Early mornings....yawn.

I'm not a morning person. Let me rephrase that....I'm not an early morning person. Mornings are actually pretty good for me. It's when I'm most productive, most creative. But anything earlier than 7:00am feels middle-of-the-night-ish to me. In the mind over mattress battle, the mattress wins all too frequently when it is still pitch black outside.

When I was in high school I set my alarm clock for 5:00am every morning. Well...let me clarify, I set my alarm for 5:00am purposely so I could hit the snooze alarm exactly 3 times before actually getting up at 5:30am. And lest you think I was getting up that early for some noble reason such as early morning seminary or something, let me set you straight on that right now. It was all about the hair. It was the 1980s after all and big hair takes time.

Though I was never a fan of the 5:30am alarm going off each morning, it was doable. Some of that I place squarely on vanity. No way, no how was I walking out that door looking anything less than perfectly coiffed. (I'm telling you, big hair was, well...big.) But also, it was thanks to my dad who was an early to bed, early to rise kind of guy and therefore insisted on shutting down the house around 10:00pm each night. Unless I was sneakily trying to stay up later with a book or some extra homework in my bedroom to the dim light of a lamp, I was usually getting to sleep early enough that 5:30am didn't seem too overly taxing on my body.

My teenagers apparently are not as vain as I was at their age. Either that or their hair and make-up styles are just much simpler to maintain. They tend to get up around 6:30am. But every now and again they find themselves setting their alarms extra early. A test make-up in math class, an early morning madrigal or school musical rehearsal, a meeting of some sort. Rebekah used to wake up ridiculously early on Tuesday mornings (late start schedule at the high school) so she could drive to the temple and do baptisms for the dead with her friends before school started. They called it "Temple Tuesday." But for the most part, my teenagers get up later than I did. (They go to bed a lot later than I did too...but that's another story.)

This past couple of weeks Julianne has been running for student body officer at the high school. This has included multiple early mornings for meetings and to hang up banners and posters. I have set my alarm for 5:30am no less than 4 times in the past week. Three of those times were so I could be at the high school with Julianne by 6:00am to help her hang said banners and posters, or move them around to different locations. This morning was so I could help her pull together the last few odds and ends for the skit she has to perform later today, feed her breakfast and make sure she got out the door by 6:30am. Julianne is a night owl, so I think this SBO early morning craziness has been even harder on her. Plus it's also end of term. (And Sadie Hawkins, and region theatre competition and speaking in Sacrament Meeting in church, and extra rehearsals for her Disneyland performing group and "Thoroughly Modern Millie" in which she plays Millie, etc....but that's once again, another story.) 

I'm not sure why but 5:30am takes a much bigger toll on my 41-year old body than it did on my 17-year old one. Okay, maybe I am sure why, I just don't like it. The getting older part OR the waking up at 5:30am part. This SBO campaign more or less ends today. The voting starts tomorrow. After all of this work, I really hope the student body decides to elect her. But regardless of what happens, I think both of us will be extremely happy to see an end to these early mornings! (And an end to dreams about glitter. Another story....)