insomnia

And then there were crickets…

I just finished my July Camp Nanowrimo novel. Just now, at 0133 on July 30th, one full day ahead of schedule. Now I have all of tomorrow and Sunday to plan my August Camp Nanowrimo novel. If you’re sitting there thinking that I’ve gone completely insane, you’re right. I think I have. If you’d like an ARC of the drivel that just about crippled my fingers for the past 30 days, shoot me an email. The only rule is that you can’t laugh…at least not where I can hear you.

Man. How appropriate that I’m doing a camp-themed Wrimo here on Allen Mountain, with the crickets loud just outside the window? I may have to build a campfire to get through August’s challenge…but for now, if you need me, I’ll be basking for a bit. Night, y’all!

This time it wasn’t insomnia…

Last night I was up reading. Reading. For four hours straight.

I haven’t had a book touch me enough or inspire me in that way since I finished the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind, and even the last two books of that series didn’t hold me rapt like what I was reading last night.

I’m sure those in the know (and I KNOW that Julie over at Seven Impossible Things has) have already read this series when it first came out. I avoided it because it was Young Adult Literature…I never could get into the Harry Potter books and thought that was the cause.

I now think it’s because HP wasn’t dark enough for me…but I digress. Last night I was up reading New Moon…almost 500 pages in one sitting. I can’t say enough good things about it…and I’m going to get the next one in the series, Eclipse, today. (If you’re interested in the first book, Twilight, click on this post title for the link.)

Progress

Zyrtec? Check.

Proper dinner? Kinda check, if you count curry noodles as a proper dinner. Do the onions in the sauce count as veg?

In bed on time? Another Kinda Check. I fell asleep on the sofa around 9:30, woke up at 11:30 and got in my bed so kinda.

Woke up at normal time? Nope. I was up at 4am with Jeany wanting to go out, and then dozed off and on (more off than on really) from 4:30 to 7:30 when I finally gave up and got out of bed.

Still, 4:30 is better than 3. I’m moving in the right direction at least.

Nancy 1, Jet Lag 3.

What do you get when you add…


enroute to MAN
Originally uploaded by Nancy Allen

Jet lag, no zyrtec for a week, and a cat that would clearly rather stay at the vet’s than be held by his long suffering Mommy whose allergy ridden head has just come back to Georgia in full bloom and humidity?

Me. Sick as a dog yesterday and aching for allergy/cold meds. Two benadryl later and I couldn’t think straight, let alone keep my eyes open. I was asleep on the couch when the guy from Papa John’s brought my comfort food…err…pizza. I ate some and then went promptly back to sleep. That was at seven thirty EST, otherwise known as midnight BST (British Summer Time). My body thought it was bedtime and when the meds agreed we all took a nice long nap…till 3am when I was wide awake and mostly productive!

So…now I’ve been up for fourteen hours and I’m sleepy and barely able to string a sentence together. Seriously. What I’ve typed so far has taken me much longer than it should have, considering the quality. Here’s hoping I will be back to normal soon…changing my work hours to the middle of the night MIGHT raise a few eyebrows.

…just another brick in the Wall…?

Now, apologies to the Almighty Pink Floyd…

Just a short observation I wanted to share since I ONCE AGAIN CAN’T SLEEP…I was interpreting in a group setting today and made an interesting discovery at the end of the session. While I can tell you in minute detail who the the deaf clients were (well, I could, but I won’t, confidentiality and ethics and all…), I have no real memory of any of the other faces in the room. I have a sort of photographic memory, but when I call up my memory of that room I can’t make out any of the faces. I can tell you who was African American, who was male, who was female…but if I were to pass any of those people on the street I can guarantee that they would recognize me far before I recognized them. And I suppose that’s as it should be. I just wonder why. Their faces, in my memory, look like the melted/distorted faces of the school children in the “Another Brick in the Wall/We Don’t Need No Education” part of Pink Floyd’s “The Wall.” No definition, nothing, just blank. For you Doctor Who fans, it was like the moment in the episode “The Idiot’s Lantern” when the Doctor finds the caged up people with no faces…the room, in my memory, is filled with people with no faces.

On the one hand, that’s good because it preserves confidentiality for the group members. But in a way, it almost trivializes them, at least in my memory, because there is nothing individual about any of them. But that’s good as well, I suppose, because I’m remembering them as a group of people focused on a common healing goal rather than as this man or that young woman or the like. I have to admit that even though I certainly do not wish to share the illness that brought those people to that group, I always leave those situations feeling a bit like an outsider. I know that’s what I am, really, but when you’ve spent an hour being someone else, speaking their words, signing their thoughts…when it’s over and everyone separates into groups and you’re left standing there it’s just an odd feeling, like breaking through the surface of the water to find that everyone has already headed for the beach.

Profundity. A CLEAR sign that I need sleep. Cross your fingers it comes soon…

What to do when you can’t sleep…

Make lists.

1. Sleep.

2. If number one doesn’t work, play Everquest.

3. Still awake? Cruise iTunes and discover that your new favorite band, Bitter:Sweet has a new album out. If you caught the first season of Lipstick Jungle, then you heard Bitter:Sweet in the theme song, The Bomb. I’ve been waiting for the album to come out and just happened to log into iTunes on the very day. Fate, I tell ya.

4. Weird Electronica not your cuppa? Try Christine Kane. Folksy, uplifting, just pretty darned awesome is how I’d describe her. One hundred thousand thank you’s, by the way, to Katy for introducing me to this wonderful singer/songwriter. My recommendation is one that seems to be mirroring my life at the moment, a song called Right Outta Nowhere from the album of the same name.

Some choices hold you down
Some chances set you free

Right outta nowhere
You open your heart
And let go of everything
You’re going somewhere
And all you need to know
Is that you’re free to go

Dream and the way will be clear
Pray and the angels will hear
Leap and the net will appear

5. Still no good? Well, it’s probably again not your cup of tea, but I’m loving Say by John Mayer. I love John Mayer, there, I said it…and this song is just one more in a long line of songs that tend to get set on repeat when they come on the iPod.

Hmmm…I think I may have bored myself sleepy posting…

6. Post to the Lettuce…zzzzzz…