Ms. Ebony, How Was Your Night?!?

How was your night? Hmmm....

I got the inspiration to write this from my very own April Laugh. I have noticed that quite a number of people ask me this question (I don't want to be specific) but i'll say it 's common among Nigerians. I don’t find this question annoying, offensive or rude. I simply want you to be patient with me when you ask the question and careful to listen as I relate the response back to you. Most people ask this question not particularly 'cos they want to know, but 'cos it seems polite to ask before jumping in to the subject of the conversation. They ask and expect to get back responses such as 'good', 'fine', or 'ok'.. And most often than not, they don't want to hear u say 'bad' or go into detail about ur night because they aren't as patient and even worse, it will kill the essence of their chat which would probably at this time become less about them and more about you.

I don't like the question much cos I find it somesort intrusive and eliciting a lot of detail (which probably isn't my business anyways) as opposed to 'did you sleep well'? Then again the normal Good morning, how are you? ...and work? may yet be better options.

A few weeks ago, a friend called me around 10am and after the usual greetings, she popped the question 'How was your night?' before I could say it was 'good' or make any comment at all she started a whole new conversation. At that point I was confused, cos I sort of noticed this trend with a few other people. Do people ask this question because they think it’s a compliment? Or they just ask it out of having nothing to say? Or they just want to seem polite? I would really like to understand the concept behind this fad.

I’ll love to reply my dear friend now: and this is me going a little over board explaining how that night was...

‘‘Thanks B for asking! My night was one of a kind, a good one as well. But wait! What time does my night start again? When I get home from work or after I have had supper?

Either ways, I'll start from when I got off work...I got on the 7.26pm train from work and got home round about 8.16pm. I started this whole eating healthy habits or rather healthy eating habits :) where I don't eat after 8 o'clock. But it was past 8 and I kept contemplating to eat or not to eat? I turned on the TV  flipped the channels and tried to watch some news but my mind wasn't listening. I decided to get on skype with my cousin, and after about an hour I remembered I had lunch at 1.30pm so it wasn't exactly wise not to have something for supper. It was a few minutes to 10 and my cousin made me feel better about eating late (better late than never ay !)  or rather how wise when I could have had a smaller portion around 8.30 ?!? After the much contemplated meal, I spent about 2 hours reading a book "convicted or condemned" (amazeballs.com) and decided it was time to head off to bed. "At least, most of my food would have digested" (I thought). I said my prayers and off I was in dreamland.

I forgot to close me laptop so at about 3.40am I was woken up by a call on skype I would have attended to it but I couldn't be bothered as I knew it couldn't be an emergency neither was it a love interest...

I think that was about it that night... (the night u asked me about). So dear reader, how was your night?  Honestly??

I usually don't ask cos I'm not patient enough to listen so I'd rather ask and be asked instead, "Did you sleep well?"