Early Daylight Savings Time

Yesterday, I glanced at the clock, realized that it was 12:30, and I had an hour and a half until I was due in class. Since I hadn't packed a lunch, I decided to run up to the main strip, and get a burrito from the tacqueria. Come back, eat, do some paperwork, meet with the freshmen. Easy.

I briefly considered eating at the tacqueria--a real dive--and reading my paper--but decided I should get back to work.

As I walk back through the gates of campus, I fall into step with a mom-aged woman approaching the school. As we get nearer to the main building I notice that Yosef and Ahuva are leaning out of the window of my first floor classroom. "Hiiiiii Mrs. Bluejeans!" they scream happily as they spot me.

This is baffling. Why are they in my classroom? Don't they have another class at this time? The woman next to me is quite disapproving. "They shouldn't be hanging out the windows," she points out, "they should be studying!"

I enter the building, and am immediately mobbed by my freshmen, who usher me into my classroom. "You went to the tacqueria!" they yell. "You have horchata! Can I have some?"

"What are you all doing in here?" I demand.

"It's time for class!" they yell.

"Did they switch the schedule on me again?" St. Dymphna High has a tendency to do this kind of thing. A lot.

"Nooooo, it's time for seventh block!"

I look at the clock, which reads 1:09. My seventh block class begins at 2:05. And then I remember.

Remember, that is, walking in to the building that MORNING, and noticing that all the clocks, by some mysterious satellite signal, had fallen back an hour for daylight savings time, a week early. I took note. I even got to my first class on time. I just completely spaced by the time I looked at the clock again to see if I had enough time to get lunch before the freshmen class met.

I politely excused myself to put my burrito and horchata in the teacher's lounge, and get my copy of "The Most Dangerous Game". I was forced to let everyone go to the bathroom and go to their lockers to get the books they forgot, and fill their water bottles, because really, how serious can you be about making your students get their acts together when their own teacher can't figure out what time it is?