A Silly Slumber Stopper

When I moved up here to Union City, one of the items on my shopping list was an alarm clock. My parents had given me one before I left but it was somewhat large and was basically a clock with an alarm. What I really wanted was a clock/radio combo. I used to have a pretty decent one but it broke when we moved from South Pasadena to Temple City. Or at least, I can no longer find it.

After much shopping and debating, I settled on a pretty nice Memorex CD player/radio/alarm clock. It stands straight up so it's also somewhat stylish. The first one I brought home had apparently been returned to Target and merely put back out on the floor because it was missing a power supply. I took it back and the next one I brought home wouldn't play CD's. I was ready to give up on the thing but I gave it one more try and the new one worked fine. Finally.

If you know me, I need multiple alarms to wake my sleep-deprived self up. I set the buzzer for about 10 minutes before my radio goes on and just blares whatever is on whatever station I've set it to. I have yet to become acquainted with east bay radio stations since my move up here. I don't drive so I don't get to take advantage of drive-time talk shows either. That probably explains why I splurged on an iPod a month after my move.

One of the quirks about this clock radio is that it is incredibly loud when the radio comes on for the alarm. I haven't given it much time, but I can't seem to figure out how to make the radio alarm softer. I can control the volume when I just decide to play the radio outright - which is actually not very often. However, whenever I get radio in the morning, it is just much too loud. At least it gets me out of bed. It's usually not something I want to hear though so I go over and shut it off and actually lately, have been climbing back into bed. That's not good if you know me.

Not that I've devised a way to ensure that I wake up to my first alarm (I also set my cell phone alarm for every morning - my college roommates can tell you about how much that sucks for everyone) but a couple of days ago, I set out to create a CD of songs to wake up to. I left the blank CD in my computer because I never got around to it but iTunes keeps on asking me what I'd like to do with it. I know I can dismiss the note but I decided that it would be good to be reminded that I have a random blank CD in my computer. So today, I decided once and for all to create this CD so I could play it tomorrow morning when I wake up.

I have so much music and am so picky about my music sometimes that I knew I would have a hard time. That's probably part of the reason why I've put off making this CD for a couple of days. So I began picking songs randomly and eventually ended up in all of my old music from college. I figured it would be good to put some rather humorous tracks on there so that when I hear them in the morning, I'm reminded of the reason I made the CD in the first place, to get the heck out of bed. So here's the playlist:

1. Bone Thugs N Harmony - 1st of da Month
2. Cranberries - Linger
3. Eagle-Eye Cherry - Save Tonight
4. Hairspray Soundtrack - Good Morning Baltimore
5. H.O.T. - Candy
6. Blondie - Heart of Glass
7. Hoku - Perfect Day
8. A*Teens - Mamma Mia
9. Melanie C - Suddenly Monday
10. Jeremy Wu - Morning Sun
11. Theme from Back to the Future
12. Israel Kamakawiwo'ole - Somewhere Over the Rainbow / What a Wonderful World
13. Rockapella - Folger's Commercial Jingle
14. Smash Mouth - Then The Morning Comes
15. Sugar Ray - Every Morning
16. Van Halen - Jump
17. Wallflowers - One Headlight
18. When In Rome - The Promise

I'll report back in a week and let you know if these songs have helped at all. I figure the Back to the Future theme will get me laughing enough to jump out of bed. We'll see where I end up having the CD start. For now, have a good night and sleep well... wake up better.