Not tired.

Not tired. Not tired. Not tired. Not tired. Not tired. Not tired. Not tired. Not tired. Not tired. Not tired.

I'm telling you, this works better than counting sheep.

Not tired. Not tired. Not tired. Not tired. Not tired. Not tired. Not tired. Not tired. Not tired.

A couple days ago, I picked up a guitar for the first time in ages. To play something OTHER than Coal Miner's Daughter and Delta Dawn, which I played one too many times this summer, and sang with a fake Southern accent while dressed in pigtails.

I'm starting to crave the recording studio again, and singing as myself instead of whoever.

But I DO love being imaginary people. The only thing with being an imaginary person is that it takes me a LONG time to wind down after returning to my real self, and now I can't sleep.

Not tired. Not tired. Not tired. Not tired. Not tired. Not tired. Not tired. Not tired. Not tired. Not tired.

It's working.

Not tired. Not tired. Not tired. Not tired.

I also tried eating graham crackers (they're actually graham cracker sticks) dipped in peanut butter. That may be helping. I hope we don't find out one day that crackers lead to some kind of incurable disease, because I'd be doomed. DOOMED. It used to be Wheat Thins and Triscuits. But after, oh maybe 8 years of those two kinds of crackers being staples in my diet, I've moved on to Kashi 7-grain. They're delicious! And now I'm into these Back to Nature Cinnamon Graham Sticks. Back to Nature also makes a very good cheese cracker. Much like the Cheese Nips or Cheezits or whatever except they're less fat. And all natural. This is just out of control, this cracker business.

Ya know what I think it is? I used to be a cereal connoisseur. Cereal was my go-to snack. But nowadays, cereal is ridiculously expensive, and if I snacked on cereal, I'd eat myself into financial instability. That must be what started this whole economic downfall in the United States. It's the cereal! Nobody could afford their mortgage payments because they ate too much cereal! Well, I am way too responsible for that nonsense and have cut my snacking expenses in half by substituting crackers for cereal. I should write a book on solving the financial crisis. It would be titled: Eat Less Cereal!

Not tired. Not tired. Not tired. Not tired. Not tired. Not tired.

I've got double shows tomorrow. Matinee and Evening. It's 5:04 AM. This is not good.

Not tired. Not tired. Not tired. Not tired. Not tired. Not tired. Not tired. Not tired.

But getting sleepy....

Can't Sleep

Somebody remind me to never take a Mucinex ever again. I'm telling you, they kill me. 4 hours ago I was stoned, as Seth put it, and now I'm wide awake at 5 AM, and not a lick of sleep. My brain won't stop. My heart's pounding. I'm hungry. So, I'm assuming that would be the other half of that big honkin' pill I took. The white half, maybe. Not the expectorant half, the other half, the half that's a few chemicals shy of crack. I actually took two pills.

I've got a continual and conscious narration of my thoughts going on inside my head. It doesn't help that, with my new reading companion, Wuthering Heights, (which I read right before bed) I'm thinking with a British accent and inflection. Which is both interesting and amusing all in itself: One part of my consciousness listening to the other part speak in proper British form.

Anyway, I've got a dang cold.

Or shall I say...A temporary illness led on by winds of misfortune has befallen me, and I dare say I must take necessary precautions to beseech its retreat. Retreat, I say! Retreat, unwanted ghoul of nature. Ahhh, retreat unto the far reaches of origin that you might sink back into nonexistance and disturb one's slumber no more.

Yeah, so....can't sleep.

Can't Sleep

Can't sleep. Can't sleep. Can't sleep. Can't sleep. Can't sleep. Can't sleep. Can't sleep. Can't sleep. Can't sleep. Can't sleep. Can't sleep. Can't sleep. Can't sleep. Can't sleep. Can't sleep. Can't sleep. Can't sleep. Can't sleep. Can't sleep. Can't sleep.

Can't sleep.

I'm trying a new cure for insomnia. Type the same words over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over

I think it might be working. I'm getting sort of tired sort of tired sort of tired sort of tired sort of tired sort of tired

It's an alternative to counting sheep. one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen

Except that I'm sitting up at the computer so I won't be able to just fall asleep.

Sleep is a funny thing. I mean, isn't it weird that we just have to shut down for hours at a time. That we're still alive but our whole body is unconscious. Shut down to such a degree that I don't even hear things or remember things, except for dreams of course. And those are weird too. That my whole being is barely conscious but my subconcious is creating something in my mind. Crazy. What if right now I were sleep-typing instead of sleep walking or something? No, I'm not. I promise. Just can't sleep.

I've been having insomnia for about a week now. I hate it. At least I usually get to sleep pretty late in the morning. Which always makes me feel like a lazy ass, but I've reconciled that by now. I'm a musician and that's just how it goes. Musicians get sleep late passes. It's just how it goes. Has anyone ever heard that Ben Folds song, "Not Tired." That is one rad song. He played it at the John Floofyhair concert, but I also heard him play it with the Houston symphony and that was friggin amazing.

OK, so I'm gonna try to go to sleep again. G'night.

The 5's

I occasionally suffer bouts of insomnia. I lie in bed at night, keeping myself awake by wishing I were asleep. It's quite painful, really. But lately, I don't even try to go to sleep. I just stay up until the wee hours of the morning because the night time is so much fun. I love staying up late and I love sleeping in the next day. And now it's a sleeping habit that I can't break. And a habit that some consider lazy, others consider weird, and I just consider different.

For two years I taught and conducted high school choir. They were two of the most challenging years of my life. I learned more about myself and this world than I ever have. I learned that there are many different ways to do something right. That different paths can lead to the same desired goal, and you get to think and create and pick your path as you go. And no one can tell you that it's the wrong one, because it only matters that the path you've created for achieving your goal works. There's not a right way to life, really.

But the most important thing I learned from teaching high school choir is that waking up in the 5's almost every day of the week is horrid and should be illegal. No one should have to wake up at 5 AM or 5:30 AM or 5:55 AM. I now make it a point to never wake up in the 5's no matter what. And if for some strange reason I have to, then I am in a horrid mood and don't talk to me. Thankfully, even in my most busy work seasons since teaching, I have been spared from rolling over in the morning and seeing a bright red 5 staring back at my face. Glorious.