I have become a midnight nomad.
Every night I fall fast asleep before 9:00. However, the minute my husband comes to bed at midnight, something strange happens. I turn into a midnight nomad. I toss. I turn. I turn and toss. I think about every thought that has bothered me throughout the day and some that didn't. I rise from my bed and wander downstairs. Like Goldilocks, I move from one couch to the next, until I find an empty just right bed and fall asleep somewhere around 5:00 a.m - in time to get up for work at 6:00.
But during those first three blissful hours of sleep, I am oblivious to all else around me.
Case in point? Last Saturday night.
Now remember, my daughters have left the all girls' Catholic school and transferred to the high school for one reason and one reason only. . . BOYS! And so their social life has picked up quite a bit, and I now know I was woefully unprepared for what a typical Saturday night might bring.
My sixteen-year-old daughter was Freaking out! because "everyone" else was invited to another teenager's Sweet Sixteen party (keep in mind that - until she started attending this school two weeks ago - she didn't even know this sweet girl) and so I dropped her at the only other "everyone's" house who didn't get invited to the party so that the other excluded parent could drive them into town for dinner.
The eighteen-year-old was being picked up by a certain young man in order to go to another young man's house who happened to have a hot tub. So after the prerequisite lie about, Going to Kimmie's house (translation - going tanning) she called in her makeup, hair, and bathing suit consultants and each girl trudged through the house until they declared her perfectly coiffed and ready to go. Then the young man arrived and they all piled into his car (which proves they doubled as date barriers) promising me that she'd be home by midnight.
By this time it was 9:00 p.m. - a safe time to hit the sack, don't you think???
Now, if you had run into me on Sunday morning, an unknowing me would have told you that I, Didn't sleep a wink! the entire night, but, oh, what I missed in four short hours! When my husband came to bed at 1:15, he informed me that I had slept through a number of comings and goings. I'm too tired to talk about it now, he said to me. I'll tell you about it tomorrow.
Well, truth be told, not quite "everyone" was invited to that Sweet 16 party, because . . . at 10:00 he picked up the sixteen-year-old and two of her friends . . . at 10:30 four boys from down the street arrived at our house . . .at 11:00 the other daughter and her beauty consultants arrived back home . . . at 11:30 they promptly went to Blockbuster and rented a movie as the boys left and the sixteen-year-old's certain young man arrived . . . at 12:00 and 12:30 the various friends left to go home . . . . and at 1:00 the older daughter drove the younger daughter's certain young man home, when at last - with the exception of one lone beauty consultant who was spending the night - things settled down and my husband felt it was safe to go to bed.
After which, I Didn't sleep a wink! the rest of the night.
