When you’re a few minutes early to a meeting people think you’re respectful and professional. But when you’re an hour early they think you don’t have much going on. Then they give you something to do.
I’ve been worried that’s going to happen to me. A few days ago my husband and I returned from a trip. But my watch, which is also my fitness device, stayed stuck in the time zone we’d been traveling in. And it’s not the first time it’s done it. Forgive me for saying this, but it’s really starting to tick me off.
When we’ve traveled in the past it automatically updated to local time when I synced it with my phone. But over the past year it’s been waiting a day or two to update. Maybe it suffers from jet lag.
Thankfully I’m a very observant person except when I’m not. So I’ve always caught on after only a few times leaping out of bed thinking I’ve overslept or a few times actually doing it, depending on which direction I’ve just traveled.
This issue caused quite a problem when we traveled east on a certain weekend in March. My iPhone automatically updated the time zone and sprung ahead to Daylight Saving Time with no effort on my part. My ancient laptop has always ignored time zones but it updated to Daylight Saving Time on its own accord. But my fancy watch refused to do anything at all. Consequently all three of my devices showed different times. And you know that old saying: A person with one watch knows what time it is. A person with two watches is never sure. And a person with three watches remembers fondly those days when we could call the operator and ask, “Correct time please?”
On our most recent trip my watch managed to change time zones as we traveled east but it didn’t change back when we got home. I tried syncing it many times but it continued to insist it was an hour later than it was.
I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking it’s time for a new watch. But remember my watch is also my fitness device. And it’s still counting my steps, reminding me to move every hour and telling me I’ve slept badly like it always has. It took me months to learn how to use this watch. I can’t bear the thought of trying to figure out a new one. So I considered my options:
I could move to the time zone my watch is stuck in. But that seems drastic.
I could be an hour early for everything from here on out. But I don’t want to be given more to do.
I could get into the habit of automatically subtracting an hour every time I look at my watch. But that will be a problem the next time I travel to another time zone.
I could wear a real watch on one arm and my fitness watch on the other. I do own a beautiful watch. But I can’t tell time with it anymore because it’s not digital.
I could check my phone for the time. It’s always right. And it’s digital. But I can’t always find it.
I was weighing these options when I glanced at my watch and noticed that at last, after two full days of being stuck in the wrong time zone, it had finally updated. Well it’s about time.
Dorothy Rosby is the author of I Didn’t Know You Could Make Birthday Cake from Scratch: Parenting Blunders from Cradle to Empty Nest and other books. Contact her at www.dorothyrosby.com/contact.