I got an unexpected extra hour of sleep the other night (and was therefore an hour late for work in the morning). No, it wasn't because I did the Daylight Savings Time switch a week and some odd days late and in the wrong direction. It was because I woke up with the alarm and, rather than hitting snooze my usual three or four times, I decided just to reset the thing and get another 25 minutes of uninterrupted sleep instead. Good plan, right? Sure, except in my groggy attempt to reset the alarm, I moved the time ahead instead, leaving the alarm thereafter deactivated until the next day.
I didn't realize I had done this, of course, until much later. All I knew when I woke up at 7:45 was that my alarm had not re-alarmed and I was, officially, late for work. Whoops.
It wasn't until I got home and crawled back into bed that night that I realized what I'd done. You may recall that my bedroom clock is always set at least 15-20 minutes fast for no better reason than that I am a creature of ridiculous habits, so when I looked at the clock that night, it didn't surprise me that it was a lot later than it had been on my computer's clock just a few minutes before. It seemed even later than normal, though, so I consulted a clock in another room and did the math. Instead of the usual 20-minute variance, it was now at least 45 minutes later in my bedroom than it was in the rest of the house. Morning mystery solved, I guess.
When I reset the clock, I made a bold decision. Enough of the one-house-with-two-time-zones madness, I thought. I am going to return to living how the normal people live! Or, at least return to having my bedroom clock say the official and current time. ("Normal" is a bold and relative word, after all, and rarely has much to do with clocks.)
I was a little nervous about making this switch. I am so used to barely consciously pressing Snooze until 6:48 that I was worried my half-asleep self would forget I now need to stop pressing that button by 6:30 or so instead. Luckily, I've actually adjusted pretty quickly. Sure, there was a day when I almost hit Snooze at 6:38, but thankfully, my brain woke up and said, "Wait! It really is 6:38! You need to get up, like, now!
I realize I am making an awfully big deal out of a pretty minor thing, but I guess that is sort of my point. This was a kind of big deal to me. I had wondered many times how long I was going to keep up the ridiculous clock game, whether I'd someday have to train a future husband to learn to live with this absurd routine, and yet, I resisted change because I figured it would be too hard.
Now that I know how easily I can step back from the edge of crazy, I am wondering what else I could change as well. How many other things am I unknowingly making hopelessly more complicated than they need to be? How much more difficult am I making my life, under the guise of some misguided attempt to coddle myself?
I'll have to think on this. I should be able to come up with something, I'm sure.
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4 comments:
I used to have *all* of my clocks set 15 minutes fast, so I could be on time. Even the one in my car. But then I had a realization just like yours - it's a ridiculous clock game.
I also realized that being late is often a sign of disrespect, even if it is subconscious.
I'm paranoid about being late so I have always set my alarm clock and the clock in my car about 10 minutes fast. What's so stupid about this is that most of the time I end up being quite early to things. Not just work, parties, etc. You'll never catch me making a fashionably-late entrance! I'm the dork who's twenty minutes early because I planned to be 10 minutes early but had the whole clock thing. Whatever...
Good for you that you aren't doing this anymore. Change is good and all that!
I used to have my car and bedroom clocks set anywhere from five to fifteen minutes ahead, but after moving into my new place, I got a new bedroom clock that sets the time automatically and gives me no say in the matter. I decided that it would be a good time to just make my car clock the correct time, as well.
And the earth didn't implode like I thought it would.
I used to do that, too! The setting forward of the bedroom clock in some ridiculous attempt to fool myself into thinking it was later. All it really did was force me to do more math in the morning than anyone should have to do. Congrats on your synchronization.
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