12/29/19 Not Bored

12/29/19
Not Bored
by Holly Winter

I wanted to help my friend, Linda celebrate her birthday. We met at the Denizen Theater in New Paltz for a Christmas play, and then I was going to take her out for dinner.

The play was great, but I was so tired I was falling asleep. It's the last showing of this run and the room was packed. I liked the play with it's puns and one liners, but was so tired from the late Christmas party in Argile last night that I was fighting to stay awake.

It's a small theater and the actors noticed my nodding head. So they played to me with looks of desperation. Louder noises. Steps in my direction. They stared at me all the time, as if they were willing me awake.

Their attention embarrassed me, but I was too close to sleep to turn the tide.

I don't think Linda noticed my struggle and I hope the rest of the audience didn't notice.

Do the actors understand that my exhaustion had nothing to do with my feelings about the play or the quality of the play, both of which were amazing?

I had this deep need to let them know that I wasn't bored, but they were busy at the moment and it would have been difficult to have a heart to heart conversation with them, besides I was nodding off--not a great time to talk.

Pinch. Pinch. I pinched my thigh over and over again in the same spot. It hurt. A lot. This was going to be a nasty bruise. The pain mostly worked. I stayed awake for the rest of the show. Or I think I stayed awake, maybe I was snoring through the whole thing and only dreaming of staying awake?

When it was over Linda cancelled our dinner plans. We are expecting an ice storm tonight and the rain had already started. It was safer to head home right away.

I got home and tumbled in to bed, ready to nap.

But I was suddenly wide awake.