2 am

2am thoughts can be skewed.

When my son was a newborn I hated 2 am. He wasn't big on sleeping (and still isn't 8 years later) and I often found myself up with him at that time. I'd sit rocking him in a chair by his bedroom window thinking longingly of my warm bed. I know some people love those middle of the night moments but I've always preferred them during the day after a full night's rest. :) 

I'd sit in that chair gazing out the window at the blackness of night and darkened windows, firmly believing that I was the only one awake in the universe at that time. 

2 am thoughts can be skewed.

8 years later - not much has changed. I still hate 2am. I *am* the only one awake in the universe. :)  This time I don't have a newborn to fuel my irrational night thoughts. This time I have only an over active brain that thinks too much for 2am...

2am thoughts can be skewed.

Nothing rational can come of 2am thoughts. 2am thoughts are usually overly dramatic or sentimental with only a gossamer thread of reality woven through. At least I'm clever? enough to keep my thoughts to myself tonight instead of typing them and feeling silly in the morning when reality shines its harsh light on my fanciful thoughts leaving me feeling somewhat foolish and remorseful...

Because 2am thoughts can be skewed.

Pink13 - ITSM Conference

Had a wonderful time at the conference.  Attended a session in almost every timeslot which meant from 7:15am until 5pm and then the nightly reception from 5-7pm.  I won't talk about what I learned in the sessions here as I'm guessing my whole 10 readers are not into ITIL so instead I'll post some pictures of the food and drinks from the receptions:

This was one of the welcome treats upon registration.  Yum!

One night the evening reception served mashed potato martini's.  There were 3 different kinds to choose from.  They were delicious and now I want some glasses like this so I can make them at home!

Another night there we had mac and cheese martinis.  Again - there was a choice of which one to take. This one was the homestyle one and it was great.

These pink drinks were served each night and were really good...and free.  :)

The highlight of the trip was when our team won the ITSM Project of the year!!  We are on their website here:

http://www.pinkelephant.com/Pink14/ConferenceOverview/IT-Excellence-Awards/

Bellagio

Back in February I was sent to a conference called Pink13 - An IT Service Management conference.

We got to stay in the Bellagio!

Here are some room pics!

and the view from my window

I tried the $20 trick but it failed.  She said the hotel was totally full for the conference.  She looked disappointed as she handed back my $40 (i figured I had to up it for the Bellagio!).  The room was very clean and quiet.  I thought the wallpaper was terrible, but the dresser/closet nice.  The bathtub was deep and the shower spacious.  I ended up with a double queen so switched beds each night.  LOL

Night Musings

3:15am...sent out an email.  LOL

In haiku...

Late night couch is cold
Fireplace cravings ensue
I go back in time

Or

Wool blanket warms
Will bake bread in morning
Winter can bite my ass now

Bamboo gone wild...

I was just cleaning up from supper and caught a glimpse of my bamboo from the corner of my eye. Apparently I don't pay attention often because I think its doubled in size. I eagerly await it becoming bean stock size so I can climb up and have a look around.

Random thoughts - Direct from the source

It's 2:02am... The furnace is on and I'm awake.

I like to Imagine that I'm one of those people who can pack for vacation and use the tiny suitcase. You know the one. It's almost carry on size and its cute.

In reality I own the biggest suitcase known to man and pack everything but the kitchen sink making that suitcase weigh more than my overflowing laundry basket.

I think this work trip will be worse than usual because I need to bring my work wardrobe and personal life wardrobe . You think I was indecisive before? This has the potential to reach epic proportions.

With the blogger app working somewhat reliably I'm considering documenting the piles of laundry here because its bound to help someone. Perhaps someone will say " hey - that's how I pack" and feel like we are kindred packing spirits. Or maybe they will look at my packing pile, shake their head sadly and consider passing on a therapists name. In which case it will help them feel better about themselves not having such a sad affliction. Still other people will see that I am actually posting photos of packing a suitcase and decide that this is the post that makes them realize they should be reading better quality blogs. All the power to you bored readers. I have my 1 fan and they'll either forgive me or love me more. Lol

It's 2:17am and I was going to start telling you about my very first facial experience but I think I might be better off going to sleep and talking about that later. :)

Night Musings...

Sent to Seth at 3am:

Mix of work and not work....

Lesson 1: the 80% factor i mentioned fri morning may need to be
reevaluated to an 85%.

 Lesson 2:  once over the age of 35, even vitamin water drank in the
evening  can warrant a 3am trip for Zantec. Zantec is my friend but
not a fan of needing to sit up for 30 min waiting for it to kick in.

Lesson 3: when woken up by lessons 1 and 2, I learned lesson 3...
Middle of the night musings are like Mogwi... Don't feed them after
midnight or they breed nasty little gremlin friends.

Lesson 4:  (snipped for work content)

Lesson 5: not everyone should be teased

Lesson 6: just because I think a cold is leaving doesn't mean it is
so. Send new lungs stat.

Lesson 7:  sitting up and being awake at this time gives me unpleasant
flashbacks of holding a colicky baby boy and wondering if I'd ever
sleep again.  Lesson learned : not all memories are as fun to relive
as junior high school dances and old diaries.

Lesson 8: sitting cross legged on a couch covered in blankets at 3am
causes my left foot to go numb. Lesson: don't sit like that

Lesson 9: winter sucks. Retire somewhere warm.

Lesson 10: naps should be taken whenever possible - ideally 15-20
minutes long. I think 1pm sounds like a good time for this... And
maybe another if I can squeeze it in.

To wrap it up are two errant thoughts... 1. If I lose 5 more pounds in
2 weeks - I will drop a jean size and can buy new ones at Macy's. this
appeals to me. :)
2. 4 nights in Vegas. Will I wake up thinking stuff or sleep like a
baby ( not the colicky one but the sleepy second one)? Hmm... Shall
see...

Sent from my iPhone

Cleaning Combs

That's right - I cleaned combs today.

I had my shower this morning, reached for my comb and stopped - ewwww! Product build up!

Years ago this would have resulted in me calling my Mom and being frustrated because it's curling season and she wouldn't have been home.  Today I used my iPhone and asked Siri how to clean combs.  20 min later my comb was sitting in a measuring cup of baking soda and water.  A couple hours later - it was completely clean.  I love the internet.  :)

I thought up a much more interesting post this morning but then I had a nap and it drifted away...

Vegas Baby!

I found out from work last week that they are sending me to a conference in Las Vegas!! Woohoo!!

I'm very excited!  The conference is at the Bellagio - so fancy!

Husband isn't able to come - but I am going with my boss and his boss.

I love conferences.  I always leave them feeling all motivated and full of ideas.  Combine that with escaping everyday life for a while and I come back feeling even more refreshed!!

The next few weeks better fly by - I'm so excited already!!

Night Musings - Jan 23

Good lord - it appears that my stupid musings have gained a small,
insane but vaguely loyal following. Fine - you are all bcc'd and can
be those mysterious unnamed "friends" I mention on my blog.

It's 410am....been awake for 10-15 min and my brain won't shut off.

Why does it do this?

Task lists, priorities, friends, housekeeping, my lunch later today -
I am thinking of things so fast that I feel like I'm in a scene on tv
when a character is about to die and their life flashes before their
eyes. Only instead of meaningful profound moments it is piles of
meaningless crap.

Ok, to be fair, it's not all meaningless but I don't care what it is -
its not helpful to fixate on it at 4am.

I find myself glaring at my peacefully sleeping husband resisting the
childish urge to poke him in the ear and scream irrationally "What is
the secret to staying asleep all night?"

Meanwhile my eyes glance back at the clock in rising panic seeing that
even more minutes have ticked by and I still have  not resumed my
dream of winning the lottery and buying a Bluetooth shower iPod
thingy.

I am going to hit send now. You can fight and bet amongst yourselves
to figure out if I can fall asleep before my 530 alarm today. :)

Night Musings - Jan 16

Hello couch!

Did you miss me?

Do you know what I Hate most about getting the flu shot? Not getting
the shot itself but my brain. They spend so much time telling you the
effects you may get from it that by the time they squeeze the plunger
I'm positive that my throat is closing up and I'm having a reaction. I
swallow 1000 times to reassure myself that my passages are still open.
Lol

The kids did great. The nasal spray is the way to go for sure. No
tears, no screams. the boy volunteered to go first and was terrified
but then so relieved. The girl was excited and just wanted to go. They
are such opposites.

Now my arm is sore and I can't lay on that side comfortably. I
couldn't lay on my other side because the husband was facing that way
and I'd have to deal with my "don't breathe on me" phobia. :)

Couple that with 10 million thoughts about work and the department and
I had to move to survive.

That doesn't mean I'll sleep though....

:)

Sleep is overrated.

Night Musings

sent to friends at 2:42am last night
replying to one of them mocking me for laying out my clothes the night before....he said "LOL. You are such a mom.  Laying your school clothes out the night before."

Lol - being "such a mom" would imply that I do this for my kids. ;)

I have to have my clothes ready on a work day. I am the first one up. Not only am I unable to form enough coherent thought at 5:20 or 5:40 to choose clothing but I also prefer not to open my eyes until closer to 6. :) :)  I even had husband install a dimmer in our bathroom just so I don't have to have lights on until I'm fully conscious. :)

Like now... I'm sleep texting. How else can you explain my being awake at this time???   Sigh. I hate being right all the time. ;)

I guess to get the real picture you'd have to read what I sent before the mockery began:

I'm dragging my ass to bed...I'm nodding off on the couch.  Let's face it, I slept awesome last night.  It's inevitable that I'm going to be awake in the night freaking out about something stupid.  Might as well get a head start.  :)  Besides, it takes a good 30-45 minutes of puttering before I am actually in bed anyway.  Gotta lay out the clothes for the next day, take out meat for supper tomorrow, brush teeth, fluff pillows, tuck in my corners of the bed so i still have covers in the morning, stare at myself in the mirror and wonder if i should cut my hair, wonder where a necklace went, hunt for it, find a slipper, wonder where the other one is, see a book and start reading it, realize my hands are dry and find some lotion etc.  Guys just get up, remove their clothes and pass out.  Boys are dumb...how do they get anything done?

Night Musings

sent to friends at 2:48am Dec 17

Awake again but not for work related reasons today....

The reason is too boring to dissect so let's cover random thoughts instead .

* Last night around 930pm I posted the photo of the kids wrapped in
Christmas lights, mouths covered in duct tape, back to back in front
of the tree, on Facebook. As of right now there are 21 likes on it.
This makes me smile.

* I finished the Steve jobs biography on Saturday. To sum it up - he
was a brilliant asshole. An interesting read. I then started reading
"Left Neglected" - a novel I had downloaded in April before our
vacation. I never read it then because I got sucked into the world of
walking dead comics.  Somehow it grew cyber dust which I blew off
Saturday night. I can't put this book down. I am at 30% already and
have whispered apologies to the book for ignoring it before.

* the boy asked me how much we paid in daycare each month and I added
it up and told him while throwing up in my mouth a little. I realized
that in 6-7 years from now there will be no daycare fees and no car
payment.  The thought makes me giggle like a school girl.

* the kids and I had fun this weekend... Visited Santa, decorated a
gingerbread house, played Xbox, played sorry, helped the girl go
Christmas shopping at the dollar store, took the girl for a sleigh
ride followed by some snow play, finished reading Willie wonka and the
choc factory with the boy, baked two kinds of cookies and
washed/folder 5 loads if laundry. The girl has a talent for folding
wash cloths / towels and the boy for matching/folding socks.

* this made me think about socks and I was about to launch a tirade
about single socks and my hatred of washing them... But I think I've
babbled enough.

Caffeine will be needed tomorrow...today....

Testing the picture part

This is a test

This is my sons room and a Bellini I had last week.

Yay! Blogger app is fixed!

Night musings

Bet you thought I started sleeping through the night eh? Sorry to disappoint - I've just been staring at the ceiling instead of musing. This does not appear to be any more effective in helping me sleep.

As of right now we have five more minutes of daylight each day compared with 10 days ago. This excites me. I hate the darkness lasting so long.

I hear the wind blowing outside rattling the house. Is this what woke me up? It makes me think of the book Flowers in the Attic and I have to repress the urge to go sunbathe on the rooftop.

Writing this on the blogger app so I better keep it short in case it vanishes. They just updated it again.