An elephant never forgets

The other day I woke up to the sound of elephants. I thought that there were 5 of them specifically -it was early and I was a bit confused, but I distinctly heard the trumpeting of elephants so I turned my attention to our upstairs neighbors who are usually very needlessly noisy. They have rock band, an excellent stereo system and a tendency to use them both when we're trying to sleep. So I groggily turned to listen and thought I heard not only elephants, but very rhythmic elephants. There would be two counts of silence, a very distinct trumpeting, and then it would repeat -I was reminded of the scene from the Jungle Book where the elephants are marching. Did the neighbors have some sort of elephant edition of rock band?

I turned to Sam to see if he was awake, only to find that he was the one doing all the trumpeting. He'd breathe in for two seconds and then he'd exhale with a lot of fanfare -I'd found my elephant. Safari over. I thought about getting something to record the noise with -it was quite impressive -but decided to stay in bed. I went to sleep comforted by the fact that I'm not the only sleep wheezer in the family and making plans to patent my elephant edition of rock band.

Time.

Last night, Tamsen and I were talking about looking at the clock when we wake up. Like most people, we have trouble telling exactly what time it is when we first get up, and usually badly misjudge the actual time. (True story: once, when I was in middle school, I woke up, looked at the clock, and decided the time was Saturday. Turns out it was actually Tuesday, and I was extremely late for my bus.) Sometimes our efforts to determine the time turns the numbers on the clock into different shapes (such as snakes). My particular problem, however, has been long recurring and I still haven't learned.

You see, when I first wake up, I can check what time it is WITHOUT ACTUALLY OPENING MY EYES. That's right. Early in the morning, I can see through my eyelids, provided I'm looking at a clock. More than once, I've woken up, realized how tired I was, and thought to myself, "I'll just check the clock through my eyelids this morning." Invariably, the time is several hours earlier than I actually need to get up. And then, after a minute or so, I think, "Nah, I'd better go ahead and look with my eyes open, just to make sure." Strangely enough, the time is usually vastly different, and usually requires me to leap out of bed and scramble to get ready on time.

The strange thing is that it never strikes me as strange that I can see clocks through my eyelids until long after I've been awake. I'll think about it later and realize that I'm bordering on insane in the mornings. Unless, somehow, I really do have a super power, in which case I really ought to put together a costume or something.