I really didn't mean to sleep the day away.

I came home from working this most recent overnight shift and experienced what I've come to recognize is common following staying awake the whole night hopped up on caffeine. It's a strange combination of being physically and mentally tired, but also awake physically and mentally awake in a scattered way. (Side note: I doubt I consumed more caffeine than the average coffee drinker in a single day so I ask, how do you coffee consumers deal with that feeling? Are you just used to it?)

And so after getting home a little before 10am (after an interesting morning where one child tried to bite me on my leg--good thing jeans are thick!), I checked email, IM'd with a couple friends and after an hour or so, eventually reached the point where my feeling sleepy was greater than the feeling of being awake in a scattered way. I changed into summer pj's (all the better to not get too warm in under my down comforter), searched for my eye mask and never found it, and rolled a couple "Pretty in Pink" ear plugs into my ears (side question: does anyone else have one ear - for me it's my left - that's harder to get an ear plug into?), and hunkered down under my covers enjoying the total silence. I usually fall asleep fast but this must've been a record as I cannot even remember the seconds after closing my eyes.

And then I woke and it was dark outside, and I sleepily thought to myself, "With that level of darkness outside, it must still be early enough in the morning that I don't have to get out of bed yet. Hurray!" (Isn't that the best feeling, when you realize you can sleep another hour or two??) And then another couple seconds passed by when I realized that the darkness out the window in my front room (which are easily visible from my bedroom; remember, I live in 409 sqft) looked less like a middle-of-the-night dark and more like an evening dark. Groggy, knowing I could easily fall back asleep if I just ignored that awareness and the urge in my bladder, I shuffled from my bed to the bathroom where there's a clock, wondering what time it was. (Side note: I read somewhere many years ago that keeping a clock in your bedroom - at least a big glow-in-the-dark kind - disturbs your sleep, as subconsciously you're much more aware of the time and worrying whether it's time to wake up. Ever since then I don't keep clocks in my room except my alarm-activated cell phone which doesn't glow, and I sleep much more peacefully.)

It was after 6pm!
I really didn't mean to sleep the day away.

I had all these grand plans for the day to clean my place before heading off to the last first day of my last second semester of grad school tomorrow. The dishes need to be done, the trash taken out, my backpack organized, and most of all, laundry, as I have exhausted all but my oldest (and smallest and most uncomfortable) underwear supply. But you see, now I don't feel like it. I don't feel like loading up the laundry basket with 4 loads of laundry (when there are only 3 washers), walking down the stairs and out my building, down the courtyard path way in the snow to the laundry room where there (once again) are only 3 washers and not enough to do all 4 of my loads of laundry at the same time (and no, the other loads aren't small enough to fit it all into 3; I considered that). But alas, I must. This is when I really miss having a washer IN my apartment.

So, I wish you good evening, friends! (It's like good morning, but for us graveyard-shift-workers--an interesting breed of people if you've ever worked with them--it's time to start our day.)

PS. Interesting: I've heard from someone in Chicago and someone in Denmark, that my cards have arrived. The first I expected, the latter, uh, no. Did my fellow Americans on the left coast get theirs? The Danes are efficient and all, but dang!