Giving my hour back

Okay - I look forward to time change as much as anybody. There is something so delightful about "stealing" an extra hour of sleep. I feel like I am somehow cheating the system. For one day a year, I actually have that extra hour that I so often wish existed. I get almost as upset about being on call for end of daylight's saving time as I do for major holidays. I want to enjoy that hour in the quiet privacy of my home - not in a hospital. All of that being said - despite planning thousands of productive ways to spend my extra free hour each year - I usually sleep for an extra hour. However, it is one of the best hours of sleep on the planet.

As you can tell - I truly look forward to that first Sunday in November and the extra hour in the day. However, somehow each year, I forget how much I actually hate all the dark winter days that come afterwards. I am used to going to work in the dark. Early on I whined about how much I hate mornings, but in all honesty - I have sort of turned into a morning person. It is not completely my choice - I can barely sleep past 6 anymore, but I can find some beauty in the stillness and promise of a dark winter morning. Don't worry - I haven't turned into one of those annoyingly cheerful morning people, but I can at least now make conversation in the morning.

What I find so incredibly depressing and quite frankly tiring is coming home in the dark. Take today for example. We actually finished work at a decent hour. However, walking out of the hospital at 5 pm it is already dusky. By the time I make a quick run to Target and have a bite of dinner - it is dark. I spend most of the Winter walking by as many windows during the day as I can to help recall what sunshine looks like. I am also discovering that it is incredibly grey here in the City of Brotherly Love.

Even worse is my mind's reaction to the darkness. It is 7 pm and I am falling asleep on the couch. Not because I am getting any less sleep that normal, but because it is dark outside and that seems to flip a switch in my head that says 'must go to sleep'. Therefore, this year I have decided to stay on Daylight's saving time all winter. Sure it may be confusing to be an hour off from everyone else, but since when have I followed the beat of a normal drummer?