I love waking up slowly. Being pulled gently out of dreams is pretty kick-ass. There’s a ten minute haze state characterized by an awareness of daylight trying to bust through eyelids, plus the sensation that every movement requires much more energy than it should. At this point, ears are still asleep, no sounds. On days when there’s nothing to get up for, the haze state often sinks back into dreams, and, being late morning dreams, they are really fucked up. They run between 30 and 60 minutes. Haze state returns after dreams get too wicked and start interfering with breathing. Sounds start leaking in, voices from downstairs and the radio, probably npr or car talk on weekends. And ears yawning is sweet, because as soon as I know there are people talking downstairs, their voices get louder. And they’ve been talking at the same volume for a good half hour, but two minutes ago I didn’t hear anything.