The Bogeyman

So, I'm alone for a few days. It's interesting. I'm not sure it's all it's cracked up to be. I was looking forward to it, but now I think I'd like to push the rewind button ... the do-over button. If you've ever done the Myers-Briggs type indicator, I'm an "I" for introvert. This does not mean that I sit around in corners, but it does mean that I need significant alone time to recharge my batteries ... that being with people drains my batteries and being alone recharges me. So ... after these couple of days I should be on FULL UP! However, I'm thinking (after my one day) that perhaps this is something I need in smaller doses. That teaspoons on a daily basis, rather than gallons once a year, might be a better way to approach it.

For instance, here is one unforseen hurdle. Night time. And. The bogeyman. Perhaps you remember him? Well, I met him again last night. At 11:23. When I attempted to go to sleep without anyone else in the house, including the dog. Just me. And 9 fish (more or less).

The first time I met the bogeyman, I was about 8 or 9 and he was lurking on the porch roof outside my window. He was going to steal me from my family. Kidnap me. And force me to steal things from stores! Oh, the horrors. Sometimes he also lurked under my bed ... but mostly he was on the porch roof that was right outside my window.

Later, when I was in college, I came to Washington, DC for a semester at American University. Some friends of friends of our family asked me to housesit their lovely home in a toney upper NW neighborhood. Very safe. Except ... remember where I grew up. Walton's Mountain. That first night in their house, the bogeyman came back and re-introduced himself. So I did the only sensible thing for a single young woman on her own in the big city. I found the largest knife I could (I think it had about an 18" blade) and put it on a chair next to my bed. Then I turned on every light in the house, except for in my room. And the television. And the stereo. And the radio. And the clock radio in the kitchen. And I went to bed at about 2 a.m. The next night a young man of my aquaintance kindly offered to help keep the bogeyman at bay. But we all know he was interested in other things. He left in the wee hours of the morning; both of us frustrated because neither of our objectives had been met.

After that, I graduated from college, moved to DC and got a studio in a bad apartment building (a renovated Mt. Pleasant rowhouse) with no security except a rickety deadbolt and lived there for 2 years with no qualms and no visits from the bogeyman. I came and went as I pleased and it would have scared my parents to death if they'd ever seen that place. I felt completely safe ... so what gives now that I live in safe suburbia? Is it that I'm old? That I watch too much Law & Order? hmmm ....

Now, however, I have learned a little bit about the bogeyman and myself. I've learned somethings about how to outwait him with the tv on. So I got a little more sleep. Tonight will be a little easier too as I get more used to it all. I may also borrow a friend's dog.