I can't make this shit up.

So on Monday night, Rob said to me that we might drive together to work.

A little back story on this.  Rob and I work in the same business park about a half an hour away.  Recently, my office switched hours from 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM with an hour lunch break to 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM with a half an hour lunch break.  It was something we all agreed on as employees to get an extra half an hour of our non work lives back.  This has been going on for about a month now I think and I love it because I get to sleep an extra half hour in the mornings.  So before the hours changed, Rob and I would frequently carpool.  However, since he usually wakes up with the sun and I tend to sleep in, we haven’t been carpooling a lot.

So on Monday night, when Rob said that, he also added that he might not even set his alarm, in hopes that he could sleep in with me.  With that in mind, I set my alarm an extra half an hour early just in case.  He was sleeping when I went to bed so I didn’t clear it with him, just did it.  How I usually work my alarm is to set it for a half an hour before I need to wake up and then snooze it until I can’t milk it any longer.

Tuesday morning rolled around and Rob was once again, up with the sun.  My alarm went off twice and I snoozed it both times before Rob came in and said he changed his mind, he was going to head in to work and we would take separate cars.  In my sleepy haze I had forgotten about setting the alarm a half an hour earlier and thought it odd that he couldn’t just wait another ten minutes for me to get in the shower and get dressed but didn’t question it.  I kissed him goodbye and fell into a light doze until my alarm went off again.

When it did, I grabbed my phone and checked my email for a few minutes.  This is my normal morning routine.  Snooze, sleep.  Snooze, sleep.  Snooze, play on phone until alarm goes off again and then get up and shower.

I did this as I normally do.  Got in the shower, got dressed and headed out the door to work.

I noted that the traffic was a bit different that morning, but didn’t think much about it.  Got into the work parking lot, and tried to open the front door but it was locked.

My supervisor Julie came running up looking at me like I had three heads and unlocked the door.  She said: “Yeah, I don’t normally unlock it until 20 minutes to 9.  I looked back at her like she had five heads and said: “Am I early?”  In my head I only had five minutes to clock in.  She said that I was indeed quite early and pointed to the clock on the wall behind my head that read 8:25 AM.

My mind did a quick spin around and I recapped the events of the morning.  I got up and played on my phone -that CLEARLY displayed the time.  I got in the shower, where we have a CD player that has a clock.  I checked that clock several times to see if I had time to shave my legs and NEVER NOTICED I was a half an hour earlier than I should be.  We have a talking clock that goes off every hour in the kitchen that we never reset after the time change.  While I was getting dressed, I heard it go off saying: “It’s nine o’clock AM” and I laughed to myself, saying out loud: “No it’s not you liar, it’s only eight.”

SO MANY instances that I should have noticed that the time was off, and  yet I didn’t notice a single one.

As I relayed this to Julie, she had a good chuckle but I was truly disturbed.  How in the world did I never notice?

Thankfully, she let me start early and leave at five, but I was seriously mystified at my own lack of attention to the time that morning.  Is this how dementia starts?  I know I am mentally disturbed, but is it going to be certifiable now?

I got home and relayed the story to Rob.  He laughed for a while and then made me feel better by pointing out that I have had the same schedule for ten years before it recently changed.  I was simply on auto pilot, having not remembered that I changed my alarm the night before.  I guess it makes sense, but damn.  I felt like a bit of a buffoon on Tuesday.

Anyhoo, have a great Holiday weekend everyone.