Good Morning, Grace

           Sharing your life with another brings many unexpected twists and turns. Just before our wedding, my mom told Ian a secret to watch for....for his own protection. She said, "I just want to give you one word of advice when dealing with my daughter. When in the midst of her "wake up" time, LEAVE HER ALONE!"

           Good advice from the one who knows.

          "Wake up" time consists of returning to consciousness while still keeping my eyes closed, holding in the "gotta go" feeling and wrapping up whatever crazy dream I've come up with that morning. It leads to open eyes, and a confused glossy gaze, still completely unaware of my surroundings. It's almost creepy. Then...the BEAST! It's like I haven't had enough time in my short day to remember to be a nice person. I need space enough for the fetal position, angled diagonally. I need more square inches of the one blanket that we share. Not to cover me, because when it's time for my legs to straighten, they need to be out of the covers. So just about three more feet of blanket will do, just to clench in my arms. I need all the pillows shifted to new areas of the bed. I need my wild boar of a head of hair to be behind me with no regard to where it may land. I need no talking and I need the birds to shut it! And I need time to get over being mad for waking up. I have needs.

          But nobody told me what Ian would be like when he wakes up and opens his eyes. Nobody told me that he would embrace me, or look at me sleepily as I'm leaving for work and say with a smile, "Hey, pretty lady."