Just a Silly Story

Once upon a time, about seven years ago, I overslept my alarm for work. I woke up about 20 minutes late but did make it to work on time. Since then I set two backup alarms, just in case. I now have an alarm for 4:10am, 4:15am and 4:30am, all on my phone. The last is just to be on the safe side and neither the 4:15 nor the 4:30 alarms have ever gone off because I wake to the 4:10 alarm. Well, two nights ago I went to bed as usual with all three alarms set and this happened.

I woke in the morning from a dream or whatever and rolled over to look at the time on my phone. It was 4:25! Holy shit! I slept through the first two alarms! I tossed a cat off of me, threw back the blankets and jumped out of bed. Grabbed work clothing and got dressed then quickly went through my bathroom routine because my son, who works with me, would be getting up somewhere between 4:30 and 4:45 and would need the bathroom himself.

I finished up and went to the kitchen to feed the cats, who were all standing and waiting patiently for their breakfast. I was feeling all sorts of rushed and I hate that feeling. Like I'm forgetting something but knowing I'm not at the same time. So the entire time I'm dishing up fur baby vittles I'm wondering why I didn't wake to the first two alarms. I know our power was out for a little while late in the night because the power company was trying to repair a line on the next block. I figured it might have something to do with the wi-fi. Didn't really make sense but it was 4:40 in the morning.

I fed the cats and retreated to the living room to sit and wait for my son to come upstairs. In the meantime I was looking at my phone and realized I hadn't gotten the notification that my car started at 4:40 like it was supposed to, and it was 4:42 at the time. My Ford app is set to start my car at 4:40 every weekday, just in case you were wondering. But what the heck was going on that my phone wasn't doing what it was programmed to do? I was getting very frustrated.

Because the car didn't start I used the app to remote start it. Then I hit the Extend button so it would continue running for an additional 10 minutes above the pre-set 10 minutes. I felt a little better because all I had to do was wait for time to leave. But I noticed something different. When I hit Extend on the car app it adjusted and said "Vehicle will remain running until 4:02." WHAT?! It needed to stay running until 5:02. It was an hour off. What the fuck was going on? My brain was scrambling to figure out this early-morning mystery. I was so confused. Until...

I looked at the phone screen again. The time was 4:43. No, it was 3:43. It was 3:43am. Why was it saying 3:43? And suddenly my damn brain clicked and buzzed and registered what was happening. When I originally woke up and looked at my phone to check the time it said 3:25 but I only registered the :25. The 3: part literally bypassed my thought process. I was up 45 minutes before I was supposed to be up and then I got pissed. At me. Because who else would be to blame? Nobody. Just my overly sleep-addled brain stressing me into thinking I was late when I could have slept for another 45 minutes. UGH!!

I tried lying on the sofa and going back to sleep for a little bit but it didn't work. I was already awake and moving and ready for the day to begin. Good grief! It kind of sucks that I was up so early but I can actually laugh about it at this point. I'm sure others have done this sort of thing and if I can help it, I'll never do it again. Even if I have to recite the time to myself half a dozen times before it completely registers. But it is what it is and I made it through the day. Life goes on, right? 😊

Until next time...peace to all.

 

PSA: Help Us Help You

One of the jobs I work requires me to look up people by name, birthday, phone number, etc. It's not a difficult thing to do unless the customer makes it difficult. Which happens more often than one would imagine.

A customer comes to me for service and I immediately look to retrieve their information by asking for a name. First and last and I only use the first three letters of each. So when you arrive and I ask who you're picking up for, "Me" is not going to help me help you. I know you've been to see me before, probably numerous times, so you know the routine. Give me your first and last name, or the name of the person whose product you're getting. "Mary" won't cut it. You're not the only Mary in the world.

But here is where more difficulty appears. I'll ask for a name and get "Caleb Smith" as an answer. Great. I type in the first three letters of each. CAL, SMI. Nobody appears. I ask for a birthday. I get 06,09,2003. Excellent. Oops. Something's wrong. No account appears. I try asking again to confirm the information. Caleb Smith? "Yes." June 9, 2003? "Yes." Nothing comes up. When I explain this to the customer they insist that the information is correct and that they have an order waiting.

Okay, let's try again. Confirm the birthday again. June 6, 2003. "Yes." Spell Smith. I get an eyeroll and a sigh. S-M-I-T-H. Okay, just checking. Spell Caleb. Even bigger eyeroll and sigh. K-H-A-L... WAIT! WHAT? You spell Caleb KHALEB and you're getting annoyed with me for not knowing that? Are you serious? Most everyone else spells Caleb the conventional way. You decided to spell it some unconventional way and expect everyone to know that in advance?

I can't tell you how many people come to me and then get annoyed that I can't spell Annita, or Maygahn, or Kiyleigh or Mikel without assistance. Do us a favor. If the name you're giving me isn't spelled the conventional way, SPELL IT FOR ME so we don't waste each other's time. There is a line building up behind you and the faster I get your information, the faster I can get you through the line and move on to the next customer.

And while we're here, let me just mention to all of you younger people that we older people do, in fact, now that months correlate with numbers. January is one (1), February is (2) and so on down the line. You are allowed to say that your birthday is June 6, 2003 without having to say zero six, zero nine, two zero zero three. I actually had a mid-20s kid begin his birthday with November, then stopped and said 11... So I did point out, politely but firmly, that I do know that months have numbers. His response, "Oh, I wasn't sure." And he was dead serious.

So in the best interest of all of us involved, please spell your name if it has an odd spelling, and say your birthday as if you believe I have a decent level of intelligence. It'll move the process along faster so you can get your order and get back to the phone call that you just couldn't ignore while trying to interact with me.

Until next time...peace to all.