A Challenge

For this entire school year, I've been getting worse and worse about dragging my carcass out of bed in the morning. I'd actually gotten really good about it last year, getting up on the first alarm of the second clock almost every day (I'll explain another time why I have more than one clock), but this year has been a struggle.

Last week, one of the presenters at the Sinfonia workshop talked about how using a snooze alarm is "breaking a promise to yourself," because you told yourself, by virtue of setting the alarm for a certain time in the first place, that you were going to get up at a certain time, and delaying that action was defaulting on the deal. I realized I agreed with that, and the seeds of change were planted. Then this afternoon, after reading Halfling's post from yesterday, I realized he had the same idea in mind. Always up for a brotherly challenge, I decided that now's the time (Bird reference only partially intentional). Granted, I only have to do this for three days before spring break, but that'll be a good little "trial period" for the real thing the following week.

Though it could be looked at as getting thirty fewer minutes of sleep a night, snooze-alarm sleep isn't good sleep to begin with, and the combination of not being in a hurry on my way out the door and having gotten a lot done before I even leave the house should leave me more relaxed, not less. And since I'm stating this promise in a public forum, both here and in Halfling's comments, nobody can say it's just talk (gratuitous Metheny reference definitely intentional; I'm pumped about the concert on Sunday). This will happen, starting in the morning.

Spank you very much: More spanking news this week, as a kid in a Baptist school in Chicago was suspended after his mother refused to hit him for misbehaving; read the whole thing. Also, the commenters on last week's spanking post seem to agree with me that corporal punishment and child abuse aren't necessarily the same thing, and several letter-writers in yesterday's DMN said that last week's writer was herself all wet for criticizing Jamie Foxx's grandmother's form of discipline.

Cool concert countdown: Directions in Music, two days. Pat Metheny Group, five days. What a weekend it's gonna be...