sleepy fan

last night i felt OLD. real old. damn old. although i shouldn’t, because a lot of the people i dealt with at the venue thought i was just a few years older than them. and this was at the beck acoustic show. what was REALLY odd (and when i first heard about this show, i didn’t think it was real) was that beck played his two hour and some change acoustic set at the performing arts center…of westlake HIGH school. so these were high school kids i was dealing with; yet they thought i was close to their age…hell, one of their girlfriends even hit on me when we were left alone together for a couple of minutes, so i must be doing SOMETHING right with myself. but the show went off without a hitch, and i learned something i didn’t know about the artist formerly (and currently) known as beck…for all his “thrift store” sensibility that he drips across his wardrobe choices, he actually wears the same size prada as me (yes, i ended up with THAT kinda access)…but his were boots.

then it was off to the crib; survey the puppy damage (none…apparently five is the magic number when it comes to chew toys to buy a pitbull when trying to spare your house) and then it was off to bed. or so i thought. i turned off the lights, and went to turn on the fan…but it didn’t turn on. NOT good.

i used to think i was odd…when i was a kid, we always had box fans in the house in all the bedrooms even though we had central a/c. this initially came about when i was about eleven, which would put my mom at fourty-two, and she started going through that wonderful female experience that archie bunker politely called “the change”. with that came hot and cold flashes, which occasionally led to the house being a bit warmer at night then i liked. i’ve also always been a light sleeper, so to have a din of noise i could call my own and mute out the rest of the world was a good thing.

the problem is, i got VERY used to it…and soon, even in the dead of winter, had to have the fan on in order to sleep, even if it meant pointing it away from my bed so i didn’t freeze my ass off…but i’ve found that several of my friends are the same way, and one of them referred to it as the “sleepy fan” (yes, male AND straight on the friendship chart yet still came up with that term – and it’s very fitting, i must say)

every woman that’s slept at my place HATES it. not so much for the noise, but the dramatic drop in temperature. on the upside, i kinda radiate heat, so in order to be comfortable, they end up sleeping nice and close..which leads to other things i’m a BIG fan of (pardon the pun).

i’ve tried to kick the habit, but it just doesn’t work. i can still sleep, just not as well. and throwing in the copper factor made for one restless night last night. i tried in vain – just like a guy (well, a REAL guy)..something’s broken, give me a tool and let me fix it. pulled the whole thing apart, cleaned the crap out of it (something ironic about using canned air to clean the innards of a fan, huh?) but in the end, no dice…the central bolt that holds the blade in place is stripped, so i can’t even get it all back together…which sucks; i really liked this one, and will probably buy one just like it to replace it. i just have to remember to do it tonight, or i’ll be kicking myself.

last night i cranked the a/c WAY down so it had to stay on longer and i had THAT noise to help me sleep (the unit’s right outside my bedroom door, and the outside unit’s right outside my bedroom window – STEREO!!!) but when i woke up and was PAYING to have my house sixty-eight degrees, i decided the fan REALLY needed to be replaced. this was further strengthened by the “get-out-of-the-shower-and-walk-into-the-bedroom-with-a-wet-head-and-start-sneezing” factor.

so…the fan/sleep addiction…think we should start a support group for this?

Replies: 5 Comments

boy, if you’re gonna offend people, at least do it properly…

sean (sick, evil, atrocious, naughty – never knew my name was an acronym, did you???) said @ 08/24/2002 02:11 AM GMT

Kramer, you have way too much spare time on your hands

Porn Star said @ 08/24/2002 12:13 AM GMT

dude:
religious lingerie

astrofishy said @ 08/23/2002 10:06 PM GMT

I’ve got a ceiling fan on 24/7 and one of those little turbo fans when i need the extra noise. You don’t think much of it until you spend a night at someone else’s house.

topenga said @ 08/23/2002 07:41 PM GMT

Wow, I didn’t know there were others with the same fan/sleep addiction. I think my addiction stems from a fear of hearing critters (cockroaches, etc.) running around the house when I’m asleep, so I like the white noise of the fan to cover up that possibility. I have central air but it always seems stuffy if I don’t have the fan running while I’m sleeping.

jette said @ 08/23/2002 06:35 PM GMT