A New Spin on Snoozing

My typical morning routine these days begins with the jarring blast of a top-40 hit, the chipper voice of an on-air personality, or worse, an annoying ad spot.  I lie in bed another minute or two before stirring.  I begin to sense a warm presence.  I finally pry my eyes open just enough to make out the silhouette of an orange kitty standing post immediately beside me, her bright amber eyes fixated on my face.  And then I groggily slide my feet to the floor and stumble my way across the room...

...to press that biggest button on the alarm clock radio.  

Confession:  I am a snooze alarm junkie.  I'll sometimes set the alarm more than an hour ahead of when I actually need to drag my arse out of bed just to give myself time to take a few extra "hits."  My best intentions of waking up early to journal, meditate, or sneak in a workout are foiled by the allure of nine more minutes in a bed I don't even find all that comfortable.

Although my delayed-wake-up habits haven't changed much in recent months (or ever, really), Holly's have.  I didn't notice this new pattern until yesterday morning--that she'd taken to stalking me patiently instead of doing all she could to roll me out of bed and herd me to her empty food dish the way she used to.  Persistently.  

"Hey, why are you being so quiet, Holly?"  (Not that I minded.)

"I'm just watching." 

"Just watching?"

"Mmhmm. This is fascinating!"

"What's fascinating?"

"You."

"Me?"

"Yep.  You wake up, and then come back to the exact same spot.  Over and over and over." 

"I'm just really tired, Hol.  Not ready to wake up yet."

"That's why I take naps throughout the day."

"I know you do.  I just don't have time for that." 

"No...I said I take naps throughout the day.  You're taking them all right now.  That's silly."

The incredulous look I shot her was probably unwarranted.  She had a point.  A big one.

"Okay.  But I still don't have time to actually take naps during the day.  Even if I wanted." 

"Well maybe you would if you didn't spend so much time trying to squeeze them all in the morning."

(Chalk another one up for kitty.) 

"Just sayin'.  But you can keep doing what you're doing.  It's sooo fun to watch!"

I wasn't exaggerating when I said I didn't having time for naps during the day, especially on weekdays.  My current schedule is a Jenga tower.  You'd think I had an engineering degree from the way I've got it intricately stacked with a full-time day job, the two night classes I teach (plus all the out-of-classroom responsibilities they carry), MMA training, vocal coaching, the dog trainer certification program, and being Jill of Ark.  However, despite my most diligent planning, I am not immune from inevitable:  the higher I build that tower, the less it'll take to knock the entire thing to the ground. That tower needs to come down several stories before it'll be sturdy enough for me to add on a siesta wing. 

In the meantime, I am going to test out at least a part of Holly's hypothesis, lest I continue providing further fodder for her amusement.  Perhaps making better use of my mornings (than "napping after napping," as Holly puts it) will allow me a bit more down time during the day so I don't feel so physically and emotionally tapped out by the end of it.  Instead of feeling compelled to squeeze every second out of every hour, perhaps I might find moments to read a few pages, go for a short walk to take in fresh air, or just sit and breathe deeply.

But rising and shining at the first alarm?  The thought alone entices me to crawl back into bed and it's the middle of the afternoon.  So if we happen to cross paths over the next two weeks, please be forewarned that I'll likely be in severe snooze button withdrawal.