Alarm Anxiety

I think one of the worst feelings is sleeping through an alarm. It's a terrible feeling; the sudden panic and anxiety that rapidly swell into a frantic scramble to get to work on time, and then attempt to recover from the normally routine morning thrown askew.

This morning my alarm went off at 5:45 am as I planned on attending a 6:30 am yoga class at the gym. I've been feeling a bit like I've been fighting off a cold since Saturday so I decided to sleep in and I would go to the gym after work. In my half-awake early morning haze I reset my alarm for 6:15 am (knowing I would most likely snooze until 7, but 6:15 makes me feel better about myself). I am sound asleep for what doesn't feel like much time and wake up suddenly and unexpectedly to look over at my alarm clock to see that it is 7:37 am, and thus ensues the "Holy Shit I Slept Through My Alarm" panic.

I scramble to get dressed, packed and ready for the day, realizing I don't have time to shower or stop at a pharmacy to buy some echinacea or whatever other interesting get well remedies I might come upon. I gather my belongings, get into the car and peel out of my garage, praying the traffic on Sunset won't be out of control. About 5 minutes into the drive I catch the time on the clock on my dashboard: 7:05 am.

I'm sorry, WHAT?

I double check on my phone, and yes according to Verizon Wireless and science, it is in fact 7:05 am and rather than running late for work I am going to be incredibly earlier. You'd expect this abrupt revelation to cease all panic, but it doesn't. I am unable to shake off the anxiety associated with sleeping through an alarm and therefore the entire rest of the morning is off kilter. I get a wheatgrass shot at Jamba Juice and spend a half hour at Long's Pharmacy buying tea, throat lozenges, and other various preventative cold medicines, all the while wondering why they cant just start selling anti-anxiety meds over the counter because what a beautiful world it would be then.

I get to work at 8 am on the nose, still somewhat at ease, but at least I am extra early. The mystery of the alarm clock? All signs point to my mistake--in my semi-comatose state of the initial alarm wake-up at 5:45 am, I didn't reset the alarm, I reset the actual clock, thus ruining my morning.

The Mondays have it out for me.