Decaf blows

In the last 48 hours I’ve only slept about five of them and not by my choice. I am exhausted and can’t think straight, but I’m completely wired! Wheee!! I came home Sunday, wrote a blog post, added to my Nanowrimo book, and went to bed to read. It’s a new-ish habit to go to bed, turn off the lights and open up my Kindle. It helps me get ready for bed and calm my mind. It puts me to sleep in a good way that reading books on my phone can’t possibly do. Plus, if I have to stretch out of bed after putting down my paperback just to turn off the light, I’m suddenly awake again. It completely defeats the purpose of reading myself into a calm, peaceful state – like blinking my eyes every other word and having to reread sentences because the words were too blurry to make out, or I just wasn’t paying attention to the words.

Good times. A friend of mine once said about people who fall asleep reading – “They’re doing it wrong.” I tend to agree. My problem is usually that I want to keep reading forever, but I just can’t physically stay awake any longer. It’s a good problem to have. Anyway, that isn’t exactly what happened two nights ago. I read for about twenty minutes, put my Kindle down and snuggled down into the blankets. I’m pretty sure that I had just fallen asleep when Tricia asked me how she was supposed to do the thing with the stake. Yeah. Sleep-talking is a new favorite for her. I rolled over, rubbed her back, and told her to go back to sleep. She sat up even straighter and said, “No. How do I make the crosses?” And motioned two fingers making a cross. Well, I don’t know baby. She huffed at me, rolled over and went back to sleep. Come to find out she was trying to make a door frame and wanted to know where to put the cross pieces. You got me.

I never did get back to a good sleep. I woke up every hour on the hour from midnight until 6pm and some times in between.  It made for an absolutely miserable Monday morning, but quitting time would come soon enough. I had two cups of coffee to keep me going – that’s pretty standard for me. Same routine when I got home yesterday – wrote a blog post, added to my Nanowrimo (November is hard work!), ate dinner and went to bed. I read for a bit, put my book down and fell asleep. I woke up at midnight. Again. Wide awake. Are you freaking kidding me?! After rolling over and snuggling back into the covers I was able to fall back asleep. For about an hour. Finally, at 3 o’clock I decided enough was enough. I pulled out my phone, checked my email, Facebook, played a few games, then pulled out the Kindle to read.

For a brief moment I contemplated going for a run, but it was crazy early, and there was no way to get dressed without waking up Tricia who would have called crazypants on me. That, and the fact that I haven’t run at all in two months, but (just to be sure) I checked the weather which convinced me to stay inside. Brrr!

I emailed work, told them about my miserable night, said that I would be totally useless, and took a benadryl to knock myself out cold. An hour later Tricia got up and asked how long I’d been up. No, I won’t be going to work. The benadryl was definitely not doing its job of knocking me unconscious, so I took a dose of Zzz-quil, too. A bit later I was able to sleep for fifteen minutes.

I quit. I’m wired, delirious, and incapable of driving myself anywhere. I haven’t had caffeine all day because I’m scared. BTW, decaf blows. No sugar, no nothing that could possibly keep me from sleeping tonight. There’s a bottle of wine in the fridge to go with a hearty meal of grilled chicken and brussel sprouts. I plan to have a few glasses, stuff myself silly, and pass out. Please make this work.

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