Hello dear friend, and fellow blog reader,
Yesterday was extremely trying. But, I did not waste a lot of time on the computer and in front of the TV.
Instead, I got a taste of the real workaday world. A taste of what it is like to function with a sleep deficit.
From the moment I woke up until the time I went to bed I was really, really loopy.
What contributed to this lack of focus and foolishness.
LACK OF SLEEP.
Yes, I have been burning the candles at both ends.
Staying up late and getting up early.
I was functioning on 4 or 5 hours sleep and that is a recipe for DISASTER.
I had 5 awful or near awful things happen to me on account of my inattentiveness, and extreme tiredness.
First of all, I put the coffee pot on when I got up at 530am. I needed to get up that early because my husband, an ER doc, needed a lift home in the truck when he got off work at 6am, since the sporty car is parked in the shed for the winter.
So, I went to make coffee, and waited, and waited. I needed a caffeine kick to wake me up. I waited until it was almost 545am for the coffee to brew, and then I realized something...I put the water in the pot and the ground coffee, but I DID NOT TURN THE COFFEE MACHINE ON! I forgot to hit the ON button, so no brew.
Finally, after I hit the on button, the coffeee started brewing. I could hear it brewing as I hurried out the door in my nightgown, boots and overcoat. I had ran out of time to dress and would have to wait til I got home to have my fresh-brewed coffee.
I had to have my husband drive us home in the truck because I couldn't even function to unlock the truck doors, I was in such distress, and my mind felt like such a mess, not to mention the back seat of the truck.
My man drove us home and then I had to go to work. I am a broadcaster and I do interviews all over the area.
Yesterday morning, I had 4 early morning interviews.
I had procrastinated on so many things, and it was time to play catch up before I had to teach in the afternoon.
So, I did laundry, I walked the dogs, cleaned the cat box, put things away from a window display I had left in the truck, took out all the garbage, etc. etc. Forgot to eat anything and my blood sugar plummeted.
I thought, "Oh, we need butter, and other things from the store, and I can eat when I get home."
It was getting to be the mid-afternoon and I realized they would re-broadcast an interview I had done that morning, so I thought, "Since I am in the truck, I will listen to it." I listened to it. The dogs were with me in the truck. I left them in the truck when I went to get groceries, and when I came out I realized, I did not have the car running but had left the radio and lights on and I had drained the battery, and the truck wouldn't start.
So, I tried calling home, no answer. Then, I tried calling Triple A. In my state of mind, with my new Android phone, I got so uptight I messed up working with my phone: putting it in mute, putting it on hold, monkeying around and seeing a tiny amber bar implying I have only a few minutes battery-power left on my cell phone.
I finally got through to Triple A.
LET ME TELL YOU THIS: They say that you should obey hunches, well, YOU SHOULD. As you might have guessed since I have been keeping this blog, I have been trying to find and organize my license, credit cards, other wallet cards including my Triple A card. It had been lying loose the other day in one of my purses, and on a wild hair impulse, I thought, "This should be in my wallet, instead of in the side pocket of that purse."
I am so thankful I had my Triple A card. Finally, when the guy came, I had been reading my truck manual on where the lever is to pop open the hood. The man barely had to charge it and Lo! and behold! my Frontier Nissan started, and I got to drive home.
My troubles were far from over.
I had so much to carry in the house. Oh, buy the way, the nice mittens I told you that disappeared yesterday, reappeared today. I had left them in the back seat of my cluttered truck. In fact, I had no mitts for my gig yesterday morning when it was -3 below, if I had looked through the clutter in my back seat, my hands wouldn't have hurt so bad with the cold.
That is the way clutter is. It makes things vanish.
Speaking of vanish, my husband bought me an expensive Nexus One phone to replace my G1 phone I lost and I really thought I had lost my phone. I just about fainted.
I searched high and low. I was hungry, tired, distressed and had so much stress, and thought, "Now, I've done it. I threw the Nexus One out with the cat litter." Luckily that was not the case. I found it later on in. (After many fervent prayers since there are no atheists when you lose something valuable.) I found it in my overcoat pocket. I quickly took it to it's port by my bed to be plugged in and charged. I was very grateful.
Another incident happened yesterday as well. They say "Sleepy Drivers Rest in Pieces." I was nearly in a collision yesterday evening after I dropped my husband off at the clinic. I was turning onto a main thoroughfare and there was a truck right on my bumper honking his horn. Honestly, I did not see him, but I must have cut right in front of him in my haste to get home. It scared me terribly, especially when he honked loudly at me.
What really showed me the value of getting enough sleep was my "emergency" with one of my music students. I had been too busy to check my work schedule. When the phone rang while I was giving M. her guitar lesson, I had suddenly been reminded I was supposed to work at the radio station to cover a basketball game. Actually, the phone call was from my sister in Canada. It made me feel I needed to be to work that night at 7pm, which meant my student had to be picked up shortly because I needed to go, and it was already 6:45! It turned out I was thinking it was Thursday night, the wrong night. Her mom came to pick her daughter up and then I realized I was OK. I had gotten confused as to my nights. How embarrassing.
So, suffering, work, life, stress, all the many rigors of a busy day need to be soothed with the healing balm of sleep.
I shall have to sleep more and not get so bent out of shape because I do not get enough sleep.
How shall I avoid the TV and the computer to get more sleep. I will have to try to work something out.
Til tomorrow, get your sleep,
Sincerely,
Amy Zents
PS. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ is good.
© Amalia Zents
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