Tag: sleep

  • The Middle Distance

    I shouldn’t blog when I’m this tired. I’m seeing things out of the corners of my eyes that aren’t actually there. Furtive movements. I so rarely have the opportunity to use the word “furtive”. Why is that? Hmmm… Clearly, I lack focus. I’m finding it impossible to think coherently. So brace yourself, dear reader. This…

  • How I Live Now

    There was a time, not so very long ago, when I could have told you the exact amount of cash I had in my wallet, down to the penny. I’d wake up in a cold sweat, wondering how I’d pay my bills, or what on earth I’d do if I became seriously ill with no…

  • Melatonin Dreams

    My dreams are strange at the best of times, but when I take Melatonin to help me sleep, I seem to descend into a Seuss-like subbasement of my subconscious, a place where only Salvador Dali would feel at home. One time I dreamed that there were several giraffes walking on water, headed straight toward my…

  • Exhausto-Day

    To say I have a really screwed up work schedule is putting it mildly. Part of the week I work swing shift, and then, to make life interesting, I switch over to day shift. That means that there’s one day where I only get about 5 hours of sleep between shifts. Needless to say, by…

  • What Keeps Me Up at Night

    Yeah, I’ve done that mind-grind thing where I keep worrying about something and try in vain to come up with a solution. I have done my fair share of stressing out over finances, jobs, relationships, and conversations that I’m dreading. I’ve even stayed up to care for sick people and pets. But you know what…

  • Mental Health Days

    Raise your hand if you’ve NEVER, not even once, called in sick to work or school when you’re weren’t technically sick. Anyone? Anyone? (I didn’t think so.) Back before I was a bridgetender, I pretty much hated every job I had. And I called in sick a lot. Of course, I was younger then, and…

  • The Anatomy of a Traumatic Experience

    It was an unremarkable day. In retrospect, that was one of the strangest things about it. I was walking across the bridge to get to work, as I’ve done thousands of times. The sun was out. I had no plans, really. Think “status quo.” And then I saw movement out of the corner of my…

  • Part of Me Sleeps

    This will come as no big surprise, but a very large part of me likes to avoid conflict, stress, and confrontation. Decades ago, I decided that the most effective way to not deal with the slings and arrows of life was to sleep. I absolutely love to sleep. My spirit animal is probably one of…

  • Lost Epiphanies

    I keep a notepad beside my bed. Often, I’ll wake up in the middle of the night with a blog idea or a brilliant realization, and I know I’ll forget it by the time the alarm goes off in the morning if I don’t write it down. I know this because it happens all the…

  • “Oh, George…”

    Every once in a while, my mother used to talk in her sleep. It was usually something quite silly, and I’d have fun teasing her about it the next day. She would just roll her eyes at me. But one night, when I was about 10 years old, she said, “Oh, George…” She said it…