Alarm Clock Stuff 2...This Time it's Not Alarm Clock Stuff 1

I just thought I'd let you all know that I figured out one way that I DEFINITELY don't want to wake up.

My neighbor's alarm clock is one that works through her stereo, and it gets progressively louder if it's not turned off. this means that if no one turns it off, pretty soon it's blasting loud enough for everyone with eardrums and a proximity nearer than China to hear.

It went off this morning around 6:00...

I think I'll stick with "Return to Me" on Saturday mornings...and maybe try out a little "Zombie Jamboree" the rest of the week...I'm still open to suggestions.

Return to Me

I've been struggling for a while now to see why it's so difficult for me to get up in the mornings.

I did the whole early morning seminary thing, 5:45 every morning for 2 years, about 6:30 or so for the other 2. I figured as I set up my different schedules that there was no good reason that I shouldn't be able to make an 8:00 class. "After all," I say to myself confidently, "You're planning on teaching school, and most schools start at least that early, best to get into the practice of it now."

Too bad that's not the way it works for me.

I stay up until all hours of the night, doing most anything but sleeping. Sometimes I read blogs, sometimes I chat with friends, sometimes I'm reading a book...sometimes I'm doing all these things.

Sometimes I even do homework. :D

I even like school, that's the funny thing. And I like to be awake in the morning. But when that alarm clock rings and tries to pull me from the comfort of my 3 fleece blankets, 4 regular pillows and body pillow, there's just no desire in me to heed it's call. This morning, I realized a small part of my problem.

I have one of those fancy-type alarm clocks with the CD player in them. Currently, I've got the soundtrack from the movie Return to Me in there. The first song ("Return to Me") is the one that plays, and it starts with a nice little intro, and then the words "retuuurn to meeee" are the only ones that I ever get to. This is the problem.

When I first awaken, I'm not thinking about the joys of learning, or the fact that I'll probably run into at least one friend on my way to class. I'm thinking about the warm bed that I just left behind, and the words "retuuurn to meeee" only serve to beckon me back into the warmth of my covers.

It doesn't matter that I know that I soon need to head off to class, and it doesn't matter that I WAS perfectly determined the night before to get up and read that last little bit of the assignment when I was feeling "more awake." I fall right back into bed every single time.

Maybe I should try waking up to "Good Morning Life" instead...Anyone else have some good suggestions for good "get your lazy warm self out of bed and do something with your life" songs?

Hello, my name is Novel Concept, and I'd like to release a statement.

Being one of the newer writers on the Board has placed me in a sort of "limbo" type of world. I still read the everyday posts, and then I log in and get to answer the new questions too. I get the best of both worlds in my opinion. I've come to know and love the 'nyms on the Board, and the personalities they portray, and now I get to know and love the people behind the 'nyms too.

And make no mystake about it, I do love the people behind the 'nyms.

Honestly, I haven't yet met a writer who doesn't meet with my satisfaction and approval as a person. I'm sure you were all waiting on the edge of your seats for that one, but there it is. You may scoot back in your chairs now.

What a great thing the Board is. I mean, I guess it's just a website when you look at it entirely literally, but it's the people behind all the words that make it what it is. We've got amazing writers, and a varried and diverse group of readers too. I love it. It makes me feel like there might be some hope for actual communication possibility among more of the general populace. Sure, the anonymity makes one braver, bolder, and more daring with their prose, but there's something refreshingly honest about the whole thing. The Board to me is (barring a few obvious character 'nyms) just real. I always looked at the writer 'nyms and kind of imagined the people behind the 'nyms, and was amazed as I met them to find that I wasn't too far off the mark. I have, in fact, been quite pleased to find that, as cool as I've thought people are, I like them even more as I get to know them better.

And that's what the Board is really all about. Sure we answer a lot of trivial questions, but even those show some of the personality of the asker. You can tell a lot about a person by learning what piques their curiosity, and that's where the readers come in. I always get excited to meet people who like to read the Board as much as I do, because, I'm still definitely a reader in a sense as well.

And that's what I like: the communication, the chance to get answers to questions that some think are rhetorical, and to learn what people that I've come to respect think about things. The best part of it is that we actually have fun with it. It's smart humor, and I don't ever feel guilty for indulging myself in it, because I really do learn things. There was a discussion about how to get wax out of tablecloths once...I actually ended up using that during Thanksgiving break.

I think I've run my time long, but I think you all are great, readers and writers alike. Thanks for an amazing thing.

Novel pauses and waves to all, posing for appropriate camera shots and baby kissing, and opens the conference for comments.



Yeah, I bet you were all expecting something really important with that title eh? Hehe, totally fooled all y'all. ;)