Skip to main content

The Alarm

I get up really early to go to work, and it has occasionally led to some interesting stories with guests and run-ins with the police. Aside from that though, I actually like that getting up so early means I don't have to deal with traffic, and that I can make time to go to the gym. All in all, it's not a bad trade. However, it does mean that I have to plan accordingly. Specifically, it means that I have to try to go to bed earlier than most people.

Now, I have long claimed that it's actually pretty easy to get up early, but it's really freaking hard to make yourself go to bed early. The former is just a matter of a deadline. Whether you like it or not, you have to be at work at a specified time. And more than likely, you know exactly how long it takes you to get to work. Given that, it's just a matter of working backwards. Sure, some people use the snooze button liberally, but even so, when push comes to shove, they drag themselves out of bed. It's a matter of responsibility kicking in, really.

However, going to sleep early is more a matter of discipline. Unless you are absolutely exhausted, there's really nothing stopping you from staying up another half hour to watch a show, read a book, or even just browse the Internet. You know full well that you might feel a little more tired in the morning as a result, but other than that, there's not much difference in what time you go to bed. Not surprisingly, I find it a bit harder to make myself go to bed early enough that I get a good night's rest.

Knowing that, though, I use my cell phone to set an alarm for the night time, too. It's a pretty simple idea; if an alarm can wake me up in the morning, an alarm at night can serve as a reminder that I should get myself to bed. The night-time alarm is slightly more flexible since I'm sometimes in the middle of something I can't drop immediately when it goes off. Still, the basic idea is that once it goes off, I need to start getting ready for bed. All in all, it works pretty well.

The one major exception to that, however, is when I go out during the work week. If I forget to turn off the alarm, it will often go off in the middle of an outing. More often than not, I remember to turn it off before I head out. However, I did have it go off in the middle of a date once. She was pretty understanding about it, but she couldn't resist the opportunity to poke fun (the phrase "booty call" was thrown around).

Even worse, if I remember to turn off the alarm in the middle of dinner, my sense of propriety gets the better of me. I know that I have to pull out my phone from my pocket and fiddle with it, but I also think it's rude to arbitrarily start using my phone in the middle of a conversation. So, I have to explain why I need to pull out my phone, and then turn off the alarm. Remember, people tend to hang out with those of similar personalities, so that means my friends all have a hearty sense of humor and have no qualms about making fun of me. Explaining myself as I pull out my phone is like painting a bulls eye on my forehead. It almost never fails; I mention that I have to pull out my phone, and then there is quite a bit of laughter at my expense for the next few minutes.

Even with all of that, I suppose it's still worth it. I mean, it helps me get a decent night's sleep, and I don't get made fun of THAT often. Though I suppose I could just set another alarm to remind myself to turn off the "go to bed" alarm ...
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

New York City Trip (Day 3)

By the third day of the trip, I was tired enough from the previous day's adventures/subway rides that I felt like sleeping in. And sleep in I did. I think I woke up at something like 11:30 or noon. Of course, that meant that a later start to the day, which started the vicious cycle all over again. By the time we rolled into Manhattan, it was about two in the afternoon. I had tentatively set aside Sunday to see something on Broadway, so we headed over to the tkts booth for discount tickets. There were actually various 3PM options, and after mulling our options, we figured it'd be a good idea to catch one of those. We settled on The Toxic Avenger , which was actually an off-Broadway option. However, we hadn't eaten yet, and the show started about 15 minutes after we got our tickets. Enter the food carts. There happened to be one right outside the theater, and the guy charged a little bit of a premium for the convenience. Still, I was hungry, and I had yet to try...
1 comment
Read more

Sick Days 2

I've mentioned before that getting sick is a source of amusement for me, largely because of the kids and the reactions I get from people at work. Well, it looks like I underestimated just how much laughter illness can cause. Yup, the whole process of getting sick managed to generate some (mild) amusement. First of all, my brother got a pretty bad case of strep throat, so he had to miss some time at work. He is also around kids quite a bit, so it's not uncommon for one of those "vectors of infection" he works with to get him sick in some way, shape, or form. In this case, he managed to contract a case of strep throat. His supervisor, however, was far more concerned about the work schedule than the fact that he had a really high fever and could not keep himself out of bed. She said she was going to make him come in later that day (to which he roughly said, "you're not understanding. I cannot come in to work today."), and then she insisted on a doctor...
Post a Comment
Read more

Where Do I Go?

As the days of COVID-19 are dragging on, we are having to make more adjustments to our usual routines. Some of these changes are so mundane that I haven't mentioned them at all in this blog, while others have lead to some pretty funny anecdotes . That's probably par for the course, since you wouldn't expect a global pandemic to be all giggles. As it turns out, however, not all of the anecdotes happen to us directly. Having to socially distance and remotely do things has actually led to at least one goofy episode that we found out from afar. You see, it was our niece's birthday recently, but we couldn't visit her because of the aforementioned social distancing. So, we figured we'd ship her a present and call her on her birthday. We couldn't be there in person, but we could still wish her well and try to make her feel special on her birthday. Given that shipping times have been erratic the last few months, we ordered the present with plenty of time, and it arr...
Post a Comment
Read more