{"id":6336,"date":"2025-11-04T18:50:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T17:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/?p=6336"},"modified":"2025-11-04T18:50:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T17:50:11","slug":"the-midnight-hour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/?p=6336","title":{"rendered":"The Midnight Hour"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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When I was a kid, being up all night was awesome. I would sneak downstairs and watch movies. Sometimes, when the mood hit, I would do my plug best to balance the knob so that it would provide an insight into the naughty channels (i.e. boobs). This mood seemed to hit when I was 12 and I will tell you when it stops. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Insomnia was not a word. Well, it was not a word I could spell. I was a night owl. I adored the solitude. I lived in a house with three siblings. Solitude was extraordinary and as unattainable as space and time. I also deluded the fallible belief that I was the king of night time. I could eat what I wanted and watch what I wanted. It was awesome. I would fall asleep when the toothpicks could no longer hold up my eyes – let’s say around 5 or 6 am. And then I would fall face first into a sleep that lasted until my mother threatened to set the bed on fire with me in it. She was a smoker so she had the tools handy. The week she quit, she had the tools handy and the motivation. Motive, means, and opportunity all being present, I went to the backyard and found a chair.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps it was my lunar activities that led me to bar work. Working at a pub, after all, was being paid to be up all night and cater to other night owls. Sure, they were drunk, but why not? When I made the switch to day time work – to become a teacher – I was genuinely terrified that my system would not make the necessary switch from night owl to early bird. I figured I might have to find a school that taught night lessons. After an initial period we’ll call the days of crying and being sleepy, I amazingly did make the jump. And how! I went from being a very night owl to being a very early bird. My family was astonished; my father still doesn’t believe it. I am clearly going to do old age very well – I get up at 5 am, read paper books, and by 4 pm I could destroy a Denny’s Early Bird Special!\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

I can’t stay up late most days anymore, but last Friday was an exception. I decided to wile away the night and early morning hours with Columbo, reading, and Bigfoot TV. I snacked on popcorn and drank fruit punch Crystal Lite. It was like being 12 again, but with no naughty stations – unless you consider Bigfoot naughty, which most of us do. It was a lovely evening. No obligations to wake up to and no worries that require my attention just now. What could be better? I have found that a big part of life is loving in adulthood what I hated in my youth: quiet nights, being confined to my room, being told to nap. The irony is as gooey as the syrup on an Early Bird Special. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As if in retribution, insomnia comes three days later. She comes early week when she comes. And I am powerless to avoid it. I fall asleep early with a book on my face and at 3ish I open my eyes. I am wide awake. Insult joins injury with the two animals and another human who are sleeping soundly and in what can only be described as intense comfort. I make my way to the couch and bring my book. The dog, perhaps in solidarity or maybe not to be left out, comes out and sleeps between my legs. I read for a while and nothing happens. There is such frustration being awake enough at 4 am to fly a Lear Jet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With 20 minutes until I have to get up, I fall into a deep sleep. It’s not my alarm that awakens me, but Burke threatening me and tapping my arm. I open my eyes and sigh. I consider risking another few minutes and the snooze button, but Burke is getting irked. She has motive, means, and opportunity, and there’s no chair in the yard. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I was a kid, being up all night was awesome. I would sneak downstairs and watch movies. Sometimes, when the mood hit, I would do my plug best to balance the knob so that it would provide an insight into the naughty channels (i.e. boobs). This mood seemed to hit when I was 12 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6337,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/damiengaleone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/960px-53-aspetti_di_vita_quotidiana_insonnia_Taccuino_Sanitatis.jpg?fit=960%2C1045&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EvEu-1Ec","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6336"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6338,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6336\/revisions\/6338"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}