I am not a morning person.  It’s a credit to my mom that she never resorted to throwing ice water on me to wake me up in high school, because I’m sure that wasn’t a fun job.  She did sometimes play the grand piano that was a few feet from my head, which I now understand as funny.  It was a lot less funny at the time.  

Now that I’m an adult, I mostly just dread the sound of my alarm.  Sometimes if I’m too tired, I don’t hear the alarm at all, which is kind of problematic.  I have discovered the wonder of a programmable coffee maker, however.  I might still dread that alarm sound, but it’s wonderful to wake up knowing that one small morning task is complete.  It feels like little elves came through in the middle of the night to take care of me.  It’s nice, even if I was the night-before elf who put together the coffee.  Now all I have to do is remember how nice that feels at night when I’m tired and don’t feel like one more 2-minute chore. 

Gandalf says to go make coffee for someone else.