"You're not allowed to go to bed until AFTER 9:00."
...hm
All growing up, I had a bedtime that I faithfully abided by. Sometimes, in high school, I'd stay up past my bedtime, but I definitely suffered the consequences of being dead the next day.
Now, when I say bed time, I don't mean I was told "Katie, you MUST BE IN BED BY ELEVEN OR ELSE!" My parents didn't care when I went to sleep; as long as I wasn't making a ruckus around the house they were chill with me going to bed whenever. It was pretty much a bedtime set by me. Set by me, of course, really means set by whenever I was too tired to continue being awake. This usually was around 11:00. I used it as an excuse to get off the phone with high school boyfriends. As much as I pretended it wasn't set by me, I knew deep down that I was just pathetic and needed to go to bed early in order to function. I didn't know, until today, that I was pathetic enough to have an anti-bedtime.
Anti-bedtime is a term I just made up. It means you are assigned a time when you're not allowed to go to sleep. You may be thinking, "Wow, Katie. You're almost 21 years old. Why are your parents giving you this crazy order?" Well here's my story.
I woke up this morning at 8:45 because I was planning on running before I started my day (see how the run went here). So I ran. I work as a lifeguard, and today is Memorial Day. To the lifeguards at my pool, Memorial Day (as well as Fourth of July and Labor Day) means you better get to the pool early if you want to get a parking spot. Now, I wasn't scheduled to work until 3 p.m., but I knew better. I decided that right after my run, I'd head over to the pool to work on my tan/get a decent parking spot. The pool opens at 10, I got there at 10:30 and was lucky to find a spot. That's how crazy it was. My boss ended up asking me to start my shift three hours early (which is totally fine by me, I'll take all the hours I can get), so I ended up guarding from 12-7. That's a freaking long shift, especially in the hot sun at 99% humidity. I almost died.
Such a busy day. I was so drained; I wanted nothing more than to go to sleep. When I got home, my sister was making dinner. I wanted to know when it'd be ready because I wanted to go to bed. My mom overheard this and yelled from the other room, "Katie, you're not allowed to go to bed until after 9:00." What the crap.
Her reasoning wasn't all that terrible. I start my internship tomorrow, and my parents didn't want me going to bed too early and waking up in the middle of the night not being able to get back to sleep. That's understandable, but then again that shows how much they don't know me - I could sleep all day every day if I was given the opportunity.
So, parents, I hope you guys are happy. 9:00 p.m. has officially passed and I am still awake. I'm surprised I'm actually coherent enough to continue typing. Not for long, though. Not for lonn.jfsjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
