Guess Who's Coming to Sleep Over?

By Cyndi Seidler
05/24/06

I have a guest bed and my dog loves it. It's in my office and it's the one place she can watch me and not get rolled over by my office chair.

I'm one of those people who really enjoy having guests stay over. It happens about once a year, but I'm always ready. Usually.

One night my daughter came home (when she was living with me) and she wasn't alone. She brought her date, who apparently had too much to drink during their night out to drive himself home.

"I hope you don't mind, mother," she said. "I had to be the designated driver and thought you wouldn't mind my friend sleeping it off until morning."

I was thankful she got herself home and had no argument. I had the guest bed, after all, and all I needed to do was get was some blankets and a pillow.

Good thing that was all I had to do. It was 2:00 am.

When I got to bed I started thinking about whether I had enough eggs in the house for breakfast in the morning. I wondered if I still had some spare toothbrushes for the guest. I thought about the fact that the house was due for a cleaning and if the dust would be noticeable. My thoughts trailed off into some changes in the decor of my living room, and that's really infuriating when you're trying to sleep.

I must have fallen asleep again about an hour or so later after exhausting my thoughts. It was a good thing too because the alarm rang out at 6:30 am. Normally, this wouldn't be ringing at that time in the morning, but I had an early appointment and there was work to do before departing.

A problem came to mind: my office is located where the guest bed is.

I didn't plan on this. There were no preparations for the emergency event that occurred the night before, and I was in a difficult situation.

Do I wake up my daughter to wake up her sleeping date? Should I just go into my office and start working, hoping he wouldn't notice? What if I startle and embarrass him by barging in on his sleeping territory?

I try to be in control of my life. I plan. I prepare. I follow schedules and I stick to daily routines. I'm pretty structured, and not in a neurotic way. And, I can usually deal with surprises or sudden change of plans. I can even shift things around to my advantage.

The thing I'm not in control of is surprise sleep-over guests who are lodged in my office when I have work to do.

It was a difficult decision but I decided to wake up my daughter and let her deal with it. She wasn't thrilled to get my early morning wake up call, but knew that there wasn't going to be a debate about it.

As it turned out, her friend had to get going to be at work himself. Everyone was off the hook. He got on the road in a sober state, my daughter went back to bed, and I got my office back.

I think I was a little disappointed that he couldn't appreciate the full scope of my guest-ready house. He wasn't awake in my house long enough to take it all in.

But, at least the place was ready, even though I wasn't. And, that's what counts.

Copyright 2006 Cyndi Seidler. All Rights Reserved.