sleeping the sleep of the just, originally uploaded by hambox

Insomnia and me: we are old chums. I’m one of those big-eyed noturnal beasts; ever since I can remember, I have a tendency to perk up around 10pm. Sometimes the insomnia is of the can’t-get-to-sleep variety; other times I can’t stay asleep, often waking at an exact time for weeks. Hi, 3:31AM! 4:37AM! I know you guys!

I generally just try to roll with it. But when I’m feeling under the weather as I am, it is time to catnap. Which is exactly what I did today during lunchbreak. Thirty minutes of bliss. And drool.

Naps are genius. College was the Golden Age of napping. I was very close with many of my fellow dorm dwellers at Berkeley; often, we would hunker down in someone’s room, fitting ourselves Tetris-like on the two beds, and sleep before dinner. The quilt my sister made me was a favorite accoutrement — perfect size, softness, and warmth — to this day, it still holds the moniker of “the nap quilt” to several of those former slumber partners.

Berkeley was also the place where Curtis M showed me you could hunker down anywhere — he encouraged me to nap on the grass one afternoon (much like the specimen in the photo). The freedom! Once I realized anywhere was a bed, the sky was the limit.

You’d think some point I would have mastered car-napping on my own, but it took Brian G to show me the way: pull over, lock up, seat down, go! It’s a foolproof method that I utilize often, particularly I find myself with 20 minutes to spare before Pilates on Monday evenings. Or like today during lunch — third floor parking garage, that’s right!

nablopomo 07 day 2