I am not what you would call a natural "morning person", though lately I have taken steps to get up earlier than the rest of my household and the quiet time is hugely productive. I would recommend it to anyone that doesn't have a favourite tv show that starts after 10 pm. Getting up early though isn't really the subject I had in mind for today. I was just thinking about that sinking feeling you get when you wake up late.
Why is it that the ever elusive most absolute best sleep happens on a day that you simply cannot be late? Most of the time if I have to be up at a specific time, I will wake up throughout the night and seem to get the best hour of sleep right before the alarm is set to go off. It's almost like I worry throughout the night that I won't hear that alarm, and then with an hour or less to go the worry disappears because its so close to wake up time I can easily just drift off and coast into the finish line. That sometimes works...if your alarm isn't set to PM instead of AM, or if your phone dies because you didn't plug it in.
The panic feeling of waking up, or getting woken up by a phone call from someone asking you where you are...it's got to be comparative to a roller coaster thrill (I can't accurately tell you as I don't strap myself into open air trains of g force...but I hear it's a real thrill). If someone could somehow bottle that feeling and sell it they would make a fortune. It would be funny to actually capture it all on video. The facial expression as the confusion sets in as it turns to surprise, panic, anger all at the same time. I bet that people who wouldn't normally curse could be heard drifting a few expletives. I think it would make for a great reality show.
I could have been a star if that was the case. I woke up with less than enough time to get to the airport on two separate occasions that I remember. It was much more of a game of chance in those days when google maps couldn't tell you specifically the fastest route to get there and what time you would arrive. In one place that I wasn't exactly familiar with, I had to get to the airport in my rental car. I hadn't paid much attention to the route to where I was staying and didn't explore the area while I was there, so I pretty much had a general direction to point the car towards. Somehow, and I am still not sure to this day...but I must have made every correct turn along the way. The relief that you feel when you actually get there late and yet on time.
The same can't be said when you get there late and are indeed too late. I had to open a building once where I worked. It was my first week there and the manager needed me to open. I was literally still figuring out the best route to take to get there from my house when this responsibility got passed on to me. I took the tour of the building the day before, wrote down all the steps to opening; turn that light on first, then open this room, etc. I remember the feeling waking up and it dawning on me that I was late. No kids in the house at that time so they wouldn't have heard the panicked obligatory curse that escaped my lips. People were waiting outside waiting to get in when I got there. Talk about embarrassing. I apologized profusely and figured it was just me and the embarrassment left to deal with. I hadn't counted on the fact that someone would have left in disgust and called my boss to let him know before I had the chance to. When you deserve it, you just gotta accept it and eat crow.
I haven't had one of those episodes in quite awhile. I'm not sure if it's because I wake up more through the night, or if maturity is starting to grace me these days. Now I generally double check the alarm when I need it; however, I'm also pretty lucky to have someone who knows me fairly well to elbow me in the ribs if she feels I may hit the snooze button. Interestingly, I never wake up late for golf or hockey. Strange.
Maybe someone will actually create that reality show and we can all get that thrill from afar. If they don't I guess I will just have to reminisce about those times or maybe get my adrenaline rush from something crazy like skydiving or simply wait till my number gets called again. Until then, I better get this online...I wouldn't want to be late.