I’ve been up for all but 90 minutes of the last 22 hours. I didn’t mean for it to be this way. I found out last night that I would be needing to drive Clancy to the airport for her trip back to Delosa to visit her family. The original plan was that she would drive herself, but she got absolutely slammed with patience this week and the result was that she was running a sleep deficit that made the 2+ hour drive to Alexandria dangerous. Her flight was at 6am this morning, so we would be leaving here at around 3. Unfortunately, the short notice made it difficult for me to properly timeshift to being awake and ready to drive at 3 in the morning which was, actually, about the time I went to bed last night. Had I thought about it, I would have resisted more than I did. But I was too tired to think and so resistence probably would not have been worthwhile. I tried to take a nap yesterday afternoon, but only managed to get 90 minutes in before nature called and I wasn’t able to get back to sleep.
Getting to the airport was no problem. But since I’d been yawning since about 11pm (my body is simply not cooperating, I’m never tired at 11pm) I spiked myself on caffeine for the drive home. Now I’m home and somewhere between hopped up on caffeine and exhausted. Oh, and I’m stuffed because I ate one of the Best Omelette’s in Arapaho at that place I stumbled across when I was stranded in Meriwether.
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9 Responses to Long Day
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“somewhere between hopped up on caffeine and exhausted.” Heh, that reminds me of college. I used to take Vivarin (OTC caffeine tablets). Don’t even know if it’s still around. But yeah, it doesn’t really make you less exhausted, it just makes you less likely to get to sleep.
I used to take Vivarin (OTC caffeine tablets). Don’t even know if it’s still around.
Heh, I can remember the TV commercials:
Give yourself a lift with new Vivarin,
V-I-V-A-R-I-N!
Today it seems like 5-Hour Energy is the big seller.
I lived on certain stimulants in college and will never forgive President Bush for banning ephedra. It’s a mixed bag. Helpful at keeping you alert enough not to go to sleep, but you’ll only remember some of what you do.
I’m shocked that anyone lives more than two hours from an airport…
Here are some lyrics for you, with apologies to Adam Duritz and David Bryson…
A long September 8 and there’s reason to believe
Maybe this day will be better than the last
There’s an airport in Redstone, but flights to and from it are really expensive and they don’t have a proper weather tower so they have to cancel a lot of flights out of precaution.
Is this how they check the weather at Redstone Airport?
Trumwill, perhaps you’re caffeine addiction (you’ve written about it before, on the Mountain Dew posts), is an example of a deeper problem? Many people with ADHD self-medicate with caffeine. I know because I’m one of them. (It slows us down rather than speeds us up.)
Maria, interestingly enough, my new doctor was thinking along similar lines. Not just caffeine, but a history of latching on to stimulants in general (cigarettes, ephedra) combined with the attention span problems I have always had.
Interesting. I tried some of the real medicine for ADD and it definitely worked — I accomplished more tasks in one day than I usually do in several, and I didn’t have that anxious feeling I get when my mind signals to me that I should be doing five things at once. Peeling apples to make an apple pie became a simple, efficiently done task, rather than a Mount Olympus effort to stay on task.
But I didn’t sleep at night either. So the jury’s still out on that stuff. And I also have this weird feeling that the “new, improved” person I am is not really me, which bothers me. I’m not sure I feel authentic, if you can follow that logic.