(In honor of it being a dreary Tuesday morning following a night where two sick kids repeatedly woke me up.)
Once, in architecture school, I stayed up 89 hours straight finishing a project. I momentarily passed out and almost fell on my professor while presenting it. After getting back to my apartment, I sat down on my couch at 5pm, and woke up at 11am the next day in bed, having fully changed clothes. I had no recollection of it.
Senior year of college, I was the "packet lead" for Penn Bowl, a major quiz bowl packet submission tournament at Penn on Super Bowl weekend. Packet submission meant that the teams playing were responsible for turning in a packet as part of their entry "fee", so to speak. No questions, no tournament. Having worked as a tournament director for Michigan's MLK tournament, I was used to the chaos of getting questions in from other teams, and so we agreed that I would sherpa some of our younger player submissions in even though I had written my questions for my other team (schools can have multiple teams.)
One of the four people turned their stuff in on time and done correctly, an aero engineer who became one of my best friends (he ended up in my wedding despite his being a freshman when I was a senior). The other three were trickling in. I just kept telling myself I would wait for their stuff to get in and then get the packet together and submitted by the 4:00 PM Friday deadline.
And that's how I ended up staying up for 44 hours straight one January day in 2000.
Stayed up all night before a chemistry midterm in high school because I drank a huge cup of coffee. I have a 40 oz./day habit now, but then I was but a rookie. To make matters worse, I had a big bottle of Pepsi and I was falling asleep in my chair for the test.
The weekend my first wife and I moved to New York from DC in September 1999. We spent a week packing our apartment and all day Friday packing the truck. We went to get our rental car (some friends offered to drive the truck so we needed a car) at something like 8 or 9 PM. We had dinner, got back to our apartment and parked the car a few blocks away from our apartment on 16th and U which made me really nervous. Then we tried to get some sleep on the foldout couch we were leaving behind. We had had the bright idea to drive to NY early in the morning to avoid any traffic so we got up at 3 AM. I think I had slept for 90 minutes, worrying about the car and the upcoming drive. We tried and failed to give our cat the mild sedative that would have knocked him out for the drive to NY, so he was wide awake and crying the whole time. It was a stressful drive to New York and then we had to find our way through Manhattan to our new place in Greenwich Village. We unpacked the truck, filling our tiny apartment with everything we owned, had brunch, returned the U-Haul, then we went home to try to get settled. I remember bursting into tears because we had too much stuff in a tiny apartment and I had to start a new job in 48 hours in a strange city with no friends. I must have slept well after the move because things did get better, but that was a rough week.
Had a terrible time trying to sleep at the hospital after the birth of my twins. Wife was knocked out after c-section for 11 hours. One baby had breathing emergency that was exciting and then constant interruptions throughout the night. My parents picked me up and took me to lunch where I wondered for the longest time why they were showing college football on Tuesday afternoon (Folks, it was Saturday). I think that's the most tired.
My record for longest / tiredness before that was a modest 34 hours in architecture school. I figured out early that all-nighters were a losing proposition.
Worked as a bouncer at a bar in grad school in Iowa. For spring break I was going to drive out to Keystone to see a friend. We were open the night after the last day of classes, but the bar was completely empty, so my manager said I could go at around 11. I decided to haul the 10-ish hours to CO that night. Got to Keystone, hit the slopes from first to last lift (had never been snowboarding/skiing before, so I had the full body tired/sore going on, too), then went out with my buddy that night. Felt fine until the next day. Being 23 was great.
At the end of a trip to Israel in 2015 I was sick with a bad cold and jetlagged to hell, and somehow I decided that the solution was to stay up for a cumulative 36 hours until nighttime the day *after* I got home.
Summer of 2018. The family (5 of us) pile ourselves and God knows how much food and luggage into a late 2000s Toyota minivan. Hitch up the pop up camper, and this thing is moving about as much weight as I think is possible in a minivan. We're headed out west, to Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Lake Powell, and Mesa Verde. The initial plan is to stop in Memphis the 1st night, then Amarillo the 2nd, then get to our campsite that next day. Before we even get past Atlanta the van is having issues. Lurching, delayed response to the gas pedal. We stop at a Toyota in Buford GA (this is on a Sunday btw) and end up getting that dealer to fix something that we thought was the problem. We leave Buford at approximately 4pm eastern on Monday. Somewhere in Alabama the idea of driving through the night alllll the way to the Canyon is floated, and we laugh. Then we actually try to do it. Maybe 2 hours of sleep that night as horrible road construction in Arkansas keeps us up, my parents alternating as drivers. Day breaks in Oklahoma, and we get through there and the Texas stovepipe without a hitch. We stop for gas at a casino/truck stop/McDonald's in New Mexico called Sky City. The same issue we experienced in Georgia comes back. After waiting an hour or so there, we crank the van back up and get back on the way, no problems. By the time we reach Gallup NM, the issue is back. My dad buys something at a Pep Boys and replaces something in the van. This is not the root of the issue. The van battery then dies at an Exxon in Ganado AZ on the Navajo Reservation. There are wild dogs everywhere. With the help of some friendly guy we get a jump and make our way to a hospital/church plant/compound thingy and sit at the entrance to it for maybe 3 hours before finally gaining entrance and popping the camper up at I don't even know what time. I'd estimate around 12:30am Wednesday.
I have never been happier to be laying down in my entire life.
in 2017 My wife and I landed in Ahmedabad, Gujarat Province, India on 6am on a Saturday in August after 30 hours of travel. We texted the Orphanage that we arrived and we'd be there to pick up our then 18 month-old son 1st thing Monday morning, as planned. They told us, politely, "Come get him now."
We checked in at the hotel, showered and headed over. We spent the next 12 hours awake, severely jet lagged and caring for a terrified toddler in a cramped hotel room because you do not go outside in August in India.
1) As a teenager, I stayed up all night at a sleepover, and the following day, my mom insisted on going to a Native American drumming performance at a flea market, and I slept soundly through the whole thing.
2) About 6-7 years ago, worked a job where we had an insane project and deadline going, and I worked 16 12-hour days in a row. No days off, no weekends, and I was a zombie. One day, I arrived at work with no discernible memory of my drive there, and realized I should not be on the road in this condition. I would never work hours like that again.
Senior year of college, I was the "packet lead" for Penn Bowl, a major quiz bowl packet submission tournament at Penn on Super Bowl weekend. Packet submission meant that the teams playing were responsible for turning in a packet as part of their entry "fee", so to speak. No questions, no tournament. Having worked as a tournament director for Michigan's MLK tournament, I was used to the chaos of getting questions in from other teams, and so we agreed that I would sherpa some of our younger player submissions in even though I had written my questions for my other team (schools can have multiple teams.)
One of the four people turned their stuff in on time and done correctly, an aero engineer who became one of my best friends (he ended up in my wedding despite his being a freshman when I was a senior). The other three were trickling in. I just kept telling myself I would wait for their stuff to get in and then get the packet together and submitted by the 4:00 PM Friday deadline.
And that's how I ended up staying up for 44 hours straight one January day in 2000.
I'm just going to say the entire first 6 months of having my twins. Some of the highlights:
I had an important phone call with one of the doctors that I have no memory of.
I regularly startled myself awake, and it always took a few minutes to orient myself to my surroundings.
Fell asleep at my desk numerous times.
Stayed up all night before a chemistry midterm in high school because I drank a huge cup of coffee. I have a 40 oz./day habit now, but then I was but a rookie. To make matters worse, I had a big bottle of Pepsi and I was falling asleep in my chair for the test.
The weekend my first wife and I moved to New York from DC in September 1999. We spent a week packing our apartment and all day Friday packing the truck. We went to get our rental car (some friends offered to drive the truck so we needed a car) at something like 8 or 9 PM. We had dinner, got back to our apartment and parked the car a few blocks away from our apartment on 16th and U which made me really nervous. Then we tried to get some sleep on the foldout couch we were leaving behind. We had had the bright idea to drive to NY early in the morning to avoid any traffic so we got up at 3 AM. I think I had slept for 90 minutes, worrying about the car and the upcoming drive. We tried and failed to give our cat the mild sedative that would have knocked him out for the drive to NY, so he was wide awake and crying the whole time. It was a stressful drive to New York and then we had to find our way through Manhattan to our new place in Greenwich Village. We unpacked the truck, filling our tiny apartment with everything we owned, had brunch, returned the U-Haul, then we went home to try to get settled. I remember bursting into tears because we had too much stuff in a tiny apartment and I had to start a new job in 48 hours in a strange city with no friends. I must have slept well after the move because things did get better, but that was a rough week.
Had a terrible time trying to sleep at the hospital after the birth of my twins. Wife was knocked out after c-section for 11 hours. One baby had breathing emergency that was exciting and then constant interruptions throughout the night. My parents picked me up and took me to lunch where I wondered for the longest time why they were showing college football on Tuesday afternoon (Folks, it was Saturday). I think that's the most tired.
My record for longest / tiredness before that was a modest 34 hours in architecture school. I figured out early that all-nighters were a losing proposition.
Worked as a bouncer at a bar in grad school in Iowa. For spring break I was going to drive out to Keystone to see a friend. We were open the night after the last day of classes, but the bar was completely empty, so my manager said I could go at around 11. I decided to haul the 10-ish hours to CO that night. Got to Keystone, hit the slopes from first to last lift (had never been snowboarding/skiing before, so I had the full body tired/sore going on, too), then went out with my buddy that night. Felt fine until the next day. Being 23 was great.
At the end of a trip to Israel in 2015 I was sick with a bad cold and jetlagged to hell, and somehow I decided that the solution was to stay up for a cumulative 36 hours until nighttime the day *after* I got home.
Jetlag solved, everything else made worse.
Summer of 2018. The family (5 of us) pile ourselves and God knows how much food and luggage into a late 2000s Toyota minivan. Hitch up the pop up camper, and this thing is moving about as much weight as I think is possible in a minivan. We're headed out west, to Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Lake Powell, and Mesa Verde. The initial plan is to stop in Memphis the 1st night, then Amarillo the 2nd, then get to our campsite that next day. Before we even get past Atlanta the van is having issues. Lurching, delayed response to the gas pedal. We stop at a Toyota in Buford GA (this is on a Sunday btw) and end up getting that dealer to fix something that we thought was the problem. We leave Buford at approximately 4pm eastern on Monday. Somewhere in Alabama the idea of driving through the night alllll the way to the Canyon is floated, and we laugh. Then we actually try to do it. Maybe 2 hours of sleep that night as horrible road construction in Arkansas keeps us up, my parents alternating as drivers. Day breaks in Oklahoma, and we get through there and the Texas stovepipe without a hitch. We stop for gas at a casino/truck stop/McDonald's in New Mexico called Sky City. The same issue we experienced in Georgia comes back. After waiting an hour or so there, we crank the van back up and get back on the way, no problems. By the time we reach Gallup NM, the issue is back. My dad buys something at a Pep Boys and replaces something in the van. This is not the root of the issue. The van battery then dies at an Exxon in Ganado AZ on the Navajo Reservation. There are wild dogs everywhere. With the help of some friendly guy we get a jump and make our way to a hospital/church plant/compound thingy and sit at the entrance to it for maybe 3 hours before finally gaining entrance and popping the camper up at I don't even know what time. I'd estimate around 12:30am Wednesday.
I have never been happier to be laying down in my entire life.
(The car trouble wasn't over, either)
in 2017 My wife and I landed in Ahmedabad, Gujarat Province, India on 6am on a Saturday in August after 30 hours of travel. We texted the Orphanage that we arrived and we'd be there to pick up our then 18 month-old son 1st thing Monday morning, as planned. They told us, politely, "Come get him now."
We checked in at the hotel, showered and headed over. We spent the next 12 hours awake, severely jet lagged and caring for a terrified toddler in a cramped hotel room because you do not go outside in August in India.
Ooh, I have two.
1) As a teenager, I stayed up all night at a sleepover, and the following day, my mom insisted on going to a Native American drumming performance at a flea market, and I slept soundly through the whole thing.
2) About 6-7 years ago, worked a job where we had an insane project and deadline going, and I worked 16 12-hour days in a row. No days off, no weekends, and I was a zombie. One day, I arrived at work with no discernible memory of my drive there, and realized I should not be on the road in this condition. I would never work hours like that again.
(test comment because threads were screwed up the other day)