Ah the quiet of night after the kids go to bed! It’s one of my favorite times of the day. The dogs snuggle next to me on the couch, and best of all, I can listen to the sound of my own head and complete thoughts. It is usually the time I sit down to write (the other time being the 3 hours each afternoon when both kids are at school if I don’t have other paid work to do) or get organized for the next day. Sometimes I get caught up in doing silly stuff. And damn, if there isn’t a whole lot of tv on at night I can brainlessly “watch.” No matter what I choose to do, inevitably I stay up too late.
I have always been a nightowl–staying up late to read when I should have been at the very least been doing homework. Problem is, with the birth of the kids, the morning person in me also…woke up. So getting up early, even after my worst night’s sleep, is doable. As I said in my first post, during K.’s previous deployment I was lucky to get 4 hours of sleep a night between trying to talk to K. when we were both awake and available and having an infant who didn’t sleep through the night. I did that for a year with very little napping and no real catching up on it. My body got used to working on crappy sleep. Even now, I can go for days with just a handful of hours of sleep. I’m certainly not performing at my best, but I get by well enough. I’ll sneak in the occasional cat nap to take the edge off, but generally (and here comes my Type A rationale…wait for it…) I have a lot to do and my time is packed.
I know this particular habit of mine is not the best one to indulge in…but it surely is more entertaining than biting my nails. I have “fixed” this schedule every now and again, but it never lasts long. I’ll go to bed by 10pm, and get up by 530am to do yoga for a half hour, then write a few pages, and by then it’s time for the kids to get ready for school. I’m happiest with this schedule, really. The day goes well with this routine. Still, like the lure of the Oreo, I can’t seem to keep away from the quiet of late nights. But starting next week, I’m back on the wagon. It has taken me a few years to work my way up to sleeping 6 hours a night, and I don’t need to keep this up just to have it get worse in a few months.
Time to fire up the dvr and slack off on the slacking off for the good of mankind since I’ll never be a coffee drinker and I’m definitely not in college anymore. It’s officially after midnight, so it must be time for bed…or breakfast. Anyone have any spare Oreos?
