Sleeping Is a Drug for the Sleep Deprived

On Sunday, we spent all day cleaning out the one car garage. This room was a big storage area for things like my roller blades that I haven’t used since I met Brian 7 years ago and about 25 books on computer subjects like operating systems and programming languages. It’s not that I really want some of these things but it takes a long time to sort all this stuff. So we buckled down and got to business. While I would not call myself a pack rat, I do like to hang onto things that have emotional or sentimental value. For example, I found a cassette tape that my friends and I had made at the 10th anniversary showing of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” in 1985. We were Rocky Horror virgins but didn’t want to look like virgins and ended up looking like the biggest virgins ever. Instead of toast to throw, we brought English muffins. Instead of newspaper to put on our heads during the raining scene we brought a big umbrella. I think we brought pasta or risotto instead of rice. The tape is pretty much us talking and of course hearing other people say things like “MUFFINS? Who’s throwing muffins? I don’t remember any muffins.” In the garage I strapped on my walkman and listened to the tape and cackled the whole time. The second cassette tape I found was my brother-in-law and my sisters doing a rendition of me on a camping trip in 1995 when I drank too much Black Velvet. The third cassette tape that I kept was one of a europop song that was on the radio 24 hours a day when I was in Ireland in 1996. I threw away all other cassette tapes including the original Madonna tape and a bunch of others that had songs from the radio taped on them. Remember doing that? We would call the radio and request a song and then hover by the radio with our tape player to tape the song so we didn’t have to actually purchase the tape. And then the DJ was always talking over the song. I also couldn’t rid of the various purchases I made in other countries like clay tea pots from Hong Kong and a jade statue from Malaysia. But for most of the stuff, knick knacks, computer books, etc… it was fairly easy to get rid of since it was just starting to look like clutter. I do reach a threshold where I can’t get rid of any more stuff but fortunately we were able to get just about everything on shelves.

This week was a really rough one at work. I don’t want to go into it and bore every one but I feel like I’m trying to walk uphill wearing concrete blocks tied to my ankle. Your management and co-workers can make your job easier for you or harder for you and right now it’s harder. It’s not something that they are intending but it sure makes my life more miserable.

I finished the second book by the author who wrote “The Devil Wears Prada”. It’s called “Everyone Worth Knowing”. I thought it was kind of boring at the beginning but got better towards the end. I’m looking forward to starting to read the book club book “My Sisters Keeper”.

On Wednesday I took my car to the dealership (Acura) to get my 60,000 mile tune up. They had work stations with wireless high speed internet, coffee, espresso machine, all kinds of drinks, cookies, and fruit. Plus phones to use. I’m thinking of working there instead of working from home two days a week.

I dropped off all of Ty’s 0 – 3 month clothes plus his baby bathtub at a place called “Maggie’s Place”. It’s a “house of hospitality” for homeless pregnant women, or women who need to get out their current homes for whatever reason. They can stay there until the baby is about 6 months old. The thought of selling Jack and Ty’s stuff doesn’t really appeal to me—I wanted to donate my stuff to a place where they would really need and appreciate it. The staff member who lives at the house with the women gave me a tour. The babies were really cute and I wanted to cry when I was there but I didn’t. I don’t know why I wanted to cry other than anything to do with babies and kids can make me cry. I think it’s a mother thing.

I was expecting Thursday and Friday to be really difficult because Brian was flying to Santa Clara on Thursday morning and coming back on Friday night. But Brian missed his flight Thursday morning. This is the jet that is owned by my company that seats about 38 people. He showed up too late and they gave his seat to someone who was waitlisted. I feel really stressed at the thought of missing a flight so I leave a little earlier than most people. For example, when I take the company plane, I leave 30 minutes before Brian does! But sometimes that line of thinking helps because I have never missed a flight. The good news is that I didn’t have to deal with the boys by myself on Thursday night. Brian flew out Friday morning and got back late Friday night so I had to deal with the boys by myself but that went fine. Ty is going to bed a little bit easier nowadays.

My friend Libby flew in from Austin on Friday night and our mutual friend Sarah picked her up at the airport since I was alone with the two kids. Libby and I met when we were 19 years old and were working at NCR as a co-op and intern. We worked in a male dominated environment—she was an electrical engineer and I was a computer scientist—and became fast friends. We lost touch when she went back to Clemson and stopped her co-op. We became friends again when she moved back to Columbia after getting her masters and I was getting a divorce. In fact, Libby testified on my behalf at my divorce proceedings because I was in Arizona at the time! So we have a lot of history together. We ate dinner, some chocolate cake, chatted and watched Dancing with the Stars. Libby spent the night with us and on Saturday, Libby and I went to Pane Bianco for tomato and mozzarella sandwiches. We sat outside and it really nice although it got a little chilly in the shade so we had coffee drinks from the coffee bar next door. We then met Brian and Jack at IKEA where we spent a couple hours walking around, talking and shopping. After IKEA, we spent the afternoon with the boys, sitting outside. Libby was teaching Jack how to use the pedals on his tricycle while I fed Ty. It’s so nice to have another set of hands in the house! After dinner, I gave the boys a bath and when I was getting Ty into his pajamas Libby washed Jack’s hair. I wish I could have a helper all the time. Saturday night we met up with Sarah and had sushi and went to Graham Central Station. This is a bar/club where they have four rooms: a karaoke room, 80’s room, hip-hop room and country room, although they didn’t always play country in the country section. This is where all the non-Scottsdale type people go. It was the weirdest cross-section of Phoenix I have ever seen. There were several couples in their 70’s, one of them was jamming on the 80’s dance floor. Lots of men in cowboy hats. The parking lot was completely full even before 10 PM. I couldn’t believe how crowded it was. I hung out until about 11 and then left Libby and Sarah and Gary there since they are single and don’t have a baby to wake up to at 4 AM. Libby and I met up with Sarah at IHOP with Ty in tow and had brunch. I left Libby with Sarah so they could have some alone time together and went home to spend time with my family. When I got home, Ty and Jack were asleep so laid down and it felt so good… like I was floating on air. I think sleeping is the best drug ever.