Cuddling

I am, in general, a pretty cuddly person. I enjoy getting physically close to someone and sharing warmth and connection. It has always been easier for me to sleep when I'm in bed with someone else.

But I don't sleep around. I'm usually pretty choosy about who I cuddle with and fairly selective of who I crawl into bed with. Until last night.

My friend Cristian (see previous post) went to sleep last night sometime after about 9:30, and I followed shortly after, still drying my tears from a viewing of "Out of Africa." On a side note, Meryl Streep is amazing and that movie does terrible things to your heart. I didn't even see it coming! Anyway, I fell asleep, alone, in my bottom bunk.

It was around 2:30 in the morning that I noticed an arm slung across my chest. Immediately startled, I sat up (of course I hit my head) and looked to see Cristian sound asleep in my bed. I knew that we had been pretty friendly and I was certain that the songs we had sung earlier had made a good impression, but I didn't think we were quite THAT close. I tried to wake him up with absolutely no success. The kid sleeps as hard as he plays, I guess. I didn't want to wake up his grandma or Dan, so I just moved over as far as I could to the inside of the bunk.

He followed about 10 minutes later. I tried to shift him, and he clung on like a baby chimpanzee. At this point I realized I could either forcibly remove him and wake an entire cabin of people on the precarious edge of sleep on a train rumbling through the Romanian countryside... or I could settle in. So Cristian and I snuggled as much as my sense of honor would allow. I woke up with hot, sticky kid breath on my neck as Cristian played with my hair absentmindedly. Maybe he just missed his mom, and I was her soft and warm substitute. Regardless, I slept with my first random last night, and it actually was rather lovely.