I am in Birmingham, Alabama and up before the dawn.  No really, it is still pitch black outside and I should be sound asleep.

I arrived to the hotel late last night after our flight was cancelled for mechanical difficulties.  We had been delayed 4 times over the evening, which should have been our 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th clues.  But no, they waited until the flight landed 2 hours late to inform us it was being cancelled.  The good news?  They were giving us a hotel voucher and rebooking for in the morning.  The other good news?  We would get our bags!

Ok, not happy that I would not see the Royce boys but very happy I would at least get my bag and a little sleep, I headed with 30 sleepygrumpytiredirritableunhappygrateful campers to the line to get rebooked, hotel vouchers, and shuttles.  Almost an hour later (I was at the end of the line) I was sitting on the curb with said sleepygrumpytiredirritableunhappygrateful campers waiting for the shuttle to arrive.

Now for any of you who know me, I am really not a night owl.  I am normally up around 5 a.m. each morning and off to the gym by 5:45 with a dear friend.  We burn lots of steam, solve the problems of the world, and come out a little over an hour later dripping wet but happy and grateful.

So when I arrived at said hotel late last evening I knew there would not be much sleep to follow.  I set my watch, requested a wake up call (you can’t be too careful about these things) and laid my very sleepy head down for a few hours sleep.

When my running watch went off this morning I was out of bed before I could even blink.  I turned on the coffee pot and went in to brush my teeth.  I waited for the back up call to come through, not wanting to be in the shower with the phone ringing incessantly.  2 minutes, 3 minutes, 4 minutes passed and I am waiting (impatiently as you can tell).  I thought about the fact that my watch is a few minutes ahead of my bedside clock at home and decided to pop in the shower anyway.

I was dripping wet before it dawned on me that, HELLO!  My watch is on Eastern time zone and Birmingham, Alabama is central time zone.  It was really an hour earlier and I was wide awake.

So here I sit, reflecting on the humor of my life, and grateful for another reminder that I can at times be just a wee bit hyper-vigilant.   For those reading this, you probably get it.  Volumes have been written about  this tendency among parents of special needs kids.  It is one of the reasons I run – it burns some of that stress off and allows me to rest more effectively.

So I am up and ready an hour early, sitting at the airport now.  Good morning to you too.

Wide awake Alert and Strong,

Shannon