I saw a writing prompt somewhere that got me thinking about the topic of this post.
We all do weird things that we probably shouldn’t do at an inappropriate time.
For me, the witching hour where I can either fall asleep or fall off the deep end lies somewhere in the neighborhood of 9:00 p.m.
Most nights, 9:00 p.m. is the time when I make one of three choices:
- Read for a bit before bed.
- Catch up on something I’ve procrastinated on.
- Fall down a Netflix/YouTube/Buzzfeed/Internet rabbit hole that inevitably ends with me still awake at 11:30 p.m. and Brent annoyed at the light my phone throws.
But, I’ve also caught myself doing some rather strange things at 9:00 p.m. that probably weren’t good choices at the time. Or they were just really frigging odd.
What did I do? Well, here’s a sample of 5 things I chose to do after 9:00 p.m. All true stories.
- Paint a mirror. This one is actually quite recent and started off innocently enough. I went down into our basement to switch laundry from the washer to the dryer. On my way down the steps, I noticed an old mirror that I had saved, thinking that I’d eventually paint it. Well, that night seemed as good enough as any. I switched the laundry, cracked open some paint, and went to town. It needs another coat. Now I just have to figure out where to put it.
- Taxes. Two years ago, I got the urge to get my taxes squared away and couldn’t wait until morning. I TurboTax-ed the shit out of that evening. In retrospect, it was dumb because I was tired and had to redo part of it (thankfully, I waited until the next day to actually submit them and double checked my work). As you can tell, I’m pretty wild.
- Clean out my car. Anything automotive after dark (unless it’s essential) is probably not a good idea. One summer evening, I was struck with the idea to get my disaster zone of a vehicle decluttered. Even with a flashlight, there was much cursing. Then there was Rubbermaid tub of said car clutter sitting at the top of my stairs. For a week. Or three.
- Cook chicken. Why, yes! Who wouldn’t want to prepare chicken for the next day’s dinner that far ahead? Bust open some bird and make your kitchen smell like dinner right before bed. Does wonders for your sleep cycle.
- Researched a major lifestyle change. Every now and then, I get a moment where I start contemplating life’s big questions. What am I doing with my life? Am I doing what I should be doing? What is my purpose? You know, the normal shit every 20-something decides to think about before falling asleep. So, then I start reading about living in a tiny house, or entrepreneurship, master of library science degrees, Ph.D. programs, paring down your possessions to just 100 things, hostels and how cheap it is to move to XYZ city/state/country/planet, chakra balancing and completely clean eating, copywriting and branding wizardry, writing plays, yoga retreats where you eat vegan food and do nothing but work, meditate and stretch in spartan accommodations with like-minded folks. Hours later, I’ve got 10 windows open on my phone, countless bookmarks, frustration, and that feeling that everything I’m doing is somehow pointless but still I do it anyway.
Rabbit holes, people. Rabbit holes.
(and of course, write blog posts.)