Rainy, muggy Miami. But at least I'm here.

.Here is the first in an occasional series of travel tips.

We'll start with something obvious. Obvious but oh-so-important.

When catching a flight any time before 9, when your alarm must be set for some dark hour like 5 or 6, test your alarm clock. Then test it again. Is the volume on loud? Is your AM/PM set correctly? Is the station set to something grating, like an Oldies or a Top 40 channel? Is it situated close enough to your head to scare the wits out of you but -- and this is important -- not close enough that you can mindlessly slap your hand at it and hit snooze without really waking up? OK. Good.

That is a start. Next, I recommend repeating out loud the time you want to wake up over and over a few times. Six a.m. Six a.m. You might feel insane, but trust me. You may sleep a bit lighter, but that's what you're going for, really. Because in the rare case that you do not in fact follow the above checklist for making sure your alarm is good to go, you can fall back on nature. Your internal clock. And that baby can be quite intuitive. I mean, sometimes it wakes you up at 6:50, when really you wanted to get up at 6:10. But it's trying. Internally, it new that you were going to jet at 7 a.m., and it knew that giving you 10 minutes was just enough to allow you to gather your things, throw on your clothes and get out the door, smelly and hungry and unsightly after going sans shower or breakfast or make-up application.

Method two can work. But method one -- rigorous alarm-clock testing -- is really, I'd say, the way to go.

Now I have to take a nap. And then a shower.

Comments

[saucygrrl]

OMG! So. Funny.

Seriously.