Thursday, July 16, 2009

Alarm Days

I've realized that I really enjoy waking up to an alarm. Here is what happens in an alarm and a non-alarm scenario:

Non-alarm: I wake up briefly as the light starts pouring in the windows. I don't need to get up, so I pull my blanket over my head and try to fall back asleep. I wake up again when I start to hear other people bustling around the house. I don't need to get up, so I put my pillow over my head and try to fall back asleep. I wake up again because I've been lying in bed a long time. I don't need to get up, so I just lie there awake. I get bored so I eventually get out of bed and climb into the shower. Eventually, I make it work an hour and a half or two hours later and sluggishly work on the projects that I've been assigned. After 8 hours at work, I've done about 6 hours of work. I leave that evening, telling myself that I will work an extra hour the next day to fill the 7 hours of work that I'm supposed to be doing each day. (Lest anyone worry, I do work the extra hour the next day.)

Alarm: I wake up to the gentle buzzing of my cell phone on vibrate mode. If I'm concerned that I'm tired and won't wake up to the buzzing of my phone, I put my phone on my desk, and I wake up to the buzzing of my phone on my desk (which is louder). Since it is time to get up, I hop out of bed, hop in the shower, eat a quick breakfast and I'm at my office in under an hour. Maintaining the pace of the day, I make all sorts of beautiful figures and amazing discoveries at work and can leave at 3 pm since I got to work so early and have been so effective all day long. If the previous day was a non-alarm day, I happily work till 4 pm because time flies when you are effective. Life is great.

Sometimes non-alarm days are a little more effective than this, and alarm days are a little less effective than this, but this is the general idea.

5 comments:

Crolace said...

On alarm days, I wake up to the gentle robot noises of my phone (I have a robot ring-tone), turn the alarm off because my half-awake brain thinks the off button is the snooze button, and then I fall back to sleep. An hour later, I wake up again, see the time, shout "Oh No!" and run around getting ready for work in record time. I arrive at work at 8:30.

On non-alarm days, I wake up at the time my alarm usually goes off, think "Hmm. Why isn't my alarm going off?" Then I fall back to sleep. An hour later, I wake up again, see the time, shout "Oh No!" and run around getting ready for work in record time. I arrive at work at 8:30.

Actually, if I wake up any time between 5:30 and 7:00, I'll always arrive at work at 8:30. It's so weird.

display name said...

I have two alarms. One is called Son, and one is called Daughter.

Son days: a gentle tapping at my door about 7:15 am. Then, quietly the door creaks open. I hear Son whisper in his sweet three-year-old voice, "Mom? I'm awake. Are you happy to see me?"

Daughter days: I am jolted awake from my slumber to a shrill scream. I pull the t-shirt off of the clock to blearily discover it is 6 am, and there is NO WAY I am going to get the little princess back to sleep. Stumbling my way into Daughter's room, she looks up and, one by one, hands me everything she sleeps with: her stuffed donkey, lamb, two blankets, and her pillow. Then I pick her up too. Once we're on our way out the door she'll turn to me and say, "I'm happy, Mama."

Different tactics - same result... sort of.

Unknown said...

Alarm days for me:

I seem to have stranger dreams that involve obnoxious buzzing sounds and the distinct feeling that my roommates are beating me.

Non-alarm days:

I wake up sometime closer to the middle of the day rather than the start of it.

Jerry said...

I disliked those alarm days when I was your roommate. Especially when you kept sleeping and I had to jump up and turn off the alarm.

xister said...

I don't know what you are talking about Jerry. I don't think that happened once.