So how was your day?  Mine was good after another bumpy start.   I woke up almost an hour and a half later than what I intended.  This NEVER happens to me; I usually wake up prior to any alarms going off.  Besides, when I arrive at a hotel, I always test their automated wake up system the first night while employing a back up.  If it works, I use the automated system for the remainder of my stay.  Yes, I’m a little obsessive about that type of thing.  Tardiness is unacceptable in this situation (in my humble opinion).

So, the first night I was here, the automated system worked fine.  I set it for 5:30am and voila’, the phone rang promptly at 5:30am.  Success!  Last night, I enlisted the same system, snuggled in for a good nights rest and woke up at 6:55am.  Mind you, I had promised to be at the training center with my fellow instructors at 7:00am this morning.

This gave me approximately 30 minutes to not only shower, wash hair (it’s been a couple of days), dress, apply makeup, and make barely drinkable coffee, but also to drive there which would take at least 10-15 minutes, if traffic cooperated.  Yes, the coffee was a neccessity.  There was nothing in this list I could remove.

I looked at the clock with bleary, sleep-filled eyes, sprung out of bed and ran to the bathroom.  I jumped in the shower and remembered when my brother, sister and I were small and we would take our showers. If we finished too quickly to suit my dad, he would say, “What did you do, just run through the shower?”  And usually, we probably had done just that.  I did a little better this morning, but I don’t think I’ve ever washed and conditioned my hair so fast.  Have you ever noticed when you’re in a hurry, the soap will not stay in it’s resting place?

Shower over, I threw hair in a towel, slopped some makeup on without even neglecting moisturizer, picked out earrings to go with my outfit, dressed, packed up my bag, and made the coffee.  Making coffee in hotels nearly always irritates me; mostly because they either forget sugar/creamer completely or they are stingy with it.  Today it was because I poured in a full cup of water, but the coffee maker only returned half the cup.  Lots of evaporation going on there or something.  Oh well, at least I got two swallows on my way out the door.

I get to the lovely rental and it’s covered in ice.  Being a FL girl, and since it is a rental, I’m not prepared, but I don’t have time to go back in and do anything that would eat up precious minutes, not even for safety’s sake.  So, I did what most people would do (haha, probably not).  I turned on the windshield wipers full speed and was super thankful that the water sprayed out and wasn’t frozen.  The defroster worked on the rear window, so the only problem was the side windows, so I rolled them down and took off down the road with 40 degree wind blowing through my not entirely dry hair. 

Traffic was on my side and I made it in the door at 7:35.  The day was all uphill after that.  I’m still shocked at how quickly I got ready, but I have no desire to repeat in the near future.  I will probably employ at least three methods to ensure I get that wake up call in the morning!