Quality sleep is a good thing.

Poking my head outside to see Kyoko busy doing yard work.

Woke up late today. Partially due from working weird hours on a new project for Microsoft and partially because a few nights ago I locked myself out of my apartment. I forgot to take my keys which I left on a hook about two meters away from the outside door. I could see them through the door window. D'oh.

I had gotten home around 2am after shooting Integer, a band playing at Clinton's. My cousin Dave and I walked home from the pub/bar. It took about an hour and a half with a few stops to visit the neighbourhood bathroom and buy some pizza. I had drank about three litres of coke at the pub and it was a bit chilly outside.

COLD + full bladder + walking = need to wee

By the time I got home I was really tired and my feet were starting to get sore. That's when my hand went down to the usual spot on my camera bag to find out that the house keys weren't there. D'oh!

I had a few options...

1. Call Dave and sleep over at his place.
While that would have been the more comfortable option it meant walking back to his place. While it was only 10 blocks away I thought "Nah." Besides, he might already be asleep.

2. Stay up and sit on the porch.
It would only be a few hours until someone woke up. Four hours, five at the most. It was 2am. Chris would leave the house around 7am or earlier to go to work. I was tired so I opted for option 3.

3. Go to sleep on the porch.
After all it was an enclosed space. Wind wouldn't be too much of an issue. So I naively thought. I found four lawn chair cushions that I turned into a makeshift mattress. For the first two hours it wasn't so bad. Then I started to get cold. My bladder started to remind me of all the fluid I drank that night. Luckily there's a Coffee Time that's open 24 hours near by at the intersection of Coxwell and Danforth. I went there to answer the call of nature and while there picked up a chicken patty.

The chicken patty that I bought was pretty warm. It was microwaved. I thought about using chicken patties from the microwave as hand warmers that you could eat later. Would that catch on? The wearer would be the cat or dog's best friend thanks to the potential food and the chicken smell that was wafting around. I decided to eat the patty rather than sticking it into a pocket to warm my hands. After a while the semi-digested patty started making my stomach feel a bit queasy.

On the porch there were some sides of empty boxes. I stacked them against the wall for insulation and the rest I stacked like cards making a makeshift box to crawl into in order to keep some of the warmth around my body. My 70-200mm lens in it's carrying case padded with foam sections from my camera bag was used as a pillow but it might as well have been a hard cold pipe. In the end I used my right running shoe under the lawn chair matte. It created a pillow like bump and worked like a charm.

With the exception of the bit of wind creeping up my back it was pretty comfortable given the situation. I should put tape on the porch next time so I could tape up the cardboard together (or just not forget my key).

At 6am I was woken up by Chris opening the door. He had gotten up to photograph the sun rise. It was at that point I noticed a chill over my whole body. I went up stairs and crawled into bed. I slept until the afternoon within the warmth of my cocoon like blankets.

That was two days ago now, but I'm still in that awake at night, sleep during the day mode. Next time I see some guy sleeping in a refrigerator box I'll make sure he's stuffed it with a sleeping bag first. In general for those I see sleeping outside in cold weather, I won't be as lean with my spare change.