Yesterday, my day got off to a bad start. There had been a power cut at some point during the night, so my alarm got reset. Which just proves that those old-fashioned alarm clocks with the annoyingly loud tick-tock sounds have merit. Anyway, what it meant was that I didn’t get up at five in the morning to go running. Instead, I woke with a jolt and discovered that it was 7:20 – roughly the time that I am usually getting onto the bus to get to work. I flew out of bed, frantically put on my clothes, attacked my head with a hairbrush, and randomly jabbed eyeliner and mascara in the general direction of my face.
I like adrenaline as much as the next person, but I don’t like a massive jolt of it first thing in the morning. As hard as it was for me, though, it was probably worse for James. Usually I wake him gently and slowly, and give him time to ease into the day before getting him up and dressed. This time, I went into his room, shook him gently by the shoulder, and hissed, “James! It’s time to wake up!” With that, I thrust his morning cup of milk into his hands and started shoving his arms and legs into his clothes before he’d even opened his eyes. The poor kid was startled into compliance. Five minutes after he woke up, I was hustling him to the front door to get his socks and shoes on. He started protesting, “Mommeeeeeeee! I want to sleep!”
I knew the feeling. Both of us went out into the world grumpy and barely awake, with our bodies quivering with misplaced adrenaline. It was not a great way to start the morning, but both of us got to where we needed to be, albeit somewhat later than usual.
My day didn’t really get into a groove, though. I felt displaced and dysfunctional, scattered and kind of agitated. I was the human version of a radio tuned to static, where nothing is clear or focused, and you expend all of your energy just trying to make sense of the noise. I was glad when the day was done.
So far, today is going a lot better. I didn’t wake up in time to go running, but I got to work on time, without giving my child a rude awakening in the process. This evening after work, I will go for my run, and then settle into what will hopefully be a good weekend.
