More zzzzzzzzz's, please

I'm tired. Falling-asleep-before-the-end-of-a-good-show tired. Today a friend at work asked me if I've been getting enough sleep, so the dark circles under my eyes are obviously telling their gossipy tales. I know I've been going to bed too late, but it's always such a temptation to read just one more chapter before turning out the light.

It does seem to be true, though, that I don't require as much sleep as I did when I was younger. Back then, I needed a lot of sleep, and the minute things got quiet, I'd go out like a light. I never--not one time--made it all the way through a date at the drive-in movie. You can guess how that affected my popularity.

There was one funny sleep-related incident the first year I was married to my second husband. He had a good friend from high school who used to drop in with his wife and kids once a month or so. The guys would head out to the garage where they could engage in a little male bonding and car talk, and the kids would go off into my kids' bedroom to play. That left me to entertain the wife, Virginia.

Virginia was a nice person...well, okay, she was more than a little bit boring. I'm not good at small talk either, but I'd try for a while to keep a conversation going and then, without fail, I'd doze off right there in front of her. I don't know how long I'd sleep, but I'd wake up suddenly, my head jerking wildly, and be so embarrassed! I dreaded their visits. I'd try everything I could to stay awake, but it happened every single time.

And then something happened that took the pressure off. Everything was just the same right up through the part where I nodded off, but this time, when I jerked awake, I saw Virginia sitting calmly on the sofa, eating candy from a little bag and reading a book that she'd brought along for just such an occasion. She was as embarrassed as I was, but I liked the fact that she'd come prepared. It wasn't the last time I fell asleep on her, but it was the last time I worried about it.