I have always existed in a state of infatuation concerning night time. I do not like mornings; I love nights. This trait has become kind of a heavy burden to carry as I move forward in life as a father and husband.

Though I love to party, my affinity for the night life is unrelated. In high school, I went to school until noon, then “worked” the rest of the day at Pizza Hut as part of a program for kids who needed to be employed. I hid from my high school the fact that I would go home and take an afternoon nap, then work from roughly 5 to 10 pm and stay up way too late afterward. Only to be exhausted by the next morning, where I’d repeat the same drill.

I was always late for school, and sometimes would sleep completely past classes. I could never wrap my mind around the fact that we were expected to be ready to learn and be attentive at 8am. It was like some cruel joke.

I was a smart and resourceful student, so I managed to always keep solid grades and made sure my absenteeism was not so excessive as to warrant extreme punishment. Plus, I had friends like Jennifer Rouse who would write my “mom” notes if I needed an excusable absence (that my actual mom would NOT have approved of!).

Throughout college, I managed to always keep my classes to 1040am or later – after my first year. I had to battle through two straight semesters of a 940 Italian class. That was hard, since I managed to get through high school without ever having a single foreign language lesson. Not even an uno, dos, tres … Eventually, I discovered the best legal drug our country has – strong coffee. All good. Bring it on, college.

I’ve worked some periodic early shifts in the 12 years since I graduated from Missouri (Columbia). But it was not until 2005 that I had a traditional 9 to 5 commitment … but the fact I was working for Emmis Communications (KSHE 95 and KHITS 96) meant I was in a rock ‘n ‘roll environment, having a ton of fun and could rely on being excused for coming in late – as long as I kept working my ass off into the evening as needed and taking care of business. Eventually, I had to leave Emmis because of layoffs, just as we had a baby at home.

So, that is what has been on mind as I stay up too late once again. I love the solitude of night, the quiet, the rain and thunder, sometimes the crazed partying if desired, the flow of consciousness, the romance, the stillness … and just being very involved in the moment. And lots of TV!

Being a night guy helped when we had a baby who only slept for a couple hours at a time for about five months! I still sucked at early morning help, but rocked the late shift.