Sleeping in public is bad, bad, bad! Who knew?
When I went to SFU, I slept during my breaks all the time. I'd estimate that 25% of my empty schedule slots were spent tucked up across two chairs, leg wrapped around my backpack, part of a coat under my cheek and the other part over my shoulder as a blanky. I should have got a minor in napping for all that creative sleeping. It took some skill to find the good quiet places where you could easily doze off for 30 min.
UBC was a bit different because I was living on campus. Why contort yourself into the classic two chairs slid together 'student cot' when you can go back to your room and bed.
This was all more than 20 years ago now but it turns out it's like riding a bike & one never forgets. Yesterday I took Hugo to his gym & art classes at Bonsor (a municipally funded public community recreation center) even though I was on day 2 of a miserable headache, had muscle spasms in my back & hadn't really slept well since Sunday. I was more than a bit out of it, and while Amelia dutifully did her assigned reading, I curled up and closed my eyes, hoping the world would stop spinning and I'd stop feeling so miserable.
Alas, it didn't last because a man with a walkie talkie promptly woke me up with firm declarations that 'we don't allow sleeping here!' When I protested that I was waiting for my son who was in the gym 10 feet away from me, he said 'it doesn't matter, we don't allow sleeping here because then everyone would sleep here' and walked away.
Since I was now awake, I took stock of my headache (still there), muscle spasm (still there), overall alertness (reasonably compos mentis), and then I sat up and waved a finger in the general direction of where he had been. I'm not a cheery person when you wake me up.
And then I had a nice chat with a fellow homeschooling mom who was also waiting for her son & it was fine but I kept thinking about this of banned public sleeping.
a) it was obvious I was not a bum. A frazzled middle aged mother napping under a Zara wool coat, right beside a young woman reading A Tale of Two Cities surely can't be that alarming.
b) is there really an epidemic of homeless people sleeping in community recreation centers? and
c) if there is, then really? We're just moving them along? We can't provide a safe space for them?
My only take home lesson was that I need to practice sleeping upright. Behind sunglasses.
3 comments:
You are too funny!
Unfortunately I've never mastered the art of napping, except late in the evening in front of the computer, tv, or with a book, when I should be in bed anyway.
I envy anyone who can sleep in public. And also despise them. To sleep in public I would need earplugs, eye mask, a huge blanket and some real pretty pills. They're probably the same type of person who can take those 10 minute *cat naps* and wake feeling all refreshed. How does that happen? How can anyone fall asleep and wake up feeling refreshed in 10 minutes???
Sorry, got off track. I'm on day 2 of an evil bout of insomnia.
I wonder how powerful the walkietalkie man felt, waking and chastising a " frazzled middle aged mother napping under a Zara wool coat, right beside a young woman reading A Tale of Two Cities".
Your post made me laugh, and for that, I thank you. Thanks!
You guys don't nap? You mean you stay awake all day? C.R.A.Z.Y.
LOL
It's not the falling asleep that troubles me, it's the waking up. I fall asleep at the drop of a hat; waking up though, generally sucks :-)
I can't imagine insomnia. Sounds awful, HH!
In early Feb I had a couple days where I was waking up at night & having a hard time falling back asleep. ACK! Maybe perimenopause thing? Anyway, I cold turkey'd coffee and that fixed it for me.
Hope you're getting a good night sleep now HH!
Post a Comment
Go on! Say something!