Great Events In History

I cannot sleep with the light on. I blame it the sleeping conditions of my youth. We slept in a basement with tiny little windows and my dad turned the heat down to the mid 50s each night. The result was a cool, dark and relatively quiet sleeping environment.

While an argument could be made that no mother ever sleeps "well", if I can't duplicate, as close as possible, those primitive sleeping quarters in my current life, I don't sleep well.

Too hot? Misery.

Outside noise? My body swells with inner rage against the noise makers.

Light? I toss and I turn and I toss and I turn. Until the light goes off.

It's unfortunate, because Jay likes to read before he goes to sleep. Never for very long. I've learned to be relatively patient with him because I know that soon, blessed darkness will come.

The trouble arises when it's me who wants to read.

Jay has assured me numerous times, that he has no problem with me reading and I should feel free to continue reading for as long as I like. But, because I transfer my own internal feelings onto anyone else I meet, I assume that really, deep down, he's lying there with his eyes closed trying to be patient.

Recently, my fears have been somewhat confirmed, as he's pulled the covers up over his head while I'm still reading. As soon as he does it, I turn off the light and feel sheepishly selfish.

Other nights, however, he falls asleep with my light on (when I'm not even in the room) which confuses my easily confused brain.

Last night, I asked him, once and for all, what the deal was.

Turns out, he doesn't really mind the light when he can turn away from it. Unfortunately, with some of his stomach issues going on lately, he has to fall asleep on his left side, which faces me. He jokingly said how we should just switch sides of the bed.

"Why not?" I replied. "Let's do it!"

Jay, uncomfortable with this kind of abrupt change, takes a minute to get used to the idea while I remind him that it isn't unprecedented.

We had the I'm Going To Scream If I Can't Feel A Breeze Switch of '99 when I needed to be closer to the open window in our roasting, un-airconditioned apartment.

Then there was the Great Big Pregnant Woman Who Can't Hold It For More Than Two Hours Switch of 2005 when we moved our furniture around and I needed to have easier access to the bathroom during the middle of the night.

We survived both of those traumatic events perfectly fine.

And thus, the Bile-In-The-Stomach Bedside Swap of 2007 event transpired last night.

We are 3 for 3 folks!