I’m trying to train myself to wake up every morning between 5:30 and 6. The idea being, maybe I can get shit done in those early morning hours before the house awakes. Having started school back up, every quiet moment I get is vital.

The major flaw is I’m known to hit the snooze, think 5 more minutes, and then pass back out, when I aim for early. And it turns out, that wasn’t the snooze. As it is, I have a series of 4 alarms every morning from the point of having to roll over and stir, right up until brush teeth and GO GO GO! (I assure that shower and dress fit in between nicely. The trick is going back to bed between the shower and dressing.)

Now, reading this you are probably assuming I’m always late to work. Aren’t you darling, bless your heart! Nope, I’m always early. Or at least on time. Which, to me, is another way of saying late.

It’s like my brain, even asleep, knows what time I have to be at work and what time it currently is as an alarm goes off.

But I want to beat the system. I may be able to get to work at 7:45 just as readily as I can 12:30, but I don’t want to push for time.

I want those precious moments in the morning where everyone sleeps and I rule the house and do as I please. And by, “as I please” I mean homework, dishes, blog work, etc. Free time is for those who don’t have a career, 3 kids and a degree to achieve.

Slackers.

Guys, it’s in the test phase, but I think I beat the system.

See, I ran out of Pandora time for my phone early this month and I needed a Plan B, so I installed the iHeart radio app on my droid. While looking around, I saw that it has a built-in alarm clock.

No shit, I can set the thing to go off at 5:30 (which is the very early range of my wish to get up early) and listen to it for a bit until I’m ready to move. I will, after all, never be capable of an alarm going off and me springing out of bed 30 seconds later. Well, maybe if I missed the first 3.

Sure enough, it goes off and relaxes me awake. The noise isn’t jarring so I don’t have the impulse to turn it off and make it go away, allowing me to fall right back asleep. (Snooze is for those awake enough to know what button to push.) Yet it is loud enough that I can’t start to tune it out.

So I spend 30 minutes listening to music while I slowly wake up and get ready to face the day.

As I said, we’re in test phase, but I have high hopes for this.