I Am an Adult Today: Two Reasons Why

1. It's raining this morning. There was an umbrella in my car.

That's a good enough reason for me, but perhaps some people were always this prepared. Okay, I know that some people were always that prepared since I was friends with those type of people in high school. They were good people to be friends with when I could barely keep track of my car, little less an umbrella in the car. And my car was a total piggery-- really disgusting dirty back then. It still ain't a paragon of cleanliness, but I promise, it's better than it was when I was 17. (My friends who had umbrellas in their cars at sixteen had clean cars then, and have clean cars now. I can attest to this.) [On another side bar note: If I can't keep my car clean now, childless, what will it be like with child in tow. I delude myself thinking I will be better then, but the reality is, I probably won't.]

2. An 8:00 class does not seem early to me anymore.

At one point in my undergraduate life (okay, two points, but everyone who knows me knows that my freshman year doesn't really count as a year of school since I was such a... a... well, fuck up really.) So at one point in my undergraduate life, I registered for an 8 am class: Chemistry. A stupid class for me take anyway-- It wasn't required for me, and I only took it because I had poetic notions about chemistry being part of "everything" and my grandfather was a chemist, and la-di-dah. It was a weeder class at the University of Michigan. Lots of pre-med students, and I had no business, as a liberal arts interloper, being part of them. The first time I missed class, I asked the girl who sat next to me in lecture for the notes. She said, "Are you kidding me?" and hunched over her notebook. I missed a lot of Chem lectures. 8:00 am just seemed too damn early. I had to walk a mere FIVE minutes from my home to get to the lecture. When I went to class, I woke up at 7:45 and often just put clothes on over my pajamas. I remember ranting at lunch about the University who would schedule classes so early, and made pronouncements about the wise nature of certain Ivy League schools who did not hold classes so early. I wished I was at those schools.

Now, of course, I ask to teach 8:00 classes. I get up at 5 am, in my office at 7. I hold office hours before class-- I tell my students to do what they need to do in order to get there on time. I sneer at such excuses as "My alarm didn't go off!" (which I used myself) or "I slept through my alarm clock!" (which I also used myself, and often was really true!). Okay, and there are students who are never late for class, and who also show up at early am office hours, but for me, not thinking this is odd, or not feeling that 8 am is too early is a sign that I am "grown up" in the way I always thought "grown up" would be.

Again-- I wonder how my feelings about "time" will change again with baby. Last night I couldn't sleep until about 1:00. (My current book is really engaging) and I kept rolling over and looking at Partner, and moaning, "I can't bloody believe I can't sleep." I usually nod off with no problem. Insominia is not something I have with any regularity. I was annoyed because I would only be getting four hours sleep. Something tells me the day will come when I will look with nostalgia on four hours sleep.