Night Drives and Insomnia

"Insomnia is just an addiction to sleep deprivation."

As I'm starting to write this (no idea when I'll finish, but we'll see), it's almost midnight here in Ashburn. And this is probably the first night that I have bailed out on my friends early in quite a while. "Why tonight?", you may ask. ... patience, I'm getting to it!

This is summer. Originally, I had planned on getting a job somewhere, but that plan fell through almost immediately. With the trips I was taking, there were too many holes in these few weeks before college, so no job for me. This is both good and bad. Bad: no money. Good: lots of free time... a little too much free time. Free time that was for the most part packed during the daytime. I'm pretty sure there isn't much to say about how much daytime with no car sucks for someone of my age. Let's just say that the days can be quite boring. Ergo I did what any bored teenager does. I became a night person.

Ahhh, the many wonders of the night life. It's like being in Vegas, but not really, cause we're stuck in Cashburn (see, see, aren't I witty?). Nick (from now on and forever to be referred to as Kish) tends to have car access much more than me and we abused that privledge to no ends. This is how our "night drives" began. Basically, neither of us wanted to be home after like 9, so we drove... and drove some more. Kish drove the two of us all around Ashburn and to parts which were previously unknown to the both of us. Now, sometimes we'd be more productive than others--for one, calling people for our Europe reunions that everyone's so fond of--but for the most part we just chilled with music and the endless circles of the routes we took. As most anybody could have guessed, eventually we dragged more friends along who were also in our bored stupor and thus the tradition was set in motion.

After these multiple weeks of long nights--out 'til 1 or 2 in the morning and sleeping around 3 or 4--followed by early-ish mornings--getting up at 9 most days--a sort of artificial insomnia is born (a lot like the kind most of us experienced in Europe, but that's another story). Now, even though I feel kinda mean, I'm going to force you to scroll up and read that quote again. John, my roommate-to-be in college, was the one who originally introduced me to the concept, and I so totally agree--like yeah! Before the last month or so of school, I always slept 8-10 hours a night. That's a ridiculous amount of sleep. My theory in this is that I had nothing to do after 10-11, so I got tired. Well, that's kind of obvious, but like the quote explains, it can become addicting. Never before would I have been up at this time (it's 1 now) blogging. Up for the sake of being up.

But yeah, this leads me back to my original point (with all 'em twists and turns getting here, reminds me of the mighty Mississippi...). I'm home early tonight because we were watching movies--just saw Snatch and that was deliciously good. However, when I'm this tired, dark rooms with comfy carpeting and a pillow tend to make me fall asleep, which I promptly proceeded to do. So, I guess there is a limit to this fake insomnia... oh well, I milked it a whole bunch.

With that, I am off to sleep and get a full night's rest for the first time in a while. Then perchance I can get back on my fun schedule of sleep-deprivation. I'll see ya all later.