The Day of Black Sun 

03-24-2007, 7:03am (EDT)

The Great Alarm Clock Scare

One of my favorite memories from college is the "animosity" between my third-year roommate and my alarm clock. Now to understand why this is funny, you need to know a little something about my roomie. He was (and still is, I'm sure) quite the martial arts bad a**, and consquently, he doesn't fear any man. In fact, he doesn't fear much at all, except for bugs (phobia)--some would say he has a borderline unhealthy lack of fear toward injury and death. Anyhow, I generally had an early schedule throughout college, while he had typical late-morning, early afternoon classes that allowed him to stay up late and sleep in without missing anything. We slept on bunk beds, with me on the top bunk. I owned this fairly old alarm clock that I had set to "buzz," and the sound that constituted the buzz, well, while I can't really describe it completely, I must admit it was quite loud compared to most similar alarm clocks and it really was not a pleasant sound. Still, not a big deal for most people, but I suppose my roomie wasn't most people. I remember the first morning my alarm went off--although I couldn't see my roomie on the bottom bunk, it was easy to figure out what happened just by listening--he jerked awake and simultaneously cursed "S***!" really loud while his limbs flailed about, striking the walls and bed, and he also smacked the underside of my bunk with his head. I felt bad at first, but after I realized that he wasn't causing/sustaining any permanent damage, the sadistic side of me got a few laughs out of the situtation. I remember that this continued for about a week, and then one day, I realized that I didn't hear my roomie scream the usual curse. I peered down at him, and saw him laying absolutely still with eyes wide open in fear and surprise. He then noticed that I was there, and then I exclaimed loudly, "S***!"