I have always enjoyed listening to things as I fall asleep. When I was a kid, (okay...so until I was about 16) I loved listening to "Adventures in Odyssey". I remember being so thankful when the cassette player would automatically play the second side of the tape after the first side ended. There would be the comforting "click-click-click" of the cassette player preparing to play the second side...and then you knew you wouldn't have to climb out of bed to flip over the tape. High tech, baby.
Lately I have been trying to go to bed earlier and it has been taking me hours to fall asleep. I am not even sure if you can call it falling asleep. It is more me forcing my body into sleep (which doesn't work). Part of why I can't fall asleep is because I can't stop thinking. So I just lay in bed and think. And think. And figure out my next day. Then my week. Then I attempt to figure out my life. Not even joking. It drives me crazy. Consequently, I have begun listening to podcasts to help me fall asleep. Listening to something takes my mind off whatever I would be thinking to death/dissecting into a million pieces, and then I can usually fall asleep.
The point of me even beginning to talk about this is that I have been finding some hilarious and entertaining podcasts.
-Wait Wait Don't Tell Me (From NPR). It's just so good. I have often found myself laughing into my pillow when listening.
-The Food Network Humor Podcast. Okay, this will probably only be funny if you are more than slightly familiar with the Food Network channel and the hosts of the shows. Basically this is a podcast that makes fun of the cooks, their quirks, and their recipes (in a totally good natured way). As I said, this isn't for everyone. But it is a gem.
-This American Life (also from NPR). One of the reviews I read for this podcast was almost as good as the podcast itself. "...You'll start out the hour laughing (perhaps harder than you've ever laughed at a public radio show) but inevitably and seamlessly, in a completely unconscious manner your emotions will be turned inside out and you will end the hour sobbing in your car in the Target parking lot you've been parked in for the last 40 minutes. And sometimes you won't even know why you're crying, all you'll know is that some sort of emotional release is needed before reintegrating yourself into the outside world." I laughed just reading the review. Perhaps because I have absolutely sat in my car for a prolonged period of time, wanting to hear the conclusion of a story from A Prairie Home Companion or when listening to Car Talk (and needing to know just why Susie's truck is making that clunking noise). Or perhaps because I often have to hide both my laughter and my tears from the people in the vehicles around me, who can see through my-totally-not-tinted-one-tiny-little-bit-windows of my car, and probably think I am a crazy/unstable woman who shouldn't be driving. Either way, the first episode I listened to ("Rest Stop") produced silent pillow laughter, three tears, and a warm, "this is why I love Americans...because we are so dang weird" feeling in my heart as I (finally) fell asleep.
Wow. Kudos to you if actually you persevered through those last two sentences. Double kudos if you understood a word of what I said.
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About Me
- Lore
- This blog is basically how I de-stress from 1.) all the awkwardness I encounter and cause on a daily basis and 2.) life in general. You know all of those little situations and bumps in the road that you don't give a second that about? (No, you don't know, because you didn't give them a second thought.) Well, those kinds of situations tend to create existential dilemmas in my soul. So at some point I will probably give you too much in depth information on my emotional, spiritual, and mental health, because some self-absorbed part of me thinks you really want to know.
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