Rise And Shine

I'm usually a morning person; I wake up without an alarm clock most mornings and get up easily enough. When I get up, I can function pretty much from the get go, and can make breakfast for myself, get dressed, carry on conversations and even plan my day.

I'm not bragging about this, it is pure DNA....I come from a father who would go to bed at 8:00 every night if he was let, and get up at 4 in the morning. (Pride and my mother will not let him go to bed before sundown.) My mother, on the other hand, would have cheerfully slept around the clock, I think, had she had the opportunity, and would have easily won gold medals for Canada if sleeping was an Olympic sport. I just managed to get the early-rising genes.

My brother had a notoriously difficult time getting up in the mornings, and one time I had the delicious opportunity to fool him into thinking he had gotten up, laid down on the couch for "just a minute", and then slept until 4 in the afternoon. (He had actually laid down for just a minute or two, but had drifted off briefly.) I still smile when I think of the look on his face when he thought he has slept all day. He probably still has heart failure.

Other people in my house, namely, the Mister, are made of different stuff. He operates on a purely molecular level for about an hour or so after rising, and even then, cannot be counted on to answer questions, interact with others in a remotely coherent manner or co-ordinate any of his limbs into any semblance of order. It is a lesson in human development to watch him climb the evolutionary ladder every morning.

Thing 1 is pretty good about getting herself up and out the door by 7:30 or so. And Thing 2 needs to be roused, but can get going without too much of a fuss every day. But all of them complain bitterly about the actual waking and rising, like I am making ferociously unreasonable demands on all of them to start their days.

Toby is a very effective alarm clock, as he tends to greet the day by balancing all of his body weight on my bladder at 7 a.m. I can assure you I have gently tried to dissuade him from this policy, by forcibly ejecting him from the bed, but so far, have had very little luck in convincing him to cease.

Around here, we even have a name for that delightful feeling of waking up and realizing that you don't have to get up yet. (Even better when you realize you don't have to get up at all)...it's called "coverlicous". When it is dark and cold out and you can turn over and go back to sleep? Coverlicious.

I think I'm the only one in my house that actually likes going to sleep though. Everyone else puts it off until all hours, and winds up going to bed ridiculously late. (I see a correlation, but apparently, I'm the only one.)