A couple of months ago, I started noticing a strange phenomenon. Around 10 am every morning I would hear this loud screeching noise. Although I have never lived on a farm, the sound was absolutely unmistakable to me and I was sure I'd figured out it's origins....someone on our block must own a rooster. A late rising rooster that crowed every morning at 10am. Never mind that we live right in the middle of a bustling city, I was positive that some eccentric neighbor who missed their former rural lifestyle must be harboring a rooster pet. I started to enjoy listening for the crow every morning as I sat working in my studio - I could set my clock by it, it was so precise.

After several weeks, I finally mentioned my discovery to Jesse and he looked at me with absolute disbelief. The next Monday he had off work (sometimes he has to work a Saturday and will get the following Monday off), I was determined to prove our feathered neighbor to him. Leading up to 9:59, I turned our itunes off and quieted all conversation in preparation. I made sure Jesse was paying absolute rapt attention. Nothing would make me happier than to see the look on his face when he'd have to drop all of his cynical posturing and admit I was right. And sure enough, at 10am on the dot, my punctual barnyard expatriate woke up and let out his howling morning call....and Jesse burst out laughing.

My feathered alarm clock was nothing more than the sound of a vendor raising the metal security gate on his storefront.....every morning, right at 10am when the bazillion fabric shops on our street open up. How could I have been so confused? I mean, sure, I've never heard an actual live rooster crow in front of me, only in movies. Movies where sound effects are made by brilliant folio artists. But, still.....??? Even now that I know the true origins of my cheery 10am crow, sometimes when it startles me from my work I still prefer to believe that it's coming from a late-rising rooster owned by an eccentric former farmer who lives on our block. And there's nothing wrong with that, right?