2000:  O Lovely Wall
2001:  Wandering in the Desert
2002:  The Twelfth of Never
2003:  Faster than a Speeding Bullet
2004:  Doggies vs. Death
2005:  When My Worlds Collide
2006:  Late Night Phone Calls

IN MY OPINION
"New Kids on the Block"

Books Read in 2007

Updated 4/9:
"Mutant Message from Forever"

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THIS ENTRY SHOULD PUT YOU TO SLEEP

15 April 2007

I have such a great story to tell you...but if I did, I'd have to kill you, so this has to be one of those times when I force myself to write about something else.

But trust me...it's a good story...

Something weird has been happening to me lately.  I've been sleeping.  I mean really sleeping.   Like normal sleep.

I have always prided myself on being able to fall asleep at the drop of a hat.  Get me horizontal — or semi-horizontal — and I'm asleep in 2 seconds.  I've always pointed to this as proving that one problem I don't suffer from is insomnia.

Well, I read some time back that the normal person takes 10-15 minutes to gradually drift off to sleep and that if you fall asleep instantly, you are getting insufficient sleep.

Lately, it's been taking me 10+ minutes to fall asleep.  And actually it's a rather pleasant time, gradually letting go of the issues of the day and trying to find something nice to think about as you slowly drift off to sleep.

I also have complained, over the years, that I never dream.  This I found very upsetting because people are always talking about their dreams and my brain is a blank as far as remembering anything that it might have been mulling over during sleep.

But now I'm dreaming.  I don't often remember more than bits or pieces of a dream, but sometimes I remember a whole dream and that's really nice.  Fun things can happen in dreams.  I dream when I sleep at night and sometimes I even dream if I nap during the day.

Yes, I have started napping during the day, on a more or less regular basis.  Call me old.  Walt has started napping during the day, too, now that he's retired.  He will sometimes complain that he has to go to bed at 9 at night because he didn't get his nap during the day.

I almost always find that I get sleepy around 1 or 2 in the afternoon.  Sometimes I actually go to sleep then, sometimes not.  If I'm going to review a show at night, especially if it's a new play (not a musical) or if it's a dance show (the other kind of show that is likely to put me to sleep), I make a concerted effort to take a nap.

I'm also getting more hours of sleep at night, thanks to the dogs.  Sheila really hates me to sleep in the recliner and some months back, I decided I'd try sleeping on the couch again to see how it affected my back.  The couch has a good enough support at the back that it doesn't usually give me a back ache, so most nights I now sleep in the living room, a room which is normally locked off during the day ever since Lizzie decided that she preferred peeing in there than going outside to pee.

Sheila really, really wants to go into the living room at night and though she usually sleeps under my desk (between my feet) when I work at night, the second I get up for anything, she leaps up, runs down the hall and looks at me, hoping I'll open the door.

She's so pathetic that I find that instead of sitting up until 1 or 2 in the morning futzing around on the computer, I'm usually headed off to the couch by 11:30 or so.

We have our routine.  Sheila sits in the hall until I've entered the room, then she walks in behind me.  I get on the couch and she stands by the couch while I pet her and when I get tired of petting her, she lies down right by my side and sleeps.

Lizzie in the meantime has leaped onto my body somewhere and is standing on the table behind the couch looking out the window, then she walks down my head to the arm of the couch and over to the chair next to the couch, where she settles in for the night.

Occasionally one of them will chew on a water bottle (their favorite toy) for awhile and I'll fall asleep to the sound of crackling plastic, but usually by the time I give up and fall asleep, they are sleeping as well.

So I suddenly find my nights becoming "normal," and realizing that I'm feeling much brighter in the daytime because of it.

My sleep is still weird, given where I sleep and all the other stuff that goes into it, but I am inching closer to "normal" than ever before.

Now this story might not have been nearly as interesting as the one I can't tell you or I'd have to kill you.  But it was at least very slightly interesting, I hope.

[I am being dive bombed by enormous mosquitoes, so I think it's time to go close the back door and let the puppy pee in the house for awhile.]

PHOTO OF THE DAY 

She's now in her 4th week here; it's time for me
to take another video of her.

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