What's that noise?

So I have a new friend who’s been keeping me company while I sleep at night (no, not Piva… and no, not THAT kind of friend). My friend goes by the name of White Noise Fan. I love White Noise Fan. White Noise Fan is the only reason I’ve been sleeping better the last couple weeks…

When Rick got the Chicago job, I knew he’d be flying back and forth until the house sold and we could actually MOVE up there. Okay, no big deal – it’s not like I haven’t spent nights alone before. I lived alone for a while before we were married, and over the years Rick has taken many a business trip – when we lived in New Jersey, it wasn’t unusual for him to be gone for a night or two. I guess the difference is that NOW I’m in a really big house… probably a little TOO big for just two people. And definitely too big for one person. It’s hard to fall asleep when it’s quiet and every little noise makes you think about how big your house is and how many closets there are for monsters to hide in…

So when Rick got the job, I fell back on my old trick for falling asleep when I’m alone – I turn on the TV and keep the volume on very low, so I have the “illusion” of someone else in the house. It has to be on something totally innocuous, like the Weather Channel, or a station that plays nothing but sitcoms. The last thing you want is to fall asleep to an episode of “Seinfeld” and wake up several hours later to the sounds of screaming and chainsaws, because the channel switched over to “Friday the 13th Part 57 – Jason Sneaks Into Your Bedroom.” Not good.

In the past, my low-volume TV trick has worked pretty well… but the new TV we have in the bedroom is rather strange – even when it’s on the lowest possible volume, it’s still loud enough to actually sit and watch and comfortably hear everything everyone is saying. The only other way to go is mute – and that totally negates my efforts to convince myself I’m not alone. So I’d been leaving the TV on a channel that plays nothing but sitcoms and talk shows all night, even though it wasn’t as quiet as I would’ve liked. But this resulted in a very restless sleep… even when I WAS sleeping, I could swear I could still hear that TV. I’d wake up every couple of hours, try not to listen to whoever was talking on the TV, and eventually drift back to sleep. And then around five or six in the morning, I’d get annoyed with the TV and turn it off anyway.

And then there was the week “The Strangers” was released on DVD. I don’t know much about that movie, because it was NOT something that looked appealing to me in any way… but apparently it’s about a group of strangers who randomly pick a house so they can terrorize the occupants (why on earth would anyone want to watch a movie like that??? It just sounds horrible…). So while the movie itself was not on TV, the ad for the DVD kept running every hour or so. I had to change the channel to avoid hearing eerie music and creepy voices all night. That was the point I decided I needed some other way to help me fall asleep…

So my mom, who stocked her guest bedrooms with white noise fans, graciously lent me White Noise Fan. I placed it on the floor of my bedroom, and it has made SUCH a difference. I can leave the TV off, turn White Noise Fan on, and I fall asleep in about five minutes. The last couple nights I’ve even slept straight through the night without waking up, which I hardly ever manage to do. I usually wake up two or three times during the night. White Noise Fan is my new best friend when I’m sleeping alone in the house.

Oh, and in “trying to sell the house” news – apparently letting the housework fall by the wayside worked. We’ve already had THREE people call to see the house in the last few days. This is the first time since it’s been on the market that ANYONE has wanted to see the house. So I’m cautiously optimistic about the house sale…

Because I don’t want to need White Noise Fan forever…