Two Snoozes

I was always a get-up-when-the-alarm-goes-off kinda gal. Phone beeps, radio comes on, get up. Why torture yourself with one eye half open knowing it's inevitable anyway and then having to rush around when you don't give yourself enough time? Then I met Mark, ruler of the snooze button. From soon after we met, getting up time was war. As far as I could tell the dulcet tones of David Hanley & Morning Ireland would break into my sleep at about 430am and every 10 minutes hence until Mark decided it was 5 minutes before he had to leave the house and would finally get up. Trouble is, this woke me properly, where as he sort of shuffled about a bit while I threw a fit in the dark looking for the source of the disturbance. Every 10 minutes, for about 4 hours. So after a while I got more used to it and could ignore it in favour of my phone beeping, which would tell me when to get up. Promptly, I might add. So across the yawning width of a single (twin for canucks) bed (for that is what we shared in those dark days) for a year and a half we lived under two alarm systems. Two diametrically opposed systems...

"I have to let him know that its ages before he has to get up"
"sssssh, let her have her blissful undisturbed sleep"
"but I need to wake him so he knows he doesn't have to get up yet"
"but she needs to sleep right up until she actually has to wake up"
.
...and so it went on.

We would try to compromise. He would set his alarm a little later, mine a little earlier. But, he had the upper hand and he has worn me down, because my method could never disturb his, yet his always disturbed me. The snooze button is some sort of evil temptress. Until recently I was immune to it's lure but now I have begun to regularly use the one snooze method, purposely setting the alarm 10 minutes early, then lying there for 8 of the 10 minutes thinking oh I should just get up now, then collapsing back into a deep sleep only to be BAM! woken up again 2 minutes later. Ladies and gentlemen, this morning, I hit two snoozes. Mark is not even here. 20 whole minutes of fitfully wondering if I should get up, did I hit 'off' accidently, do I have time to watch the first 15 minutes of 'Live with Regis & Kelly' if I don't get up now... The snooze button is a sadistic device and it has lured me in.