Tuesday

Autobiographical Corner

Something new for me: I woke up and headed to my basement study Sunday morning before my sons' spontaneous friend gathering had broken up. Granted, it was already 4:15 AM, but it was kind of odd to walk downstairs to the sound of contemporary music and high schoolers talking and having fun. I think they thought it was kind of odd to see the host's father come down the stairs at 4:15, but absolutely nothing looked amiss and I felt bad to crash the gathering. One of the kids asked, "Are we being too loud?" And I said, "Nope, I'm being too hungover. I have work to do in my study. You guys carry on."

So why would I get up at 4:15? For starters, that used to be my normal rise time. From age 27 to about 40, I used to get up anywhere from 3:30 to 4:30 in the morning so I could get some serious reading done, before the din of little feet and cries. I stopped that practice when my oldest son started high school because I realized I was beginning to sleep through a lot of his life (back when we both went to bed at 8:30, it was fine, but once he started going to bed at 10:00 or later, I realized I had to adjust my schedule ot miss a lot of time with him).

But that wasn't the problem Sunday morning. Rather, I was caught short by a confluence of events. I am a firm believer that one of the best remedies for sleeplessness is to change locations. I have dubbed my college daughter's vacant bedroom the "sleeping laboratory" because that's my favorite place to go at the first hours of the day to get back to sleep, but I also have a great family room couch. Unfortunately, both were occupied by house guests. I would have tried to go back to sleep in my own bed, but an unexpected vodka-induced headache (out of proportion to the number of drinks I had the night before) and my terrible mattress (it retains heat . . . a miserable thing) made that impossible.

So I cut my losses and went downstairs to a batch of Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors. The party broke up before 5:00 so I don't think I screwed things up too badly for them. I think they found it amusing that they were still up when I was waking up.

I remain stunned, incidentally, at the apparent innocence of today's generation. I wasn't a bad kid, but at age 18, I know for a fact that someone would've brought beer to a spontaneous gathering like that. It was just an accepted fact of life in the early 1980s. That apparently isn't the case today. I realize sexual mores are far more stripped down (so to speak) than the already-tattered mores of the early 1980s, but I've seen no sign of that in my kids' high school quarters. Their vices appear to be horror movies (which, given their intensity today, might mess with their minds more than a six-pack of beer would), raunchy comedy movies (unacceptable, but one I'm not willing to stomp out ruthlessly like I would, say, a cocaine-and-condom party), telling you at the last second that a group of friends are stopping by, and staying up really late.

Not bad, not bad at all. I guess I'm a lucky guy to have kids like that.