Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Insomnia Rules

I decided to follow a friend on her trek from public to anonymous blogging so here's my first blog. Please don't expect any coherence to it because when I write blogs, I free-write. I spend enough of my day writing precisely so by the end of the day it's amazing I can put a complete sentence together.



Anyhow, the past week or so has been insane. One of my dogs (little dog) had surgery on Friday. Since then, she has been waking up around 2-3am every evening and wanting out of her crate. When little dog wants out of the crate, she will do everything in her power to let the house know (ie crying, whining, barking, whimpering, scratching at the crate). Luckily, I've had so much work lately that I've been up to entertain her. Last night, for instance, I was up writing until 3am and heard her start her fit around 1am-ish. I brought her in my office (so the spouse could get some sleep) and kept her in my lap. By the time I was ready to go to bed (3am-ish), I took her on a walk so she would get all her energy out.



Keep in mind, I live in a semi-ghetto neighborhood. Walking at 3am - not so smart. But seeing as how I was exhausted, I figured f-it. I need sleep and if this is the only way to get her to be tired and sleepy, I don't mind getting mugged. I went on a 15 minute walk with her, which usually exhausts little dog. Not tonight! She kept me and the spouse up for another 45 minutes...whining, crying, etc. Fun times, especially when both of us have to get up early and work.



Needless to say, I am running on empty. When I get to this point (which usually happens during my crunch times throughout the year), I get insomnia. Really, really bad insomnia. I used to be entertained by it because one of my former friends also had it. We'd stay up late in college chatting about our insomnia and how crappy it was. I can usually snap out of it if I force myself to go to bed at a normal time (11pm). We'll see what happens tonight.



In other news, little dog has been diagnosed with an auto-immune disorder. In a nutshell, it means that her body is attacking itself. We are waiting to hear back about the next step in treatment because they ran a bunch more tests to verify that she actually has this rare disease. It's a bummer but hopefully little dog will live a normal, happy life with treatment and meds. Big dog is doing okay - he had a seizure on Saturday night, which freaked me and the spouse out because it's been a LONG time since he's had em'. He won't be going back on the meds until we witness another seizure.



Life has been crazy and hectic this past month and it seems as though things just keep piling on. I have to TA this quarter, something I just found out today....which means that I will have a ton of work in addition to writing job applications, putting together a teaching portfolio, preparing for the course I'm teaching in winter, teaching my online class, meeting my publication deadlines, attending conferences, and, of course, writing my dissertation. I have no idea how I am going to make it through this quarter. I think it is the busiest quarter yet for me....but everything I'm doing I love so it's hard to complain. I think I'll just be pulling a lot of late nights until winter quarter comes. I feel overwhelmed but again, I really enjoy the writing and reading I'm doing right now so I shouldn't whine.



Other than all this drama, life is good. I am really excited about the next two years and graduating with my Ph.D. I love my house, my neighbors (not my hood'), and everyone around me is healthy (with the exception of little dog).

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