Monday, January 21, 2008

school uniform...

Every morning during the week I wake up at 6:30 AM.

It's painful, the noise of my little bobbing alarm clock. It tugs at the tail of my dreams as though it were a kitten unraveling a knitted blanket. It jabs and pokes and then just starts to walk away with bits of my dream following in its wake.

I touch the top of it gently with the tip of my index finger and the noise subsides as I rapidly fall back into the dream scape that fills my nights. It's hardly more than a breath there though, barely a moment before the alarm is at it again and after a few bouts with the clock I am up and at it on my feet, an unwilling member of the day.

I look over my sleeping family, my darling husband curled neatly into his own dreams across our vast expanse of bed. His alarm has been going off every 3 minutes since 6 AM. My daughter, by this time, has invariably made her way into our room and has found a way to curl up and sleep in the middle of the bed on top of our red velvet bed covers.

Her face is sweet and passive, a tiny smile tugs at her lips and I leave her be for just a moment more as I wipe the sleep out of my eyes and begin my day.

I stretch and settle my chic black glasses on my pillow creased face. They, and my shiny black hair (which always seems to look perfect in those wee hours of the morning... that is until I try to brush it) strike a sharp contrast with my sleepy visage.

I reach for my blue jeans, pulling them up, zipping and buttoning while still half asleep before I pad into the kitchen to make coffee for my man.

everyday.

5 days a week. and so it goes again and again... my blue jeans see a lot of action.

In my younger days. My hipper days. My short skirt and stockings days, I wore jeans to paint something. to wash my laundry. to camp.

they were a necessity for the down and dirty parts of life.

now though, they're an after thought... a uniform I don each day as I rise early to get my 5 year old to school...

I used to think that I wasn't a denim kind of girl... now I hardly wear anything else.

***

This post was written into response to David McMahon's weekend wandering of January 20th. This week he asks: Do you wear denim?

18 comments:

Gunfighter said...

6:30?

A late sleeper, eh?

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Bellevelma said...

This:

"It jabs and pokes and then just starts to walk away with bits of my dream following in its wake."

is perfect! I can totally SEE it happening in my head.

And um, how does everyone else sleep around the alarm clock? I'd kill my husband if he let his clock go off every three minutes.

I have a human alarm clock. This morning he padded into my room and said "Happy Martin Luther King Day!" It's a day off from school and we're off from work so to my roving alarm clock it's almost as good as Christmas.

Lisa Wheeler Milton said...

The jeans are better than sweats anyday. And I should know. There's a Sweats Epidemic causing unnecessary frumpiness...

The Ferryman said...

I mostly wear pink chiffon. But that's a whole other story.

david mcmahon said...

Beautiful work. Your descriptive powers really paint a picture for us.

Thank you for the wonderful response to the denim question. Yep, denim is in my ``genes'' as well!!

flutter said...

I wish I could wear denim 24/7

OhTheJoys said...

I wear it right out! There is a hole forming in the *ss of these pants as I type.

mielikki said...

my bobbing alarm clock woke me today, too.
And denim? Yes please. Even at work

Dapoppins said...

This makes me want to take a nap. I love to dream. My dreams, usually, are so fun and unusual. But it is kids that wake me up, not an alarm clock.
And even though you now wear jeans, instead of the hip stuff, at least you get dressed. I generally roll out of bed already dressed in my sweats...ready to go. I know. Gross huh?

Unknown said...

I don't know where I'd be without the denim. Or if I worked in a place with a dress code.

Gen said...

I just wanted to stop by and say I LOVE what you did with Holly's header.

I envy your routine. It's something I've been unable to accomplish in my own life. Pajamas have been my uniform lately. :-P

julie said...

Oh, yeah. My old Levis get much more wear than I'd like to admit.

KiKi said...

Great, now this stupid commercial's stuck in my head: Are those Bugle Boy jeans that you're wearing?

CamiKaos said...

kiki: I had forgotten all about that commercial and now it's going to be stuck in my head too.

julie: it's sad but true girl.

groovymom: thank you so much.

holmes: YOU'RE ALIVE!!! Yes, workplaces without strict dress codes make for some semblance of sanity

dapoppins: see, I'm just not a sweats person. I wear yoga pants sometimes to bum around the house but I only ever left the house in them for a yoga class

mie: oh the love of the bobclock

otj: My favorite pair has frayed hems holes in both knees and a ripped pocket... They look like hell and I love them. I still don't know how I wore them out.

flutter: I can't sleep in jeans... but they sure make my ass look good.

david: thank you... and I've been waiting all day for a "genes" pun.

mr. fab: really, I must know who your tailor is...

lisa: there is an epidemic at K's school...

bellevelma: it always amazes me that our alarms don't wake up K or each other... we've learned to ignore them. And as for K waking me up... if she has more than 2 days off she will settle back into a rhythm of sleeping in until 8 or 8:30. Otherwise it's 6:40 even on the weekends.

e.m.c.t: I'll get back to you on that.

gunfighter: I'm a big ol lazy bones ;)

AngelConradie said...

i have to dress fairly smartly from monday to thursday so my clients think i look like i know what i'm doing... but friday to sunday i'm in jeans!

CamiKaos said...

I used to have to dress smart... when I worked at an interior design firm... gooooollllly... i love my jeans now.

sybil law said...

Nothing better than jeans. What is the alternative? Actually, here, I've been wearing some long johns. They are sooo sexy!