A Problem With The Moon

In order to attend an early brunch/book-signing for an author friend, I woke this morning at 5:00 a.m. It felt like quite an accomplishment for someone who often goes to bed at about 6:00 a.m. This is how much I love to support my writer friends. It involved a couple hour drive, during which I was continuously distracted from the beauty of early morning sunrise on snowy hillsides dotted with wind turbines, by jaw cracking yawns, and the fact that the moon was on the wrong side of the planet. At 3:00 a.m. it is on the other side, where it belongs. I’d forgotten it MOVES.

My friend thanked me for driving so far though I’d have happily driven anywhere to support her. I did, however, kinda feel like I’d earned a trophy for getting up so early. In lieu of that, I ignored the protests of my dress pants and rewarded myself with a visit to a candy shop in a village that was so picture perfect it could have been built by Disney. I discovered dark chocolate covered espresso beans there. I’d heard about them from other addicts, I mean chocolate-lovers (same difference).

Tonight, as the night grew late and the moon found its proper position in the sky and the yawns began anew, my nightly write-a-thon was safe. A new weapon was in my arsenal. Now it is confession time. I’ve never admitted this before, because I think I could get thrown out of the writing world for it. I don’t drink coffee. Oh, of course I have an occasional dark chocolate raspberry pretend coffee made with decaf. Or a caramel frappuccino – decaf. It’s simply that my friends and family had a restraining order issued against caffeine and me many years ago.

Apparently I have the physiology of a coral reef. If someone drinks a cup of coffee or wine in my hemisphere I can feel the effects of it by sheer osmosis. I need no stimulants. Yet tonight, I am determined, I have a looming deadline and it will be met. So in went those espresso beans. They must be an acquired taste, and this coming from a woman who eats tofu and Boca burgers, because I ended up swallowing them whole – like pills. Maybe they just taste good and I’m not used to that. At any rate I can confirm that they work, quite well, and after I finish my novel in the next few hours I’m going to go for a jog, clean my attic and rearrange the furniture. If anyone has a book signing tomorrow, anywhere, give me a shout out. I’ve discovered my antidote to mornings.