IT'S A FIVE O'CLOCK WORLD...

            I’ve been getting up early the past few weeks because of work. I don’t want to. I enjoy waking up to daylight. It feels more natural than waking up in darkness. Let me explain “early:” my alarm goes off at 4am. Otis usually wakes me around 3:30. Your brain isn’t quite functioning, the synapses are flickering like shorted light bulbs, your eyes are twitching because they don’t want to be open yet, all your joints are creaking…

    And nothing is happening.

    Nothing. No traffic. No cars passing. No kids playing. No people walking their dog. Just dark silence. During the week, you can almost feel the anticipation as The Day prepared to pop and wind out, that silent drumroll before everything gets moving. Wake up at 4am on a Saturday to go to work and feel the difference.

    There’s nothing open by the time you get on the road. No Dunkin Donuts. No McDonald’s. No Quick Stop. Even a couple of the stores at the rest stop on 95 South are dead: Sbarro’s and Panda Express and Moe’s are shut down and dark, but who would want a burrito or chow mein at 4am anyhow? The Dunkin being closed surprised me. Where would you get your coffee? Granted, most of the gas stations are 24-hours now, at least the ones around here. The Forbes Station by my house sells Green Mountain, which is pretty damn good. I’ll make a cup once I get to work, otherwise the stuff they have at Pilot is OK, and in a crunch there’s always the Newman’s Own at Mickey’s.

    But what if you’re hungry? Food choices are extremely limited. The time between 3am and 5am is a limbo period for most 24-hour eateries. I have stopped at the mcDonald’s on Route 80 on several occasions on the way home from when I worked nights, only to find they had very little or no food for me to bring home for myself and my wife. “Whaddaya mean you’re out of burgers? How can you have no nuggets? YOU’RE NOT MAKING BREAKFAST YET?!?” A lot of places are like that. I’m supposed to be at work for 5am until further notice. Occasionally, I will stop at the Wendy’s inside the Pilot truck Stop for breakfast. Wendy’s has some awesome breakfast choices… if you get there after 5am. No breakfast or burgers until after 5am, so anything you get either has to be chicken or meat-free. Spicy Chicken Sandwich for breakfast. Yum.

    You can’t even stop by 7-11 and grab a buttered bagel. Before 5am, the guy is still making them. I’ve asked him to put a couple aside and been told he can’t do that, he has to finish them all before he can earmark them for sale. That’s one of the most ridiculous things I’ve heard. Through the Saran Wrap around the bagel and take my $1.15. Are you kidding?

    So, here we find ourselves at 4:35am inside the Pilot Truck Stop, Spicy Chicken Sandwich in one hand and trying to decide on a 20oz coffee refill or a 64oz soda refill, mentally debating whether or not to grab one of the overcooked quickly-hardening Bacon-egg-cheese croissants in the little heater cabinet by the hot dogs. You try and ignore the guy conked out in one of the booths inside the Wendy’s but his snoring is distracting. You try not to notice the State Trooper conked out in his car in the corner of the parking lot or the hookers grabbing a smoke outside the hotel next door. Traffic lights are still flashing in rhythm, no cars on the road and the only vehicles on the highway are construction vehicles and tractor-trailers. You can hear the highway from my backyard ay 4am, you know. Kinda weird and eerie.

        There’s not even anybody really broadcasting at 4am. Throw on the news and you get the weird, awkward Early Morning shows like America This Morning with the gawky preppy guy and the hot racktacular Latina making jokes about movies and trying to be serious while discussing whatever disaster has recently occurred. Howard Stern doesn’t even come on the radio until 6am, and that’s only three days a week these days. The terrestrial stations play the same dozen songs over and over until the regular DJ comes on between 5-6. Hell, even the Army doesn’t get up until 0530.

    Sometimes, the quiet is appreciable. No stress, to anxiety, no panic, nothing but the wind and the dark and you. If you’re well-rested and wake up on the right side of the bed, it can be a good thing. Solitude isn’t always bad. The good things about getting up early and going into the world before everyone else: you have the time to stop, stretch, take a deep breath, and appreciate the cool calm before the chaos sets in at 5am.