I awoke with a jolt and looked to the clock. "Six-ten!" I had planned to be out of bed forty minutes earlier.

I pushed the wild hair from my eyes and glared accusingly at Miles. He has this sometimes-habit of becoming confused, disoriented, and cancelling the alarm before coming to bed. He blames me entirely, naturally, as I am the one who tossed his fifteen year old Sony Dream Machine when we moved. How DARE I go and make him use that dilapidated and clunky 2004 Sony I bought last November. I ought to be horse-whipped. I don't know what I could have been thinking...an alarm clock with a radio that actually works? How reprehensible!

I sprang from the bed and stuffed my legs into my jeans with violent jerks. Miles moved gingerly, almost stooped over, toward the alarm clock, and then he straightened abruptly. "YOU SET IT FOR PM!" I think some people in Minnesota heard his cheerful proclamation.

See, the morning just didn't start right in the first place....but to top it off, it was raining...thick angry sheets of rain. The black morning must have learned hospitality at the Bates Motel, and we feigned sleep to escape the evil. Something needed to be done. We jumped into the car and headed to a restaurant. Not just any restaurant...this place makes a mean bowl of instant oatmeal. And...
...
...
They have just the best...
...
...
COFFEE.

Ok, I admit it...I consumed that which I stopped consuming in order to consume less of that which I didn't want to be consuming. Follow?

Not only that, but I drank an entire pot as we breakfasted. Habits: they're nasty little boogers...but so tasty.