Need...more...sleep...

I don't get enough sleep at all. I've developed a nasty habit of going to bed between 5 and 5:30 in the morning, and I struggle to get out of bed to get to work at 10:00 (with varying levels of failure). I'm not really sure why I'm up so late anymore; it used to be that I would get my schoolwork done after hours because I liked being up so late, but now I'm not really doing much of anything that requires being up that long. Sure, I find things to do that would be better done earlier in the day (i.e. dishes, house cleaning), but it's hard to find the time to fit those in during the few hours I get to spend with my husband before he goes off to his third-shift job.

It doesn't help things (or my family's anxiety) that I like to exercise by going out walking in the middle of the night. I do it for a multitude of reasons, but mainly it's because it's not so hot outside, there aren't that many people out there to see me in my silly pig-tails (which I do to keep the sweat from ruining my hair), and my husband doesn't want to go with me when he has to work that night. Even though I'm in the city, I'm not afraid to be out there at night. I made a habit of it in college when I would walk home to my dorm at 4am (but I looked so angry that people stayed as far away from me as possible -- a very effective mechanism), but apparently I never told my family I did this...or my grandmother would've torn into me for it. As it is, my aunt makes me call her if I happen to mention that I'm going out that night, and my grandmother told me to take a stick with me. I walk with my mp3 player on, but I keep the volume down and I'm aware of my surroundings at all time (plus, I know enough people in my neighborhood that I feel as if I can find someone if my cell-phone doesn't work or something). It's helping me to lose weight, but it's not helping me to get any more sleep.

That, and the World Series of Pop Culture just started a nightly online trivia contest where the winner gets $2,500 (which means I'm trying to play at 10pm & 1am), so that torpedoes the chance of getting more sleep. Oh well...after suffering the written equivalent of blurting out as much at once as possible [Imagine if I had said what I had written...as someone saying it as quickly as possible. That's how I talk when I'm frustrated/nervous sometimes. Sorry about that :-)] I'm going to wrap this up. I have two projects to work on (apparently, I completely misunderstood the one from last week as being more complicated than it was), so I'm going to get to that.

And it's about to start pouring (and I left my umbrella in the car), so I may not go out walking tonight, in case you were worried ;-).

Take care & stay dry, cool, or whatever is your ideal today.