OutdoorType

I haven’t been sleeping much. Let’s blame it on that.

Now, to say that I have not been sleeping much isn’t entirely accurate. I sleep every day. Really, I do. And sometimes I even sleep for as many as four consecutive hours! It’s the falling asleep part that I cannot seem to wrap my brain around. I can’t do it. I cannot fall asleep. It’s as if I am afraid to let go of consciousness. I mean, what if I miss something?

So I have trouble falling asleep. And I then I have trouble staying asleep, usually on account of life getting in the way. When you don’t fall asleep until 3:30 in the morning the rest of the world doesn’t wait for you to get up and moving. Your “real” job still expects you to arrive relatively on time. And the people on the other end of that phone ringing in your ear have no idea that you started to bake cookies or do your laundry or edit photos at 2am. They thought they were being polite! They actually waited to call you! And you do it to yourself. You commit to go running or biking or kayaking in the morning because you do like those activities. And they really are more fun to do with other people.

This not sleeping though leaves me a little groggy all day. I yawn. I yearn for a nap. It’s too bad our culture never developed a passion for the siesta. Stupid temperate climate!

Saturday began like many other Saturdays, pulled from sleep by the phone and a bike ride. The ride was followed by delicious pancakes and a group hang at the Trader Joe’s. A short time later I was home, showered, and faced with hours and hours of free time. I had nothing to do, no responsibilities, a dark room, a comfortable bed.. I could nap.

But I couldn’t nap. I could not fall asleep! I turned on the radio. NPR would put me to sleep. It would be lights out for Brian in no time! But Saturday was the first day of their annual fall pledge drive and so instead of dulcet toned announcers and clever programming all I heard was usually off-air, behind the scenes people pleading for money, “We’re only three-thousand dollars short of our four-thousand dollar goal for the hour!” Ugh. I hate pledge drive week.

I was in a half awake/half-asleep daze when it happened. The clock clicked over to 3pm and the not quite ready for radio voice of one Mr. Ira Glass floated out of the radio. ..Hello, from WBEZ Chicago, it..s This American Life… Only it wasn’t, not really. He started a clever speech about pledge drives and funding and the new cable version of his show and how for just a little bit of money each month, not much more than a cup of coffee really (or some such analogy) you could get both the latest “Best Of” CD AND a sneak preview DVD of the new TV show!

So it is the fault of Ira Glass that I leaned over the side of my bed, navigated my way to wamu.org, clicked the correct succession of links, plugged my info (including credit card number) into the form, and clicked submit. Moments later my phone beeped letting me know that I had mail. It was confirmation that I was once more a member of the tote bag totting crowd (only, you know, cooler).

But still I could not sleep.