Pre-Dawn Adventure

I was snuggled deep under the covers, blessedly oblivious to the world around me, when the blaring of the alarm clock rudely shocked me into semi-consciousness. Somewhere in my brain a voice was screaming, "No! It can't possibly be time to get up yet! Just pull the covers over your head and return to the beautiful oblivion of sleep!" Then magically, the sound stops. Could it have been a horrible dream?! I returned my head to the comfort of my pillow only to feel a gentle hand on my shoulder and heard the voice of my love softly saying, "Wake up Mamita, we have to get ready to go."

These are the days that only having one car between two working adults is an excruciating reality. Ernesto is blessed with a wonderful job- that is unfortunately an hour and fifteen minutes away from our house. So in the event of a cruel schedule, such as today, that requires him to be there at six AM, and the need to get Christmas shopping done while the kids are at their dad's, the result is that both of us have to be up at an hour that was not meant for the human eye to see.

I grudgingly emerged from my warm cocoon of blankets and staggered sleepily down the hall to kitchen where I proceeded to grope around until my hands landed on the coffeemaker. By some miracle, I got the coffee started and get dressed in my favorite yoga pants and a hoodie. By now, I could smell the delicious aroma of fresh brewed coffee and returned to the kitchen with high hopes that I would be at the very least on my way to feeling human when I realized I had left my coffee cup at work. With no time to mourn the loss of my humanity, I resigned myself to my fate and did a mad dash (through what felt like Arctic air) to the car.

Fortunately for me, traffic was proving to be quite sparse at such an hour! I spotted a QT, thanked the heavens above, and ran inside for a 'Vanilla Creme Cappachino". Blech. Definitely not coffee's finest hour, but it was hot and full of caffeine- Pretty much all I could hope for by this point. As we were speeding down the freeway, the fog in my brain finally started to dissipate. I looked across the city as we drove. The sky was still pitch black and the lights from the high rise buildings downtown sparkled brilliantly. It was beautiful, and I decided I would just pretend it was late at night rather than the beginning of my day.