The Gift Of An Hour

Ok this is not me, but it might as well be.  This is what I look like in the morning.  It does not matter when I went to bed.  It does not matter how long I slept, nor how well I slept.  NO MATTER WHAT this is what I look like.

I recently became a fan of the Hate Waking Up Early page on Facebook.  (On the same day I became a fan of the Laughing When You Shouldn't page too, but that's for another post) 

[Credit Pause: this picture features the mascot of FB's Hate Waking Up Early page]

Now yes, the hair is bad here, but here's a tip: I notice the longer my hair gets, the less bad-ish it looks upon waking.  But even more important than the bad hair, what I relate to the most in this picture, the thing I really recognize in the picture is the eyes.  O yes, every morning when I stumble out of bed, if I unfortunately happen to catch a glimpse of my morning-self in the bathroom mirror, it's THOSE eyes glaring back at me.

My freshman year in college, unbeknownst to me until sometime during the second semester my dorm neighbor, who later became my roomate, who later became my life-long friend, informed me that everybody thought I was mad at them every morning!  I was shocked!!  "They do?" I asked incredulously???  I couldn't believe it.  If you'd asked me, I would have told you I was just being "neutral". 

"Francophile", my friend, apparently had it figured out that I was only catatonic the first two hours of every day, not angry, and had apparently taken it upon herself to explain that to all dorm friends who had taken offense from my "angry eyes".  From that point on, I made a point to all subsequent roomates and neighbors to explain my morning "state" and to not take offense--just give me two hours to wake up.

To undscore the point, no matter how well rested I am or not, it takes me a solid two hours to completely wake-up.  Those first two hours you might seriously wonder, just how low is her IQ?  At this point, my brain is the total opposite of quick--my brain is operating at slo-mo.  Those of you who know me, know this.  You know that blank stare I give you when you pause in what seems to me your blazing-speed dialogue.  (Btw, I'm not trying to "give you a message".  Oh no, I'm definitely not up to that level of brain activity when I'm blank-staring.  I'm just trying to fathom what you just inundated me with.)  Your reactions vary from simply ignoring my blankness and forging on at lightening speed, to invisibly shrugging your shoulders and waiting an hour or two for me to emerge from my catatonic state.

So it must be obvious to all of you by now that I LOVE this time-change in the fall!  I love "falling-back"!!!  I can really tell a difference and it feels like a total gift!  All day long.  The effect lasts about four or five days until my not-a-morning-person body clock once again takes over and I'm back to looking like Hate Waking Up Early FB boy.  Hey it just occured to me that I would have used a picture of myself for this post, I'm not vain.  But now I'm sure you understand I would be incapable of operating my Canon at the time of day needed for this shot.

Finally, you must be wondering how I've managed to author such a clever post so early in the morning?  Well, my night-owl self actually wrote this last night and set-up the post to post at a shockingly early hour by just the push of one button.  Yep, even I can manage a one-button-push in the morning!

PS--Stay tuned for future posts expanding on this theme--starting with the self-infatuated early-bird-gets-the-worm people and culminating in The Theft Of An Hour this spring ....