Summer Time: Redux
The other night we watched Swingers and there was one scene early on where the duo (Vaughn & Favreau) are leaving Vegas after spending the night gambling and hanging out with a couple of the girls from the casino. They’re pulled over on the side of the road just outside Vegas.
It got me thinking about how many times I’ve spent the whole night awake for one reason or another and then was up with the start of the day (as in, just before sunrise). Usually, I wake up after sunrise — well after sunrise — and so I feel like I’m catching up to a day already in progress.
But when you stay up all night, there’s an oddness to the morning.
A cool night becomes a hot morning which gets hotter as the day goes. Your eyes are adjusted to the gloom but now they’re blinded by a bright sun. There was no one around, but now people are popping up all over the place. You’re tired, but the sun is making you feel awake. You’re out of sorts. The routine is broken up. Even if you are getting ready for work or school, there’s this feeling of summertime freedom which stays with you through your duties. Plus, night time has a dreamy feel to it in contrast to the reality of day. It’s a time of creative writing and infomercials and strange [adult swim] cartoons.
Transitioning from dreams to wakefulness without sleep to bridge that gap lends to surreality.
It doesn’t just come when you stay up all night, either. I have had similar moments when I’ve been forced to sleep sans air conditioning (I know!) and, as a result, slept fitfully (and sweatily) for a couple hours before waking up as soon as the temperature returned back to the 90 degree range — allowing for the same effect of waking up with the start of the day.
It’s been a while since I’ve had a moment like that. I think the last time was when Candice and I were going through the process of importing the Subaru (paperwork wise, not physically) from Canada.
But I kind of like the feeling. Aside from the aforementioned oddities, I like it because it’s an exception to the routine — which makes me appreciate the routine as much as the change of pace. So yeah, it’s been a while since I’ve had an experience like that but I’ve had more than a few and as soon as that scene popped up in the movie I just knew how the air felt and how the day felt and how my body and mind would feel… I liked it.
(PS: Don’t do a Google image search for “swingers” — well, not with the expectation of finding pics from the movie.)
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