The Hour Past Midnight

In being up later than I normally would be, I notice a number of different things. For one, it's astounding how quiet the street outside is. At home, I'm pretty sure I can hear the busy street near us, and the train especially in the early hours of the evening.
And then there are the empty pop cans clanking down the hall. After spending two or so weeks believing that my residents drank a lot of pop and were just making sure that they recycled correctly, I discovered that no. Oh no, my residents are far too clever for that. They strung up four feet worth of pop cans. From the ceiling. In the inlet where their door opens. Needless to say, every time someone enters or leaves that room...::clank:: ::claaaaaank:: Annoying? Absolutely. Especially at 1:30 in the AM.

And now my sleep-deprived brain has begun pondering what "AM" means. And "PM," for that matter. I supposed "After Midnight" would be appropriate for "AM," but where does that leave "PM"? "Past Midday"? That seems like a stretch. I wonder who came up for those terms. Was it the train system giving us time zones and neat ways of saying "in the afternoon or evening" without resorting to 13:00? But then the Europeans run on 24hr clocks. So was it the crazy American that gave us the weird measurement system that decided that the U.S. should have two 1:00s in the course of a day? Why would you do that? Naturally if I'm saying I'm going to meet someone for lunch at 1:00, they assume I mean in the afternoon, but what if I had no sense of when lunch should be eaten, and I showed up at the restaurant at 1:00 in the morning only to realize that the joint's hours are 9 AM to 10 PM, leaving me standing out on the curb without a "lunch"? What then?

A random update on my Lenten goal to write every day of Lent...I'm actually doing surprisingly well. I did cheat a couple times, making up for days I missed by writing extra, but hey. At least it's getting done, and there were only a couple days like that anyway. Chances are when I get home all this effort is going to be forgotten. Hopefully that won't happen, considering I'm so proud I've gotten this far writing every single day. That never happens. Never... I always promise myself that I'll get into the habit of writing every day, but I never actually buckle down and do it. What makes this time different, I have no idea, but something's working.

Maybe it's the procrastination.