Late Nights with Dad

I love watching the local nightly news. I feel like I have to watch it every night before I can go to sleep. It's mostly because I have this weird need, a real true need to watch the weather. I have always watched the weather, even as a kid. My dad would watch too. I remember he would lay on the couch in gray sweats and dark socks (leftover from his work clothes). He would watch a 9 o'clock show and relax as he unwound most nights. I would watch with him. Then the 10 o'clock news would begin and he would watch some more. Dad had the couch, I laid on the floor in front of the TV. As the evening wore on and he got more tired I'm sure that his body got heavier and heavier. I know that feeling now as an adult. It is so hard to get up and go to bed. So dad would lay and watch or snooze. And I would stay. I learned over time that if I moved he would send me to bed. I may never know if it is because it drew his attention to me making him notice I was still there or if it was because he figured I was asleep so he'd let me sleep until he went to bed and then tackle the issue. All I know was that if I moved I had to go to bed. If I was still I could stay. I would lay lifeless on the ground. I would do everything humanly possible to not shift or wiggle. Not one inch. If I had an itch coming on I would fight the need to scratch it. Close your eyes. Imagine it away. Pretend you don't feel it. It isn't there. You can take it. Be strong. If you move, you will have to go to bed. All thoughts running through my head. If I had to give in I would fake a groggy stretchy wiggle allowing myself to appear asleep and tired while I shifted my body to scratch the itch. All the while hoping and praying I wouldn't arouse my dad's attention that would surely banish me to my bed. These are the years I fell in love with Johnny Carson and the Tonight Show. I remember the colorful curtain behind him as he did his nightly monologue. I know I didn't always get all his jokes. I wasn't up on current events, politics or the Hollywood scene when I was ten years old. I remember sometimes thinking the monologue was dumb because this day or that day I just didn't get the jokes or know who in the heck he was talking about and making fun of. The longer I listened, the more I loved it. Eventually Jay Leno replaced Johnny Carson. I was about thirteen at the time and I didn't care for the change. For a while I didn't mind going to bed earlier. He wasn't worth staying up to see and all the associated strategery involved to stay still on the living room floor in front of my dad. Over time I fell in love with Leno. Again I would lay on the floor through the 10 o'clock news hoping and praying I could stay still as a statue so I could remain on the floor watching Leno at 10:35pm. Now we live on the East Coast outside of Washington DC in Virginia. Primetime TV starts at 8 o'clock instead of 7 o'clock like in the Mountain Time Zone. That pushes the news to 11 o'clock and Leno to 11:35pm. It's late and I'm tired by the time Leno starts, but I still find myself staying up and watching. I was sad to see him retire. Though I told myself this would be the perfect time for me to break my late night habit begun over twenty years ago on the living room floor of my childhood home with my dad. For a while I didn't care for Leno's replacement, Connan O'Brien. Actually, I don't know that I'll every really like him but my channel flipping during his show has revealed another option. Jimmy Kimmel. Oh how I love Jimmy Kimmel. He is so fun. He seems to use cleaner, more light hearted comedy than O'Brien or Letterman. He's better. He's funnier. He has Guillermo and Uncle Frank. Gotta love Guillermo and Uncle Frank. Problem is Leno/O'Brien/Letterman were at 11:35pm. Kimmel starts at 12:05am. I may never break this late night habit but it is nastalgic for me. Though today instead of trying to stay painfully still and silent on the living room floor so I'm not sent to bed, I have a TV in my bedroom with a sleep timer. Instead I try to stay very still and not flip flop too much so I don't disturb my sleepy sweetheart Brian.