Counting Sheep In Hotel Rooms Doesn't Really Work

I have trouble sleeping in hotel rooms.  Always have.  It's not just that the beds are consistently too short for someone 6'5", or that someone will inevitably stumble past the door at bartime talking to their friend as though they were still in the bar rather than in a dead quiet hotel hallway.  It has to do with the wacky energy that hotels have, the impermanence fostered by the carousel of residents sleeping in one room night after night after night.

My family took an overnight mini-vacation to an indoor waterpark over the weekend, just a one-night stay at the type of resort that flourishes in winter climates.  Being warm enough to wear less than three layers of clothing, much less actually swimming, is enough of a novelty to pack these places to the gills over the five winter months Wisconsinites endure annually.

So I wasn't that surprised when my wife and daughter were sleeping and I was staring at the ceiling at Midnight, after 4 1/2 hours of swimming and water slides.  I had come prepared for this possibility, and got out of bed, found the notebook and pen stashed in my overnight bag, and sat on the floor in a shaft of light thrown by the bathroom light, left on so that our daughter wouldn't be too disoriented should she wake up in the middle of the night.

There is one big upside to being awake when the rest of the world isn't.  There is no disruption, it is essentially quiet, and I have found that ideas flow very easily then.  Okay, make that three upsides.  But I was able to sit there for a few hours and plot out the majority of the backstory and scene sequences for one of the plot lines in Rubbed Out.  I felt great about getting that done!  It was a much better option than laying in bed, trying to fall asleep and getting progressively more irritated at the failure to do so.  When I put the notebook and pen in my bag that morning, I wasn't certain I would use them.  But I was prepared for the possibility.  Always be looking for hidden windows of time to work on the things that inspire you!

I eventually crawled into bed at 5 AM and slept for about three hours, then got up and swam for another 2 1/2 before staying up until Midnight to ring in the New Year.  I believe that the renewal I felt from being able to work on my book gave me some benefit akin to sleep as far as renewing my brain and body for the next day.

I had a great inspiration today regarding handling anxiety about achieving what you set out to do, and I'm going to blog about that on Wednesday.  The rest of today and tomorrow are going to be spent knee deep in research for Rubbed Out.  I'm learning about near-death experiences from first hand accounts, and it is utterly fascinating.

Until then, read something that teaches you something you didn't already know!  Thanks for reading.  -Jon