Better than Coffee

Yesterday morning, when my alarm chimed at 5:36 a.m., I didn't need to pull myself from the bowls of sleep. I didn't need to combat the foggy density that tightens like a straight jacket, as I decided whether I could sleep through the continued ring or if I could teeter ever so carefully between sleep and consciousness long enough to snooze the alarm (careful! don't hit 'dimiss') and then fall back into the recesses of a distant dream, relinquishing all cognizant responsibilities for 10 more minutes....

No, I didn't need to do any of that. I was already awake. Petting Rosalie, who was curled on her back against the puffy walls of the duvet cover, a crooked smile on her face as she, herself, was probably dreaming.

It's always like this for me on the first day of school. I'm like a nine year old again. Perhaps it's worse since this year, on my first day of school, I'm 6,000 miles from any school I've ever started (be it as student or teacher). 

I pretended (for whose sake, I don't know), to drag myself from the comfy covy bed, but a ball of excitement burned in my stomach as I started my  morning routine. 

Makeup + Hair + Outfit + Coffee

It didn't take long before I was kissing TheRo goodbye and left the house, juggling my coffee-to-go, my purse, my briefcase and the bag of office necessities I forgot to drop off last week (you know, like Clorox wipes (Kage), Zone bars (Christine), pink duct tape (from Dale!), and so the list continues...).

I climbed in my car wondering when I last left for work before sunrise...My honest guess was maybe when I student taught in the Kingston City School district. But even then, the sun was certainly peaking over the Hudson Valley as I pulled onto Route 9 in Poughkeepsie. My first thought was that I love pre-sunrise in Hawaii in January when the breeze is cool on my skin, but refreshingly cool, and the salty air is still as the neighborhood wakes quietly, slowly. It certainly makes starting the day far better than, oh, say pre-sunrise in January in Cortland. You know... the air is frozen, and it burns your lungs and takes your breath away as you scrape your car, and start the engine to warm everything up before you climb in and endure chilly seats and icy, foggy windows; the air is thin and the neighborhood is quiet because no one wants to drag themselves out of their down comforters, certainly and especially because the heat hasn't kicked on yet. Starting your morning routine during winter in New York is ripping off a band-aid from sensitive skin, daily.

[How's that for juxtaposition, fellow New Yorkers? I miss you <3 ]

Anyway, the aforementioned thought alone certainly paved a foundation of positivity for the remainder of the drive to work. Coffee in hand and having already accepted that there will be heavy traffic, I set off for work to the tune of shitty Hawaiian country radio.

Before too many exits, H1 (the highway that takes us from our home in Kapolei to anywhere else on the whole island) passes a clearing so drivers can see straight to Honolulu. And as I approached this clearing, I saw the oranges and reds of the sunrise bursting behind the peak of Diamond Head mountain. Stop-and-go traffic prevented me from pulling out my phone to take a photo, but luckily, I can google an image of anything:

This closely resembles what I saw.

Occasionally, I take a deep breath and attempt to fully actualize the idea that I'm living in Hawaii while I'm in my twenties and newly married. It's unfathomable, but so exciting! I rode the thrill of watching the sunrise all the way to the school. As I searched the lot for a parking space close to my office, I made a mental note to blog about the sunrise that I could   look forward to on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. I parked the car and collected my things, when I caught a light out of the corner of my eye. The moon. It was a Jurassic moon. The kind of moon that made you wonder if something was wrong because it was so big in the sky. It perched on the peak of a mountain, and I did my best to take a photo of it for you. Alas, a photo cannot do justice to the image that is forever imprinted in my mind. 

Between the sun and the moon, at 6:45 a.m. on the ninth day of the first month of two-thousand and twelve. 

Who needs coffee when I can have such sensational, picturesque landscaping on my way to work....