Last night, I got home before Justin. I got in, grabbed a snack, and went upstairs to check a few things on my computer. And then, because it had been a long day and I was tired, I went and lay down on the bed to take a short nap.
The window on Justin’s side of the bed was open a little so I could hear sounds from outside. There was a soft “clunk” from the driveway across the street as the little kids next door played around with a skateboard. Someone down the street was spraying a hose at something. There was the occasional murmur of talking adults and the laugh of kids. It reminded me of listening to a secondary soundtrack on a movie—all the shuffling of feet and traffic noises, all the sounds that fill up the space behind the talking of the actors, but nothing loud enough to count on a primary track.
I heard Justin’s car drive up and park, the deep, throaty purring of a black panther or some enormous, aging jungle cat. I heard him say something to the neighbors and then the “thump” of the door as he came into the house. I uncurled from the covers and went down to say hello. He laughed at my state of half-dress and sleepy eyes, but followed me back upstairs and saw me back onto the bed to nap until it was time to get together with our friends online.
When he came back a while later, I thought it was to wake me up. I struggled to pull myself into awareness and must have mumbled something about it being time to get up. He said, “No”—plans were off with our friends because someone else couldn’t make it either, and that he was in to ask if I’d like to curl up under the covers, instead of on top of them. He chuckled and called me cute as I rolled over and wriggled my way under the covers. I can’t remember what else he said, other than if I slept all through the evening, he would be sure to get my phone so I would have the alarm in the morning.
I lay there for a second, thinking that it might be nice to read my book, and then I was asleep again. The next time I woke up, Justin was climbing into bed behind me. We chatted for a minute. He said something about how I’d almost gotten a full night’s sleep already and how he was surprised I hadn’t gotten up for something to eat. I asked about the alarm in the morning and he set his phone to ring for me. And then I was asleep again.
His phone went off two times this morning before I climbed out of bed, taking pity on him because the alarm was on his side of the bed and kept waking him up. In all honesty, I could have slept for at least a few more hours. As it was, I got close to 11 hours of rest. That’s a lot of sleeping. The good news is that I’ve been perky so far this morning. Apparently the key to me having a good morning is to sleep for half the day.
Unfortunately, because all I did last night was get home and go to sleep, I got back to work this morning thinking, “Didn’t I just leave here? Don’t I do anything else with my time?”
It really wasn’t how I was planning to spend my evening. I knew I was tired, but I didn’t think I was quite *that* tired. I’m very thankful for my friends letting me bow out on our plans and for my husband letting me sleep away the evening. And I’m glad that I’m feeling better this morning. I was worried that I’d still be exhausted. It’d be sad and terribly discouraging if I had to go home and sleep away my entire evening for the second day in a row. But I’m feeling good! Sleep, apparently, really, really does do a body good.