Eccentric Flower:199901/sleeping not sleeping

twelve january

sleeping (not sleeping)

When I got home yesterday, in the late afternoon, I was tired, so I lay down for about an hour. Then I went about my evening business. By eleven p.m. I was tired again, so I began making preparations and got into bed around midnight, which is unusually early for me.

I sleep in the altogether by preference, but the last few nights I had gotten cold in the middle of the night, so tonight I wore a nightgown. I had taken a nice hot bath and was all cosy and fell asleep almost immediately - also unusual.

But the sleep quickly grew restless and fitful, and beyond a certain point that stop-and-start sleeping can't really be said to be sleep at all. At five a.m. my thirst finally penetrated my brain and woke me all the way up. It was sweltering and my mouth was as dry as a bone.

Looking out the windows on my way to the kitchen everything was white. It had snowed heavily. I drank my water and refilled the Brita tank and then went back to bed.

And couldn't sleep.

Eventually I went into the guest room, which sometimes works when I can't get comfortable. No. I lay, sort of half-drifting into quasi-realistic events. (For example, I dreamed that the mirror had been removed from my dresser and was leaning in the hall, where I tripped over it and wondered why someone had taken it apart.)

I lay there listening to the snowy silence become the sound of traffic on snow and Nonelvis waking up and fumbling around and the policeman driving up and down the street with his megaphone telling people not to park in front of our house (which you can't do when there's above a certain amount of snow).

I finally drifted off again after Nonelvis left and managed to wake up enough to feel like a functional human around ten-thirty, which was pretty good, all things considered.

The weather was mild and lovely when I stepped out and the snow was melting rapidly, same as last time.

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