Waking Up to My Original Alarm Clock

Elizabeth Russell bought me an alarm clock in 1998. In 2000, it began to work. I'll never forget it, either, because it startled me in the middle of the night. I thought it didn't function when, at 2 a.m., it decided it would. I now use it to pace my sleep and to get me up and at 'em every morning. It is an odd, lil' alarm clock.

And it's funny, too. I've left it in various places I've visited and forgotten to turn it off. I love hearing stories from friends and family that say, "Holy, Crap! Bryan. That blue elmo-thing went off and I had no idea how to get it to shut up." I ask them, "Did you throw it against the wall?"

Yes, I wake up to a silly, screaming stuffed blue thing, and such spastic hollering makes me happy.