Today an unprecedented thing happened. Today I awoke and my clock informed me that I had slept waaaaay past the intended beginning of The Waking Process* (note to those who know me: shut. up. This is not the unprecedented part yet), leaving me a mere thirty minutes to get ready to go. I leapt from my bed, filled with thoughts of a Hostess breakfast in my future, and showered quick like a bunny. After departing from the bath, I realized something important: in my fumbling attempts to turn off my alarm this morning, I had set my clock an hour ahead. And due to my misguided rushing, I was early! I was showered and all, and I had over an hour to complete my toilette! (Yes, this is the unprecedented part.)
So this turned out to be a good thing, but since then, life has been a bit surreal. My timeline has been displaced. I spent the remainder of my newly expanded getting-ready time developing paranoid fears that, no, I was right the first time, I AM late, assuaging those fears, and then starting anew. I somehow managed to leave for work early, yet get here late, with people waiting at the door to pick pick pick at me with their needing things. Since I arrived, I have learned of three separate incidents where some work project I am involved in has turned out to be messed up or unpleasantly surprising, due to confusions of timing. I keep being wrong about when it is, by great hunks of time (it's winter? what?) My universe is off-kilter, all due to the brief temporal misconception I suffered this morning. I believe I have slipped into a topsy-turvy alternate reality. The flow of time is no longer regulated properly. I am not certain of my ability to tune in at 8pm Eastern time for Buffy this evening. Help!
Do others find that their grasp on time is as slippery as mine? Can you be so easily thrown off course? Do you know of any rituals to help return you to mainstream space-time?
*The Waking Process is an organic and ever-changing experience, not to be comprehended by mortals. It involves heady optimism, rolling over, lying to loved ones, many resettings of the alarm clock, staunch denial, and lots of tea.
Posted by hilatron at December 10, 2002 02:47 PMThere is nothing that screws me up more than waking up at the wrong time - that sets me off for days. I've found that even if I get up early, I over-estimate the time I have available and end up coming in late to work anyway.
And setting the clock a few minutes ahead on purpose so you panick and wake up? Doesn't work longer than a few weeks, because my brain, at least, has learned to do split-second time calculations while I'm still asleep and I ignore what the clock says and continue snoring.
Posted by: Belle at December 12, 2002 08:40 AMHow about during the winter, when the sun isn't fully out until 6 or 7... and then you inadvertently take a nap and wake up at 6:30 pm, but you think it's 6:30 a.m. and you end up groggily wondering what the hell happened to your entire evening?
Posted by: sourbob at December 13, 2002 03:43 AM