I'll probably add to this post throughout the day. I need an actual alarm clock. I woke up super late this morning because my phone-speaker was obscured in a pillow and if I had a busier schedule, that would have caused problems. First appointment with my new counselor tomorrow evening, I lucked out and found a guy who likes to start late, work late, so I don't have to take time off work. Hopefully he and I are able to have productive relationship, I've never had a bad experience with a therapist myself, but I know that others have. But this guy is a practicing Buddhist and leads his clinics mindfulness group, so we agree on some stuff.
My alarm clock is my iPod connected to speakers blasting One Week by the Barenaked Ladies. It's never a problem waking up because I immediately start singing it when I do. I have had friends that have slept over tell me it's weird, actually, lol.
I was so desperate to make a "happy place" when I lived in North Hollywood that I had the computer play ocean waves over a network stream 24-7. Then I had the Chumby listen to that network stream, and I had a "go to sleep" timer and a "wake the fuck up" timer such that it would ramp it out and ramp it in over 15 minutes. And the Chumby was plugged into a spare 5.1 receiver with subwoofer set to Prologic IIm such that my ocean waves were in surround sound cresting all around me. It helped block out the constantly-circling ghettocopter.
No that's awesome. I've used music as an alarm, but picking a song that's irresistible to sing along with is a great idea.