The Intelligence Estimate

I have always been a night person. I don't know why. I think it started out because I felt like I was getting away with something when I would be up when my parents weren't. And I would watch TV shows that ONLY I was seeing. I felt special. I felt like I was communing with a secret society of night owls. Everything seems more epic when it happens late at night.

When we moved to Chicago, we left Des Moines at 1 a.m. It was monumental. Even now, as I'm writing this, it's almost 12:30 a.m. I am alone. Jen is in bed, and our apartment is so small that I am sitting in the dark so I won't wake her. The only light is from the computer screen. I love it. When I was in college, there were many nights when I would turn off the lights in my dorm and just stare out at the city lights with some sad music on in the background. It was great. It's not a great way to meet peope, but I love it.

When film maker Robert Rodriguez is editing a movie he does it in his garage studio at night so that he can spend time with his kids. He wakes up at 3 p.m. and picks up the kids from school. He takes them home and makes dinner, helps them with their homework. Then he puts them to bed and goes to work. He works through the night until it's time to get the kids up for school the next morning. He gets them ready and off to school, then he sleeps until 3 p.m. and the process repeats.

See, this is what too much NPR will do to a person. I wax poet over misspent college years and regurgitate factoids from random Fresh Air interviews. Think of all the millions of better ways you could have spent the time you wasted on reading this! Shame on you!