Half Awake

     As we recently celebrated Thanksgiving, I was home for this most grateful of holidays. It seemed that every morning someone would come knocking on my door waking me up well before I was ready. My dad was the first offender. He cheerfully knocked on my door on Black Friday at the sensible shopping time of 8:30am.This would have gone over better if I hadn't been dreaming about Nazis and that they were pounding on my door looking for me. Being chased by Nazis put aside, I had a bonus of the day, I got a teapot that is an elephant. His trunk is the spout, he stands on his own legs, and he has a tiny little man riding on his back as the lid!It will come in useful for all the tea I need to stay awake.
     The next day was the most intense half awakedness I have had in quite a while. I was roused from my state of slumber by the loud repeated tones of a dog barking.Imagine for me, if you would, a dog barking, a big dog.Now add some kind of freakishly steady canine beat to it, stick it directly under my bedroom window, and you would have my Saturday morning alarm clock. Wanting to claim a few more hours of sleep I pulled my blankets over my head and tried to go to my happy place.I had almost succeeded when I heard the rhythm again. He must have brought out the tribal spirit within me because there were some strong emotions going on. I angrily went to open my window...it was frozen shut. My stream of profanities was stuck, just like my window, as I stomped down the stairs with rage. I opened the door, yelled at the dog to quit being stupid, and went back inside. To my dismay he ran over to the window and kept looking in at me. Not being completely heartless I was touched by his need for attention.This lasted two seconds as I pulled my dad's boots over my bare feet. Bleary eyed I stepped out into the crisp morning air and was savagely attacked by a giant blur of black fur. Snatching his collar I dragged him into the garage and stuffed him into his kennel. Having done my good deed for the day I sauntered upstairs to my bedroom to claim some blessed sleep.
    Not five minutes after I had finally achieved enough warmth to see images of turkey dancing in front of me I heard a noise. Most people will tell you the pitter-patter of little feet is something to be treasured, a precious memory, well most people haven't heard the stomping of an excited three year old in her footie pajamas. Soon enough I heard her banging on the bathroom door yelling at my mom "GRANDMA!!!What are you doing?" Apparently the sound of a shower running didn't imply that my mom was, in fact, taking a shower. She continued banging on the door asking my mom what she was doing. After she had satisfied her curiosity she selected her next victim. Thankfully I was not the chosen one, I heard loud knocking and a voice screaming "WAKE UP!!!" I cowered in fear as the number of doors to knock on was down to me. An angel must have smiled upon me though, or perhaps it was my sainted sister, at any rate I escaped the terror of my niece. The turkeys began to dance in front of me again but were rudely pushed away by two voices yelling in unison "AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!" Joy...my nephew was awake, too.At this rate I figured sleep was far beyond me, but it was that moment that a ray of light shown down from heaven and blessed sleep returned. This ended an hour later as my sister cheerfully told me to get up.
       This morning as I was cradled in the arms of my beloved sleep somehow the pitter-patter of little feet made its way unnoticed to my door. A few loud knocks later, a three foot tall, footie pajama-ed niece was standing in my open doorway yelling "KERSTI, TIME TO WAKE UP!"