeleteSorry chicken I have been remiss in keeping up...your morning schedule threw me off. I'm back on top of things now.
ReplyDeleteCB
Anonymous squared, well hello there night owls. I'm partial to "Time is but a stream I go a fishin' in", myself, but I also like your quote. And Chickadee, I prefer Chicken's night blogging and Crest, as well. Hey CB, no worries-the times they are a changin'. Just can't stop myself today. ha.
ReplyDeleteWell, sure, I'm a night owl and going to bed before the day is done (that's midnight, you know) just seems wrong. However...doing the farm living thing, I am up with the chickens (pun intended and No, I do not as yet own chickens) more times than I would like. For a while in my 30's it was the first pre-dawn streaks of light through my window that would get me up, cheerily and full of vigor, to feed the pets, check the veggie garden, mend the fences, and such. Luckily I am growing more lazy and have been known to sleep right through the hubby's good-bye kiss as he leaves for work at 7 AM. Yikes! Should use my late night solitude (hubby and pets are all asleep in the King-size bed while I am watching Buffy The Vampire Slayer reruns) to read your blog but am also downing the last of the Keystone Light at that point and no longer have the coordination to type or read! ; )
ReplyDelete