Yesterday morning, I left the apartment in a hurry. I admit that as a fan of a certain amount of structure (but not nearly the same amount of structure as other people I know, which was actually a subject of recent discussion), I have my morning scheduled out to practically the minute.
My alarm sounds at 5:20. I allow myself to sleep in an extra few minutes. Usually until 5:24. Then I stagger out of bed. I shower. And then I do all of my chiropractic exercises. (These are what have helped to defeat a goodly number of the daily headaches I faced for years.) After I've finished, I eat my breakfast. By now, it's roughly 6:25. Then I fix my hair, brush my teeth, and apply my make-up. I usually walk by our fridge at 6:58, snag my lunch, and leave the apartment one minute later.
My routine did not go so smoothly yesterday, because when I walked out to the kitchen to grab a Ziploc bag to pack my toothbrush in for my weekly night's stay at my parents' house (I teach piano lessons at my parents' house in Centerville on Thursday nights), I found my theretofore clean foot decidedly wet. Part of our kitchen had flooded. And since part of our kitchen had flooded, it was my honorbound duty as first roommate awake to check to see if anything else had flooded.
Part of our living room had flooded, too. Oh joy of joys. So I told my roommate, who began to take pictures of the kitchen while I fetched towels and while our other roommate probed the carpet underneath our living room to affirm that it had flooded.
Meanwhile, I was mourning the loss of any cleanliness my foot had post-shower (that kitchen puddle-water was dirty!), and I ran late. So late that I forgot an essential accessory that I am rarely without: my watch.
I felt more than a little guilty leaving my roommates to deal with the flooding situation, but since neither of them may have noticed at all until too late . . . I justified it. Hopefully our landlord acts quickly on this, because we do not favor living in a wet and mildewy smelling place. (I know--weird, huh?)
And my first reaction, as I caught Trax, to my watchlessness was that I would have a crazy day. I couldn't schedule. I couldn't time. While I was waiting for the bus, I couldn't impatiently glance at my wrist every two minutes past its arrival time. And this made me nervous. I like my watch.
I like knowing the time. If I know the time, I feel like I'm in complete control. Even if I'm wasting that time. But yesterday, I experienced a curious sensation: I relaxed a little bit. Sure, work still had more than a tinge of the dull about it. The bus, more likely than not, probably arrived three to five minutes later than scheduled.
But my watch wasn't ruling my life. It felt nice. No worries about punctuality, about spending a certain amount of time anywhere (which is probably why one of the piano lessons ran over by fifteen minutes, but it was the last lesson so it didn't matter), or about rushing to any destination.
Last night, I vowed to stop wearing a watch. Something I will be able to do for at least two days, since I don't keep a spare watch at my parents' house. But karma saw fit to remind me of the dark side to not wearing a watch.
I ran late. Because my concept of time was so flexible this morning, I figured I had all of the time in the world. Which is what led me to running frantically around the living room, searching for my keys, bashing my knee into the piano bench, opening the refrigerator door into my shin, and knocking my elbow against the door on my way out of the house.
It was what led to me running down the street, frantically praying that the bus actually was running late this morning, so I wouldn't have missed it. And that is why I've decided to give up my watchless vow.
But on the bright side, my hair looks particularly good today since I didn't fret about spending only ten minutes on it . . .
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
Do you not carry a cell phone?
Oh, I carry a cell phone. But I rarely look at it. In fact, I really only pay attention to it when it's buzzing or ringing. Or bleeping because it's almost dead . . .
5:20? Ewww, yuck... Yeah, my idea of an early morning is about 7.
Flooding? *chuckle* What do you mean you don't want a wet floor? What's wrong with you?
And yeah, I'm with you on the watch thing... I feel rather naked without a watch.
Watches are funny things. I got a new one recently. My old one had a dieing battery and its adjuster knob broke off, so by the time I finally replaced it, it was 2 days, 1 hour, and 14 minutes slow (2 days because it went on a 31-day cycle, and February was 29 days; 1 hour because daylight savings time hit; 14 minutes because the batter was losing time at a rate of about a minute per day).
Having a watch that works is very nice.
Oh, and, yeah: mildew smell has never really done very much for me; I'm more of a black mold kind of guy.
Hehe, I was going to ask the same thing as Bawb.
Maybe this is a sign you should start looking at your cell more (I say as a person who cannot go more than thirty seconds without sending a text, answering a text, or checking my gMail on my phone.)
I personally think the timeless existance is the most enjoyable. Maybe you should get rid of both your watch and your cell phone.
Post a Comment