about sleep schedules

i find myself in an odd situation. somewhat the opposite situation than usual when it comes to sleep.

for this evening's class, we were presenting our editions. for me, this meant impecable screen captures of each and every feature on a loaded dvd-rom, along with notes summarizing all the theory and practice behind Muir's work. i'll admit to having slept monday night instead of working on this thing. i thought it well worth it.

however, in order to get all this done, i did some planning. on a normal week, i'd have slept again tuesday night and spent my wednesday working steadily on this project, only coming up to campus at 4.30. this week, i had a meeting. not a morning meeting, where i could come early, go to the meeting, and go home to do stuff for a significant portion of the day. not a late afternoon meeting, where i could do stuff, come to campuse a bit early and go the meeting before class. right smack in the middle, where it was worthwhile to come early enough to park well, but too late to have a productive time at home.

i did a lot of thinking. so far, i've been giving this strategy a try: when i'm tired and it's after 10.30, i go to bed. i get up early, and i get it done then. when i go to bed at a reasonable hour, the mornings are productive. when i go to bed late, my mornings might as well not exist.

so. i was tired. it had been a long day. more crisis stuff in the IT portion of my job. imagine this. there's a projector high up in the ceiling. it weighs roughly 40 pounds and is screwed into the ceiling by six thumb screws, and locked by a little device i can't put a name to. underneath this projector, there is a table. it could fit probably two and half people before someone (probably that last half of the third person) got crowded off onto the floor. on top of this table is my tall coworker. also on top of this table is a large, chunky, but incredibly unstable mini-podium. on top of the podium, is me. in a long, slim, a-line skirt. with heels.

we spent a long time (a little over an hour and a half) precariously balanced up there, humming that circus ditty as we unscrewed things, balanced heavy equipment, opened equipment, replaced parts, etc. my coworker was tall enough to unscrew the projector. i was just tall enough to hold it up so it didn't fall when the last screw came loose. so imagine me up there on a podium on a table in a narrow skirt and heels holding above my head a 40 pound object which is probably worth more than i am, monetarily speaking.

it was a fun afternoon.

after this afternoon, i went home, showered to get the ceiling tile out of my hair and pores, and ate oatmeal for dinner. then i started working on my project for tonight, and ran out of steam at around 8.

so i went to bed. at 8. i set my alarm for 2 in the morning, and the others for three. this would (and did) ensure that i got up in time to do some damage on this project. i slept well, got up refreshed not as zombified as i'd expected, and worked hard until about 7 when the library opened. went to school. worked in the library (my office, even though i'm all kinds of technological, doesn't play dvdrom, so it was the library, home, or distraction central). had my meeting. worked some more.

got an email. class is cancelled. in all the wee-hour stumbling, i'd forgotten my cell phone at home. when i arrived home at about 5.30, i had a message from the prof wondering if i could salvage class by taping all our presentations. now you see, all that work, and i have something worth presenting. and i could easily have arranged to tape stuff. i can get into every single room in that building, and enough folks were around that i could have made arrangements and not had to sneak. but i only got the message long after class had been cancelled. i felt awful about not being able to help out.

long, long entry cut short: i had every intention of working on beowulf tonight after i did the prep work for my teaching tomorrow. but here it is maybe 8 or so, and i've eaten, prepped for class, called the prof to apologize for not having my phone with me (at some point, i'll be questioning myself on that one, because why should i feel the need to apologize for being unreachable for a single day... that says something about something, probably about our constantly-connected society, but i can't quite get my brain there at the moment)...

point is, i'm just plain exhausted. i only started this post to keep myself awake a few more minutes. if i had given in and gone to bed then, i'd have woken up again at 2. maybe three at the latest. it's the opposite of the sort of problems i normally have with sleep schedules. truly bizarre.

but since it's now closer to 9, i don't feel so bad crawling into bed. i did try the beowulf. the words swam together on the page and it wasn't my glasses perscription. honestly, i've done about all i can today. 2 to 9 isn't a bad day's work at all.

love and peace.