I spent the weekend out of town at a district meeting of my community service organization. I roomed with a fellow club officer and things were going pretty well until about 1:00 a.m. the first night. I don’t know what woke me up, but I quickly realized that my roommate snored. In fact, she snored a lot like my husband, only more steadily. At home, I have a loud fan on my bedside table to drown out all intruding noises. The hotel room, on the other hand, was completely silent…except for the implacable snoring.
As I lay there awake, listening to the snoring that still penetrated the toilet paper I’d stuffed into my ears, my mind touched on each of the snoring solutions I’d ordinarily use at home: pillow throwing, verbal abuse, etc. Unfortunately, these options are all far too rude for use on a casual acquaintance. I realized I was hungry, so I fished a meal replacement bar out of my purse and ate it. The next thing I knew it was 6:00 a.m. and the alarm was ringing. Hooray! I’d fallen back asleep!
The next night I figured I’d be okay because I had a couple of glasses of wine in the hospitality suite before bedtime. I was oh, so wrong. This time I woke up at 2:00 a.m. I already knew that plugging my ears was a waste of time. I’d thought of a solution, but it was a little drastic. If my roommate happened to get up, she’d know how much her snoring was bothering me, and I didn’t want that. I hesitated for a while, but soon I knew there was only one thing to do.
I scooped the sheets, blankets and pillows off my bed and deposited them in the bathtub. With the bathroom fan on and the door shut, I turned off the lights, burrowed under the covers, and slept in the tub for four surprisingly comfortable, silent hours. I woke up just before 6:00 a.m. and dumped all the bedding back on my bed before my roommate awakened. I’d made it through!
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