Wake
Me Up Before You Go, Girl
By
Denise McCluggage
 The
text for today is:
WAKE-UP CALLS (real, not metaphorical).
Two
things about wake-up calls in hotels: You want to get the right one at the right
time. And you DO NOT want to get any other at any other time. Elementary,
you think? A
fine, freshly refurbished old hotel in Scottsdale managed to flub both ends of
that during a two-night stay of mine. The first morning I was aroused from a comatose
state by a clanging telephone: A preternaturally bright voice announced: “This
is the wake-up call you requested. It is 3:30 am.” I think they told me the
temperature, too, but I was too groggy to care. I
had left no call. Maybe
it had been that of the previous night’s tenant who had a very early flight.
Or maybe a mistaken room number. Though the call wasn’t mine it managed to
work well and I found it impossible to go back to sleep until minutes before my
own alarm went off. The
next night I did leave a call as a back-up for my alarm.
I had a flight to catch. My
internal alarm aroused me before my clock did but the hotel call never came, which
I explained to them as I checked out suggesting that their wake-up service needed
some fine-tuning. They said they were installing an automated one. Good luck. Advice
when leaving a wake-up call: -
Make
sure the operator has the correct room. -
Make
sure that not only the time but the a.m. or p.m. is right. (If you asked to be
aroused from a nap and the p.m. part isn’t clear you might miss dinner.)
-
If
the hotel uses an automated service in which you punch in the time to be called,
double-check yourself.
Why
bother with phone calls, you may ask, when most hotel rooms now have clock radios
anyway? Ha! A
teacher of design in a San Diego college assigns each of his classes the task
of designing a clock radio that is easy to program, fool-proof and can be set
accurately in the dark. Either none of his students accomplished the feat or none
went into the business upon graduation. My
advice: unplug the blasted things upon arrival. Two reasons: One, this now frees
up a plug so you can recharge your cell phone or laptop. Two: you are quite likely
to be awakened by a crackling sound or loud music not of your choice because someone
else managed to set a time but didn’t bother to turn it off. My
advice for being awakened on the road: Carry your own tried and true, simple to
operate and cheap alarm clock. (Cheap so no great loss if you leave it in some
hotel and cheap so you can afford several - one for each suitcase so it is always
packed whether you remembered or not.) I
have a travel alarm that is tiny, handsome and quite expensive. It was a gift.
I leave it at home on the dresser where I can admire it. The instructions accompanying
it are not quite as long as Dr Zhivago
but are as difficult to understand pre-translation. What
I did was search Kmart and Walgreen’s to find a clock with big letters, a
press-button light, an alarm loud enough to do its job and a simple, intuitive
path to setting it. Its cover folds out to create a stand. Folded it is small
and flat and easy to tuck in small places. I found several that would do the trick,
none above $15. After
I road-tested my $10 clock I bought several more. What
time would you like your wake-up call? |
