Wake Up Call

I set my alarm to go off around 8am on Sunday to be sure I'd get to church on time. I woke up at noon-- just as the first service was ending. Good thing there's an afternoon service and I wasn't meeting anyone this morning.

Ellen was coming over for breakfast on Monday morning. Wake me up if you don't hear from me by 8:45-- I told Gretchen-- I feel like something's wrong with my alarm. Gretchen woke me up at 9:15. I'd slept through two alarms.

"See you tomorrow; we open together!" Anjuli told me as she was leaving work Monday afternoon.
Anjuli, I'm nervous-- I told her-- I keep sleeping through my alarms!
"Do you want me to call you?"
Um.....
"I'll call you. Or text you. What time do you need to be up to get here on time?"
6:30....
"Perfect. That's when I leave. I'll text you when I leave my apartment."

I told Gretchen about my alarm-backup-plan when I got home. "I'm confused, though," she said. "Why is Anjuli calling you?"
She's opening.
"No she's not. Adam is."
Oops.

So Gretchen texted the appropriate people, and I set four alarms to be sure I'd wake up in time this morning. No, that's not an exaggeration. One at 6:40, one at 6:45, one at 6:46, and one at 6:47. One of these has to go off.

I woke up at 6:05-- long before any of my alarms had gone off. I hopped in the shower. When I checked my phone a bit after 6:30, Adam had texted:

Wake up!
Boggle!
(It's a tradition on slow mornings when we open together that we get to play this favorite game.)

A few minutes later Anjuli also texted to make sure I'd woken up.

Turns out I didn't need their alarm-abilities, but it sure was a more fun way to wake up to than the "Marimba" setting on my phone!

A Time to Work, and a Time to Think

I had three days off in a row this weekend.

Come to find out, I don't do well with time off.

One day into it, and I was ready to go back to work.

The problem with having time off is there's just so much time to think.

And think.

And think some more.

Like today.... I went all the way until 6:30pm without talking to a single person. Not because I was alone, but because I was by myself-- even though surrounded by people.

So I had lots of time to think. About what I'm doing in NYC. About how much I love it here. About what I miss about living in the 'burbs. About whether or not it's okay for me to keep working the jobs I work. About what people think of the fact that I'm almost 30, have my MA, and am a waitress. About how people don't understand how I just don't want a typical career. About how most people don't quite get "from whence I came" when I moved here to take a break. About how I'm really scared of finding myself back there. About what to do with my house. About whether or not I'm a failure for leaving Philly. About how I need to stop thinking so much.

I work tomorrow. In fact, I'll be working for the next six days.

I think that's a good thing.