this week, we got a new alarm clock. the reasoning was that for a long time, we’ve had a stone-age single-alarm model, but wake up at different times. that meant jessica kindly had to reset it for me almost every day (the girl is a saint, i know).

but as a generous person, i finally decided to pick up one of those new-fangled, dual-timer, ipod-cradling wonders of wake-up technology and relieve her of this burden. of course, this is only an exciting purchase if you’re a very dull person, and wouldn’t normally warrant blogging about.

however, i didn’t realize how ingrained morning alarm behavior becomes when you’ve been using the same clock for over ten years, and i’ve both surprised and disappointed myself in the last few days in dealing with this new doohickey.

first, it took us almost ten minute to figure out how to set the two alarms, because of all the fancy features like: volume options (how do i know how loud “12” is on a brand new alarm clock?), and the luxurious ‘do you want this alarm to go off just once, every day, only weekdays, or only weekends?’ option, signified on the clock face by the totally obvious shorthands F 1, F 1-5, F 1-7, or F 6-7. How could we have been so foolish?

second, after choosing to get up at 8am F 1-5 (weekdays), i had an early meeting one day and had to switch it to 7am. since my hands could have set the old one with my eyes closed, knowing exactly which buttons to hold and for how long to change times, i fumbled again with its modern replacement trying to set a single day deviation. turns out, i accidentally entered 6am, and the next morning both jessica and i fought with it for several confused minutes in the dim dawn hours trying to correct my mistake. you haven’t seen comedy until you pit groggy morning brains against new technology. she picked it up, tried to fix it, gave up, handed it to me, i said, ‘just put it on the table!’ and got out of bed to run over and fix it, then was never quite sure it was right and feared going back to sleep and being late for work for the next hour.

what a delightful addition to our household.

on a positive note, alarm clock sounds have come a long way since i was in high school, the time of my last timepiece purchase. the classic abrupt scream (REEEE REEEE REEEE) of alarms from sleep-aid commercials and poorly chosen ringtones is a thing of the past with these high-tech wonder-clocks. now, not only does the sound start softly and gradually grow in volume, but ours replaces the high pitched wail with an almost comforting, deep base tone (woomp woomp WOOMP). the experience of waking up to this new sound is miles less panic-stricken and painful. who would have thought such a minor thing could change the day’s first moments so drastically?

so we’re off to a rocky start, but hopefully this relationship will be as long as the one that preceded it. maybe once we’ve been together a while, we’ll even start spicing things up by introducing ipod-songs into the mix. who wouldn’t want to wake up to the sweet sounds of slayer?

if you’re curious, this is our new friend. i’m also curious: do other people wake up to music? if so, what songs?

and does everyone have these new way-less-agitating alarm clocks? have i been needlessly agonized for years by an old-school alarm?