For the last three weeks or so, the alarm system in our house, which we don’t actually have activated (Shh! Don’t tell the criminals!) has been beeping. Every morning at 5:32 it beeps loud enough that we can hear it in the bedroom upstairs (the box is located just inside the door downstairs). It beeps about every thirty seconds until someone goes down and hits the “cancel” button and then stumbles back upstairs and into bed. Every morning. 5:32 AM.
Thirty minutes later, the alarm on my phone goes off to wake me up for work. If I’m lucky, I’ve been asleep for the whole length of time between 5:32 and 6:00. Justin and I have been swapping off fairly consistently on who goes downstairs to get the alarm. This morning it was me.
So when my alarm went off 28 minutes later, I was very tired. I was still very tired 25 minutes after that when it went off for the sixth (and final) time. I groaned and mumbled into my pillow that I was too tired to get out of bed. Justin, after having me repeat it so he could actually understand what I’d said, rubbed my back for a while and snuggled close—probably trying to stay warm since I’d stolen all of the blankets. Again. And it was wonderful.
I finally dragged my tired butt out of bed at 6:30. I have to leave the house as close to 6:50 as possible in order to get to my desk on time. So while I worked on shampooing and soaping off the sleep, my fantastically wonderful husband made my lunch. This counts as a really lovely treat. Usually, I get up, shower, dress, primp, make my lunch and breakfast, get everything set by the door, and then go upstairs and climb into bed with Justin to wake him up and let him know that I’m leaving. Hugs and kisses, and then I’m off to work. (Microsoft Word auto-grammar check wants me to change this sentence to read “…and then I are off to work.” This is why you don’t trust auto-grammar check.)
This morning, I had lunch prepared for me before I had my hair dry. I had breakfast ready for me before I was finished dressing. All I had to do was gather everything up to go, give my husband copious kisses and hugs of thanks, and then head out the door perfectly on time.
It was a lovely way to start.
Driving to work, I generally flip between four different radio stations, listening to songs that I like, news bites and traffic reports, and the like. At one point this morning, I flipped to a station and Louis Armstrong started singing “What a Wonderful World” in that fantastic scratchy voice of his. And as I came around a corner, I looked up in the sky and stretched out across the sky in brilliant colors was an enormous rainbow.
Louis sang:
The colors of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky,
Are also on the faces of people going by.
I see friends shaking hands saying, “How do you do?”
They’re really saying, “I love you.”
It’s impressive that I didn’t get into an accident with my eyes glued up to the sky. But I made it to work and walked on in, getting rained on a little, but still watching that rainbow.
It was a beautiful way to start.
As I sat down at my desk, getting settled in and started up, a coworker walked by. I’d mentioned in passing yesterday, when he asked why I was so smiley lately, that my sister had given birth to her baby on Sunday. (Beautiful baby! So happy!!) He asked if he could see pictures, which I was happy to find for him. He’s a proud grandpa, with all of his children and grandchildren living within a five-mile radius of his home. He said all the right things and ooh-ed and aw-ed and I got to show off as a proud aunt (three times over!).
It was a happy way to start.