I'm what is known as a night owl. My mother has countless stories of me acting like a vampire baby, waking up as the sun went down and closing my eyes as the pesky thing came back again. I think my brain actually kicks into gear around 10pm. But I have yet to find a career path that befits my liberal arts office lackey training that would have me keeping me own crazy ass hours, so I've got to be chained to a desk during the daytime from 9amish to 6/7pm...and god, do I love it so (in that not sort of way)!
On the last Monday in July, I had a Farmer reunion involving 3Bs I love and one I tried to avoid like the plague (for the record: burgers, booze, banter, and blow) that got me about 2 hours of sleep and home in just enough time to take a shower and go to work. The to-work train nap did not cut it and I was sitting at my desk with a massive cup of coffee really wondering if I crawled under my desk and just disappeared for a few hours, if anyone would actually notice as long as I didn't snore. I was doing my daily "yeah, I'm not working today"/"Me neither, but here's something funny online" IM chat with Jay-V and I cried out that if I had a fucking nap, I might be able to get on with the rest of the day without falling face down and drooling.
Then a light shined down on me from the heavens and I remembered this place I had read about and at the time tucked away for future reference: Metronaps. Hallelujah! I was saved! I told Jay about it and we both made appointments for that afternoon. I had brought my lunch, so I heated it up and ate it real quick so the -itis would make the nap that much better before traipsing the 7 blocks over to the Empire State Building.
The Metronaps office is all futuristic looking. I felt like I had stepped into Total Recall or something. The cute little too skinny (but aren't they all?) desk guy welcomed me with the most beatific smile I've ever seen. I was tempted to say, "is there enough room in the whatever for you to sleep with me. I like to cuddle when I sleep" (which is a big lie, btw). He led me to my Jetson pod that looked like a Lay-Z-Boy outfitted with a roof with lights and handed me my blanket. I put on the headphones at first before I realized that those "relaxing" sea sounds were giving me the creeps and took them off. I turned onto my side, thinking that the white noise machine was kinda loud and I'd never get to slee...
And the next thing I knew, I was opening my eyes and looking at him again, ultra disoriented. I blinked a few times and got up. I had apparently been sleeping so hard that I had ignored the lights and/or vibrating chair wakeup mechanism, so I got the walk up shake. I got up and took a stretch, walked over to the Wake Station and spritzed myself and then amazed at how fucking great I felt. I was like a whole new person. Jay was coming in as I was leaving and I babbled something or another about how wonderful it was before strolling back to work. I felt so nice that the slow moving cows on 6th Avenue didn't even bother me for a change.
Of course, work sucked the life back out of me in no time, but I at least wasn't yawning as much. Always nice to have a magic trick to make the work day a little bit easier.
(And for further reading, Jay's experience. And no, this isn't an infomercial.)
Posted by Candicissima at August 7, 2004 03:58 PM