Originally posted on February 11, 2011 at 3:55 PM
If you asked me what one thing in the world was my favorite, I would probably tell you a lie. Like maybe my husband or my cat or my friends or my family or my craft. Although close contenders, none of those would be entirely true. The real answer is sleep. I like sleep more than I like anything else on this earth. More than cuddling, more than scary movies, more than cute little owls wearing hats, even more than raspberry Hershey’s hugs piled so high they overflow the bowl. Srsly.
And I don’t know what it is about it, but I think most people would agree that naps are better than a regular night’s sleep. Although that’s good too. To quote a comedian I once heard, the first thing I think when I wake up in the morning is, “Oh my god, I can’t wait to do that again.” But there’s something special about the nap, in particular, as a form of sleep. Maybe it’s the daylight streaming in the window. Maybe it’s the forbiddeness of doing nothing for a couple of hours out of your busy day. Or maybe it’s just the novelty of sleeping on the sofa instead of in bed. Either way, naps are the bomb.
So I’ve decided to count down the 3 best naps I’ve ever had. Here we go.
3. The dark and silent luxury in the Bahamas
If you’ve ever been on a cruise ship, you know that the rooms are small and dim. The boat is rocking like a giant pair of arms soothing a baby to sleep. The sea air is warm and calming. And the blankets are hotel-thick and softer than a pile of puppies. Ideal napping conditions. When Hub-a-dub and I were on our honeymoon (a cruise to the Bahamas), we were both pretty exhausted. Right after the wedding, plus so many fabulous events and shows to go to and enjoy. Fun can be exhausting, you know.
So one day, when there weren’t any events I was particularly thrilled about, I asked Kyle if I could just stay in the room and take a nap while he went out and ate or drank or gambled or played miniature golf or whatever. I got two hours in the cabin to myself. It was pitch black, warm, heavy, and rocking like an oversized cradle. I can’t imagine that whatever Kyle did was as good for him as that nap was for me. It was pretty damn good. It’s some of the best sleep I’ve ever had.
2. The Benadryl-ridden haze in Austin
I lived by myself for a year and half in Austin while I was going to school. I had a little efficiency apartment that was totally awesome. It was so small that I got a loft bed from IKEA so I could have room for a little loveseat and a desk down below. I really liked it. What I did not like was how bad my allergies were in Austin. The time I have in mind was during the summer, and I had recently decided that getting allergy shots wasn’t worth the money and hassle. Clearly, a horrible mistake.
For the span of about a week, I ended up taking 2 Benadryl every 4 hours just to be able to breathe and keep my eyes from swelling shut. At this time, I did not know that one of the side-effects of Benadryl was drowsiness. I had to go to my summer classes. I’ve never been the type of person to fall asleep in class, but man I came close that day. I was literally nodding my head down and then jerking it up as I realized I was starting to sleep. When I got home, I crashed onto my loveseat in spite of all of my homework and things I needed to do, and fell into the deepest, heaviest sleep I’ve ever experienced. When I woke up three hours later after the drug had worn off, my notes from class were all gibberish (seriously, the writings of a madman), but hot damn, that was a good nap.
1. The snuggly 16 hour snooze-fest in Amsterdam
Hub-a-dub and I (back when he was just A-dub) went to Europe for Spring Break one year on a college tour. The flight to Amsterdam was something like 12 hours long. I can’t sleep on planes. At all. When we landed, it was morning there, and we had a whole day of fun scheduled. Jet lag much?
When we finally got to our hostel early that evening – which we were told would be a hotel – we discovered that the room for 2 we requested had bunk beads. Lol. Not quite what we were imagining for our romantic getaway. We were supposed to get ready for the factory tour and the following group dinner. We decided we would rather sneak in a little nap and just meet up for dinner. So we both wedged ourselves onto the bottom bunk, which was up against a window-unit. The heat was rattling out, and we spooned under a big comfy blanket, and when the alarm went off, it felt like we were wrapped in a little heated cocoon.
Kyle turned to me and mumbled groggily, “Wanna just sleep through?” And I rolled over and said, “Yes.” We reset our alarm for early the next morning, skipped dinner, and didn’t wake up until the sun had set and re-risen. It was intensely awesome. And plus, after that, we were the only ones on the trip who didn’t fight jetlag the whole time. Bonus.
And those are the 3 naps that rocked my world. How about you, do you have any memorable naps?
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