#631 Coming back to your own bed after a long trip

An ugly nightDo you remember your Worst Sleep Ever?

Man, I sure do. I tell you, it was back when I was in college and a few friends and I drove a skiddy van across a snowy highway in the middle of a blizzard to crash with my friend Chad. It was a cold weekend full of laughs and catching up with friends who had all been yanked apart after prom and high school gradumacation.

Now, it was late Friday night in this quiet college town when a few of us headed home to hit the sack. Of course, there were no fresh linens, soft pillows, or fluffy towels laying on pull-out beds there. Nope, all we had in that cold, dark basement were a couple ratty couches, a hollow wooden door to the blizzard outside, and a giant wall full of cheap ticking clocks all set to different timezones.

Don't try this at homeWell, what choice did we have?

We made little beds from couch cushions, used sweatshirts for pillows, and covered our shivering bodies with zippery, snow-smeared winter coats. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the clocks tick-tick-tick-ticked all night, and somebody got home really late and left the back door wide open. Nobody noticed until morning when all our teeth were chattering and there was a foot high snowdrift under the ping pong table.

It was a nightmare, but I know you’ve been there, too.

Power-napping on bumpy airplanes, crashing on a flabby futon or jabby mattress, sleeping in a rainy forest in a leaky tent, you’ve had your fair share. Bad sleeps, sad sleeps, sack-pillow heaps, weird alarm clock beeps, and through it all you enjoy long, fidgety nights of groggy pillow turns and fuzzy blanket burns.

But after those killer sleeps in nightmare paradise, it’s always a great feeling to return to the warm and cozy comfort of your sweet, heavenly bed. Yes, you’re like a bear scraping together filthy leaves and warm mud for a long winter of hibernation or a soaring eagle swooping home from the windy treetops to the twiggy goodness of your comfy nest.

Your dented pillow, warm flannel sheets, and preset alarm clock wait for you.

So welcome home, baby.

You made it.

AWESOME!

(There’s an update in the Book section)

Twiggy comfortPhotos from: here, here, and here

63 thoughts to “#631 Coming back to your own bed after a long trip”

  1. Ya, sorry about those clocks. Knowing the time in all major timezones was very important to our business; and, by “business” I mean SOCOM for PlayStation2.

  2. ooooh i know exactly how that feels. last month i came from a 12 hour plane ride from rome to hong kong, a 2-hour layover in the hk airport, then a 1 and a half plane ride from hong kong to manila. i dropped on to my bed and didn’t get up for hours!

    leethroughthelens.blogspot.com

  3. Like that year when I came back from Paris… Around the city all day long, then at 6 PM I got on the bus and had a 12-hour travel… At 6 AM I got home, went into my bedroom and said “Goodnight Everyone”, when everyone in the house was getting up…

    I slept only 7 hours, but that was the best sleep ever!

    AWESOME!

  4. For me it was a friend’s sleepover party age 12 or 13, and we had just watched “Carrie” – my first horror movie. It totally freaked me out. Everyone else went to sleep, and I basically stared up at the living room ceiling watching the creepy shadows made from the moonlight shining through the bare tree branches out front. Longest night of my life. And that counts sleepless nights spent in airports, and nights of the wailing baby.

  5. so true!
    last week i was on a road trip to south dakota from cali. trying to be stingy and save money, i slept in the car for a night in evanston, wy. it had just finished snowing a couple inches. i had one not-very warm comforter and a blanket. it was nice to be back home after a crazy adventure!

      1. She said she was on a road trip. She was probably just passing through. u weirdo.

  6. My worst ever sleep was curled up in a wooden chair in a garden after a party last February. I nearly got pneumonia. I was out getting a pizza and they locked the doors and went to sleep the fools.

  7. i remember all the nights spent on friends bedroom floor – not comfortable.

    i remember one time i had no pillow, no blanket and no pyjamas and it was freezing – i didn’t sleep all night.

    but its true, getting back to your own bed is bliss.

    great post.

    x

  8. Preset alarm clock?

    Are you kidding?

    That means that all the time you’ve been away, your alarm clock has been going off at god knows what hour, pissing off your next door neighbours who might still be trying to sleep.

    I duno, maybe you’ve got one of these poxy little alarm clocks that don’t bother people. But if your anything like me, then you definately can’t leave your loud alarm clock (that never switches off till you press the button) set whilst you go away on holiday.

    Still, beds do feel good after a long trip away, definately notice the effect more!

    1. Seriously? That’s what you take from the blog post? I have my alarm clock pre-set but it’s off…so when I get home from a trip, I turn it back on and it’s ready to go. I spent a long weekend away last weekend and truly appreciated coming home to my warm, cozy bed, flannel sheets and all.

  9. okay so i went to a summer camp where for two weeks we toured around new england and slept in different people’s houses every night. generally this was okay. once, though, my friend and i and one of our leaders got stuck in a cabin with no host (belonged to someone who lived up the road). no sheets, the bed and pillows were stained, no running water, an outhouse over a small creek, spider-webby walls. luckily our leader had a set of sheets; she took the top sheet, we took the fitted sheet. used t-shirts for pillowcases.
    still gives me the shudders to this day, i have no idea if i even slept.
    i can tell you we were very glad the next night to have real beds!

  10. Ooooh I get to experience that sensation soon enough…I’m coming home from college for the first time in a few months! I can’t wait to sleep in my own bed…

    1. I remember that feeling like that when I was in college. It was great!

      Now I feel that way about leaving my parents house and coming “home” to my bed in my place.

      I don’t know exactly when “home” changed, but it did. It kinda makes me sad. :(

  11. A few months ago I went out with my friends and we all decided to stay at one friend’s place overnight. I crashed on his bedroom floor… no pillow or blanket, just a sweater I borrowed from someone else. His house is always freezing cold and he had his fan going too! It was terrible.

  12. This is my first year attending a boarding school for the arts and I’m leaving later today for Thanksgiving Break and I will wake up in my own bed tomorrow. I can’t wait!

  13. The first time I flew from Sydney to the UK – it was awful! Sleeping in hotel beds for two weeks was no help, sleep wise.

    When I got back to Australia, the first night’s (or should I say, days) sleep was A-mazing!

  14. zomg y’all, i know #630–

    The milk leftover in your bowl after you eat chocolatey cereal.

    cereal-made chocolate milk: AWESOME.

  15. worst sleep ever? was on a trip and had the privilege of sleeping in a sacred teepee on a native reserve. unfortunately there were millions of daddy long legs spiders inside. even more unfortunate, we were banned from screaming because it was a sacred tent. try telling us 14 year old girls to sleep with giant spiders on your face in the freezing cold without sleeping….not gonna happen!

  16. Oh man it will be a while before I get to experience this one again. I have an outstanding, new pillowtop queen, sitting halfway across the world, unused. I just spent a month in a country that seems to be in love with hard mattresses and I think about my home base mattress as much as my other loved ones.

  17. Amen, did this last night after being on the road and driving around the state for a week, not even gonna go into the couches I crashed on. It was nice having my pillow that was all nice, cold and inviting.

    Aaaahhhhh, nothing better. =)

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  19. Oh man, been there. Going two months from airport floor to creaky bunk bed with adjusting time zones and no pillow the whole time. The night I came home was the best sleep I have ever had.

  20. I rediscovered an awesome thing during the night… A restless night’s sleep, flipping the pillow to the cool side… As good as fresh air

  21. ugh, worst night sleep for me is a tie:
    At my friend’s 13th birthday I forgot my pillow and sleeping bag. They had spares of the sleeping bags and pillows but only one thin mattress, and another girl got that. So i slept on the hardwood floor with half a heavy carpet under me, with no comfort but a thin sleeping bag, flat pillow and my friend sleeping next to me. my back was so sore afterwards.
    The other time was on the flight from Perth to Auckland with our choir. The plane left at 8.30 and landed at 7.15am (3.15am our time) so we had the whole day of travelling ahead of us and a party that night. i got about 3 hours sleep and there was no headrest and we were in economy -_-
    The night I came back to my own bed was pure bliss :)

  22. Yes, very awesome. Though, I haven’t experienced a night as bad as the one you described. Well, you made it back alive, right? Now you can appreciate your bed a little more. :)

  23. I just tap the heels of my ruby red shoes 3 times, close my eyes and say, “There’s no place like home.”

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