Justified Fear

Yesterday morning, I scared myself. But for good reason. Here's why:

I have never been a morning person. I am much more willing to be active and productive at 11PM or midnight than I am at 6AM. What can I say?

James has never been a late night person. His brain shuts off about 10PM and wakes right up at 6AM.

This could be a dangerous combination in a marriage. Ours has gone like this:

The first year we were married, I was still reluctant to make my sweet new hubby upset with me (I'm not too concerned about it now - hehe) and so I gave it an honest effort to get up early. The alarm worked fairly well that year.

By year two, I no longer heard the alarm. You know how you can get accustomed to sounds and learn to sleep right through them? I don't think I ever heard the alarm that year. However, I did wake right up to the sound of the shower turning on. That's when I knew I'd had my "ten more minutes" and it was time to get up.

Year three, he was in China for a while and it became my responsibility to wake myself up again (duh, right?). So, I did. But I woke up with just enough time to make myself publicly presentable and that's all.

Year four, I worked evening shift with Verizon Wireless, and didn't get to bed until 1AM so we both happily agreed I should sleep later.

Now we're in year five, and I don't sleep late, but I don't wake early either. James, however, still hears the alarm like it's the first time he's ever heard it and wakes up bright and early every morning. Plus, he's a pretty light sleeper - I can hardly get up to use the restroom at night without waking him.

I now have a new assignment in church teaching the Juniors the scriptures for seminary at 6AM every weekday morning. Need I say that James laughed at me when he heard? Now I need to get up between 4:30 and 5:00AM every day to be ready to teach a sleepy group of teens.

So, yesterday, I snoozed my own phone alarm until James' blaring alarm clock went off. I knew I couldn't sleep any longer and James hadn't gotten up to turn it off yet, so I got up and turned it off. I turned on the light and started to get ready. When I flushed our super noisy toilet I looked to see if James was awake ready to apologize for being so noisy, and realized he still had not stirred. I watched him in the mirror while I washed my hands and he wasn't even breathing. Or at least I thought he wasn't.

At that point, I began considering the possibility that he was dead. And I got scared. He's NEVER slept through the alarm, me getting up, the light, or the toilet and so sleeping through all of them together was frightening. So, naturally, I woke him up. Just to make sure. Hehe. Happily, he's still good and alive although maybe a bit exhausted. Haha, poor kid!