Waking up

I woke up to a glorious day. The room was so bright, I thought I'd slept in. It was only 7:30; birds chirping, the sound of dh's shower running in the background. It felt like the first day of spring.

I was grinning before my feet hit floor, and I was singing, "Life is just a bowl of cherries . . ." by the time I got to the bathroom. Yup, I know - I'm just too cheerful for my own good. Not that I'm always cheerful, but I'm one of those disgusting people who wake up in a good mood.

Maybe subconsciously, I'm just happy to wake up at all and not to have succumbed to some mysterious ailment overnight - with news articles and headline reading:

"Famous blogger found dead in bed - cause unknown - autopsy report pending."

Ell, best known for her scintillating and popular blog, the pomegranate tiger, was found dead this morning by her housekeeper. Ms Yan suspected something might be wrong when Ell wasn't up by 9 a.m. She knocked on the bedroom door, and entered when there was no answer. "At first, I thought she was sleeping. She looked so peaceful. But then I saw how pale she was. I touched her hand - and I knew. She was icy cold."

She was pronounced dead at the scene by attending paramedics. By all accounts, Ell was active for her age and had been in good health. Foul play is not suspected.

See, I can be morbid.

It's funny about the waking up thing, though - how some people wake up in a good mood and others grumpy? My older son is more like me. He wakes up happy and, more often than not, is humming while brushing his teeth.

My younger son is the opposite. If you speak to him before he's ready, he'll start an argument just for the sake of arguing. He's the proverbial, 'Good morning. What's so good about it!!' guy. We give him a wide berth until he comes 'round. He's rather like a bear coming out of hibernation. Everyone keeps a respectful distance while he waters and feeds himself. We wait for him to make the first overtures of civility.

He's been like this since he was a toddler. No one ever wanted to get him up from his nap or wake him in the morning. We'd go through a ritual of, "no, you go": - You get him. - No, you go. - No, I got him last time. You go. - If I get him this time, you go next time. - Hey, let's get D to get him! We've spoken to him about his morning surliness, but he completely denies it. According to him, he's just misuderstood. Heaven help any future wife or roommate.

The strange thing is that once he's up and going, he's the most mild-mannered, even-tempered guy in the world. I guess he just needs to get the nastiness out of his system first thing in the morning.