Ok, so when I was a kid, I had those PJs with the body long zipper and the feet sealed in. As I got older, my sleep attire became less restrictive. A few times I owned a snazzy flannel number that went neck to floor and had those tiny, pointless, non-functioning buttons down the mid-line
Sometimes I slept in a giant t-shirt. Sometimes shorts and a T-shirt. In the Army, I usually wore lined PT shorts and an Army T-shirt. Most of the time also socks and a sports bra. In the winter, the shorts, the T-shirt and then sweat pants, unless it was the night before laundry day. Then just the t-shirt and shorts. But, I had a good reason. See, once you had an acceptably made bed in the Army, you didn’t just go and climb into it at night. Nah… you climbed on top of it, covered yourself with your second blanket and you slept. Usually you were cold, but there weren’t many days in training that comfort was a big concern for you. If you were super comfortable, you were most likely on the verge of getting caught doing something that would soon make you really uncomfortable. In the morning, you could sleep for ten extra minutes when you don’t have a bunk to make. You just tighten it up and go on with your life. You bed has to look fantastic. It’s time consuming. You consistently sleep 3-5 hours a night during the week and 4-5 hours a night on Saturday night. Because that’s a Saturday night.
The exception to this, is laundry eve. On Laundry Eve, you know tomorrow you’ll be stripping your bed and turning in your laundry. You climb under those covers and snuggle in. The best Laundry Eves are the ones that also fell on nights that you did not also have fire watch. Yes. Fire watch is a thing. It’s that thing of which at some point in the night, a time that is scheduled ahead, someone will wake you up, and then you’ll get your actual uniform on and go sit in the hall for an hour and make sure no fire sneaks down the hall and burns the place down. You also have to count people at the beginning and the end of the hour. And then you go down to the Drill Sergeant on duty and tell them how many people there are. And hopefully your numbers are the same or different depending on who went where. And then you go back to bed. So. The best laundry eve is the one that happens on a night when you don’t have fire watch and you get to sleep under the blankets. It’s the best.
Anyway…..
For a while, I slept in a t-shirt. A t-shirt that is celebrating it’s 18th birthday. Happy Birthday to it.
Now, just underpants. I call them that so that you don’t have the illusion that they are fancy or sexy in any way. They are comfortable enough to sleep in. The lacy, sexy ones are changed out of and the sleeping ones are put on. And that’s what I sleep in.
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