By The Way...

Friday, October 12, 2007
10:43:00 AM EDT
Hearing Take a Ride -- Boston


D'oh! I'm running late posting this week's Weekend Assignment. I have a reasonable excuse - I was on vacation, and it was a full day yesterday, and by the time I got back to the hotel room, it was past midnight, Eastern time -- but, well. Whoops. Sorry about that. However, it did provide me with a topic for this week's assignment:

Weekend Assignment #187: Share a story about when you were once memorably late to something. Late to a big event? To a date? To a wedding? Your wedding? If you were late, and it made for a good story, that's what we want to hear.

Extra Credit: How many times do you have to hit the alarm clock before you get up in the morning?

For me, my memorable late story was very much like that famous anxiety dream where you're running through the halls of your high school, trying to get to class to take that big test, only to find out the test is over and you've failed. Also, you're naked.

Well, for my story I was in college I was taking a class in statistics, and on the day of the final I was sitting in my friend Darnell's room, kicking back and waiting to go to my test. Darnell and I had a conversation that went something like this:

Me: What time is it?

Darnell: It's one o'clock.

Me: Okay, cool. That means I have an hour until my stat final.

Darnell: Hey, aren't you in the same stat class as Heather?

Me: Yeah, why?

Darnell: Because she went to her stat final an hour ago.

Me (uncomfortable silence, then): Huh. Well, then. Uh. I guess I should go check that out.

And then I walked to the building where my stat class was supposed to take the final and discovered that, indeed, the final began an hour earlier.

Needless to say, I failed the final. Also, the class. The good news is that I wasn't planning to go to grad school, anyway. Also, I wasn't naked when this all happened. Although maybe I should have been: Maybe I should have run into the classroom, shouted "My god! This is all some horrible dream!" and then run back out. Well, maybe next time I'm in college.

Extra Credit: I rarely actually ever need an alarm clock, to tell the truth; my body most often wakes me up right before an alarm clock goes off. If I do manage to sleep through until the alarm, I'm up like a shot from the first beep. My wife hates me for it, because she's been known to hit the "snooze" button eight or nine time. Often what gets her up is not the alarm but me saying "will you STOP hitting the snooze button and get up? I'm trying to sleep here."

Your turn: Tell a true story of lateness! Type it up in your blog or journal, and then come back here to be a link. Don't be late -- I'm waiting.


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This entry has 8 comments: (Add your own)

• #8 Comment from ryanagi 
  10/13/07 11:39 PM | Permalink

  Here's mine:
  http://ryanagi.blogspot.com/2007/10/weass-187.html
  
  :-)
• #7 Comment from jabarett 
  10/13/07 5:40 PM | Permalink

  And I'm late to this one!
  http://www.barrettmanor.com/julie/archive.aspx?ID=1726
  Julie
• #6 Comment from mavarin 
  10/13/07 8:17 AM | Permalink

  I once showed up for work a full 24 hours late.  And just this week, I was delayed by an accidental turn onto the freeway. - Karen
  http://outmavarin.blogspot.com/2007/10/poor-karens-almanack.html
• #5 Comment from drdalim 
  10/13/07 4:13 AM | Permalink

  Ok it may sound similar... but it is not...
  
  http://dalimstrange.blogspot.com/2007/10/weekend-assignment-187-youre-late.html
  
  Thanks John it has been a while...
• #4 Comment from jmorancoyle 
  10/13/07 12:36 AM | Permalink

  http://journals.aol.com/jmorancoyle/MyWay/entries/2007/10/12/john-scalzis-weekend-assignment-187-youre-late/2432
  Jude

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