Sentimental Sunday: Sleeping Pills + (Almost)Nudity + Power Outage = Bad

This happened when I was in college.

It was the fall of 2005 and Jerbs and I were living in Wilson Hall.  It was the very beginning of September and Jerbs had left to spend the weekend in Kingman with her family.  I didn't have a game or any social obligations that weekend, and I had the dorm to myself, so my plan was to SLEEP.

Friday night after I ate dinner, I put on my PJ's and took two Tylenol PM's--which was kind of a treat for me back then.  I only took sleeping pills on nights I was exhausted and could sleep in the next day as kind of a catch up thing.  Then I vegged out in front of the TV and once I was ready to sleep, I stripped down to just my panties and climbed into bed.  At this point in my life I couldn't sleep in total darkness so I left the TV on, muted, for a little light.

So I fell asleep, and about 5 hours later, I woke up to complete darkness.  The room was pitch black and the streetlights near the window were also out--it was dark.  The power was out.  I had no idea how long it had been out, because I don't know if it was the sudden darkness that woke me, or if a noise woke me after the power went out.

I'd been dreaming about my old house in Kingman, and it had been a very vivid dream, so when I woke up, I thought I was in my old house--in my old living room, particularly.  And in my drugged/sleepy mind, I thought, I need to get outside and then I'll be fine.  (Dream logic, I guess).  So I start stumbling across the dorm room half asleep.  At one point I slammed into my closet, and I thought to myself, that's not something that's in the living room.  But I kept going and got to the door.  The door had a lever lock under the handle, and as I unlocked it, I remember thinking that that wasn't how our front door unlocked.  But again, I kept going, and got the door open, and walked out into the hallway.

I was confused for about 20 seconds and then the power came back on.  And once the lights came on I finished waking up and realized I was in the dorm, and I kind of stood there dazed.

And then I looked down and realized that I was almost naked, just standing in the hallway.

Thank goodness no one else was out of their rooms at that moment--it would have been mortifying.  But since it wasn't it's just one of my favorite stories from when I was in college.

Jenny told her parents about it and that year for Christmas they got me a nightlight that turned into a flashlight when you unplugged it . . . just in case.