Out Of It

I am not an organized person but I am punctual. I have a built clock that doesn’t allow me to be late even if I try, no matter how scattered I am or late I have been up.

The clock on my stove is the only one set in my house. I’ve been using my cell phone as my alarm clock ever since I moved to Portland. Sometimes when the phone starts beeping in the middle of the night to tell me it needs recharged and I’m not thinking clearly enough to just plug it in, I will get up and set the timer on my stove.

I accidentally left my cell phone in my coworker’s car the other night. I decided to take advantage of the fact I couldn’t get in touch with anyone, and to have a nice night by myself. I made some really good pasta, read a book in its entirety, took a bath, and went to bed before ten. I found one of my crappy spare alarm clocks, and set it really early, so that I could get up and go running before work. I felt a little proud of myself for not just taking the easy the easy route, and using the timer on the stove.

I woke up the next morning before my alarm went off. I had a couple cups of coffee and went for a great run. As I was running, I noticed a couple of garage sales. I was amazed by how early people were setting up. As soon as I got back home and took a shower, I went out to check out the sales. I was delighted to find a puppet theater and dinosaur, pig, koala bear, rabbit, and turtle puppets for under ten dollars. I planned to take them into work and set up the theater on the round table of the children’s section in the library. On my way home from the sale, I ran into the guy who is working on K. and M.’s house while they are in France this summer. I asked if I could come in and see what he’d done so far, and we had kind of a nice visit.

I was really pleased with my morning, and told myself I should start every day with enough time to have little adventures before work. I went out to wait on my front steps for my coworker to pick me up. She’s normally as punctual as me, so I was surprised when she didn’t show up. I figured she must be sick and wasn’t able to get a hold of me because I didn’t have my phone. I decided to just take the MAX in. I stopped to get a cup of coffee and noticed that it was a full hour later than I thought it was.

I was shocked, decided to forgo the coffee and went running to the MAX stop. I borrowed a stranger’s cell phone to call my library. The staff was in a panic, but I didn’t get the full story until I arrived at work. Apparently my coworker who was going to pick me up came by while I was out one of my early morning excursions. The front door to my building was open, so she went into the building and banged on my door for a long time. When she got to work, she told my coworkers what had happened. They started to panic, thinking I’d been abducted. One of them had my cell phone, and began contacting people that they thought might know my whereabouts. They asked one of them to go over to my apartment and look for me. They were on the verge of calling the police and my supervisor by the time they received my call from the borrowed cell phone.

I felt really embarrassed, and just off all day. It’s not like me to loose track of time. I wonder what is happening to me.