On a lighter note

Sheila loves to sleep like every other person on earth. As she has to reach the work place by 8, she should be ready to leave home by at least 7. The travel time from her house to work is about an hour. Her mornings are happy and smooth if she wakes at 6 am. She dedicatedly sets the alarm clock for 5.45 am as she would not want to miss those 15 minutes of happiness for anything in the world when she snoozes the alarm and dozes off.

Today was one such day, when she banged the alarm at 5.45 am and dozed off only to wake up at 6.45 a.m. Off she rushed to the wash room, brushed her teeth in a jiffy, had a quick bath and a change. She checked her watch to see if she can quickly have a coffee at home. No chance. Already late and she might have to pick it up only at the work place. But, without the morning coffee 'mmmmmmm'.

She pulled out her car and the first thing she checked was the FM channel for traffic updates. Good news for her, apart from the usual traffic, nothing much. Some relief!!!!!!!!. After half an hour of drive, suddenly she found that the traffic was getting slower and she realized there was something wrong. She lowered her glass and peeped outside only to see some police vehicles trying to clear the traffic. Her mind started to work on the strategies to tackle her boss about the late coming. Definitely, it is going to take 25 minutes more for the road to clear up. A rewind of the last time when she was late and the lengthy dialogue with her boss replayed. Her boss sounded as if her late coming of half hour brought down the profits of the company and he continued on and on for 15 minutes about time management etc etc. The same day, she assured herself that she would be on time then on, and reaching work place on time is better than listen to him. She vowed she would never be late again.

A look at the watch brought out some sweat, in spite of the air condition in the car on full blast. After getting relief from the traffic chaos, she finally reached her office at 9 a.m. She banged the door shut and rushed towards the corridor. She was praying so hard that the movement of lips were visible. She could see happy faces at the tables wishing her. She felt a little uneasy about the atmosphere. It was not the usual one. Could her boss have come out publicly and enquired about her? Would he have told something off-beat to everyone? While thinking, she tried to counsel herself to face the fact of the moment bravely.

As she was passing by her friend's table, she could see her happily browsing for some online offers. Surprised at this, she enquired about the same in sign language. Prompt came the reply 'How come you forgot that Boss is out of office today on official tour'. She could immediately feel a mild touch of cold air around her body. Phew!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh, How could she forget this? She had made a note in her Outlook but had overlooked . She cursed herself for forgetting such vital information which brought her unnecessary tension. At least, she could have woke up with less guilty feeling, she could have had a nice home brewed coffee and the list went on and on in her mind. But, too late now !!!!!

Her prayers worked that day. She vowed she would wake up at the alarm and be on time for work from the next day onwards. Just a simple thing to do and she can be happy. The next morning, when the alarm buzzed, pat came a hand to snooze it :):). The good part of her brain began to remind her of the vows and assurances of the previous day. But, she suppressed the same with her eyes shut. Another 15 minutes of sleeping bliss, how could she miss it at any cost????

Habits die hard