Where Am I?

It happened again just the other night. I woke up in a dark room and was completely disoriented. I had to pee and needed to remember where I was, and more importantly, where the bathroom was. It happens from time to time when my travel schedule is heavy and the stay in each location is short. I laid there for a few minutes and then remembered where I was - Ha! I was home in my own bed!

Since my last blog entry I've been to B.C. Canada, Colorado, New Mexico, California, and spent one night at our vacation cabin on the Hood Canal in Washington. I have been staying in hotel rooms and private homes, sleeping on dream beds, water beds (really!) and futons. It's a good thing that I can sleep pretty much anywhere these days, although that hasn't always been the case.

Children can usually sleep just about anywhere, anytime. They are attuned to their bodies and less attuned to all the angst in the world. They get tired and crash; their limp, rag-doll bodies conforming to whatever surface and situation that presents itself. I was like that too, until I hit my teens. In hormone hell the weight of the world fell squarely on my shoulders bringing with it anxiety and, it's cousin, fear. For the next decade, I would spend the first night or two away from home in a fit of restless insomnia - it didn't matter where I was. I could always count on sleeping the third night from sheer exhaustion and that knowledge would get me through the first couple of nights.

Then I started a business that required travel - a lot of it. And in the early days, I would spend weeks in the only accommodations that budget allowed - the kind where I would stop and pick up scented candles to burn in the room and some cleaning supplies. But somewhere along the road, on the road, I started to sleep, the business prospered, and the accommodations improved. I have stayed in some amazing places like Casa de Estrellas and the Water Street Inn in Santa Fe. I have lodged as a guest in some remarkable homes. And I still find myself in budget motels from time to time. Thankfully, I usually sleep well on the road, and so far have managed to always orient myself in time to find a strange bathroom in the dark.