BS: On waking up

Subject: RE: BS: On waking up
From: GUEST,Ed T
Date: 13 Feb 14 - 05:16 AM

"The sun was up, the room already too warm. Light filtered in through the net curtains, hanging suspended in the air, sediment in a pond. My head felt like a sack of pulp. Still in my nightgown, damp from some fright I'd pushed aside like foliage, I pulled myself up and out of my tangled bed, then forced myself through the usual dawn rituals - the ceremonies we perform to make ourselves look sane and acceptable to other people. The hair must be smoothed down after whatever apparitions have made it stand on end during the night, the expression of staring disbelief washed from the eyes. The teeth brushed, such as they are. God knows what bones I'd been gnawing in my sleep."
― Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin

"Today I got up at 6:03 AM. Ugh, too early. I just wanted to sleep in late, and wake up naturally at 6:04 AM.
"
― Jarod Kintz, Sleepwalking is restercise

What time do you wake up? Does the time vary or always the same time?

Are you alert and chatty, or are you groggy and prefer to be silent for awhile?
Is your partner the same?

My wife is bubbly and chatty in the early morning, after waking. That puzzles me, as Iall my family prefer quietness until we have a first coffee. The radio is on, I prefer the news, my wife music - we listen to music.



Morning stories are welcome here.

Subject: RE: BS: On waking up
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 13 Feb 14 - 05:36 AM

I'm just happy to wake up, at all.

Dave H

Subject: RE: BS: On waking up
From: gnu
Date: 13 Feb 14 - 05:49 AM

Youth... Dad, Lt. Owens,RCAF, flicked on the light and I immediately got up.

Adult, Pre-arthritis, single... when in town, bolt from the bunk at alarm or before and set about the day full of piss and vinegar, ready and willing to take on the world and have a great day. When up country on a clear night, quietly rise so as not to wake the others when, through the window by my bunk, I saw Orion indicate 4AM.

Adult, Pre-arthritis, wed... when in town, quietly rise from the bunk at alarm or before so as not to wake the bride, do personal morning chores, rouse said bride, prepare breakfast while she prepared herself and wait for her to subject me to her foul mood until bedtime.

Now... ya never know when, how or why or especially how long it's gonna take as many factors are involved. As for my mood, I live alone so only the arthritis pisses me off but I am coming to accept it.

Subject: RE: BS: On waking up
From: GUEST,Ed T
Date: 13 Feb 14 - 05:52 AM

I woke up dead.
Not only dead...but in hell.
I had always been somewhat sketchy on what the afterlife - were there actually such a thing - would be like for a person such as I. From all accounts and all my imaginings, I figured it would be one of two things. Either I would be surrounded by great, burning masses that were endlessly immolating souls in torment... or else I would find myself trapped within my own mind as a helpless bystander, condemned to watching me live out my life over and over again and powerless to do anything to change any of it. When idle speculation prompted me to dwell on these two options, I would find myself drawn invariably to the former, since the later was just too hideous to contemplate.
...
I was almost afraid to open my eyes, because once I did, I would know one way or the other. Perhaps I could have just lain there forever. Perhaps I was supposed to. Perhaps that was my true condemnation: to simply reside in hell with my eyes closed afraid of opening them lest matters deteriorate even further than they already had. This, in turn, made me dwell on the fact that every time I had believed things couldn't get worse, they promptly had done so with almost gleeful enthusiasm ." 
― Peter David, The Woad to Wuin

Subject: RE: BS: On waking up
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 13 Feb 14 - 05:53 AM

I woke up this morning...

Hey! Could be a song in there :-)

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: On waking up
From: gnu
Date: 13 Feb 14 - 05:54 AM

Hmmm... apparently, some days I am simply in a foul mood. >;-)

Subject: RE: BS: On waking up
From: GUEST,Musket
Date: 13 Feb 14 - 06:04 AM

One gives ones balls a scratch.

Subject: RE: BS: On waking up
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Feb 14 - 06:19 AM

Since my wife filed for divorce at christmas i wake up at 1 am and remain away throughout the night. I phone those night people at Sams and we have long discussions about nothing. I get connected to people all over the country. We talk about the weather. My phone bill must be big, but its better than the emptiness. I get up at 7am make bacon sandwiches and strong coffee and go back to bed. my wife departs without saying a single word. 36 years and we have nothing more to say.

Subject: RE: BS: On waking up
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Feb 14 - 07:48 AM

Been there, done that. Make sure you have a lawyer.

Subject: RE: BS: On waking up
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 13 Feb 14 - 09:08 AM

One of the best things about being single is being able to get up when I want to, instead of being required to lie in bed as some sort of comfort blanket while glimpsing a beautiful morning going to waste beyond the curtains.

Subject: RE: BS: On waking up
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 13 Feb 14 - 09:09 AM

I'm a 'lark' - awake, up and running by 6am. Always have been. On waking, I zoom of to get a nice strong cuppa, then pray, meditate and reflect for a bit. Husband sleeps quite late, but it's never been a problem for either of us.
Guest, I'm so sorry you're going through this sad and difficult time after such a long marriage. My heart goes out to you. Please try and realise that you will get through it and life will be sunny again eventually. During the long nights, others are awake too, and many will have prayers and kind thoughts for you. Best wishes, Eliza.

Subject: RE: BS: On waking up
From: Dorothy Parshall
Date: 13 Feb 14 - 12:00 PM

I can relate so well to Topsie! I was single for many years. It sure beat being awakened to a litany of "WHERE'S MY WALLET? "WHERE ARE MY GLASSES?" WHERE IS MY BRIEFCASE?" (I pulled the covers over my head. If you cannot put things where they can be found...)

Life with the kids was begging them to get up... That was also superior. Then, on my own, being able to quietly open my eyes when they felt like it, usually about 7 am which was in plenty of time to get to work or whatever.

Now: mode one: In the country, waking up as the sun brightens the sky, gradually and beautifully, even when the sky is monochromatic grey. Watching the birds flir about - even on a bitterly cold and windy day! And relaxing, cosy in bed with the soundly sleeping partner, until I feel like getting up and making breakfast. Sometimes I just make my toast and let him sleep on and on and... Because he is tired.

Except on days when I have signed to take my pottery to the Farmers' Market: up and out in 30 minutes or less and hope there is something to eat at the market before I get desperate. One of Esther's brownies or her zuke bread or...

Mode two:In the city. Not having gotten to bed until too late for me, I waken in a cave of a room with no window and - good heavens it is already 8 am and I am still tired. So I drag myself out into the almost as dark K to look out the glass door and see what the world looks like today. I make brekkie but it takes me a couple hours to come to terms with the world in the house, never mind "out there"!

Yep, now it is noon and, if it were not darn cold I would consider going "out there". Need to fight my way to the compost today - later!

Subject: RE: BS: On waking up
From: Allan C.
Date: 13 Feb 14 - 12:09 PM

I once had two housemates. They shared a bedroom with bunk beds. We had only one reliable alarm clock and it resided in the bedroom of the other two guys. They used to draw straws to decide which of them would have to awaken me. I was simply too cheerful for them to bear so early in the morning.

Subject: RE: BS: On waking up
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 13 Feb 14 - 12:14 PM

I'm lucky enough not to need an alarm clock. I've had to catch very early flights during my travels, and that meant getting up at, say, 3am. Sure enough, my eyes flew open at exactly the right time. It's a great gift to be able to do that!

Subject: RE: BS: On waking up
From: Becca72
Date: 13 Feb 14 - 12:30 PM

Work days, alarm scares the hell out of me at 6 o'clock. It goes off again at 6:20 and I get out of bed for real. I am slow to wake and need the first one as a warning shot. I am glad I live alone and don't have to engage anyone until I arrive at work (unless you count the cats but they feel the same way I do about morning)

Weekends I get up on my own around 8-8:30 and am a much better person for it.

Subject: RE: BS: On waking up
From: frogprince
Date: 13 Feb 14 - 12:35 PM

Years ago I would set an alarm, but invariably wake up moments before it went off. Then I seemed to lose that ability, and I would be jarred awake by the alarm. For the last few months, I've had a new pattern; I often wake up half or three quarters of an hour before the alarm, and wish I hadn't blown that bit of intended sleeping time.
At least my wife doesn't have to worry about whether to "wake up grumpy, or just let him sleep".

Subject: RE: BS: On waking up
From: Bill D
Date: 13 Feb 14 - 12:42 PM

The first think I thought of was this poem:


As We Are So Wonderfully Done With Each Other



As we are so wonderfully done with each other

We can walk into our separate sleep

on floors of music where the milkwhite cloak of childhood lies

oh my love, my golden lark, my soft long doll

Your lips have splashed my dull house with print of flowers

My hands are crooked where the spilled over your dear curving

It is good to be weary from that brilliant work

It is being God to feel your breathing under me

A water glass on the bureau fills with morning…

Don't let anyone in to wake us



~Kenneth Patchen

Subject: RE: BS: On waking up
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 13 Feb 14 - 01:09 PM

Er.... Bill, could that be paraphrased as "We've just had sex and now we're having a kip." ?

Subject: RE: BS: On waking up
From: Bill D
Date: 13 Feb 14 - 01:39 PM

Ummm... you may interpret it as YOU see fit. I just let it flow over me.

'kip'? I thought that was what they do to herring.

Subject: RE: BS: On waking up
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 13 Feb 14 - 02:32 PM

LOL. Seriously though, it is indeed a very moving and touching piece of poetry. I'm sorry if I made a joke of it like that!
PS To kip is to sleep. (Perhaps you knew that anyway.)

Subject: RE: BS: On waking up
From: Bill D
Date: 13 Feb 14 - 04:41 PM

Nope... never heard kip used that way before. Youse guys have more little euphemisms than I can shake a stick at. I learn a few every week on this forum, I think.

And yes... it IS a moving poem. Read it 45 years ago and it just grabbed me. Found it again just a few years ago.

Subject: RE: BS: On waking up
From: GUEST,Kip and Randy
Date: 13 Feb 14 - 05:09 PM

If I go to a kip house, is it a hotel, or am I randy?

Subject: RE: BS: On waking up
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 13 Feb 14 - 05:10 PM

My Oxford dictionary, for 'kip', says the origin is uncertain but suggests Danish 'kippe': hovel, tavern; and 'horekippe': brothel. Such sleazy implications are no longer assumed today - it just means sleep, though with a suggestion that it might be just a short nap or a temporary arrangement.

Subject: RE: BS: On waking up
From: Rapparee
Date: 13 Feb 14 - 05:32 PM

If I don't see the roots of the grass I get out of bed.

Subject: RE: BS: On waking up
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 14 Feb 14 - 07:44 AM

I learned in 1963 that Kip meant sleep...thanks to the Beatles.

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: On waking up
From: Bill D
Date: 14 Feb 14 - 10:31 AM

"When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less."

☺☺☺

Subject: RE: BS: On waking up
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 14 Feb 14 - 10:41 AM

Topsie, as a noun, "kip" still has the "doss-house" connotation suggested by your dictionary definition - possibly because the verbs or nouns "kip" and "doss" equate to less formal arrangements for sleep - no proper bed necessary, any old corner would do.
Ross

Subject: RE: BS: On waking up
From: Dorothy Parshall
Date: 14 Feb 14 - 10:51 AM

Woke up this morning and the world was white as snow!

Subject: RE: BS: On waking up
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 14 Feb 14 - 01:10 PM

It can also mean 'bed'. My funny neighbour in my last house used to ring me early in the morning and ask, "Are yew still in kip? Dew, get yer arse inter gear, we're goooing out!"

Subject: RE: BS: On waking up
From: GUEST,Ed T
Date: 14 Feb 14 - 05:47 PM

I grew up near a fishing harbour. When some local fishermen could not go out fishing because of weather, they used to say "I spent the morning in quilt harbour" when explaining that they stayed in bed.

Subject: RE: BS: On waking up
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 14 Feb 14 - 07:02 PM

Kip as in "power kip", an excuse for dozing off in daytime when your in a situation where that needs an excuse. others say "power nap", but that sounds a bit infantile.

Subject: RE: BS: On waking up
From: gnu
Date: 14 Feb 14 - 08:20 PM

"Quilt Harbour". I LOVE it!

Subject: RE: BS: On waking up
From: Dorothy Parshall
Date: 15 Feb 14 - 10:15 AM

Quilt Harbour could well become a household word! in our household, anyway! I had to remove the quilt to get mate out of bed this am. Breakfast was ready!!

Subject: RE: BS: On waking up
From: Joe_F
Date: 15 Feb 14 - 07:32 PM

The switchclock turns a light on at 07:00. If I'm asleep, that usually wakes me up. But a lot of the time, I awake early & can't get to sleep again. Then I usually get up before the light goes on.

ObSongs:
I get up each morning, I dust off my wits,
Open the paper and read the obits,
And if I'm not there, I know I'm not dead,
So I eat a good breakfast and go back to bed.

Haven't quite reached that point yet (only 76), but it is gratifyingly curmudgeonly.

Subject: RE: BS: On waking up
From: gnu
Date: 15 Feb 14 - 09:43 PM

Joe... that is priceless! I love it. Keep on getting up in the morning please!

Subject: RE: BS: On waking up
From: JennieG
Date: 15 Feb 14 - 10:29 PM

I am not, and never have been, a morning person.....way back when I was working I dragged myself out of bed, showered, ate breakfast, applied face paint, and made it to work on time......because I had to. Now that I am a retired Olde Pharte, barring an early-ish appointment, I get up when I am ready and slowly prepare myself for the day ahead.

And feel much better for it.

Subject: RE: BS: On waking up
From: GUEST,Musket
Date: 16 Feb 14 - 06:06 AM

I go to the toilet at 5.30am each and every morning. The snag is, I don't wake up till 6.00am.

Sorry, I was waiting for someone else to say it.

These days if I happen to be at home, I like a short kip in the afternoon too. If I don't , there's not much point in watching anything on the telly later that night as I sleep through the ruddy thing.

Subject: RE: BS: On waking up
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 16 Feb 14 - 06:16 AM

I've taken an afternoon nap for years. And I sleep very well during the night too. I've always needed lots of sleep. I really feel so sorry for people who can't sleep, and lie awake half the night fretting. My old friend Pat is like that. And your problems seem ten times worse in the middle of the night!

Subject: RE: BS: On waking up
From: Dorothy Parshall
Date: 16 Feb 14 - 09:57 PM

It was so much easier this morning to wake up - to blue sky and the beginnings of sunshine! But my head still refused to function until after 8 am. But cheerfully!

Subject: RE: BS: On waking up
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 17 Feb 14 - 04:26 AM

There have been occasions when I was awake in the night because I was worrying about something. There have never been times when I was worrying at night just because I was awake. Being wide enough awake at night to read, write, sew, draw, go for a walk, anything I enjoy doing, I regard as a bonus.

Subject: RE: BS: On waking up
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 17 Feb 14 - 06:19 AM

Well, not quite anything I enjoy doing - just the things I enjoy doing that won't keep other people awake.

Subject: RE: BS: On waking up
From: GUEST,Seaham cemetry
Date: 17 Feb 14 - 07:26 AM

I get up early to exercise my dogs, (I help train greyhounds,) before getting showered and to the hospital where I work.

So waking up for me isnt something to think about because by the time I am aware of my surroundings, my auto pilot has carried me as far as the bathroom. If I am lucky, I am awake before a first clinic.