It was weird to show up at 8 pm to a doctor's office, even though the doctor's office was more like a hotel. There was only the technician there when I arrived, a woman whose name I didn't even get until the next morning because we're both shy and didn't actually introduce ourselves - she just let me in and showed me to the room where the Food Network was on and asked me for my paperwork, insurance card and ID, had me change into PJs right away and get comfy, and then started applying goop to my face and scalp and behind my ears so she could start attaching wires. We did this nearly silently, although it took almost half an hour - she also attached wires to my legs and throat and shoulders and put a couple of straps with more wires around my chest and waist. I had "The Cosby Show" on while she did this and every once in awhile we'd both chuckle, but that's it.

After that she helped me into bed and did some tests on the equipment, and then I watched tv for awhile. I don't have cable at home so that was pretty novel and I had way more choices than I'm used to, so I watched that Keira Knightly "Pride and Prejudice", and then I turned off the tv and read for awhile. (I had just activated my Brooklyn Public Library card that day at the branch I used to go to as a kid, on 82nd and 13th ave - it looks different inside and, of course, much smaller than I remembered it! I browsed a bit and found the new Stephen King Dark Tower book, The Wind Through the Keyhole, so I checked that out. Look at me, so retro, checking books out of the library!)

Anyway, because of the lack of caffeine and the fact that I forced myself not to nap yesterday, I actually started feeling sleepy around 10:30 pm. I put the book down, turned my head towards the reading lamp (which seemed so far away) and Annie's voice instantly crackled over the intercom, "Do you want me to turn out the light?" (I imagined I was in a sentient spaceship, like Heinlein's Gay Deceiver, at that point.) "Yes please," I said, and she came in and shut out the light. The only light in the room was the tiny green light over the camera up in the corner, trained on me as I slept.

Which I did do, eventually, but it took what felt like forever. I had no sense of time in the room and don't really know how long it took me to fall asleep, but it was well over an hour. I also kept waking myself up with that little "hooting" noise that I sometimes make as I'm falling asleep. I think my primary trouble was that because of all the wires, I didn't feel like I could shift over onto my stomach, and that's my preferred sleeping position. I did manage my side a couple times, but mostly I was on my back and that grew uncomfortable after awhile. It wasn't so much that I felt trapped by the wires, just very conscious that they were there.

Twice during the night, Annie came in to readjust a wire on my shoulder, so I know that my shifting around did knock something loose at some point. Of course, that only made me more conscious of it.

I know it was around 5:30 in the morning when Annie's voice came back over the intercom and I was in a half-awake twilight (she must've waited until I was nearing the surface of awakeness before coming in to wake me - a benefit of watching someone sleep, you can tell what stage of sleep they're in and wake them at the gentlest moment!) and we went through the tests again, and then I sat up and she came to unhook me. She apologized for all the goop in my hair, "It looks so nice, I'm sorry I had to goop it up!" she said. That was sweet; I had washed it the night before and put it in a braid, I guess the braid looked nice. She advised me to take as hot a shower as I could stand to get the goop out. Then I filled out a couple of questionnaires, packed up my stuff and was on my way. There was a car service across the street, and the world was exactly as dark as it had been when I'd arrived the night before.

When I got home, there was a message on my phone from Annie; I'd left behind the dog-bone pillow, the one that I swiped from Mom years ago (with her blessing) that supports my neck, and that comforts me because I like sleeping with something that was Mom's...  I didn't want to call another car service to take me back to Bay Ridge, and Annie said that she'd bagged and tagged it for me so when I come pick it up, whoever's there will know to give it to me. The tricky party will be showing up when the office is open and someone is there; I just tried calling and no one answered. I guess a sleep lab is open weird hours. I left them a message to call me back and let me know the best time for me to come get it. Times like these, I do wish I knew how to drive - it would be so much easier to be able to just drive over there and pick it up, rather than rely on taxis or subways. 

The only thing Annie was able to tell me was that I do not grind my teeth. For anything else, I guess I'll have to wait for my doctor to fill me in. Maybe he can tell me what all that "hooting" is all about.