October 13, 2005
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The Daily News
1 I'm thoroughly convinced that nobody gets a good night's sleep anymore. But then, like most people, I'm all about ME.
2 Since I'm not getting any sleep, it stands to reason that EVERYONE is getting no sleep.
3 I'm constantly amazed at how the "all-nighter" has become chic. It's like if you actually DO an "all-nighter", you get to say you did to other people, and let's face it: for WHATEVER reason, YOU have bragging rights, because YOU did an "all-nighter". I first noticed they were cool a few years ago, when my '05'ers were Juniors. Evidently, doing an "all-nighter" for Galindo was a right of passage, much like tribal rituals involving weird headware and plates.
4 "Me do all-nighter! Ugh!"
5 And I would usually feel like, "Whoa. I DIDN'T do an "all-nighter". Those others have all LIVED, and I just did something sensible last night, like drink a little warm milk, watch a Disney movie, and I got to bed early."
6 And sometimes I would find MYSELF trying to match the coolness, but it seldom was as good. "Yeah, I stayed up and watched Cone-ann." I would instantly see that not many people think that staying up and watching Cone-ann has even the remotest of bragging rights.
7 It all reminds me of a game I used to play with this buddy of mine, Alesio. We called the game, THAT ALL? It went like this: if someone would come up to either of us and brag about ANYTHING, we'd start our next sentence with the words, "THAT ALL?" followed by a brag that would kick the other person's brag into the next county.
8 For example, if someone would slip it into a conversation that, "Last night I hadda do an "all nighter", Alesio would instantly chime in, "THAT ALL? I did an "all-monther"!"
9 It was ridiculous, but awfully fun.
10 It moved to college. "Dude, I drank six root beers last night!" (beat) "THAT ALL? I drank a keg! And then I ate six baloney sandwiches. And two hard-boiled eggs, with mustard!"
11 Ah, yeah!
12 I often boast of my quite famous, at least in my own mind, insomnia. It happens all the time; I somehow feel that it happens a lot to people who enjoy writing, which I do. I'll draw complete blanks all day long, and somewhere around 3 a.m. I'll sit bolt-upright and hit the computer with a great idea. I'll then realize that I awakened WAY too early to get up, and WAY to late to try to get back to sleep, because I just KNOW that in three short hours, the alarm will go off, and so I just sit up and fret about how exhausted I'm going to be later in the day.
13 And THEN I think about all the concerns I have in life, and I figure that by thinking about them in the middle of the night, that I can somehow fix them. This gets me up and pacing, so I will often go into the living room and hop online.
14 I can THEN effectively boast to anyone listening that I have this hopeless insomnia. Sometimes I'll even get up the courage to e-mail people. I'll say in the e-mail, "I was fast asleep for like around THREE hours earlier tonight, and I just woke up, and NOW I can't sleep, so dude, I have this amazing case of insomnia..." and I'll wait a few minutes, just to see if there is a response. There usually is, because I know who all the other insomniacs are by now. So I'll talk of how I have just awakened, and that it's three a.m., and that I'm probably just going to stay up. Their rapid reply:
15 "THAT ALL? I'm pulling an all-nighter!"
16 And with that, I'm outta here!!
17 That's all, folks. Have a great day, and get a little rest, willya?
~h~
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