To Sleep Perchance to Dream...

I am officially old.

Last night was Evelyn's birthday outing. We went over to Bill's house to meet up and wait for everyone. We made an 8:00 PM reservation at Union Station for food and drinks and killed time waiting for the other half of the gang. At 7:45, we learned that they were still in the Akron area, just heading over to pick up another person. Instead of changing the reservation to 10:00 PM, we opted to head over and let them find their way there.

I was hyped up on coffee and enjoyed myself for most of the evening. Everyone else arrived around 9:30. I went to have a cigarette with one of the psychics from the ghost group. During our brief discussion, she said,"You don't realize how well your books are going to do... how well they'll sell." Perhaps she's right. Yet a few other discussed topics felt a bit like a mistake. Perhaps that marked the downward spiral of my evening.

11:00 PM rolled around. We headed into Bounce Nightclub next door to watch a drag show. People danced. I watched and waited. The show was rather entertaining and unpredictable, but I will say I was glad when it was over.

12:15 AM... everyone's still dancing. As 1:00 approached, I went back over to Union Station with Bill's friend Dolly. The music had been bothering me for a while (possibly because our seating was the speakers and you could literally feel every thump of the base in your stomach). We escaped the deafening thunder and blinding lights for a crowd of drunken people in a noisy-but-quieter atmosphere. Finally, it was time to head back to Bills to adjourn for the evening.

We sat on Bill's enclosed porch and talked. And talked. And talked. 2:00 AM passed. I was exhausted. The Zombie Children from the Land of No Sleep carried on. A few jokes passed at my own expense, but I was too tired to reply, much less care. Finally at 4:00 AM, the group decided it might be nice to take everyone home and get some sleep.

I stepped into my room shortly before 5:00 AM, kicked off my shoes, threw off my coat, and collapsed in a heap on my bed.

I had been awake for 22 hours.

I've learned to value sleep. A normal human requires 7-8 hours of sleep to maintain good health. In that respect, I'm normal. I'm not 17 anymore and can't party all night and jump into action in the morning (not that I ever did that when I was 17 anyway).

I awoke at 2:00 PM today, sore all over... perhaps a little from my tough, short massage from Evelyn. She said I was tense... yet somehow having my back muscles jabbed and prodded didn't quite relieve it. My head also hurts, but not from a hangover (I didn't drink hardly at all and stopped by 9:30 PM). It's simply from the sleep pattern being shifted once more to an absurd arrangement. The weather is a miserable drizzle, which only makes me feel twice as exhausted.

Oh well... on to the rest of the weekend...