The Life and Times of an Alarm Clock
My little battery-operated, digital alarm clock is simultaneously one of my most prized and one of my most loathed possessions. I prize it because it is pretty much the only thing in the world that makes it possible for me to be a good student, by making it to my 10:00 class, and to get enough chapel credits, by making it to 9:00 chapels. I also love it because it has a 4-minute snooze that I can push as many times as I want to, and also because it keeps getting progressively louder until I turn it off or ignore it for what seems like forever.
However, the mere suggestion of that beeping sound from my clock is enough to send shivers down my spine. If I hear a similar sound in a different context, I wince. Each morning I am startled awake by my insistent and importunate timekeeper. I beg the minutes to slow down so I can miraculously have another hour of sleep.
I sleep on the top of a bunk bed, and I keep my alarm clock on my desk across the room. Every morning when it goes off, I jump down and slap the snooze button as quickly as possible, even if I had promised myself not to do so the night before. Sometimes I am still in a coma-like state. This morning I barely remember getting up for the first time. I take the clock back to bed with me so I can push snooze from the comfort of my own pillow.
My poor clock has gotten some harsh treatment. Twice this week I have dropped it down the side of the bed and the batteries have come out. It is a little dinged up in places, and the built-in nightlight no longer works. But it is still dependable for the most part. There is a rare morning here and there when it mysteriously never goes off. But I am never quite sure if that is the clock’s fault, or if I was just unconscious when I turned it off instead of pressing snooze.
Thankfully, I have a backup alarm clock in case I oversleep - my lovely roommate Sarah. She takes it upon herself to make sure that I am awake, because she knows how undependable I am in the morning. This morning I pressed snooze only once - I thought! - after setting my alarm for 7:40 the night before. Suddenly, it was 8:20, and Sarah was waking me up. I was so confused!
What stories could your alarm clock tell about you?
Filed under: My Life on September 13th, 2007
Haha, you described it perfectly! I am surprised at how long my darling atomic alarm has lasted…gotten dropped, and moved to college which was a big adjustment for both of us :)…we have experienced our lives together since I was sixteen or seventeen.
I too dislike my mornings. I continuously semi sleep through my alarm and do what I did this morning - get out of bed at 9:30 having to be somewhere by 10 and cope with a mad panic and miss breakfast.
sorry the above was me…
Oh Anna, this post made me so nostalgic for Keithley!! I remember somewhat unconsciously watching your feet hop from bed to dresser in the mornings to hit your alarm, and then scramble up into bed again…It’s kind of an “Anna thing” haha…
My downfall is my little travel alarm (the only one I have), which comes to bed with me once I hit the first snooze. It’s a nasty habit–I hit the snooze button the second I hear a sound coming from the little gremlin, and sometimes I hit the “off” button by mistake when it’s tucked under the covers with me. Dangerous, really.
