Sound the alarms

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August 23, 2011

Sound the alarms

Crystal Brown Weatherford Democrat The Weatherford Democrat Tue Aug 23, 2011, 10:23 PM CDT

WEATHERFORD — Lets get one thing straight — I am not a morning person. Never have been and probably never will be.

When I was a kid in school, the only thing that would get me out of bed some mornings was Dad standing over me with a cup of water. Luckily, I never pushed it to the point of being drenched.

Now the tables are turned. My little girl started kindergarten Monday. Sunday night we picked out her first day of school outfit, packed her lunch and went to bed early. The next morning I was up at 6:30 ready to go.

But that was just a fluke. While I can occasionally convince myself of the need to wake up before 9 a.m., yes that’s right 9 o’clock in the morning, doing such a thing two days in a row is a challenge. That’s probably why I picked a career that tends to cater more toward afternoon and evening work hours.

Tuesday morning, the first of three alarms goes off on my cell phone, but I can’t seem to hit the snooze button. I look at the phone and see that my not-so-smart phone is in the middle of downloading updates, and so it won’t turn off the alarm. In my half-asleep daze I must have turned off that alarm and all the ones to follow.

Around 7:45 a.m. my body told me I should open my eyes. When I did, the panic set in. Lucia was not going to be late the second day of school after being one of the first ones there the day before.

I jumped up, got her up and in a matter of 10 minutes changed her clothes, brushed her teeth for her, combed her hair and slid a headband into place, all the while she is rubbing the sleepy out of her eyes. Thank goodness we had made lunch the night before. It also came in handy that we live down the street from her campus, so I was able to get her there and into the hands of a trusted teacher by 7:58 (two minutes until the tardy bell).

Now I’m scouring the Net for ideas on ways to wake up early. Going to bed early — did that last night. Going to sleep is not the problem, it’s that I can sleep for 12 hours without even realizing it.

Caffeine in the morning — decent concept, but that requires getting out of bed in the first place. Same issue with morning workouts.

So, it looks like I’m on the hunt for something more creative. Perhaps more alarms, and place them in all areas of the house so I have to go hunt them down to turn them off. Or, I just read about someone recording their mom nagging at them and setting that as their ring tone for the phone alarm. I’m sure my mom would be happy to assist.

If anyone else has any ideas bring them on. It’s only the first week of school, and I need some good ammunition to battle my stubborn internal sleep clock.

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