Snooze alarm

I woke up to the sound of an alarm and did not snooze it. Instead I turned it off, got dressed and took the dog for a walk. Fed the dog, brewed coffee, made breakfast and dropped off my car at the shop. Took my partner to work. Came back home. Took a shower.

Got a call from my partner about an emergency doctors appointment. Having a few hours to spare before my interview, I picked her up, drove her to the dentist sat and waited, took her to lunch and took her back to work.

Went home. Got dressed. Cleaned up a PowerPoint. Found some clippings. Prepped my materials. Left to the interview.

I was ten minutes early and decided to quickly pop into the powder room for a final check. It’s a good thing too because my skirt had spun around so that the slit was in the front.

I arrive at the reception, where there is another young, professional sitting and waiting. Naturally, I went into a panic. Who was she? Could they have gotten confused and scheduled us for the same time? If this is my competition, I’m screwed, she looks super calm. Until someone comes out from the back and shakes her hand. Apparently she was just an outside sales person making an in person call.

My relief is momentary, as now I can’t stop thinking about how thirsty I am. I look upon the coffee table for something to distract me from my rapid dry mouth, but there are some old newspapers and a bowl of Hot Tamales. Both are making me more parched. Someone asks if she can get me something to drink while I was waiting, but I gracefully declined because it wasn’t sincere. It’s true. Sometimes people say things on auto-pilot, like “How are you?” and “Can I get you anything?” but have already moved on to the next thought before you’ve inhaled to answer. This was one of those times.

Finally inside the conference room, they read my resume for the first time while I sat there quietly. Then they asked a question. A trick question. I was given a second chance to answer it and I did so correctly. One of them asked a second question. This time it was not a trick question. No. The same person that asked the question nodded off while I was answering it.

I didn’t mention it. I ignored it. Didn’t even make a joke of it or mention that they should check themselves for Sleep Apnea. Nope. Just continued to answer the question.

I must have seemed like the blurry red numbers on a buzzing alarm clock. I’m glad he didn’t reach over to press my snooze button.