Time of my Life

     Tick, tock. Tick, tock.  There I sat in stake conference thinking, "when will this meeting end?"  We had arrived just as it was starting and so there were no padded chairs available.  Since my surgery, sitting on hard metal chairs was a very painful experience.  I kept shifting my weight hoping that that would help me feel more confortable, but it hadn't helped.  I glanced down at my watch to see how much longer.   I couldn't tell what time it was, so I decided that I better put my glasses to be able to see.  When I did, I realized that I had put my watch on upside down.  After putting it on correctly I glanced at the watch and noted that it was a little after 11:00 - almost a whole hour left. 

      I thought that  if I tried to focus on the speakers, maybe time would go by faster.  For a while I sat quietly listening.  Two speakers had finished and I anxiously glanced at my watch.  What?  It was still a few minutes after 11:00.  I reached over to look at Craig's watch and realized that my watch was not keeping good time.  Twenty minutes had passed since I had first looked.  So I took off my watch and reset the time to match Craig's watch.

     When they announced that the Stake President would be our concluding speaker, I looked down to see how much time he had to speak and I noticed that my watch hadn't moved a bit.  What a pain.  Irritated I took it off to reset the time.  That's when I noticed that it would not let me set the time.  No matter how hard I tried setting it, the button wouldn't push in.  Then I noticed the button really wasn't pulling out either.  Finally, exasperated, I handed my watch to Craig to see if he could see what was wrong.  The first thing he did was quietly pull off the plastic that was covering the face of my watch.  Then as he took a hold of the button and tried to set the time, but it wouldn't pull out or push in for him either.  It was then that he noticed a hard plastic object underneath it.  Realizing that it was the orginial plastic packing to stop the watch from using up its battery he turned and asked me, "how long have you had this watch?"  Sheepishly I answered, "almost two years".

      By then they were singing the closing song.  I had missed the most important speaker because of the distraction of this stupid watch.  On my way home I kept shaking my head in disbelief that I had been wearing this watch off and on to church for almost two years and had never noticed that it not only wasn't keeping time, but that the original plastic packing hadn't been removed.
      As some of you may know, and something my husband will readily attest to, I have struggled with time issues my whole life!  I feel somewhat relieved though when I think back over the last two years and realize that at least twice a day I was on the right time and that all the other times were not technically my fault! :-) It’s actually not a bad idea…..a watch that doesn’t work.  If I’m late again, I’ll just look down and exclaim, “Oh No!  My watch is not working.  Sorry I’m late!” 

On that note, I’m off to beat the clock!