Imlebideli

At 9:30 pm, I enter my bedroom to relax and have a peaceful night, watching television (usually nodding off a bit) and reading before finally going to sleep for the night after the 11 o’clock news.

Very often, as I am in a deep sleep, dreaming a wonderful dream, I am suddenly awakened by a cackling laughter.

You see, my daughter is an internet addict. She is on the computer whether she should be or not, and almost always late into the night, when I am trying to sleep and when she should be sleeping.

Often, when we are going out to shop or eat or to something scheduled, there are many exchanges like this:

“Get off the computer and get ready.”
“Okay, fifteen minutes.”
“No, now!”
“But I need to finish this up, Just a second. I’m right in the middle of this!”
“Fine, hurry up. And I mean hurry – you have fifteen minutes.”
“I only need ten. But I really need to finish this.”

As you might guess, the ten minutes is usually stretched out into thirty.

Unfortunately, after all of the years that she’s been online (five) this continues to go on, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year.

No, I still haven’t found myself used to the idea of having to wait and wait and wait. Thank goodness that I have low blood pressure and a good heart, or I’m sure I would have had a stroke by now.

I certainly will never get used to the laughter at 3:30 am. Of course, I would like to know the other addict that has allowed my daughter to know such hilarity in the middle of the night. And if I ever get my hands on them. . .

In two and a half years, I’m going to retire. Maybe then I’ll become an addict as well, and find myself cackling away in the middle of the night.