Making It Up As I Go Along #244

MONDAY…
--- Not a bad day… meeting in the afternoon breaks it up.
--- Squash is alright. I win more than lose but it’s all against the one person… so I’m not the worst player out there anyway!

TUESDAY…
--- Busy busy day. And by 2:30 I’m dead tired. So it’s snoozing for much of the evening between 6 and 8.

WEDNESDAY…
--- Not a bad day at work and Grace O’Malley’s (a pub) for a drink and supper with some co-workers.
--- I don’t sleep well again… going to bed around ten to eleven Wednesday night but not getting to sleep much before one.

THURSDAY…
--- Run down with lack of sleep and maybe fighting a cold (hard to tell when you aren’t sleeping). Work half day and take in a presentation for the other half of the day.
--- Skip squash tonight, no energy for it.

FRIDAY…
--- Work is madness today. I’m run everywhere for much of the day. A big crowd at lunch doesn’t really take away from the madness either.
--- To Grace O’Malley’s again after work for a bite and a few drinks. It’s alright.

SATURDAY…
--- Quiet day around the house while the rain pours down. Louis, Casey, Nick and some of Nick’s friends come over for the hockey game tonight. A fine night of foolishness.
--- I may still be catching a cold… a possibility that displeases me.


Curse of Dayshift
A sleepless week is a tough thing to endure. It seems like such an easy thing to do. I mean to fall asleep should be as simple as deciding not to do anything. Turn off the lights, lie down and just allow yourself to get bored.

But the mind works in peculiar ways and sometimes it seems like it’d be easier to fly to the moon than have a good night’s sleep.

This week has been a tough one sleep wise. Each night I’d go to bed tired, ready to drift off within moments of my head hitting the pillow. Yet, for some reason the sleep wouldn’t come.

Tossing and turning, looking for the position that will whisk you away to dreamland, all that comes is frustration with each glance at the clock and, with it, the realization that morning will come with aches, a foggy head, and a general feeling of malaise.

One afternoon, I force myself not to nap in the hope that sheer exhaustion will grant me a peaceful night’s sleep. And the other afternoons have me succumb to fatigue for anywhere between twenty minutes and two hours of restless sleep. It’s the type of sleep where you can hear other things going on around you. You can hear the TV or the e-mail notification. You can hear neighbours coming home from their day of work. But you hear it from a semi-dream state where rest doesn’t really come. You awake groggy.

At 8:30, the thought of bed is appealing. But what good would going be? I’d wake up at 2:30 or 3:00 and be more messed up than I am currently.

So I push to 10:30 and venture off to bed hoping this will be the night I dream peacefully and awake refreshed.

And each night, 10:30 turns to 11:00 and 11:30 soon follows. On the worst such night, 12:40 is seen before any real sleep comes and I mull over the idea of taking the next day off from work.

By midweek, the lack of rest brings other unwanted issues. I feel like I’m fighting a cold. A tired immune system is just not a good immune system I guess.

It’s one of those colds where you generally feel okay through the day. Maybe it’s the aches of sickness or maybe just those that come with being too tired. But then at night, when the head hits the pillow, the nose rebels.

And when you want to be at your most comfortable and peaceful, my nose clogs and begins to leak… all at the same time.

So on two occasions this week, when sleep finally came, it was with a tissue clasped between sleeping fingers.

Yet hope is about to dawn. For here is a long weekend followed by evening shift. And evening shift at work has always suited my sleeping patterns better. Going to bed when the feeling comes upon me rather than when the clock says I better… and awaking when the level of rest has reached maximum rather than when a CD of music jerks me into consciousness.

Of course, thanks to cloggy the hose nose, Friday and Saturday night both only brought minimal rest. I just feel like I need one night… one good night that will bring back the strength to ditch the germs in my head and get me back on track.

Maybe that night will be tonight… hopefully tonight… it better be tonight.