I will dress your eyelids/ with dimes upon your eyes

When waking up in at 4 in the morning 4 days a week, two things need to happen: you need to make get getting ready the path of only slightly more resistance than sleeping and you need motivation. The former I have covered by laying out my clothes (in two piles on my floor; one for rowing clothes, one for school clothes). I sometimes make myself a nice PB + J sandwich but often, I'd rather just go to bed the night before, so I dont.

With all those things covered, now is time to deal with motivation, which is key. Lack of motivation is why it takes me forever to get out of bed every morning. No matter what I have to do that day, keeping my poor, sad, sleep-deprived body in bed for just 5 minutes longer sounds so much better. Even if my parents aren't going to like it.

Today I had no problem. For the first time all week, I was psyched. I was ready. I was actually out of bed by 4:20. I had the best motivation: going back to bed.

You see, when I woke up, I knew three things: 1)We don't row in the rain 2) the weather network called for rain and 3) I could hear rain on my window. I was imagining myself coming home, crawling back into bed and sleeping for a couple more hours before heading off to my Insight Theatre show. I rushed in a more controled way through my morning routine and jumed into the car with my ride. I forgot my breakfast -- oh well, I was coming home! I didnt have tea -- no caffeine if I want more sleep!

When we arrived at the club, Craig, our coach, was already there. We all gathered around him and asked if we were rowing. He replied with ``Of course we`re rowing``.

Unfortunately, nothing would dissuade him. Not the head of the ORC saying (water`s too bad), not the other teams going in, not the novice boat breaking off a rudder, oh no. The senior women still went out and it was the scariest row of my life. The waves were pretty big -- even bigger for being in a boat six inches above the water. Especially toward the end, it seemed like we were on a roller coaster. The girls kept squealing and laughing and once we wre back on the dock, we all agreed it was the most fun ever. And that we`d never do it again. No one else went out on the water that day.