When night fell at the end of the day that I’d found Ollie I was much too excited to sleep. First, I couldn’t go to sleep because I was filled with ideas of essays to write about Maggie. Once I wrapped up all my writing and fell asleep in the wee hours of the morning, I couldn’t stay asleep because I was too excited to get up and playing with Ollie the next day. For those, and other reasons (we got up early one morning to look at Venus! She was gorgeous!), I kept having too many late nights and began running low on sleep that week.
A few nights later, Benjamin invited me to come to bed on time so I could catch up on some sleep - I dragged my feet, as is our usual routine. Then suddenly another typewriter essay came to mind that was insisting on being written. This made me quite eager to get into bed! Since we’ve been guests in others’ homes, I’ve been doing all of my writing late at night when the house is asleep and all is quiet and not distracting.
As he closed his book and turned out the light to go to sleep, he rolled over and gently encouraged me not to stay up too late. I told him I had writing to do! Instead, I ended up dawdling by reading all manner of things about typewriters online - a practice that’s become routine since we found Maggie at the end of November.
As I was putting all of my typewriter history questions to the internet and reading all sorts of interesting tidbits, it suddenly hit me: Benjamin said he’d do Maggie’s first photoshoot the next morning! Deciding I definitely wanted to be well-rested to enjoy the shoot to the maximum (brief though it would be), I went straight into business mode. I diligently set to the task of writing my latest essay so that I could get to bed, get good rest, and be ready to collaborate on Maggie’s photoshoot (I do so love being Benjamin’s photography assistant, regardless of the subject).
It amused me to realize that typewriters were both the reason I wasn’t sleeping (too excited! too much to read and learn! stories to write!) and also the only reason for putting myself to bed promptly to get good rest. In relaying this story to Benjamin the next morning, I let him know that typewriters have become a powerful motivator in my life right now, so if he needs anything done, all he has to do is tie it in with a typewriter somehow, and I’m on board!
