On Being a Morning Person

I love the sunrise. I'm so happy that the front of my house faces east. The biggest mistake we made in planning the house was putting our bedroom in the back; it's like a dungeon. But the upside of that is that I just can't wait to get out of bed.

My body doesn't need great amounts of sleep, and frequently after about six hours it just wakes up. If I nap or have too inactive a day, I have trouble falling asleep. Today I awoke an hour before the alarm went off. I was on my second mug of coffee when I heard my alarm.

When I travel to different time zones, I combat jetlag by forcing myself, frequently with the help of lots of coffee, to go to bed at about midnight, and then my body wakes up about six hours later. Yes, that's on time for me.

This morning I had great fun photographing the sunrise.

And I'm sure that I'm one of the only 52Frames members who had an easy time getting the Golden Hour "extra credit" by photographing dawn.

"Magic Morning Coffee"
Luckily for me I kept waking up very early last week, with plenty of time to drink my coffee and photograph the dawn during "Magic/Golden Hour."

woke before alarm
got to see gorgeous sunrise
now drinking coffee
#morningcoffeehaiku

Psyched up for the pool
Today's another scorcher
Coffee cold and strong
#morningcoffeehaiku

rescued by coffee
sometimes sleep isn't enough
grey sky but still hot
#morningcoffeehaiku

Enjoying coffee
Wonderful Day Yesterday
but need much more sleep
#morningcoffeehaiku

Grey summer morning 
Cold brew coffee, jar, filter
No need for French Press 
#morningcoffeehaiku

ripe cold brew coffee
perfect for hot summer's day
yay, pool, here I come
#morningcoffeehaiku

Yes! Cold Brew Coffee
Perfect hot day summer drink
Must plan in advance
#morningcoffeehaiku

First Time "Single Purim" Day in 33 Years, but Three Megillah Readings

We moved to Shiloh, where Purim is celebrated for two days, two feasts, four megillah readings and two days of giving Mishloach Manot in 1981. So ever since we've celebrated two days of Purim. Our Rabbi has been hinting at a soon to be announced "psak," rabbinic decision to have us join Jerusalem and other old walled cities with only Shushan Purim. But it seems almost as far as the rule of the Moshiach.

This Purim I found myself in New York, rather jetlagged after the "red-eye" from Arizona Tuesday night, meaning Wednesday landing. I was so zonked I managed to fast until after the first megillah reading. See yesterday's post. 

Following my hostess's non-binding custom I ended up hearing the megillah two more times. We went to the regular morning prayers and megillah reading in her shul and then also went to the women's reading, which gave us three. That's not the four in two days I'm used to.

But to be perfectly honest, I fell asleep during that first reading--jetlag can do it to anyone--so I feel that the very competent women's reading made up for what I hd slept through the night before.

Coffee in Arizona

I wouldn't quite call myself a coffee addict, but it is medicinal for me.  Coffee is an important part of my morning routine.  It and the water I drink "keep my system moving."  I trust that most of you will get the gist...

Coffee is also one of my anti-jetlag tools/medicines.  Well-timed coffee can keep me moving until it's late enough to go to sleep when I'm very, very tired, and my body thinks it's in a different time zone. First of all, I believe in jumping right into the local time zone.  Resting only makes things worse.  I don't nap.  I may unintentionally conk out for a few minutes or seconds, but I don't lay down and get comfortable for a nice "deep nap."  I save up my exhaustion for nighttime. I go to bed by midnight and generally get a good six hours of sleep, which puts me back on schedule.  Sometimes I cheat and take half a sleeping pill to help.

During my recent trip to the states I spent over 24 hours door to door traveling from leaving my home in Shiloh, Israel and finally arriving in the motel I stayed at in Tempe, Arizona.

They had a breakfast but the coffee was nothing special and a bit dicey in the kashrut department, since it wasn't directly from a coffee machine you could see.  It was in one of those big thermoses. So I bought myself coffee every morning from some place down the road.

And I also, at the Tempe Marketplace, a big spread out mall/shopping center I got some great coffee in a branch of a coffee place they have even in Israel, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf.

That way I felt more at home.