I'd wait all night just to see you

[sovay]

Every now and then I remember I spent a semester of my sophomore year at college being the mysterious semi-comic figure in someone else's school story and I feel like I peaked at nineteen.

I had agreed to run the projector for a professor of mine who used slides in her Greek art and archaeology class. I thought it would be like auditing, which I was doing for several other classes already on top of my maxed-out schedule because I had stamina in those days. The class convened at eight in the morning. Slides are shown in a darkened room. I did not sleep enough even then. It was consequently the recurring experience of the students that the professor would call for the next slide and nothing would happen for a beat or so and then there would be a sort of flailing rattle up at the top of the auditorium and the next slide would hit the screen. It was my overall experience that I remember discussion of the archaic smile and Knossos and Arthur Evans and then I think I slept from the eruption of Thera through the end of the Ptolomies. Years later it turned out that someone who is now a friend of mine had technically encountered me first in the person of the unseen assistant who kept falling asleep mid-lecture, identity but not circadian rhythms unknown.

I tell this story by way of explaining that I am so much not a morning person that under ordinary circumstances nothing short of personal or national emergency could get me on a train at six-thirty-aargh in the morning, but I have tickets to see the National Yiddish Theatre's Fiddler on the Roof with skygiants this afternoon and for that it appears I'll get up at too-dark-thirty, because I did. (The train was of course then briefly but nerve-wrackingly delayed.)

There's a rather nice, rose-clouded sunrise going on. [edit] Banks of mist over fields of cattails among autumn-gold birch trees, all suffused pink as a Technicolor fog machine. A kind of conch-bronze light on the changing hillsides. I just passed a pylon the color of shakudo. I should clearly be awake at this hour more often. The world looks weird.

Comments

[selkie]

I cannot wait to read about it. Nap well and maybe don’t dream of coaches yelling “Down, down, up, down, up, up!” at Child. Although it is much like Siberia in here. (sunrise!)

[sovay]

I cannot wait to read about it. Nap well and maybe don’t dream of coaches yelling “Down, down, up, down, up, up!” at Child.

I kind of dozed.

!טראדיציע

[thisbluespirit]

Aw, well, I hope you have a lovely time that is well worth the early start!

[sovay]

Aw, well, I hope you have a lovely time that is well worth the early start!

Thank you! It was a ridiculous round trip and I absolutely did.

[ada_hoffmann]

I love to be out around (or just before) sunrise for precisely this reason. But even for a morning person like me, it is not always possible, because spoons. I hope the play was very worth it!

[sovay]

I hope the play was very worth it!

It was! I do not regret at all the fact that I don't even want to estimate how many hours I've been awake!

[thawrecka]

The world does look enchantingly weird first thing in the morning. That's about the only upside of being up that early.

[sovay]

The world does look enchantingly weird first thing in the morning. That's about the only upside of being up that early.

Usually if I'm watching the sun rise, it's because I have failed to sleep and I don't enjoy the prospect at all. This I was deliberately awake for. It was definitely a compensation.

[dhampyresa]

I spent a semester of my sophomore year at college being the mysterious semi-comic figure in someone else's school story

I wish to hear (your side of) this story.

[sovay]

I wish to hear (your side of) this story.

I slept from the eruption of Thera through the end of the Ptolomies!

[dhampyresa]

I feel like I am missing some context. /is tired

[sovay]

I feel like I am missing some context. /is tired

I'm sorry. My side of the story is the second paragraph.

[asakiyume]

Banks of mist over fields of cattails among autumn-gold birch trees, all suffused pink as a Technicolor fog machine. A kind of conch-bronze light on the changing hillsides. I just passed a pylon the color of shakudo. I should clearly be awake at this hour more often. The world looks weird.

So beautiful--we all should be up at that hour more often, to see those wonders.

[sovay]

So beautiful--we all should be up at that hour more often, to see those wonders.

I really don't dislike mornings per se. I just dislike not sleeping before them.

[lillibet]

When I was a freshman, my Literature Humanities section was at 8am and the instructor liked my making it to class so much that she gave me one of those Mr Coffee makers with a timer, in hopes of helping me be awake at that entirely unreasonable hour. I really do wish that there would be more classes at 9pm--that would have been a great slot for me!

Interestingly, while we were travelling this summer we wanted to maximize the short daytimes (it being winter there) and managed to keep to sleeping pretty much 11pm to 7am, which meant that we saw the sunrise several times. I was surprised how easily we all shifted to that schedule (although after a couple of early mornings we all needed to sleep in until 8:30 or later). I think it really helped that there were relatively few distractions available and a need to stay in and keep fairly quiet, so Alice could sleep. It was useful being able to adapt, but I don't like it!

[sovay]

It was useful being able to adapt, but I don't like it!

Understood! I have functioned on a morning schedule at various points in my life, but it never feels natural, just possible. I really wake up at night.