On Busyness And Sleep

Once again there was a weekend of activities that kept us from all being together. For some strange reason I thought that as a family we would be under the same roof at the same time more often, but I guess I that was wishful thinking. KyKy and Madster have this week off from school so they spent the whole weekend with the Evil Grandmother doing camera club things. 'Nika, not to be left behind alone at home, had her old school chum from Emerson, Sophia, stay over night on Friday for a day and a half of giggling and movie watching. TOYH went to a "tea" at church on Saturday afternoon and we both attended a birthday party for a neighbor on Sunday afternoon. This evening Madster starts Park/Rec softball, along with karate. More running around, although she vows to ride her bike to softball when she can.

In between all the comings and goings, we had a couple of guests. On Thursday, TOYH's sister-in-law from China came over for dinner. On Saturday my long lost sister from Atlanta showed up for a chat and a visit. Both of them are on whirlwind tours of the motherland and were able to squeeze in face time with us at our humble abode.

I continue my work at everyone's favorite warehouse-type store, still pulling the 5 a.m. to 10 a.m. shift MTWFSat. I've grown accustomed to the 4 a.m. wake up calls. The nice thing about this schedule is that I'm home by 10:30 in the morning and I have the afternoons to myself. Not having two days off in a row hardly matters because I get home from work so early. Granted, as soon as I get home, I'm back in bed for an hour or two, but it still feels like I've got so much day left that I hardly feel like I've been to work at all. The quality of sleep has been varying. For reasons unknown, I've been waking up at about 3 in the morning, and then dozing off and on until the alarm goes off. Maybe my body is telling me that it's time to start riding bike to work, which I really should do for a bunch of reasons. There was a stretch last week where I was waking up before the alarm, and then not really napping well, yet not being a total wreck the rest of the day.

It's probably because I spent so many years as a swimmer hauling my butt down to morning practice that I remain a "morning person." Waking up and getting out of bed is never fun for anyone, but I think it must be less traumatic for me than for others. Staying up late always gives me a twinge of anxiety, most likely because I think, rightly or not, that I'll be getting up early the next day. Or perhaps it's because sleeping in past a certain time, say 8:00, always makes me feel like I've wasted half the day. This is not so with KyKy. This morning when I rolled out of bed for my daily ablutions, there she was sitting in bed watching DVDs on her computer at 4 a.m. She did not wake up early to do this. Today her day started at about 1:45 p.m.

Had my 60 day review at work today. 180 degree difference from my 30 day. My supervisor is actually happy to have me working for her, which is a nice change. After 30 days, I think she was ready to let me go. I thought she was misunderestimating me, and she was a little bit. I have improved the quality and quickness of my work quite dramatically in the past 30 days, but I still maintain that I wasn't as pathetic as she thought I was at the beginning. This is not to say that I'm set on making a career out of stocking shelves. I'm still working toward getting some computer skillz at MCTC. To that end, I've started an algebra review. The math anxiety has not set in.....yet. I just wish I had put more effort into math from about 4th grade on. For some reason, I have a copy of my 11th grade "Holt Algebra with Trigonometry" in my possession. I started on page one and am working through it page by page, actually enjoying myself, which is the biggest surprise. Ask me about that one later