Sleepless in Brooklyn

It is 2:11 am and I cannot sleep.

I woke up at 1:10 am. Why?  It got me thinking about Michelle Slatalla’s column (my fav) in the NY Times from March 12, (just read it two days ago) entitled “It’s Time for the 2 A.M. Lullaby”. She writes about the change in her sleeping habits and waking up in the middle of the night, once she hit her 40’s.

Uh Oh, I am 40.

One of the woman she interviewed told her, “No matter when you sleep, what you need, is to feel secure.” So I asked myself, did I feel secure? Not really. I could hear the TV in the apartment upstairs and someone was banging in an apartment downstairs. I do not like noise, my ears have the qualities of a dog that sniffs for drugs. If a noise is being made, I hear it. Meca our 9 month old kitty, who usually never has time for me in daylight becomes very loving around 1 am and burrows her head under my chin, while covering my face with wet kisses from her nose and purring like a car that backfires. Actually this is the part that does make me feel secure. I’ll take any love I can get from her.

Then the fact that I am 40 got me thinking about Trader Joes. My husband and I went grocery shopping yesterday around 4pm at the TJ on 14th street in Manhattan. I always say never again. The chaos there is incredible. It is impossible to shop with the amount of people trying to get down the aisles, but we managed to to leave with a bag of groceries that cost us $48.00.

We were standing in a huge line, next to be called to a cashier and I said to the young man directing “traffic”, “Have you been to the one in Brooklyn?”. He said yes, and that it used to be a bank. I said, “Yes, my bank, it used to be Independence Bank and that is where I went 20 years ago.” Then I thought OMG and said, “How old are you, like 20?” and he said 22. And then he said, ” 20 years ago I was 2 and didn’t know what a checking account was, I wish I was 2 again.” And I said , “Wow, now I have had one of those experiences with a younger person who I consider a peer, but really am not. I was an adult when you were a baby.”

31 minutes later, I am still here awake. Meca has left me for a comfortable spot in the living room with her peer Bella, a 3 year old Tabby.