A Fairy Tale

I live in a fairy tale. Every night a magical transformation occurs: I go to bed a human woman and wake up every morning as a grumpy Mama Bear! And to make matters even more amazing, this particular bear was awakened from hibernation far too early. Hence the adjective "grumpy."

Now Mama Bear, as you all know, is not a morning person. Particularly when she's had her much-needed hibernation interrupted. Under these circumstances, Mama Bear can be kind of dangerous. The cubs are usually safe, thanks to that maternal instinct Mama Bears possess, plus they are usually smart enough to stay out of her way until she's had her coffee. But Daddy Bear is not always that smart. Especially because Daddy Bear is one of those irritating morning people who actually like to get up early. And he shares his delight in the morning by being as noisy and cheerful and generally irritating as possible.

And rather than following the cubs' example and leaving Mama Bear alone until she was fully awake, yesterday Daddy Bear decided he'd try to work a little magic himself and turn Mama Bear into a morning person too. He put forth all his best efforts - singing (loudly), whistling, chatting, laughing - in short, being as obnoxiously bright and cheerful as possible. Unfortunately for him, Mama Bear's hide is far too thick for magic spells of that kind to work on her. He got nothing but growls for all his trouble, and he was so persistent that finally her claws came out and Swipe! Poor Daddy Bear got thrown out of the bathroom so Mama Bear could shower in grumpy peace.

Daddy Bear didn't realize that the only thing that works on Mama Bear is swallowing the magic potion: coffee. Lots and lots of coffee. Then, very slowly, the spell begins to reverse, and Mama Bear becomes a human woman again.

Until tomorrow morning...