6:00 AM

Beep beep beep!…My eyes and face crumple into a paper ball. A weighted blanket hugs my body tight and won’t let me go. My arm SWINGS like a sledgehammer onto the white clock, its red numbers blink nervously until I hit the pillow-shaped snooze button. I flip over and snuggle my pillow even tighter trying to climb back into the carnival of talking animals and long lost friends, but the day's duties are breaking down the door. I lean against it with all my might trying not to let the allure of the percolating dark roast coffee in the other room seduce me into my rubber slippers. The fight is lost. I raise an eyebrow, peel back an eyelid and see a tangerine-colored palm tree outside my window. My mouth is cotton dry.