The Adventure to Key West (Part 1)

So as some of you know my agent called me up and asked me if I wanted to play a series of shows at in Key West, Fl at Jimmy Buffet's own Margaritaville. But I wouldn't be going alone. My grandfather aka Poppop, his good ol' navy buddy Zip, my mom and her friend Janice. We decided not to fly. Now by "we" I mean "my mother" since she developed a flying phobia a fews year back. I was mostly indifferent since I wasn't thrilled with the idea of an airline making me check my guitar after I heard a horror story from a friend about a traveling musician who watched his checked guitar come around on the conveyer belt at the baggage pick up with its next broken off and hanging out of his destroyed gig case. Now with all of the luggage we would have it would be a real tight fit for the five of us, even in the SUV Linconln CR-X (with extra trunk space) we would be taking. But not to worry, Poppop and Zip would be traveling a different way. Despite my families best efforts to convince them not to, Poppop would be meeting up with Zip halfway and they would be riding their motorcycles. Keep in mind Poppop owns a Honda Goldwing. For you un-motorcycle riders, this is NOT a small bike. Well over 1,000 pounds, this baby sports AC, a radio, CD player, windshield wipers....I wouldn't be suprised if it had a sunroof and 4 wheel drive (somehow). Now, 1,400 Miles on motorcyles at 75 years old didn't make a large part of the family happy, but there is no arguing with a couple military men on a mission.

Poppop had already left more than an hour before us since he was coming from Upper Malboro about 50 miles north of us. We were coming from Leonardtown. I have to say that 6:00 A.M. is a terrible time. I would have woken up at noon and just driven the 1,400 miles non-stop, but you can't always get away with these type of all-or-nothing style scheduling when you bring family. I wish there was a Country wide decree that it is not legal for anyone to do anything at 6:00A.M. unless they are still awake from the night before. Nonetheless, my day started there. Like a malnourished POW, I shuffled to the car with my cables, guitar, clothes and thankfully, my Tempur-Pedic pillow (yes). A little morning chatter between sips of coffee amongst the husbands and wives and the three of us, my mom, Janice and I, were off to Key West.

The first few hundred miles looked like this:



Beautiful. My guitar kept my mind at bay, although at times it was hard to concentrate on what I was playing with all the beautiful scenery distracting me. (sarcasm). So hours pass and I basically take a short nap every hour or so. More than half way to the half way point, I over hear Janice and my mother talking about stopping to eat at McDonalds. Instantly I express my fervent objection to this, as I have seen "Supersize Me" and have vowed that day forth to never, ever eat anything at McDonalds for the rest of my life. On top of that, I remember being a kid on trips up north to visit family and stopping at McDonalds, only to feel like a woodchuck was giving birth in my stomach. So it took about 7 or 8 minutes to rant enough to change the choice of stop, but it was a successful attempt.



Not today, fat kids.

We got to our half way point at about 8 and stayed with their friend, Sam and her little Cocker Spaniel, Zoe. It was a quaint little beach house engulfed by large sweeping trees covered in spanish moss. It had perfectly manicured grass in the front and a figure eight shaped pool in the back, a great place for a summer escape or a break from a twelve hour drive. Poppop had finally reached Zips and would be leaving with him the next morning about an hour ahead of us.
I fell asleep immediately, at about 10, the earliest I have fallen asleep since I was in high school. Somehow by the time I wake up, even though I have assuredly fallen asleep before everyone, the house is moving with the sound of percolating coffee, soft chatter about weather, ceramic mugs clinking in a stainless steel sink. I guess there is some unspoken rule of biology that as you age, you just wake up earlier and earlier regardless of what time you fall asleep. Again, I am not really happy to be awake at 6 A.M. but the extra sleep made it a little more bearable. As we are getting ready, Sam busts out an old fashioned tape recorder so that we can play a tape that instructs us how to properly enjoy the tourist sites of Florida. Very old fashioned. We had to spend about 25 minutes opening up the back to wrap a rubber band around some of its little tape recorder gears where a belt once was. When we finally got it "working" and hit play on the tape, it was a horrible warbling you would swear was the voice of Joan Rivers in a later stage of Parkinson's or someone strangling a duck that was trying to speak English. So with our decrepit tape recorder with the intelligible instructions, we continued on our journey to our destination.

So we were a few hours into our second day (about 11AM) and I awake from a nap to hear my mother and Janice talking about the traffic report LCD warning of an accident a few miles ahead. As we pass the scene of the accident, we see the same motorcycle my grandfathers has, lying on its side, surrounded by police cars.

The Night Owl Network

You would probably never know during the day, but some of us seem to never sleep.

What is the Night Owl Network? Ever stayed up late? There you go, you've temporarily been in it.
I joined the N.O.N. sometime during my high school career as a result of destroying my circadian rhythm via late night sleep-overs chock full of Halo (yes Halo 1, when it first came out...old school), parties that went until God knows when, and fridge-raiding at my friends houses. To me, there was something so exciting about the idea of staying up so late it no longer became an option to remain conscious because of your body's daily requirement of sleep. I loved the whole idea of having to burn the midnight oil to find the most potentially exciting events of my young life. Some of my greatest memories were during sadistically late hours. After only a couple of these great nights, however, I became hooked. No longer were the late nights for just the weekends. The excitement became too strongly associated with staying up late and the next thing you know I was a night owl. I would stay up every single night. Even when everyone had gone to sleep, I persevered, often not knowing why I would continue to somber about, exhausted and alone. Computer, kitchen, TV, kitchen, computer....like some force was driving me, forcing me to stay awake as long as possible. Some nights I wouldn't even go out with my friends or to a party, I would just stay up late. I would draw or watch movies I had never seen or think of some random thing to do to fill the silent hours. The number of sunrises I would see in the years to come greatly dropped, almost to none, unless I was left with no other option than a 9-5 summer job or had to catch a plane somewhere (in which case I would simply stay up for the entire night).

In college (at Berklee) I have fond memories of walking about boston with my friend Andy, Jack Daniels, Little Stevie's Pizza at 2AM and of course, Halo (by this time Halo 3)...too many sleep cycle destroying activities to have a "normal" schedule. The biggest sleep pattern destroyer, however, was recording sessions that lasted until 6A.M. Good God these are tough. You have to try and give a perfect performance yet you are so tired you afraid you are going to burst out laughing in the middle of playing and then pass out on the floor. My friends and bandmates Al, Andy, Marty, Matt and Mike all went through these torturous night long sessions. Toward the end of it, we would begin to get slap happy and everything everyone says is for some reason hilarious. We would crank up the auto-tune and scream Cher's "Believe" into the mic....priceless.

Despite all these years of throwing myself off of balance with the rotation of the earth, I have landed the ultimate night owl career: professional musician. How perfect. We are the epitome of night owls. I will sometimes get out of a gig at 1:30 A.M. or 2:00 A.M. and have a two hour drive home. Thats 4 A.M. before I am even in my bed. That's being a part of the Night Owl Network.

As I have gotten a little older I still stay up late often, but the thrill of the night has died down, and I no longer have the fear of missing an indescribably fun time if I get in bed early or stay in. I used to get anxiety right when I tried to fall asleep almost every night. Its like my mind would all of the sudden become hyperactive and begin to think at a mile a minute....
This anxiety seems to have waned greatly and I found a few night owl secrets I have come across over the years that I would like to give some of you if you ever decide to leave the Night Owl Network:

1. Go to bed at the same time every night (even if its 3AM) really helps speed the falling asleep process.
2. Don't watch TV before bed, either!! You change your brain waves and this causes your sleep cycles to be less effective. This is a comfort thing for most people, but I recommend reading instead, you will feel better rested in the morning
3. Try stretching, yoga, or deep breathing for a few minutes before you try to get to bed
4. Take all clocks and face them away from you; when you need to fall asleep being aware of time is the worst thing you can do
5. Avoid sleeping pills at all cost! Its a last resort! I know people who CANNOT fall asleep without them, they can be very habit forming. Its better to be tired than hooked on something artificial.
6. Don't count sheep. I don't know what douche bag thought this really worked. I got to 50,258 one night. Then the sun came up.
7. Only get in/on your bed if you are about to fall asleep. This helps condition your brain to associate bed and sleep together.

I still am very much a night owl, but being such makes you easily susceptible to becoming an insomniac, which is not fun at all.
I hope some of this will help or comfort some of you night owls.

Another thing that has helped me in the past is making my self realize I am not the only one awake in the world. Anything at all helps. Thinking about people getting up for work in China, hearing the hum of a semi on a road out your window and knowing some trucker is on mile 120 en route to a delivery, remembering all the staff at the 24 hour diner you were at last sumer...anything at all to remind yourself you aren't the only person in the world who is awake can really help you rid some of that late night anxiety. At least it helped me. Anyways, what you just read is a small, hurried glimpse of the insomniac portion of my young adult life, and a song about it is in the works. This song, to be titled "Night Owl Network", is dedicated to every friend of mine who has adventured through the devils hours and lived to see the sun the next day, to everyone I have eaten with at Double T diner in Annapolis (or IHOP in St. Mary's) to all of you who have half of the late night infomercials memorized, all of you who have ever feared the digital numbers of the clock by your bed or have fallen asleep to the sound of car engines stating and birds chirping. To all you night owls out there, this will be for you.

Its about time we had some kind of anthem, don't you think?

And for all of you early birds, I wish you a friendly hello from the dark twin of the day and just remember, if you ever have trouble sleeping, never think you are the only one; some people are just starting their work day.

So, if any of you have stories of sleeplessness, or insomnia remedies to add to the list please share!

Dylan