Night of the Living Dead

XXRoxyMamaXX

NOT!

I thought I knew where to begin on this one, but when you're sleep deprived, it just "ain't happenin'".

Those of you who've read my blog before know my hubby sometimes has to travel out of town. Well, lately it's not been just sometimes. Within about the last seven weeks, he's had to be gone for about five of those. It came with a merger with The Company That Must Not Be Named...huge international thingee that joined forces with his former company. They're in the middle of taking over some territories left vulnerable by the competition. My sacrifice to all this...besides NO HUBBY around...is NO SLEEP.

I don't know why it is.

Sometimes I think it is because I was the victim of violence about nine years ago. At the time I met my hubby, I had an apartment on the third floor of my complex. I felt inpenetrable...untouchable. Safe. When my hubby asked me to marry him, my only hold-out was where we would live: his home. It's in the middle of an historic district. Our home has a history over 100 years old. But it's also in the middle of an area that has more crime than I'm used to...or was at least aware of. When I hesitated, my mom pointed out that if you REALLY love someone, you'd follow them to the ends of the Earth. (Bless ya, Mom!) She was right. I excitedly called Hubby & said yes. And now, I'm on the first floor, the only floor of our home. So maybe it is this that keeps me awake when he's gone.

Other times I think it's the fact that I can't seem to shut my brain down when he isn't here to put pressure on me to go to bed. My youngest son is ADHD. My hubby has teased me about that at times; however, I don't really fit the discription. More like distracted. Difficult to focus on only one area. I'm what I proudly would call "the disorganizedly organized." Just about every teacher I know is like this. Ya know...we're the ones who look like a cyclone hit our desks. But, baby, just ask us for that one paper you need, and we know right where it's at! BINGO! Though I'm proud of who I am, I've been trying to counteract this due to the fact it's heck on everyone else around you. I mean, they just can't grasp my creativity. At least that's what the Flylady says. Thanks to Kas (Hestia Home School for Young Wild Women), I've joined the FREE online counseling of the Flylady (www.flylady.com). Every day she sends you messages of one thing you can get done and/or organized within 15 minutes. Just set the timer & ya got it. The guilt is gone! You've actually DONE SOMEthing! She even sends you an email that pops up, reminding you to go to bed and take care of yourself!!! That's right! You betcha!

Unfortunately, for me, it doesn't work. It 's just not the same as Hubby who is physically present & able to add the pressure to come to bed.

Not that that's all bad. There are definitely some distinct advantages to going to bed with him. And perhaps that is...in part...why it IS so difficult to go to bed without him. Reason #3: It just isn't the same without him.

So I come to you this morning after the night of the living dead.

It all began the same way. I couldn't sleep with him gone. He called to say good-night around 10 p.m. He was tired & had to be up early again before driving five hours to the airport and flying out today to come home. He knows how hard it is for me when he's gone. When he comes back all exhausted from the airports & meetings, he's equally joined by me. We usually collapse at whatever time it is & sleep off the effects of his work.

So Hubby told me to take some melatonin. Our ADHD son takes this. It was recommended by his doctor because HE has a hard time going to sleep, too. It's quite safe & natural. Our bodies produce it & it is what helps all of us to go to sleep. For three nights now Hubby has tried to coax me into taking it. I agreed, and had all the right intentions. But I always had "one more thing" to do before I could possibly get to it. Hence the reason I didn't get to bed last night until after 3 a.m. After I typed my blog last night (check the time), I still sat up in bed reading some materials to prepare for school next year. Finally, I forced myself to turn out the lights. Usually when this FINALLY happens, I zap out.

It wasn't to be.

There's this sunroom we have just off the dining room which is also just off our bedroom. It is going to become our new office space this week. Hubby is moving out of his current office/bedroom to give it to two of our teens with the adoption. So I'm trying to get in there to clean it up. Up to now it has been a storage room for my teaching. You name it and if it has anything to do with teaching, it's there. Any teacher who reads this will know exactly what I'm talking about. I know one gal teacher who never used her dining room since she had an eat-in kitchen. You'd never know it was a dining room. It was stacked floor to ceiling. Well, I can't yet claim that honor, but I do know the sunroom is now a storage room instead of a work place. So things need to go for it to shape up into Hubby's new office (shared with me, of course). But funny things have been going on in that room. Our little Italian greyhound has taken to parking himself outside the closed French doors leading in. He barks at it. He behaves worse at night whenever some kind of Critter seems to arrive back. Now, I'm hoping it's just a Critter and not some kind of GrrrAnimal. But I'm not one to take chances. Hubby's not here = no knight in shining armour = no way I'm gonna tackle that Critter/GrrrAnimal alone. I am NOT checking it out!

Lights go out. I go to bed & lay down.

Let the games begin.

Lenny (Italian grey) comes flying out of his bed, barking. His barking starts our other two greys barking. Lenny plants himself at the French doors in stalking mode. The other two bewildered dogs limp back to the living room, still unsure whythey joined in. "Nite-nite time" is "nite-nite time"! I scold Lenny & put him back to bed. (He HAS to be covered up, ya know, or he won't sleep. But, of course!! What were you thinking!!! How could you NOT cover him UP???!!!)

Lights out...back to bed...

and soooo it goes....

Lenny barks - everyone comes running - Lenny stalks - I scold - I cover - we're back in bed, lights out.

You DO recall I went to bed after 3 a.m., right? Our Critter Stalker routine continued for most of the rest of what I would call "dark" night. Somewhere near my "lighter-outside" night, things settled down. I imagine Lenny has worn himself out as much as he has me. FINALLY, I can get some rest. I REALLY had hoped...

Mosquitos like me. I don't know why. I don't understand why I'm always the "preferred white meat", but I am. I can be among twenty people & be the only one bitten up. I've read that it has something to do with mosquitos being able to track our carbon we put out from exhaling. Did you know that to a mosquito, when we exhale, it is like an invisible super-highway that they can detect from over 60 feet away??? Or was that 30 feet away? Maybe it also has to do with bad breath, which I'm sure I had after Lenny got through with me.

The mosquito was merciless. Everyone knows that annoying sound...that shrill mosquito buzz that makes your ears stand on end, and tells you that at any moment, the bull's-eye shall be reached! Dive bombing began. I felt like Gulliver's Travels, trapped by the Lilliputians. I tried sleeping under the covers, but between summertime in Florida and the Golden Age of Hot Flashes, I couldn't tolerate it for long. So the age-old game of "Cat & Mouse" became the new game of "Mosquito & Human".

Just when I thought I'd won, the little bugger got even LOUDER!! What in the heck..??? It took a blonde second of adjustment before realizing it was a helicopter hoovering over the interstate. The interstate isn't terribly close to our home. But you certainly would've thought sowith the sound of the helicopter. Usually this doesn't occur unless there is a severe problem on the road out there for someone.

Geez....what ELSE could happen???!!! Apparently that was the signal for every dog in the neighborhood to bark, and for mine to tell me that it was time to get up & let them go outside to "do their business". It was completed when the "ex" called to tell me he was bringing the boys over, and would I have the prescription ready he had asked me for yesterday. Yesterday??? Oh, yeah!!! I forgot. Time to go digging through the purse. Now if I'd ONLY listened to that FlyLady. Her assignment of the day was to clean out my purse.

I wonder if she has a lesson on ridding mosquitos....

Anyone got coffee???

XXRoxyMamaXX

Tags: melatonin, FlyLady