A skillful sleeper

Henri Rousseau - The Sleeping Gypsy - 1897

Referring to your earlier post on our time in Hanoi, I am reminded of one of your most adorable and curious attributes: that is to say your unique ability to fall asleep almost anywhere and in almost any position. We both know well that you do stick to quite a regular routine, falling to sleep each night like clockwork at one minute past midnight without fail. At first I admit that I found this very odd, being myself a night owl and with a pretty irregular schedule. But after some time, I realized that it was probably healthy and better to do things your way, giving our bodies a chance to rest fully each night in order to be refreshed for the following day.

But what has really impressed me more than this is how you can sleep in many different situations. For example, if we are in a car, a plane or any sort of moving vehicle, you sleep. I suppose this is not so unusual.  Then, I have seen you fall asleep during at least two cultural performances: the Whirling Dervishes in Istanbul (kind of understandable really with all that repetitive whirling and spinning) and just last week during the Water Puppets show in Hanoi. I pretended to be cross with you and pinched you each time your head fell forward and threatened to never go with you to another performance if all you would do is sleep. But in reality, I found it cute and funny.  

I think though that the most remarkable sleeping ‘performance’ you have given to date must be that time you fell asleep standing while reading one of the information  boards at  Orhan Pamuk’s ‘The Museum of Innocence’ in Istanbul. I was on one side of the room reading away and you were on the other and all of the sudden I turned around and saw you catch yourself from falling down as you had fallen asleep standing up!! It still makes me laugh to recall it now. My darling, you are a very skillful sleeper. I love you.