Slice of Life: Happiness is Daylight Savings Time? 10 of 31

Here we go!  It's time for the March Slice of Life Challenge hosted at Two Writing Teachers.  It will be a busy month of writing, commenting, and learning with this community.  This year I've decided to try to focus my writing around happiness.  Stop by today's link up to join the conversation or find some great reading. 

THRUMP,  THRUMP,  THRUMP.  My alarm bellows loudly across the bedroom.  I'm already in the kitchen making coffee.  My husband calls jokingly from the bedroom, "Why do you set an alarm clock?" as he pushes the button to stop the sound which is getting louder and faster.  It's true.  I'm a morning person.  To be honest, I don't even know why I set alarm.  I guess I'm just sure the one morning I don't set an alarm will be the morning I sleep later than I should.  

If I want to accomplish anything in my day it needs to be done early.  I always try to get my hardest work and thinking done while the day is young.  If the early bird gets the worm, I should be ready to go fishing.  When the kids were young I guess it was the best way to get a few things done before the day got busy; then waking up early just became the way I worked.  Even on weekends I wake up early.  There's something about getting up with the sun, pouring a cup of coffee, sitting down on the corner of our couch, and getting started with some writing.  

I get up early, but a night owl I am not.  I'm envious of people who can stay up late and be productive.  I'd be excited if I could just stay awake long enough to watch the eleven o'clock news.  When everyone gets together in the evening, I am most likely to be the first person to have to call it a night.  I just can't stay awake.

Since the new year, I've slowly gotten myself into even more of a routine of going to bed early and getting up before the sun rises.   Each week, the time I was waking up was getting earlier and earlier on the weekends.  7:30.  7:00.  6:30.  6:00.  6:00.  5:30.  5:15.  5:00.  It was becoming ridiculous.  I've always had a rule with myself that if I'm awake and can't sleep I just get up and do something.  Sometimes I catch up on email.  Sometimes I read a book.  Sometimes I get a few words jotted in a notebook.  Sometimes I enjoy poetry.  I just don't sweat not sleeping --- and not sleeping has never been an issue.

This waking up early, however, was becoming a problem as my day seemed to be starting earlier and earlier.  Though I used to have a rule to NEVER get up before 6:00 in the morning for just about anything, it was quickly becoming uncommon for me to be able to stay awake until 6:00.  I was seeing more of the morning than even I like to see.  As 5:00 became the norm and 4:30 was starting to be a time I sometimes saw on my clock, I knew I had to get this under control.  I realized I was going to have to start making myself go back to sleep or my problem was going to get out of hand.  No more reading.  No more playing Words with Friends.  No more getting up to write.  I had to start getting back to sleep.

Then came Daylight Savings Time.  Yep.  You read that right.  In years past I would have whined for days, maybe weeks, about the spring time change.  "Where'd that hour go?" I would have complained.  "I will never be able to get out of bed," I would have groaned.  For weeks after the time change I would have moaned about being tired.  Too tired to work.  Too tired to read.  Too tired to function.  

This year was a completely different story.  This year Daylight Savings Time was a gift.  What happened to my 5:00 in the morning wake up time?  It's become a 6:00 in the morning wake up time, and that's the perfect time to get the day started.  I would never have thought happiness for me would be found in Daylight Savings Time but, for the first time ever, I'm a big fan!!!