The Road Warrior: Where Am I?
I have never really had normal sleeping habits. Once, at about age 7, I woke up and realized I was riding my mother’s exercise bike at 2 AM. Then again, at about age 9, I awoke to the sound of running water and it came to my attention I was drinking water from the kitchen faucet using a spoon. Needless to say, sleepwalking, talking in my sleep, and restlessness have always been a part of my nocturnal life. Not much has changed.
As a Road Warrior, one who spends his life traveling the world and preaching the gospel, I sleep in new places all the time. I have slept in my vehicle on occasion, but usually I end up in a hotel room or someone’s house. I usually prefer a hotel room because it removes the “wild cards” from the sleeping equation. It means there will be no indoor pets (I am extremely allergic), no small children entering the room at 6 AM wondering why a 6 ft. 3 inch stranger is sleeping in their bed with Strawberry Shortcake sheets and a Hello Kitty pillow, and, most importantly, the entire host family does not wake up to see me roaming through their home at 3:17 AM asking where I am as I sing old Michael Jackson songs. I never remember doing these things, even though people from over 30 states have told me these kinds of stories over breakfast. “Clayton, do you remember us waking you up last night as you rambled through the kitchen cabinets looking for shotgun shells?” I actually love staying in people’s homes, I just hate that my nocturnal habits are so unpredictable, and I don’t want to scare the kids.
Hotels also have their pros and cons. The beds may be comfortable or pathetic, the breakfast might consist of stale donuts and old orange juice, or the rest of the patrons on my floor may decide to party like it’s 1999 (the first person to post a comment correctly identifying this pop cultural shout-out will be honored in my next post). And then this happens to me…I wake up and have no idea where I am. I don’t know if I am at home, in a hotel, or at a family’s house. I don’t know what city I am in or what event I am preaching at. Then as the panic sets in, I automatically assume I have missed my flight (this is a constant fear I live with). So without ever really waking up, I get dressed, grab my bag, and realize as the elevator opens to the lobby and I stumble out in a sleep-deprived stupor, that I have 4 hours before my plane leaves. Heart pumping, adrenaline flowing, I limp back to my hotel room where I lay in bed for 3.5 hours trying to go to sleep. Then, I doze off for exactly 8 minutes, and the alarm goes off. This time, I know where I am…
I am in purgatory. Miles from home, hours from my wife and boys, another sleepless night. But it is worth it for several reasons.
1. I get the honor to preach the gospel to those who need Christ
2. I am storing up eternal treasure in heaven
3. When I do get home, I will have 3 days uninterrupted with my family and I don’t have to go to an office or do any administration thanks to a great team at Crossroads
4. I can catch up on sleep on the airplane, and there are 4 Starbucks in the Charlotte airport
Ahh, the life of a Road Warrior? Sound glamorous? Hardly. Sound fulfilling? More than I could ever have imagined.
February 8th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
Prince
February 8th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
You are so funny, my wife often tells me about my midnight adventures. Where I thought the closet was the bathroom, glad she caught me there. LOL I also have often gottne up in the night and then found myself in one of my sons beds the next morning and that kid in bed with my wife. I am gald I am not the only one. Thanks again for keeping us motivated and encouraged. Prince partied like it was 1999
February 9th, 2008 at 12:56 am
The artist formerly known as Prince ( Roger Nelson )
Awe I think I was second. But I should get some minor credit for knowing his real name …right?
February 11th, 2008 at 11:27 am
Daggone. And here I was ready to win an award…. Prince it is.
February 11th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
Crud! I was too slow. Prince sang the song. Later he became the artist formerly known as Prince, then he became a symbol. That was strange.
February 11th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
Two years ago at our Spring Retreat I knew I wouldn’t sleep good so I took Tylenol PM (I don’t sleep well without my wife and in my own bed). I laid there till 4am wide awake and then had to be pu at 6am.
The next night I took Tylenol PM again still it didn’t phase me and usually knocks me out.
The next night I took an Ambien and was up even later.
When I got home I was so zonked I snored, which I only do when I’m exhausted, which kept my wife awake and she won’t happy at all.
But I agree it is well worth it when you see student’s lives changed.