waking up.

Because of the wonderful physical therapy that I do (which, yes, is wonderful...I can walk!), I wake up every morning at 6 am. Now, I used to wake up at 5:15 in high school, even on Saturdays for speech...so I know it can be done. However, it is light outside right now at that time, or at least it's not pitch black. There are also construction workers throwing blocks of cement off the eight story building next store, which tends to, uh, help the waking up process.

Yet, I think into the future winter months when it won't be light out until 3 hours after I have to wake up. Miserable, right? So, I'm thinking of buying a sunrise lamp. These brilliant lamp/alarm clocks start turning on the light slowly half an hour before your wake up time and are at full light by the time your alarm rings.

However, the downside is that they are:

A. Ugly.

Exhibit 1

Exhibit B

Exhibit C

Exhibit D:



B. Expensive.

Exhibit A = $80.00
Exhibit B = $129.00
Exhibit C = $140.00
Exhibit D = $119.95

There's also this contraption called the Lighten Up! which you plug into the wall between your light's plug and the wall eight hours before you want the sun to rise (for the low low cost of $30!). Now, this is close, but it means that for a 6 am wakeup it needs to be plugged in at 9:30 pm...which won't work since I have orchestra some nights. But, this is a lot closer to what I want (although you can't use LED or fluorescent lamps for it...bummer).

So...what to do? Someone want to invent a prettier sun lamp? That'd be swell.