September Siesta
64: End of Summer Snooze
We call it The 2pm Slump. After a hearty lunch, people relax enough to almost fall asleep in the break room. It’s why some take their lunch near the end of their shift because there’s little hope of meaningful productivity afterward. We are fighting our bodies and it is no surprise that those who yield are happier.
I have no such trouble since my slump is after 6pm. While my colleagues doze, I’m just hitting my stride and probably doing my best work. Until then, I’m resentful I even had to rise before 8am. I volley between whether I should accept a day rising world and move with it or simply create one of my own. I like quiet acts of rebellion though, so the clock strikes 12 and I hustle to bed, largely against my instinct to sleep.
I love the night. I may have built part of my personality on a Blue Öyster Cult song of the same name, but that is a short and boring story. Sure, it would be more efficient to get up early, go to the gym, then head to work, but the thought makes me yawn. I’d rather put on a horror movie at 10pm and click away at my cell phone keyboard with the next essay.
In this space, I create my own time and yield to a natural cadence. My slump begins mid June and I’m usually apologizing in August, so September is a good time to step away. The siesta happened unintentionally after my first year at Substack and it’s proved useful since then. I wrote and recorded “Ithaka” in 2022, a short story I’m very proud that is the start of Project Nexus. “A Pound of Flesh” was released in 2023, which was the first production to have sound effects and two characters voiced on separate tracks. This year, I’m working on “Hypnotic”, a bit more ambitious of a project which will take a good deal of research.
The lights won’t always be off at The FLARE in September. This time I’ll be sending posts from the archives, but I won’t be posting new work. You can find me on Notes in the interim or you can always email theflare@substack.com. With any luck, I’ll premiere my story in the first week of October.
See ya,
What’s next?
A first attempt
A newsletter thesis
Husband and I used to be night owls. Oh the JOYS of aging! While we might still be awake around midnight, we've been in bed, watching fluff on you tube or whatever or playing solitaire by 9 pm. And then on top of that, the two Feline Overlords who rule us think that 5 am zoomies across the bed are fun because FEED US NOW NOW NOW NOW.
Enjoy your siesta & happy writing.