November 4th, 2007: What Time is it Right Now?

My boyfriend and I discussed the time change before we went to bed last night. We did the responsible thing and changed the clocks; everything should have been okay, right? It's never quite that easy.

I woke up this morning and looked at his alarm clock and it said 10:29 a.m. I panicked! He was going to be late for work. I looked at my cell phone and it said 9:29 a.m. Okay, that was a little better. Then I stumbled out in the living room and the cable box was reading 8:29 a.m. Oh man, I was getting a headache. Bear in mind that I'd been awake all of 2 minutes at this point. Yes, the logical part of my brain knows the cable box was correct because it's set digitally, but I had to be sure. I booted up the computer and it said 8:30. Okay, that was better. I was reassured. Although, I confess that I still Googled the correct time to be REALLY sure.

Obviously in his haste to set the clock right, my boyfriend had set the clock ahead instead of backwards. He'd forgotten the universal rule: spring ahead, fall back. I'm still not quite sure how it ended up TWO hours ahead, but that's what happens when you set the alarm clock when you're already half asleep. And, I still have no idea why the cell phone time wasn't set correctly.

The funny part is that something like this happens to me every time Daylight Savings Time kicks in. No matter how diligently I try to prepare, somehow or another I always wake up rambling around the house trying to figure out what time it is. In my younger days working retail, before I had so many digitally set timepieces, it was almost always a given that I'd end up getting to work on the Sunday of the time change either an hour early or an hour late.

Next year I think I'm going to borrow a trick from people with memory problems. I'm going to write myself a simple note that says, "You're not fully awake and you're disoriented. Quit running around like an idiot and just check the television for the correct time!" Of course, knowing me, I'll probably still have to double check that at least twice before I believe it. Or, maybe I should just accept the fact that people like me are forever doomed to wake up in a state of confusion the day of the time change.