I ride the bus with a colleague who works on my marketing team. Yesterday, as we walked from the EWU bus station to our offices in Hargreaves Hall, Will asked me a really good question.

“How do you pass the time on the bus?”

The bus ride to/from Cheney is about 23 minutes, equating to roughly 45-50 minutes round trip. As I have outlined in this blog before, this time is coveted by most bus riders. Instead of spending it behind the wheel, it allows us to decompress and attend to things we wouldn’t have the luxury of completing while driving.

I answered Will’s question by telling him that I answer emails, format my blog, read the newspaper, and sometimes close my eyes. The last item really caught his attention. Will explained that he couldn’t imagine having the ability to sleep on a bumpy city bus. He then said something I never considered before:

“That’s your super power,” he exclaimed.

Well, if the ability to nap anywhere is a superpower, consider me Superman!

I can effortlessly sleep anywhere….including sitting up in chairs.

Yes, I have the uncanny ability to sleep “sitting up.” And this ability truly extends to just about anywhere. I can fall asleep instantly in our black leather chair at home but I also can snooze in more challenging environments as well. Car rides, bus rides, and in airports are welcome opportunities for me to catch up on sleep. Probably most advantageous of all, I can easily sleep on a plane. It isn’t out of the question for me to fall asleep prior to takeoff on the east coast only to wake up when the plane touches down on the west coast.

Where did this habit—I mean superpower—come from? My grandpa slept in his chair A LOT. As a restaurant owner who never seemed to leave his beloved café (which stayed open for extended hours), he preferred to catch some zzz’s in his reclining chair when he did come home. I observed this and I guess I ended up emulating it.

I like to think I keep my grandpa’s hours as well. As a 3 a.m. riser, I instantly fall asleep when I hit the pillow at around 11 p.m. each night. But when the opportunity arises for me to supplement this sleep schedule with a cat nap, I have no shame closing my eyes wherever I may be at. As long as I have a bed—aka a chair—I am good to go.

Sidney will tell you, however, that I don’t sleep like a baby. If she is driving a leg of a road trip and I am snoozing in the front seat, it isn’t pretty. As I never use head rests when sleeping in chairs, my cranium is bobbing back and forth while my body moves with the road. She says sudden brakeage, sharp turns, and a loud radio won’t wake me but it sure looks hella uncomfortable. I hope I don’t look as miserable when I sleep on the bus.

Sure, I would rather fly or render myself invisible as my superpower but falling asleep on call isn’t a bad consolation, right? Thank you, Will, for validating my superpower! Don’t Blink.

On this date five years ago, I watched from my front lawn as an enormous 18-wheel truck turned down my street. My gaze didn’t leave this beast until it pulled right in front of my house, blocking everything in its path.

The 18-wheeler turning down our street in South Carolina.

This was the day that a moving crew gutted our home of everything inside and maneuvered it into a seemingly small space within the mammoth truck. After a few hours of hot and intense work, they told me they would see us in a couple weeks.

From the moment the crew arrived at our house, they started to cover and pack everything up.

When we moved from South Carolina to Washington, we opted not to rent our own U-Haul and forgo doing something similar to when I moved from Missoula to Myrtle Beach. Instead, we hired a crew to make the cross-country drive for us.

On March 11, 2020, this moving truck pulled up at our house in Myrtle Beach and packed up all our belongings.

Looking back on it, this was definitely the way to go. With all the stuff we had accumulated by that point in our lives combined with the hazards of driving a huge U-Haul 3,000+ miles, it was a no-brainer to use my modest WSU re-location allowance to fund this type of service.

Not to say that our choice didn’t come with some “bumps in the road.” Once the crew and our belongings left, they were tough to track. The consistent updates we had hoped for never came. The company that brokered the arrangement could never reach the drivers to provide me with their current location nor an ETA. The total balance I was supposed to receive within 24 hours of departure was never conveyed to me until shortly before they arrived in Washington (your final bill is determined by total weight of your cargo). Speaking of final arrival, the crew showed up multiple days past the two-week range they gave us.

Still, it was surreal to see the same 18-wheel truck that parked in front of my home in Myrtle Beach pull up in front of my parents’ house. The last time I saw it I was sweating from intense humidity and all was right with the world. When it came to a stop on my childhood street in Spokane, it had recently snowed and the world had shut down due to the pandemic.

It was surreal to see the same truck at my parents’ house that had been at my old house in Myrtle Beach just a few weeks prior.

The crew unloaded a shipment of our belongings in my parents’ driveway and then my dad and I jumped in his truck and followed them to Pullman. It was there that they unloaded the bulk of our stuff and moved it up a big hill into a storage unit. Once the last box was removed from the truck and packed into the storage unit I sure was happy to be done with it.

The moving truck at the storage unit complex in Pullman. I give the workers credit, they did a lot of back-and-forth up/down the hill to unload everything into our storage unit.

As I reflect on that experience a half decade later, it is still fresh in my mind. I can still see the faces of the crew, I can remember the phone calls I made to the company for status updates, and I will never forget the truck pulling up at both my old house and my parents’ house. But perhaps what I remember most is a specific sound. As I mentioned at the start of this post, the crew pretty much swarmed our house and packed things up in a hurried but efficient manner. As they did this work, the sound of ripping tape was relentless…they probably went through 30 rolls. I can still close my eyes and hear that cacophony that was only amplified by the echo generated from our high ceilings.

Another interior shot from moving day on March 11, 2020. You can see some of the rolls of tape on the counter.

Oh, I also remember all of our items that broke during the trek, too. Sigh. Moving is a challenge no matter what conveniences and/or services you have at your disposal. Don’t Blink.

I am reading a book that proposes an interesting theory. The author expresses his view that extraordinary people separate themselves from average people via one thing: habits.

Habits are important but I don’t think they are defining.

He goes further by suggesting he can determine the quality and future of an individual just by learning their habits (before even meeting them). He even equates habits to character.

I don’t necessarily agree with the author. I think there are brilliant people who have downright terrible habits but still separate themselves from the status quo. Charlie Sheen, anyone?

Then there are the people who have mixed habits. Take me for example! I think I have some good habits such as daily exercise and prayer. On the other hand, I have some bad habits such as staying up too late and eating too much at dinner. Where does that put me? Well, one thing is abundantly clear: I am definitely not exceptional.

So I wholeheartedly disagree that habits signify the quality and character of a person. But I do agree with something else the author said: habits are important and they can be changed.

A grand opportunity to change habits presents itself during Lent. They say it takes a month to make something a habit and Lent provides that time plus a couple extra weeks for good measure. I truly believe this holy period of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving is fertile ground to cultivate habits that improve yourself and give glory to God. To go back to yesterday’s Lenten post, establishing a habit during this season can improve your reflection in the spiritual mirror.

Truly, the best Lenten intentions bring long-lasting change beyond Easter. As we journey with Jesus in the desert through the next 40 days, it might be advantageous to begin or refine a habit. Although I don’t think the successful establishment of a new habit will distinguish someone as better from others, I do believe it can improve ourselves while possibly having a positive impact on those around us. Don’t Blink.