Postaday for January 4th: First!
Tell us about your first day at something — your first day of school, first day of work, first day living on your own, first day blogging, first day as a parent, whatever.
The first time I woke up on May the 5th, 2014, was at about 12:03 AM. I had been browsing Reddit for hours, and had fallen asleep in my chair. A loud noise woke me, probably my own snoring. My neck was stiff, my ass hurt from the way I was piled in my chair, and I had to pee, but bad. So I got up and when to the bathroom.
Washed my hands, and somewhere between the bathroom and my bed, some clothes came off.
That wasn’t the only time I woke up on May the 5th, 2014, which is why it was the first, and not the only time. There’s a difference. On May the 4th, for example, I woke up just the once, at about 5:00 AM. I had down a f-Hour Energy Drink, did some meditation, visited the rest-room, put on running clothes, ran a 5K, took a shower, sent my wife off to work, ate some oatmeal. All of those things can be accomplished if one only wakes up once per day.
But the next day I woke up seven times, and got nothing done:
- Woke, as I said, for the first time, at 12:03.
- Woke again at about 3:20 am or so, to pee.
- Again at 5:00 AM, when my alarm went off.
- Again at 5:30, when my wife got out of bed to take a shower.
- Again at 6:30 when my wife left to go to work
- Again at 7:54 for a conference call. And did I get anything done for the next four hours? No. Eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich at noon does not count.
- Woke again at about 2:30, again in my office chair, hot and sticky, and I have to tell you, for the next 30 minutes, I have never been so completely exhausted in my life. Somewhere between my home office and the 7-11, I managed to put in some clothes and buy a Mountain Dew.
- Now, for when my wife came home at 4:30, I don’t know if what I did you’d call “waking up” since I don’t know if I was really asleep. I was just sort of sitting on our giant chair, sort of looking at the TV, sort of watching it, but I don’t remember what it was. It might have been Portlandia. I’m not sure.
- And, finally, I woke up one more time, at 11:50 PM or so, in my office chair, after having fallen asleep while browsing Reddit.
But let’s talk about that first time I woke up on May the 5th, 2014. 12:03 AM, Cinco de Mayo in Seattle was a officially only a few minutes old. So much portent in that waking. So much foreshadowing. It would come to define my day, that waking, or shall I say “awakening.” If I had only know then what I know now, I would have treated that first waking with more respect. I would have cherished it more.
Funny, how only in hindsight can we truly appreciate the deep, meaningful importance of things, after they’re long gone.