Jan. 2002
We needed to catch an early flight from San Diego to Miami to begin our Western Caribbean cruise aboard Royal Caribbean's Voyager of the Seas. I think our flight was scheduled to leave the following morning about 5:00 AM. We decided to travel to San Diego the night prior so that we wouldn't miss our flight. We knew that security would be a bear since the September 11 attacks were just 4 month before. We also decided that since Matt was just a teenager and this was his first big vacation that he could stay with Christine, Josh and me in a hotel the night before our flight.
Matt was so proud of his new state-of-the-art alarm clock that he had just bought from Sharper Image for the trip. It did everything. It was like the Swiss army knife of alarm clocks! He played the 101 different alarm sounds for us. Before we headed to bed he said that he would set it for 3:00 AM.. I told him that we had better have a back up because if we didn't get up we would miss the airport shuttle, which could cause us to miss our flight, which in turn could cause us to miss our cruise! Christine and Matt both tried to reason with me that it wasn't necessary to have two alarms, but I insisted. They both rolled there eyes, “Okay, we'll set Matt's alarm AND the hotel clock-radio. They rolled there eyes again. Call me paranoid but secretly I set the alarm on my mobile phone for 3:10 AM, just in case. I thought to myself that if they knew that I set a third alarm their eyes might roll right out of their heads! So I'm a bit paranoid.
You see ever since I was kid I have had this recurring dream. It goes something like this:
I have this very important appointment with the principal of my school. So I have to get up really early, I mean so early that the streetlights are still on. Well anyway, my alarm doesn't go off, but I wake up anyway. I have just minutes to get there. I sprint all the way to school, but the principle has left to catch a plane. So I have to meet with her assistant, Mr. Snodgrass! Oh no! He has hated me ever since my first day of kindergarten. (Yeah, that's another story too. I'll have to tell you some other time.) So when I go in to his office he's staring at me from behind his desk. Then he stands up and I notice that he is dressed up like a clown, an angry one! By this time I look at his face and he has clown makeup on. He says in the creepiest of ways, “It's time for you to go to class young man.” I walk to class, head down, feeling dejected because of missing my very important meeting with the principal. About that time I notice that all the kids are pointing at me and laughing because I'm in my underwear.
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! “Oh man, it's time to go”, I said as I reached to shut off the alarm, What?!! Why is my mobile phone beeping? NEITHER MATT'S ALARM NOR THE HOTEL ALARM CLOCK SOUNDED! Now we were running late. We got ready at breakneck speed and ran to just catch the shuttle in time.
They were both embarrassed. As we rode to the airport they both apologized a dozen times. When we got to the airport we laughed about what had happened. For the rest of the morning I would nonchalantly glance down to make sure I had my pants on. Call me paranoid.
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