What Now?

Reading: Roasting In Hell's Kitchen by Gordon Ramsay. It was a blast to see him in person this past week. It was a little disappointing to not have him yell at me. I'd probably cry though, so it's for the best.

Listening: Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga by Spoon. This is a great album and I can't stop listening to it. We saw them live a couple of weeks ago and they were fantastic. I was really happy they had a horn section on stage.

Watching: Pushing Daisies, one of the newer shows I like and will miss when all of the current episodes have aired. It's wonderfully quirky.

Selling: Hamster balls and Hamster Haiku with the Tired Girl Collective at the Handmade for the Holidays Craft Fair.

Dreading: Work tomorrow. Ugh. I'd rather be at the craft fair (see above).

Dreaming Of: Sleep. I will be fulfilling this very, very soon.

On Rejoining The Human Race

It started yesterday. When I woke up, I left the bedroom and even moved my laptop back into the den. Then later that evening, I showered, put on a little makeup, and left my house for the first time in a week. Well, I'd been out to the back yard with the dogs and moved my car once, but I actually left my property. And it felt pretty good! I was armed with cough drops and tissues. I survived and even dare to say, had fun. Maybe more on that later.

I slept pretty well last night too, without the aid of codeine, and decided to run a few errands this afternoon. I got my bangs trimmed, returned some chairs to a friend, dropped a couple of bags of clothing off at Goodwill, and picked up some dog food. It was a beautiful, sunny day and it felt great to drive around with windows down while listening to a special pledge-drive version of This American Life. Oh, how I've missed driving my little car!

I returned home with grand plans of a back yard photo shoot with the dogs, multiple loads of laundry, and house straightening. I got out my camera and lenses and immediately put them away. I started one load of laundry, but the house remains a bit of a mess. Frankly, my outing exhausted me and reminded me that I'm not quite 100% well yet.

Dread about returning to work on Monday is already starting to set in. Even though I am feeling much better, I do still have quite a cough, which worsens when I talk a lot or do physical activity. My job involves a lot of talking and quite a bit of physical activity, much of it strenuous at times. Also, I think I'm returning to the start of two of the nine pending maternity leaves, so I'll probably have extra work on my plate.

I think I'll embark on a well-deserved nap. The laundry can wait.

I'll Sleep On It's A Small World

Here I am...wide awake. This generally happens the night before our Thanksgiving adventure at Disneyland. I left work a tiny bit early, but the traffic was pretty bad, so I still didn't get home until about 6:30. I did some laundry, messed around on the computer, ate dinner while watching a drunk Kiefer Sutherland attack a Christmas tree (not very Jack Bauer like), walked and feed Daizy, got cash, filled the car up with gas, and then poked around online some more while watching this week's Taye Break. I sent E to bed so I have a chance of waking him up in a few hours and then proceeded to pick up any clutter that might be enticing to the dogs to eat (Cosette) or pee on (Little Guy). I even let Ami run around in his ball.

My camera and cell phone batteries are charged, my bag is cleaned out and packed with only essentials, and my clothing is laid out. All I have left to do is set 4 or 5 alarms and get a little shut eye. Full report, hopefully with photos, on Friday. Eat some turkey and pumpkin pie for me!

Feeling Like A Zombie

How can I be so tired today? I barely made it through my workday yesterday on 3 hours of sleep. I went home and instead of going to a free screening of Cars and Q&A with John Lassiter, I opted to get some much needed shut-eye. I went to sleep around 7:00 pm and planned to get up around 10:30 to eat and watch Lost. The latter didn't happen and I slept and slept, barely able to get up this morning. In fact, I didn't get up until about 7:40 am, ten minutes after I'm supposed to arrive at work.

I'm leaving early today to go to the dentist. It's looking like I might even be able to squeeze in a little nap. Pathetic! I actually feel really hot and weird too, so am possibly fighting off some germies. I was sick on Monday, but it seemed more allergy related. I've had my flu shot, so hopefully that's warding off anything that serious.

At this rate, I won't even have to use make up for my zombie Raggedy Ann costume.

Why Do I Have Pets?

At approximately 3am this morning, I was awakened by a squeak-thump-squeak-thump that kept repeating. I wasn't deeply asleep as I'd woken up a little when E came to bed, not long before. I switched on the light and saw the hamster racing in his wheel. Apparently there was a big seed or something clunking as he ran along. Knowing what it was, I was able to start drifting off again.

I didn't get very far into my sleep when I heard a thud, which was then followed by Rusty barking. And barking. And barking some more. Rusty is not a barker at all compared to his canine siblings, who were both curled up and snoozing away with us in the bedroom. I went out to the dining room here Rusty was standing, in the dark, barking into the kitchen. He was freaking out, wiggling like crazy when he saw me.

My first thought was, "Crap, what came in through the dog door? Skunk, squirrel, possum, stray cat?" I tentatively turned on some lights and found my lunch box had fallen from the top of the refridgerator, explaining the thud I had heard. And yes, that is what spooked Rusty. Much better than some wildlife creature.

If I believed in signs or omens or whatever, I would definitely think the lunch box falling was one. I put a bottle of water in with my food today. When I got to work, I picked up my lunch and it was soaking wet, as was the floor mat in my brand new car! Ack! I'm dreading how it will smell after being closed up for 10+ hours today. Upon inspection of my container, I noted the rubber gasket on the lid had become dislodged. So that explains the spillage instead of some mumbo jumbo.

I do wonder what made the lunch box fall. I checked an earthquake information page and there was a "micro quake" at 3:09 am, but it was pretty far south so I don't think that was it.

Who Needs Sleep?

So I did not sleep one wink last night. Ugh! I went on in to work and did okay until around noon, when I hit the I've been awake for 24 hours mark. I had to fight nodding off in a meeting at 1pm. I ended up leaving a few hours early. I slept for a couple of hours and hope that doesn't screw up my chances of getting some shuteye tonight.

All I Want

I just want to lie down and fall asleep. And stay asleep. And not cough. Ever. Again. Hey, even though I'm awake, I can still dream.

This is truly maddening and I am starting to have much more empathy for insomniacs than I could ever have before. I can not lie down without coughing. And I am exhausted. Night after night, I have been giving in to the codeine-enhanced cough syrup and eventually passing out.

I'd hoped tonight would be different and perhaps I'd sleep without medicinal aid. Sure, I figured I'd still be on the couch, mostly sitting up, but sleeping nonetheless. Not only am I awake and too out of it to do anything productive, but my body aches. I can't even seem to find a position to rest or read in comfortably.

Hopefully I've bored myself enough with this post that I can trick my body into falling into slumber before my lungs realize it and start retaliating. Wish me luck.

I'm Going Back To Bed

I only worked a half-day today. I was feeling horrible, but instead of calling out sick, I went in for the morning to get things in order. Last night I thought I'd just eaten too much at dinner with Ren and her Other Half, but no, that severe cramping sensation was coming from something else. Ugh.

On another note though, I have been able to wake up the last couple of mornings due to finding an old alarm clock when house cleaning last week. It's very loud and so far does the trick. It'll only be a matter of time before I learn to sleep through that too though.

It can not be a good sign when you dream about sleeping. I spent part of a dream this morning asleep (in the dream).

Back to work in a few hours.

Guess I'd better get to sleep in my sweet new Napoleon Dynamite pajama pants!

I'm Wide Awake

I'm not sleeping...that's for sure. I did manage to get caught up a bit on my sleep today though. It has been an incredibly fun, yet incredibly exhausting week. If only I didn't have that pesky full-time job/career thing in the mix, I'd have much more time for naps and catching up on my blog!

I have 143 unread emails in my Inbox (no, that does not include spam, I get rid of that before downloading my mail). I have 183 photos from Halloween and 300 from the U2 show to sort through. I'm hoping to get caught up on all of this by the end of the weekend.

In many ways, I'm hoping it's a low-key weekend. I don't have too many definite plans, just something really cool for Sunday night (thanks Ren!) Between now and then, I'm going to vote for not doing too much. We'll see though because Eric may have other things in mind.

I'm not sleeping...oh no, no, no...

Who Needs Sleep?

Well, I do. I had a good amount of sleep Saturday night/Sunday morning. I'm off Monday, so as usual, I'm staying up way too late. Eric, for once, has gone to bed before me, but then he only had about 3 hours of sleep last night. I'm actually surprised he made it this far.

I started making a to-do list and it's getting pretty long. It just occurred to me too that I didn't include any of the Halloween prep stuff that needs to be done, such as:

• Decorate the front lawn.
  

• Get the items for my work costume. We always have a theme and this year it was chosen on a day I was off and someone decided what character I'd be. Okay. Whatever. I'm one of the boys in Peter Pan...John, I think...all I know is that I get to wear pajamas to work, so that's fine with me.
  

• Figure out a costume for a party this coming weekend. I don't think I can be my work costume as I have to borrow Eric's top hat. He's planning to be Charles De Mar from Better Off Dead, so he'll need the hat on Saturday.

• Purchase candy for the trick-or-treaters. Preferably something I find disgusting, like something filled with coconut, so I won't consume the leftovers. We always have leftovers.
  

Okay, now my brain is officially starting to get a bit overloaded, so I think I should sleep. A little, anyway. Goodnight.

Tuesday, Tuesday

I spent most of my day off Tuesday sleeping. That was good and bad. I needed the rest, but neglected to get lots of stuff done that has to be done by the end of the week. Oh well.

I left the house around 5pm to do some errands and the air and sky were quite smoky. Turns out there was a fire in the Hollywood Hills and the wind was blowing the smoke and ash in our direction. Luckily, no homes or people were harmed.

After errands, we went to Amoeba for the Nickel Creek in-store. Being the dork that I tend to be, I had the wrong time and they went on at 8, not 7. We were only able to stay for a couple of songs. Since we had time to kill, some purchases were made, of course. We picked up Nickel Creek's new cd and I got an import version of Rude Boy. Eric picked up some things from the deep discount bins (where we noticed that just about every Ben Affleck movie is available for $4.99!), as well as the Special Edition of The Muppet Show: Season 1.

We left Amoeba and headed over to Largo for dinner and Jill Sobule. There was a small crowd, but she was great as usual. She came out into the room a couple of times to sing. She sat on the empty table next to us and sang "Underdog Victorious." During the song she spotted my Underdog t-shirt and had me stand up to show everyone.

My blog is kind of repetitive. I'll have to think of some interesting things to write about as opposed to always writing "...we went to Largo again..." (well, we do go there fairly often).

The Best Laid Plans

I just completed a massive photo upload to my Flickr page. My intention was to then write a description here of this past weekend's activities. I'm too tired for that now though.

Robochrist Industries' Live Robot Warfare

I did get to do one of my favorite things this evening...take a nap. It's been an exhausting few days and the sleep was quite a treat. Right before I woke up, I was dreaming that while waiting in a restaurant for a table, I spotted David Bowie standing right in front of me. He turned, made eye contact and left. I was madly trying to send a text message to Ren to let her know I'd just had the best.starsighting.ever!