Alarm Clock Wars

Our first day for meetings in China begins today, and as you could expect, I was tired from the travel day yesterday. While the bed is quite comfortable, I kept having moments where I would wake up and wonder where I was in a room that is very dark. After a moment or two, I would realize that I was in a hotel in Shanghai, and it was not yet time to awake. My biggest anxiety and fear in this process is sleeping too long, and missing the morning meeting, equivalent to Jim Furyk the golf pro who was disqualified from the Barclays this summer when he was late for the 7:30 a.m. shotgun start to the Pro-Am. He overslept when his cell-phone battery died, and that's what he uses as an alarm with no backup.The last time that I awoke, I could not find a clock but my body told me that it was certainly time to get out of bed. I fumbled through the room and grabbed my watch, and it clearly said 15 minutes until 6 am. I thought to myself that my adjustment to the new time zone was accomplished at record speed! 6 am is a little earlier than I needed to rise, but that would allow a bit more time for emails, breakfast, and the like. I hopped from bed, turned on the lights, signed into email. I tried to Skype my family, and the kids answered with a "Good night, Daddy." When Amy got on, she said she figured that I would have been asleep until much later. I told her how proud I was to have overcome the time change so quickly, feeling rested and ready to go to work early on the first day.

To my surprise and dismay, she pointed out to me that it was the middle of the day in Indiana, and was most certainly the middle of the night in Shanghai. I could not believe this report, but alas it was true. While I fumbled for my watch in the dark, apparently I failed to look at it right side up. So shortly after midnight (local time), I am fully awake to share my moment with jet lag and an analog watch.