Watch the Time

It's important for me to be on time. I actually get tense when I'm late for an appointment, no matter how minor it may be. If I'm going to meet a friend for breakfast at 9:31, I apologize if I get there at 9:32. But now my friend is playing with my time-addiction so he is getting there at 9:28 which makes me apologize if I don't get there until 9:29. It's crazy - and it's gotten even crazier since I got my solar atomic watch. Now I know the exact time - early or late.

When I travel and the flight attendant says "We've now landed in Denver where the local time is approximately 8:45 am". I immediately look at my watch and have to hold my lips together to not shout "It is exactly 8:44 am." Sometimes I can't help myself and am forced to point to my watch and whisper to anyone who is next to me, "It's actually 8:44". For some reason, they don't seem impressed or happy to get the accurate information. Am I the only one who cares about the exact time?

Not only do I love the atomic part of my watch, but I'm thrilled that I never need to change batteries. Regular light keeps the watch running. If, by some unnatural occurrence my watch doesn't get light for a long period, I just put it on and as soon as the light hits it, the correct time is displayed.

As one who believes that you can't have too much of a good thing, I recently found a solar atomic watch - with a compass! I have a horrible sense of direction so I thought, what a perfect addition to my wrist. I started playing around with the buttons on the watch and without knowing how I did it, I set the watch alarm to go off at midnight each night. The instruction book that goes with the watch is an inch thick and is not written in my language. "Press and hold A while pressing C twice and then tap D to set your alarm". First, I can never remember the order of the buttons. I know there are 4 but they are not labeled A, B, C, and D and I am left handed, which somehow also comes into play. I could not figure out how to turn off the alarm.

I finally decided to bury my new watch under a pile of papers in my office so that it wouldn't get any light. To this day, at midnight I hear the beep-beep-beep of the alarm. I now can't seem to find the watch. When it starts to beep at midnight, I race to my office and start tearing through papers but it soon quits. The compass part has been no help; wouldn't you think it would shine a beam of light to the north or something? I'm tempted to try to set the other watch for 11:59 so I can get to my office a little earlier, but I couldn't figure out how to set the alarm by reading the directions.

So, I'm back using my original solar atomic watch, sadly with no compass, and I keep tape over the buttons. One midnight alarm is all I can handle.