Being a bum is harder than I thought

The first three weeks of retirement don't count because I was  running around doing all the Christmas holiday stuff and heavily involved in the Revels Christmas show (10 performances).  But the day after Christmas it started and BOOM, just like that I turned into a bum in one week.  Who knew it was that easy?

For three days I didn't even get out of my jammies.  Watched movies and played computer games all day.  Stayed up late and slept in late.  So before I knew it, I was staying up until 3 AM and sleeping until noon.  Now, I've always been a morning person -- wake up naturally around 6 AM wide awake and ready for the day, then get really sleepy by 10:30 or 11:00.  This staying up late thing and sleeping late was a whole new thing for me.

I read a book a long time ago (can't possibly remember the title) about a woman who rents a cottage for a year on Cape Cod. Her goal was to get away from people and her old life.  So she decided to sleep, wake, and eat whenever she felt like it, with complete disregard to normal schedules.  If she slept 18 hours and stayed up 24 hours and ate breakfast at 3 AM, that was perfectly fine.  She gradually discovered that her natural schedule did not correlate to the normal expectations -- her body was comfortable with about a 30-hour day. 

And so I've always wondered what my natural rhythm would be.  By the Saturday after Christmas, I found myself still up and alert at 3 AM and horrified at how fast the change had happened.  I'd turned into a total bum in only one week!!!!  I was more than a little concerned but then I remembered several retired friends telling me that there is a long adjustment period, so I relaxed a bit and finally went to bed at 3:30 AM.

And the next day, a miracle happened.  My brain awoke at 7 AM, alert and ready for the day.  So I figured I might as well get up, fully expecting to crash in the afternoon.  But amazingly, I was awake all day until 11:30.  And this morning is the same.  So I figure that maybe I've finally had all the sleep and resting up that my body can possibly tolerate and that I'm back to my normal self and just don't have the right constitution to be a real, long-term bum.  All those years when I was sitting at my desk at work and fantasizing about laying around the house doing nothing and it turns out that it's just not as easy as I thought.  I guess I need to find other ways to spend my time.

Next week, I'm off to New Orleans.......but will talk about that next blog.