Sound Sleep

Last night I crashed around 10pm, flicking off the BBC and pulling up
the bed covers. After the flights from Tokyo to Osaka to Dubai to Addis
Ababa, a half-day at work, running errands and a large group dinner
replete with Ethiopian red wine, I fell asleep quickly. However, I was
awoken later by a few howling dogs. I'm not sure if Max, the dog at the
guesthouse, was in on it, but there must have been 3 or 4 of them going
back and forth. Old cartoons where people would throw shoes or other
objects at the stray cats and dogs to shut them up flashed in my mind.
Well, I didn't feel like hurtling any objects out the window, but I did
wake up and fish out my ear plugs from my carry-on bag. I pinched and
rolled them and stuck them in my ears, and as the foam expanded the
sounds faded to a muffled silence. Triumphant, I laid my head back on my
pillow, which seemed a little softer and the bed a little more cozy, and
drifted back to dreamland.