one whole year of getting up at the crack of dawn

I started a project last year and I still have no idea what made me want to attempt such a feat. Probably….no. I have no clue.

However, the fact that it is now over?

Another check off the list of Things That Will Happen Before the Sprout Comes.

And this one was a biggie because this one required daily monumental effort.

What did I do?

For the past 365 days I have risen before the sun in order to take a picture of the sunrise. I posted them all here, on photo bucket, if you’d like to take a look-see.

Day one of my project. February 1, 2011

It was freezing and snowy and completely opposite of today, the final sunrise:

Before I began this asinine idea, someone probably should have told me that the sun begins to rise around 4:30 in the morning during the summer in Colorado. This never happened in Georgia. Ever. 4:30 in the morning? For serious?!

Or they failed to mention that I’d have to plan my entire life – including early morning workouts – around the sunrise…as in bring my camera with me to the gym and stop in the middle of a spin class to capture this:

I also had to lug my camera to the start of a 10k race because I couldn’t miss the sun coming up before we had to skedaddle down the course.

And I never took just one picture…noooo…every single day has – at minimum – three pictures of the sunrise so I’d be able to pick which one I wanted to use. Funny, though, about 90% of the time, this is what the sunrise looks like:

I swear I never used a previous day for one I skipped. We just have a lot of cloudless, clear mornings, I guess…)

Once I started to understand which morning would net the “typical” sunrise versus the “pretty” sunrise, I’d either be really happy – because the “typical” sunrise is easy and quick – or really grumpy – because the “pretty” sunrises require me to watch the sky and grab a shot at the peak of the colors.

Like this one:

Or this one:

Or this one:

But…because I started the project…that meant I had to finish. I couldn’t just half ass my way through it. This created much anxiety on my part all, “What if I sleep through the alarm? What if I forget to set the alarm? What if I MISS THE SUNRISE?!”

Missing one meant starting all. over. again. and there was no way in hell I was doing that.

Somehow I managed to wake up every morning and take a picture.

And now…it’s over.

Except, the other day I got this crazy ass idea to want to take a picture of the sunrise every year on the sprout’s birthday.

But…you do realize what that means, right?

I now have to continue to get up and take a picture each morning because NO ONE KNOWS WHEN HE’S COMING.

Still, wouldn’t it be awesome to have the sunrise on your birthday every single year? Who has that?!

Exactly.

The things I already do for you, baby sprout…the things I do…