Sleep, it is a gentle thing

“Just a few minutes,” I thought to myself. “I’ll only sleep long enough to trick my body into feeling rested.” Giving myself 30 minutes, I set the alarm for 2:10 a.m. Michaela lay down as well. A short rest would help what we knew was going to be a long night.

Neither of us heard the alarm. When we woke up at 6:30, the sun was beginning to rise and our work was still undone. We weren’t even able to fully enjoy our unexpected five hours of sleep, since we weren’t ready for bed and the light burned brightly. Michaela wasn’t even under her covers.

I sat at my desk and looked at all the work I had hoped to have finished by morning – two newspaper stories written, five edited, seven Composition 1 papers graded. “It’s going to be a great day,” I remarked to Michaela, not at all sarcastically. Sitting down to finish her 40 pages of anthology reading, she agreed.