Erin The Great

Finally! It’s been over 80 degrees for the last week and like superman, I feel like I’ve been rejuvenated by the mere presence of the sun! It’s a good thing the sun… It means that summer is finally upon us.

I love summer, but the one thing that is the hardest for me to do is sleep. Because it’s nice out even when the sun goes down, people are still awake and doing things even if most of us have to be at work early the next day. It’s like we’re all still kids and we can’t go to sleep until the sun goes down and there is no more noise. I used to look out my window as a kid (when the sun was still up mind you) because I had been sent to bed at an unfortunate hour. My friends would still be playing in the street and I would get more and more jealous by the hour… it’s ok because I would just read with a flashlight until 11 or midnight anyway because really, what kid can sleep that early? I was really good at pretending to be asleep, mainly because for two years I slept in a little space between the wall and my bed. All I had to do was be face down and my parents couldn’t tell.

After many moons, I’m sad to tell you that my mentality hasn’t changed much. Only when I’m dead dragging tired can I make it to bed before midnight. It’s the summer! The only thing about that is the older I get, the harder it is to recover from a night without sleep. In high school, due to all my extra curricular activities, I would run on about 4-5 hours of sleep a night. NOW almost 10 years later if I don’t get at least 7-8 hours I have to ante up the caffeine and drink it like it’s going off the planet. Gallons and gallons of Dr. Pepper just to get me mobile (note how I didn’t say awake). It’s funny how when we’re kids we never want to sleep. When we are adults, we can’t get enough of it. I always tell myself at work that I’m going straight home and going straight to bed… This of course never happens because, after all that caffeine, I’m wide awake by the time I get home. It’s a vicious cycle. My only hope is to have kids and have their natural ‘crack of dawn’ wake-up call be MY body’s internal alarm clock reset. Until then I have my liter to get me going!

My friend Nick draws cartoons for our ward Newsletter… I think he nailed it on the head with this one.