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Wednesday, September 07, 2005

"The Battle of My Alarm Clock"

At 4:51am our alarm clock goes off for my wife to get up and go to work... The clock is on my side of the bed... My wife has an alarm clock on her side of the bed as well but she never uses it ("este pinche alarma no sirve para nada").

Really she just can't figure out how to work the thing, but we both pretend that the problem is the clock and not her wild incompetence when it comes to anything that uses electricity, but that's another story.

Anyway, I have to badger her into getting up so that I can then reset the alarm for 7:51 and go back to sleep... My goal every morning is to hit the snooze button one time and then get up at 8:00. That gives me 50 minutes to brush my teeth, take a shower, shave, get dressed, and eat a quick bowl of cereal before I drive to my office- which is only 2 miles away.

It sounds like a lot to do but if I stick to the schedule I can pull it off with no problem.

For the first 2 months at this new job I had no problem getting motivated to get to work and take on the day... But now the novelty has worn off and I have returned to my slacker ways.
Every morning has become a negotiation with myself for 9 more minutes of sleep...

"Okay, if I hit the snooze button once more I can just shave really quickly in the shower and that will save time. It won't be a perfect shave job, but it'll be good enough..."

9 minutes later, and I'm thinking, "okay, I won't eat a bowl of cereal, I'll just grab a granola bar on my way out the door..." 9 more minutes.

Before I even realize what's happening It's like 8:30 and I have to do a dead sprint to the shower for a speed wash and a sloppy shave before running out the door with no food.

As crazy as it sounds, last week I actually got into my car and was halfway to work when I realized I hadn't even taken my morning piss! What kind of man doesn't go directly to the toilet to relieve himself as soon as he wakes up?!? But that's how panicked and rushed I was...

This morning I came up with a name for this snooze button game I play. After finally sitting up in bed and pausing to stare angrily at the alarm clock, I noticed that it was sitting on top on a CD case. I picked up the clock and looked at the CD... Rage Against the Machine, "The Battle of Los Angeles."

I wasn't even trying to come up with a name for this game; it just hit me, "The Battle of My Alarm Clock." Damn, I think of the dumbest shit first thing in the morning... But none-the-less I now have my motivation to wake up at 8:00am tomorrow morning. I'm going to do it for the memory of Zach De La Rocha and my beloved Rage Against the Machine!

Tomorrow morning I'm serious, I will wake up at 8am exactly, not a minute later... well maybe 8:09, I can always just brush my teeth really quickly!



3 comments:

Anonymous said...

haha, i've been waging this battle for a good part of my life.

Joel said...

Someone told me once that I should set up another alarm clock on the other side of the room, that way I would have to get up to turn it off... It's a good idea but I'd feel so useless if I knew I had to trick myself into waking up every morning!

Joel said...

the point is that i'd have to get up to turn it off and at that point i'd be up and i'd just start my day.. in theory