Blinded by the Light

To say that I am not a morning person is akin to saying that Richard Petty drove pretty fast;  it understates the case quite a lot.  I need to wake up slowly and quietly before plunging into the maelstrom of the day, preferably with caffeine on board fairly soon after getting out of the bed.  The Other Adult who lives here is one of those people who is awake the second his feet hit the floor.  This difference in morning styles used to be no big deal, because S had a long commute and so was gone before I even got up. 

Then he changed jobs.

Now every weekday morning I wake up like one of the prisoners on Cell Block 9.  The Warden S is not only awake and talking, he for reasons known only to him feels the need to turn on (and leave on) just about every freaking light in the house.  So I wake up with the bathroom light and hall lights both shining in my eyes.  I stumble out of bed and blindly make my way down the hall, where I'm greeted with the overhead light in the living room and both lights in the kitchen shining like a thousand suns (and now would be a good time to point out that our kitchen faces directly east, with a large sliding glass door-no lights are necessary).

For a very long time my life was arranged so that I didn't have to greet the sun.  I was able to get up later and stay up later, which is what my body clock naturally prefers.  My life is different now; it's necessary that I be up and functioning with the the early birds.  I've made my peace with that.  I don't even want to sleep until 10:00 or 11:00 any more, like I did when I was single and childless.  I just want to be able to wake up slowly, without conversation or bright lights.  I want to ease into my day without being disgruntled before I'm even out of my night shirt.  I want to start off in a good mood, not snappy and mean.

I'm trying to think of ways to make getting up of a morning just a little less unpleasant, since S has pretty much ignored any of my attempts to compromise on this (and yes, I do realize that this is a symptom of a larger problem).  S gets up between 5:30 and 6:00; I am up at 6:00.  Is my only solution (short of living alone) to get up even earlier? 

Maybe I should sleep in my sunglasses.

Comments

[Laurie]

You're on your bloggin A-game though!

[kenju]

I can sympathize with the lights in the eyes thing. My hubs always gets up earlier than I do and he just HAS to turn on all the lights. I pull the covers up over my head to block it out.

[Julia]

You said: S is not only awake and talking, he for reasons known only to him feels the need to turn on (and leave on) just about every freaking light in the house. So I wake up with the bathroom light and hall lights both shining in my eyes.

Man, my husband does this, too and it makes me want to put burning cinders in his jockey shorts. Only, y'know, I haven't had my coffee yet, so I'm incapable of functioning at that level.

Morning people bug the crap out of me.

Julia

[Lora]

I to live with a morning person and I feel you pain. What really drives me nuts is that no matter how many times you try explaining to a morning person to give you some space and to shut up they just don't get it. At the moment I have the luxury of hiding under the covers and pretending I'm still asleep until he's out of the house.

[guile]

i wear my sunglasses at night..