One of Those Mornings

I hit the snooze alarm only once this morning, giving myself a few extra minutes of rest before dragging myself out of bed at 8:09am this morning. I hadn't been up that early in months. I'd had trouble getting to sleep the night before, and I could feel the drowsiness beginning to set in.

I had a job interview at a game company this morning. It was my second interview there, and I wanted to make a good impression. So I made sure to prep the coffee maker last night and have it ready to go.

I had a shower, shaved, got dressed, checked my e-mail, and mentally prepared myself. But the moment I left the house, things started to go awry.

Riding a caffeine high, I sauntered to the bus stop at 8:55 in anticipation of my bus at 9:08. The 9:08 bus didn't arrive, leaving me to wait for the 9:23 bus and setting me a full 15 minutes behind. It's a good thing I had planned to try and catch an earlier bus, just in case this sort of thing happened. Things got worse though, as the bus hit a construction zone which slowed traffic and put me another 5 minutes behind schedule.

I checked my watch as I got onto the skytrain. It was only 9:35, so I was still making okay time. I figured I'd probably be about 5 minutes late for my meeting. I also know that game companies are petty relaxed environments, so I didn't worry much about it. There's no point stressing over something I have no control over. So I arrived at their office at 10:05am, as expected, and I don't think anybody noticed my tardiness.

I greeted Mark Baxter, the interviewer and a former instructor of mine, with a "Good morning."
"Good morning. It's been a while," he said, and I smiled back.
"It sure has."

Mark lead me down a hallway to a room dubbed "the fishtank".
"We'll do the interview in there," he said. "Please have a seat. I'll be back in a moment, I just need to fetch somebody else." I thanked him and turned for the doorway.

It was at the very moment that I walked, face-first, directly into a glass wall.
F#$k. For a split second I understood how it feels to be a starling at my parents' house in the spring.

Luckily I don't think anybody noticed, including Mark. I'm the kind of person who will laugh these sorts of things off, and so I did just that, shrugged, and had a seat on the couch.

The interview went very well. I treated myself to a tall caramel macchiato on the way home. I've got a good feeling about this one.

Honestly though, who walks into a glass wall? Next time I'm making stronger coffee.