Blogging in the dark

Yes, I am blogging at 1:51 AM, and don’t be silly, of course I didn’t stay up this late. I’d been asleep for hours when I was awakened by the sound of silence. Yes, I was actually in a deep sleep (even dreaming) and I knew before I sat up in bed exactly what was wrong. The power had gone out, taking my fans and sound machine with it. This was completely devastating for someone like me who is self-admittedly a white-noise addict. You see, quiet is far different from silence. Quiet is the peaceful, calm and repetitive drone of air flowing, whereas silence is so loud that a pin dropping could deafen you.
Originally, I started sleeping with these “tools” in order to mask the other sounds around me and combat my identity as a severely light sleeper. I bought my first sound machine when I was in my early teens. The white noise would cover the sound of the dog clicking around on the hardwood floor with his little nails, or my dad waking up early-early to go in to work, or my brother sleep-walking around the house, mumbling and tripping on stuff. Then the addiction set in and now I cannot even sleep in what most would consider a completely silent environment. In fact, like most addicts, I am not even satisfied with what I am currently using. I am always pondering the idea of more fans, bigger fans, or a better sound machine. I am convinced I could sleep better and have a higher quality of life if I could just lull myself into slumber with even more quiet and less silence.
So now, I am trying to log online to e-mail the power company after 18 minutes of this infernal silence. Then I realize even the internet doesn’t work in total absence of power. Rats!