Nostalgic Sleeping

When I was younger, I had a canopy bed. My parents made it for me for my birthday in response to my life-long dream of having one and attempts to make one for myself by tacking sheets to the cieling. I loved that thing. Sometimes (okay, often) I would dress up in a nightie and pretend I was a princess getting into her princess bed. I would close the curtains and go to sleep, in my head, as a princess. The last thing I would see before falling into a pleasant, dreamy sleep would be the faint line of the moonlight between the two curtains that faced my window. Only the ribbons of moonlight were ever able to penetrate my princess walls. I slept as a princess.

Last night, I woke up in the middle of the night. I don't know why. Maybe because I was sick, maybe because I got tangled in my blankets (I have so many!!), maybe I was cold. . . I don't really know. But I was awake, and it was the middle of the night. My bed here is up against a wall with a window that reaches from just below the top of my bed almost to the cieling. It is covered by two curtains, one from each side. There is a small gap between them. Through this space passed the lights of the city, the harshness filtered out by the smog. This thin line of man-made glow was what I woke up to last night, and for the first time in a long time, I went to sleep as a princess.

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Today I was sick. Today I was on a bus. Today I comendeered the whole back row of a bus. Today I slept on a bus.

I laid down before the bus even started; my eyes were already closed when the engine fired up. My seats (5 of them, to be exact) immediately started to vibrate when the driver turned the key. The fait humm of the engine purred in my ear, whispering of adventures to come. I was transported. What would the next port be like? How much time did I have to nap before Kellie came back and started talking? I wonder what kind of pasta and potatoes we'll have for dinner? Will there be apples? Is my computer on the floor? I don't want it to get knocked down when the waves come. . .

. . . oh wait.

Today I slept on a bus.

But for a moment - a long moment, acutally (I was rather out of it) - I was back on the boat.