Burning the...Midnight(????) Oil!

Monday, March 09, 2009
I love the nightlife. I got to boogie. On the disco 'round...." I've found 4 am is my 'natural' bedtime.
When I was little I used to wait for everyone to go to sleep, and then pop back up and the real playing began. (After hours of making excuses to get out of bed for one thing or another, but those are other stories). I lived life on the edge because I knew at any minute my Mom could wake up and walk by and see my closet light on as I played my little heart out. Of course, I played until I was exhausted (HOURS), and by then, I was too tired to pick up all the toys I had pulled out of my toy box. I suspect my Mom didn't question me because she probably didn't want to have to stay awake to catch me in the future.
One evening I remember thinking how so much playing really worked up a pretty overpowering thirst, so I set forth to solve this problem on future midnight playdates (leaving my room during the middle of the night was not an option, too much risk). I found a copper pitcher in my toy collection and filled it with one of the koolaid packets I found in a drawer. I had seen my Mom make it....so I knew it just required some water-no big deal. I mixed my packet and water, and hid it in my play oven ready for the midnight festivities...(year's later I figured out it also required sugar, which explains a lot about that first experience trying to drink my not-so-tasty treat).
And then, there were naps. You couldn't keep me in bed after a full day of play, can you imagine telling me to go down in full daylight? I think not. I know the naps were as much for my Mom as for me, so short of chaining me to a bed the rule was I had to stay in her bed (the only relatively safe place to put me without full supervision) for a set amount of time while she 'rested her eyes.' Fine, no problem. No toys were allowed, no dolls either because my dolls had some pretty sassy personalities. So, I used to take my Mom's hands and make them talk to each other while she slept. I called these my 'hand babies' and they had all sorts of conversations. It was cool because my Mom never interrupted, I'm sure she was willing to sacrifice two body parts if the rest of her could sit still for an hour. I remember those babys talking....and talking...and talking....to each other....and 'walking' and 'dancing' as far as I could drag them away from her body.
All this to say....I'm still that same girl-bigger body, darker hair, still resisting naps, and getting up to 'play' a little more now that everyone is asleep. And then...someone throws in a time change! Don't 'they' know how hard it is for me to rework my internal schedule? So now I'm blogging, not because anything exciting is going on, but because this left over Monday-Energy has to be poured out somewhere. I'm in charge of me now, and I'm on to my own tricks....I know how I work, so around midnight or so (more like 'or so')...it's lights off. I can stay awake thinking....or reading until my eyes fall out, but I can't keep working on 'whatever' or watching TV b/c it's not like I'll get 'tired' and fall asleep until I'm good and ready...which, unfortunately is usually when the birds start singing.

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