Tuesday, May 25, 2010

i'm a night reader


not a night ranger, though the two can be easily confused. haha

(and i love that i always put haha in text, even though i am actually laughing out loud)


anyways





i'm a night reader. i rarely read during the day, unless its in my van waiting somewhere. or at work during down time. its like i have to read while already busy to justify it. but i LOVE to read in bed. i've done it since i was 8. my parents had a rule. (okay, they had a LOT of rules, but this one applies here): "lights out at bedtime, no exceptions"

and i was the kids with the nerves of a jumpy housecat and a WILD imagination to plague me with awful awful, "shouldn't be kid thoughts", all night long. and my dad had no tolerance for crying, or me coming to see them in the parent's room. so at the age of 8, i learned how to fake sleep when my dad came to check on me. i knew, like clockwork, at 10 he'd watch the news, at 10:30, it was cheers, and then he was off to bed. lie still, but breathe deep, because that's how sleeping people deep. oh, don't even try to fake closing your eyes, just face the wall. he'd close my door, their door would close, and the house would get silent.

count to 30. then plug in my christmas lights around my window (wicked hee hee inserted here) and ruin my eyes for the next 20 years squinting at the book in the rainbow dim of april christmas lights. my books were my companions in those dark, quiet nights. i read until i fell asleep, there on the floor, or in my bed if i'd gotten new batteries for my flashlight. the book spine pressed up against my face, i read until i was exhausted.

and it wasn't enough to have one book. if i had one, i'd better have the next one in the series, or another book to follow it up. because chances were i would finish that book, and if i didn't have another one to read, i'd have to lay there in the quiet. :gasp:

so imagine my frustration, at the age of 33, when at 3:20 in the morning this morning, while reading a delicious Francine Rivers book my big sis loaned me, my dismay to find out that it's not a novel, but a 2 part series.

yeah, i was bugged.

and awake.

at 3:20am.

fortunately, unlike my dad, i don't have a lights out rule, so i just lay there with my lights on, and drew pics on nate's back with my finger until i fell asleep.

some things never change, but it's amazing the way other things do.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

confessions of a day reader...i have NEVER read well at night. even in college, the latest i could study was just after midnight. i would close me eyes after putting the book under my pillow, praying that osmosis and an early rise would be the ailment for my malady. as of yesterday, i am retired. i aim to read one book a month. that may sound like a lame goal, but for a martha of books who will lay down a book in favor of a walk or cup of coffee with the birds or a friend, it is goal from the start position. so here's what i figure: if i move to a time zone that is at least eight hours to the east, we may actaully be reading at the SAME TIME! you are my favorite night reader...next to my husband who reads in bed every night and covers the lamp with his shirt so the light will not awaken his sleeping, literatureless bride.

Maril said...

Les, I love reading your blog. And I love you, too.
XO Maril