Sleeping Relations

I love to nap like a cat under the warm sun.  And why not? Sleep is something we all have to do eventually.

But sleep and I share an interesting relationship.

I recall this blossoming around the middle school era.  The time when I thought my decisions were for my better advancement through the grade ladder.  Well, as soon as I adapted a decent internet connection I was sucked into the void.

This void is a time when you are on a computer and you fall into an inter-dimensional rift that holds your mind in stasis.  The world drifts on while you meander in the never-ending possibilities of the digital spectrum.  Windows 98 was my prehistoric matrix.  I chose the red pill and was plunged into the digital expressway (with some pretty informational diagrams of the female autonomy).

Putting my pubescent hormones aside,  I dipped my toes in more often until my body was consumed.  My relationship with sleep was severed and I ignored its calls to go to bed as my eyes bestowed a shade of red hovering over black puddles of exhaustion.

Many of my friends knew I didn't sleep and my girlfriend at the time would joke over my lifeless fatigue.  Somehow, I managed to function during my daily tasks.  And also, somehow my energy was restored by shrouding the room in monitor light.  I had become a nerd.  Intrigued in this world, upgrading the box I used to access it, diagnosing problems and online shopping for my dreams.

I used to watch old Blink-182 skits/homevideos on this site called "YouTube" when it was still a minuet video exchange, compared to the colossal information hub it has transformed into.

Oh sleep?  I still got it.  On the bus ride to school and when my body shut down at 3pm when i arrived home.

Then there was coffee.  This drug-in-a-cup prolonged my ability to fend off the increasing impatient sleep gravity that weighed me down.  Once i started working at an After-school Program my afternoon reboot was invaded and i had to replace it with a hundred kids and coffee.  Impressively, i managed quite well by absorbing the children's energy like a walking solar panel(I like to think that's how it works).

It only escalates further in college, the anti-sleep institution.  When do social interactions take place? nearly 24/7 with a slight taper on the hangover period from 5-9am.  But that's okay you can just sleep OH WAIT 30 PAGE PAPER DUE IN A FEW DAYS.  Ok-ok, sleep today then —TOO BAD, you've written 2 sentences of your 30 pages, you have to finish a book, stare at pie-chart of human ethics and social behavior for 2 hrs, then study for your genetics exam.  Then, you realize it's Friday. All your friends are going out and for a split second you contemplate in your mind what is more fun...You always have Sunday right?

Coffee can no longer support you without side effects. Gyrating stomach pains, from accumulated acidity, become more prevalent.

So, we enter the realm of Red Bull and Adderall because sleep is for the meek.

It is only now that I'm relinquishing my past neglect of sleep —it only took a decade.  Sleep is a wonderful part of me.  I want to sleep and dream all the time!  Experimenting with sleep cycles is fun!  Just take a look at the natural expert Max-the-dog.  He will sleep all day and wake up to bark at the mail-man, eat, and poop.  He couldn't give two shits of what's going on outside his territory, long as he got the basics.
What a life!

What is your relationship with sleep?
Love, Best friends, Strangers, Complicated?

-Joe

The cold makes my nose cry and my toes die

I often wonder why fathers dislike turning up the heat during the winter. It seems to be a common trend. I also have the fear that I may become the same person one day. But why? I am here miserably tapping at my keyboard from the quaking shivers of harsh cold. I'm wrapped in a jacket and thick fleece pajamas that i can't escape from. WHY would i want anyone else to suffer this frigid air? Now i understand there are people far worse than i am, but even after undergoing an energy-efficient upgrade to this home it has yielded no change in the thermostat besides a new way to display the freezing temperature. My room is starting to render the 50's and it is not coming from my guitar or my plaid pants.

Perhaps it is because my father is from Wisconsin. Though, being a loving father and great husband, he should understand that his wife, my mother, is from the Philippines. That is an island —WITH MANGOES. To my understanding, this is why I desire wooly objects to encompass my entire body; otherwise, my extremities will pop off like Mr. Potato Head. That being said, i have misplaced my other alpaca blessed mitten and it is really a cause for alarm when it's starting to reach below 30 out there. If anyone would rent me a personnel Alpaca for the colder seasons let me know! The portability (it has legs) and size to warmth ratio compared to its older sibling the Llama is fantastic. Not to mention it's a wonderful conversation starter:

 As I lay miserably in the comfort of my parents home I wonder if i will truly ever understand them...or myself.

-Joe