Journal 5

My whole childhood life, my dad was awake and playing basketball at 5 am. I never heard him leave, but later in the day when I had to go collect the laundry for my mom, I picked up his sweaty shorts and stinky socks with as little contact with my fingers as possible and threw them into the hamper. They were always hanging on the chair next to the hamper, so I knew he'd played basketball that morning. I knew my dad was up because the smell of burnt toast would slowly waft into my nostrils and enter my groggy head of dreams. My stomach began to complain about being empty, growling and churning, and pretty soon.....BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!!!!! There goes the smoke alarm! I'd pop up in bed still groggy and disoriented, and stumble out of bed and down the stairs. And low and behold, I saw smoking toast on the cutting board and my dad fanning the smoke alarm with a red frilly pillow. This was the usual morning routine of my childhood. Since I went off to college, got married, and now live in Phoenix, AZ, I never get awakened by that smell of toast unless I am staying with my parents back home in Utah. When we go to visit, instead of the startling awakening I used to get from the sudden bout of hunger, and screeching smoke alarm, I wake up with a smile and a laugh. My husband just about jumps out his pj's still, but we both end up laughing. When I was younger my family used to joke around that if we ever had a real fire starting to devour our house, and the smoke alarm was going off, none of us would get up! It would just be the same burnt toast smell and the smoke alarm. Thankfully, our house never burned and we were safe. Now I just awaken when the sun starts peeking through the blinds right into my heavily closed eyelids. It starts getting hot in our bedroom and I have to get up and turn the fan on because it is only 5 am! I should probably invest in getting one of those sleep masks. Waking up in Arizona is so much different than waking up in Utah. In Utah you wake up in the dark, frost on your windows, and a chill in the air. You have to roll out of bed and immediately get wrapped up in a robe and slippers. In Arizona, the bright sunlight wakes you up at 5 am, and you wake up sweaty with every fan in your house blowing on full speed. A bright warm awakening is fine with me as long as I can look forward to the cold chill and smoke alarm when I go home to visit my dear family. 

-Kayla