[First Date – Blink 182]
So today on Tumblr, the Daily Wh.at linked to this discussion: If you’re about to enter into a Groundhog Day loop, what would you do to prepare?
Instead of writing a lot (I did write some, but not a lot) I started thinking about it.
Granted you read around half a page of the discussion, then you’d know what I’m about to suggest is largely based from what I read – hey, they had good ideas! But, in a nutshell, this is what I’d do.
Firstly, I am going to go with the same assumption as the movie does, and say that the reset time is at 6 am. And, for the purposes of making this discussion actually interesting, I’m going to give myself a decent amount of money, and at least 2 days’ of notice because…well you’ll see why. So, let’s say that the day I will relive for the next 3652 days (roughly 10 years) is from a Friday 6am to Saturday 6am. It just so happens that Christmas Eve this year is on a Friday. I do believe I will project my repeating day for the Christmas Eve Friday (you may wonder why I don’t make it next Friday. Well, see, that’s because it will be summer in New York and I hate summer).
Alright, so on Wednesday I’ll fly from here (Melbourne) to New York. The flight takes roughly 21 hours and 30 minutes, so I’ll say 22 for the sake of delays. If I take off at a cushiony 10 am here in Melbourne, I’ll arrive at New York 4pm on Wednesday (I’ve just taken a few minutes to factor in our respective Daylight Savings). I’ll force myself to get as used to the local time as possible (not to complicate my life, I will say that the 6am-6am works via New York’s time), and so on Thursday I will go to bed at a nice 9:30-10pm. This way, when I wake up at 6am on Friday, I will be thoroughly refreshed – ensuring that I will be thoroughly refreshed for each time that I wake up for the next 10 years.
But, wait, there’s more!
Upon arriving at New York on Wednesday afternoon, I will sort out my affairs. I will rent out a relatively cheap motel room for a night, but at the same time make bookings at the best hotel in New York for their best suite. The booking time? Thursday 6pm – Saturday 10am. I will therefore get that room for the duration of the loop, without having to waste time on check-in and check-out. Also, I’ll hire a personal chauffeur for the day.
I’ll make dinner reservations at all the good restaurants in New York, and depending on which one I feel like, I go to whichever one for Friday. I’ll load my phone with plenty of credit, have my credit cards ready to use (again, I assume I have credit cards), charge up my iPod with all the best songs (unfortunately I’ll probably get sick of these songs, but that’s okay because I’ll have my laptop ready to download new music each morning if I have to), and make sure my wallet and bag is all well packed.
Next, I will find a way to have a drum-set, electric guitar and, if possible, a piano delivered to my room. I will probably get sick of trawling the city after a while, so I must set myself some hobbies and goals I can do despite being reset. Like Murray, I can learn instruments – get the number of a teacher and see if they can’t come teach me on Christmas Eve each time when I call up. Who knows, I might even try to learn to swim!
And this was a point that was fantastically suggested on the site: Find a book series with over 3652 pages (the Harry Potter series should do nicely) and mark the page that would the 3652nd. Make yourself read a page and one page only every morning without fail. You will retain the memory of what you read the previous day. Once you’ve gotten to the 3652nd page, you will know that you will wake up tomorrow and Saturday will go on.
With all these things sorted, of course there will be downsides.
First of all, that’s 10 years of waking up completely alone. And even if you go to bed with someone, you’ll wake up completely alone. I know that I WILL get sick of doing it. I’ll get sick of the songs on my iPod, the songs on the radio, the sound of my alarm, the hotel staff, the food for breakfast, the weather, the restaurants, the fact that I have to read Harry Potter a page at a time…and most likely I will come to detest Christmas. Even if I travel elsewhere (another reason for choosing New York is that it takes around 8 hours to fly to London, and just a bit more for other parts of Europe. If anything I can get up at 6, go to the airport and go somewhere else) I’ll get sick of the routine.
I will run out of movies to see at the theater, I will get sick of making new friends each day, I will be tired of drinking til I throw up but still be fine the next day…it WOULD be nice if I had a partner or someone to spend the days with for sure, but then I’d come to be sick of them too.
Maybe Christmas Eve was not the best choice. All that bustle would be wonderful for the first week but…it will be hell traffic later on.
Hmm…
Well, what do YOU think?
Alex.
the life and laughs of me 