Sleepless Nights

I am an expert sleeper.

For as long as I can remember, I've been good - no, better than that - I've been excellent at sleeping.  It's really one of my foremost skills.  I can sleep in.  I can nap.  I fall asleep quickly, and a small to moderate sized armed conflict is required to wake me up.

But this is a week of sleepless nights, because I'm at work.  It's a crazy week.  One of the perks* of my job is occasional long night shifts.  Apparently I didn't think things through properly when choosing a career path, but this is an occupational hazard that I just have to live with.  (Maybe this is what happens when you don't do a good job of ever actually sitting down and choosing a career path!)  But, because I have a profession where the people work when the machines tell them to work, I'm up all night this week.

And it's ruined my groove.

Somehow, I can't sleep.  Last night I stayed up all night, got home around 8:30, went to bed, and woke up . . . at about 12:30.  Hmmm . . . 4 hours of sleep isn't going to cut it.  This same thing happened last time I did this.  So then I'm up, and I end up trying to take a nap just before work, but it doesn't work out so well and, yeah, tiredness ensues.  This schedule also messes up my eating patterns, which can't be helping.  For night number two, I'm contemplating going home and eating something, because maybe I'm waking up because I don't have enough energy to keep sleeping?  It's a rough life I live.  This week in particular.

Not only do I have the 12 hour over-night shifts (to be fair, I volunteered for the over night, for reasons that do make sense) but this week we're singing in the Joseph Smith Oratorio that our stake is putting on.  This Friday is the 170th anniversary of the martyrdom, and a guy named Rob Gardner wrote a nice collection of songs and narration.  It's been a lot of practicing, and this Friday and Saturday we're finally performing it.  I think we sound pretty good, though for a while I was worried about the orchestra.  Yes, there's a 25 or 30 person orchestra to go with our 40ish person choir.  It's all pretty impressive, I think, when you remember that we're all doing this in our spare time.  So, my last night shift at work will be Thursday night to Friday morning, which lets me go to the performance on Friday night.  But we're skipping the Saturday performance.

Because we're doing the oratorio, then going home, jumping in bed (who knows what my sleeping situation will have devolved to by that point) and then getting up not-too-many hours later to drive across the country.  So there's that to get ready for this week.  Packing, laundry, scheduling stops at the Spam Museum, loading up the car, prepping snacks, you know the drill.  And because Utah isn't far enough away, we're taking the scenic route there.

Mostly, this is just to say that it's a busy week.  Followed by a vacation which will be crazier than normal life, because that's how vacations are.  I just figured I should keep you all updated a bit on our insanity.  If my wife's reading this, I'll be coming straight home after the meeting, and for the rest of you, thanks for reading . . and keep your stick on the ice.

* Not a perk