What is it about getting up and going to work before the sun comes up? (Actually getting up and starting a road trip before the sun comes up is even better, but we will discuss that at a later date.) Since my current job (very part-time) is baking breakfast treats for a small hotel and since the weather has been unbearably hot this summer, the only time it makes sense to bake is before 10:00 a.m. Luckily the small hotel doesn't mind if I get into the kitchen in the pre-dawn hours.
There is something very stealthy and secretive about being awake and alone in those pre dawn hours. It feels like there is no accountability to anyone then, as if the day is still up for grabs, as if you could commit a small crime and no one would ever know because no one in the world is awake except for you. The air is heavier at 4:55 a.m. than it is even ten minutes later, quieter and not just full of possibilities but full of a false reality that belongs only to you. Being in the kitchen, measuring out flour and sugar, beating eggs, greasing pans, getting muffins in the oven before the sky lightens is a promise that the day can be yours, all yours.
No one interrupts with chatter, no one needs anything from you. The sky slowly lightens and once the darkness has trickled away it is clear the day is now to be shared. Someone else is awake, you no long need to stand sentry to the day.
Plus, it's nice to work 5 or 6 hours and get to go home before noon. And if I had to be a baker every day, getting up at 4:45 every morning, it would get tiresome quickly. But once a week, I'll take it.
