The Sleepy-Time Energy Blues

To My Youngers,

Back in school I was a night owl. Well, I suppose more correctly I should say I have been a night owl since pretty much the day of my birth, but in high school and university I took full advantage of that. I would stay out at friends' houses until three, talk on the phone until five, or go on long walks through the marsh, sometimes not getting home until six or seven in the morning.

For much of that period I also worked doing theatre at an amusement park with many late-night and over-night shifts. I loved it. I would finish work at whatever time and be all hyped up and completely not ready to go home to sleep. Sometimes I would head over to a friend's house, sometimes I would tag along with some of the guys from work and go to the Wendy's on the highway to play arcade games (Oh Crazy Taxi how I loved you... ), but most often I would just pick a direction and drive. Bass pumping, lyrics blaring, speeding down the highway (always the highway or back roads, never by houses- I mean that would just be inconsiderate!). It was a half-hour drive home, but often I would just keep going north way past my exit, sometimes go east instead, the odd time even headed in the direction of downtown and driving until the highway turned into just a regular street.

There's something about being out at night, there are so few people about and everything is so quiet. The air feels different, the music feels different, the world feels like a completely different place. Things just aren't the same during the day time- sometimes they're just too crowded. Sounds over power you, sunshine distracts you. Conversations just aren't quite as funny, movies just aren't quite as entertaining, and Crazy Taxi just isn't as good on Playstation...

I especially love the part where night turns into day, when its still dark out but the birds have started singing. When the quality of everything you can sense starts to change. When the night-time people and the day-time people start to cross paths, when something turns into nothing and nothing turns into something. Its like you're watching the day get born... gets me every time. 

Now-a-days I am fonder of the day, I am fonder of the sunshine and the sounds, and the everyone-else-being-awake. But sometimes, coming home from a late day of work, or hanging out with friends, or sometimes just when its been a really lovely day and the night is still warm and sticky (or cool and crisp) I just want to not-sleep. To drive around listening to music, or go on a long walk, or lie on the dock or sit on the porch or the deck and have long conversations, get the giggles and make ludicrous connections between our lives and anything/everything else under the moon.

I guess once a night-owl, always a night owl...

-E