15 minutes at 5:30 a.m.

My alarm clocks: Quintin (red) and Jewel (black)
Photo by: Claudia Seydel

My little alarm clocks have done it again - that's right plural, but these bark and don't ring. Almost like clockwork, Quintin and Jewel, my two miniature dachshunds, wake me up every day, ready to go outside and have their breakfast. They are oblivious to time changes like daylight savings time, so in a few weeks when everyone else gets an extra hour of sleep, they will probably still get me up at what would then be 4:30 a.m. Usually once they've been outside and eaten we all get back into bed and cuddle. I make them sleep downstairs at night, but for napping and cuddling they're allowed in my bed.

Starting the 15 minutes of writing yesterday really did get my mind cranked up and ideas spinning - exactly as I had hoped it would. In fact it was hard not to give into the temptation to write even more later in the day, but I wanted to at least try to stick to the theme of 15 minutes a day on Day 1 - otherwise how credible would I be. Apparently as many as 37 people even viewed the blog (I love the stats feature on here), but left no comments. I can just imagine that my rant on requirements in a partner could bother people - my luck will be that I'll end up falling in love with someone who is completely different from anything I ever imagined. That might actually be nice.

To loosely quote my brother, all you really need is to find someone who will put up with you and accept you even when you fart! If you knew my brother, this actually would make sense - his farts are certainly something not everyone can put up with, especially given the fact that he loves to draw attention to them and hold conversations about them. But even he has found someone who will "put up with him" and they've been together for about 5 years. If it were only as simple as finding someone to accept me when I fart!

Last night I had the pleasure of attending a free live performance of the NC Symphony at the downtown amphitheater. It was a beautiful night with the performance accompanied by the sunset. I took along my little idea notebook and tried to jot some things down in a different setting. Eventually I hope to write about some of the ideas here.

It's about time to crawl back to bed for my "morning nap" with the puppies. Since I've been doing a bit more thinking in these 15 minutes than writing, I might just have to write another post later on today.

Good morning and sweet dreams!