I’ve been awakened by hyper kittens attacking my eyelids (my fault, I suppose, but there’s nothing I can do about that pesky REM), by the mail carrier trying to beat down my door, by a loudly screeching donkey, and by a rooster breaking forth into crow while standing on my chest (it was summer and I was sleeping on a cot outside - damn chicken snuck up on me).
Then there’s my daughter’s alarm clock.
She got it from my sister, who got it in (I think) Dubai, and it’s a little plastic mosque which plays a recording of the call to prayer. At least I think it’s the call to prayer. It’s Arabic singing, anyway. And it’s loud. Oh, so very loud.
When you’re dozing on the couch, and you know you’re home alone, and suddenly you hear a man wailing inside the house, and the dog chooses that exact moment to go insane because she hears a stranger - it wakes you up. It wakes you up so thoroughly that you may never go to sleep again.
My daughter is diabolical and will set the thing to go off at random times when she’s not home, just to mess with us (my husband’s been startled by the thing, too).
So what’s your least favorite way to wake up?