There's got to be an easier way.

Something you didn't know about me: I have a strange alarm system for getting up in the mornings. 


My alarm clock on my bedside table is lovely, but I've had it forever. Therefore, I rarely wake up to just that. I usually set my phone alarm as well, and then they alternate really annoyingly and get me up with some serious group effort. 


In truth, that system is probably not unheard of, but setting my alarms is the problem. It requires calculations of which I am usually not capable at the hours I tend to go to bed. Please, allow me to explain. 


The bedside clock is always approximately 12-13 minutes fast. I'm not entirely sure how fast it is, but I can tell you that it's always and forever been in that range. When I first got the little lovely, I couldn't work all the little buttons, so when I tried to set the time, it got stuck on 12:12. It just so happened to be noon in real life (what luck!), so I figured that would suffice and gave up. I'm proud to say I did indeed figure out how to set the real time, but by then I was accustomed to subtracting 12 minutes, and I didn't want to suddenly be late everywhere I went, so I left it. And I've left it ever since, but it changes a tad every time we suffer a brief power shortage. Hence, approximately 12-13 minutes fast.


The phone clock is obviously correct. It sets itself, so I don't have to worry about it. 


The tricky part is setting a 12-minute-fast clock and a perfectly-on-time clock to both go off a few minutes apart, and then alternate on their respective snooze settings until I finally roll out of bed. I feel like I should have a system of equations with variables x, y, and z set up by now, but clearly it's much easier to just fumble around with different times every night and pray that I get to class on time the next morning. 


If you're wondering, it works on 4 out of every 5 school days (on average). And my saints of parents help me get up on the one day of each school week that my alarms fail me. They're gems. :)


Now I just need to hope and pray for a tolerant future husband who can handle these alarms. To him I say: 

Best of luck. You're a gem. And I'll love you forever if you just let me sleep in.