It's A Jungle Out There!

I've been MIA from the Blogosphere for a couple weeks or so and I really missed you guys. I think the Requip I started to take was causing me to be depressed and lonely without my noticing until I stopped taking it. I stopped because it wasn't doing the job it was supposed to, which was to help me sleep. Instead it was taking me more time to fall asleep, then I was sleeping lighter and waking up more often, if that's possible.

It's really no wonder that I have trouble sleeping around here. My sleep schedule is unusual to begin with being that I work second shift. On an average night I am awakened several times from various noises. I am awakened even with my sleeping pill and while wearing ear plugs. T, my 6yo son and E, my 11yo daughter both talk in their sleep. They also occasionally walk in their sleep. E more than T.

The cat's also wake me up several times during the night. Summer, the youngest, if not outside all night, will just walk up and down the hall meowing at each bedroom door. Cokee, our lovely 17yo Siamese cat will come and go from our bed as she pleases and feels the need to loudly announce herself each time she climbs onto the bed and insists she sleep UNDER the covers with ME! Arthur, our middle boy will decide it's time to torture the other cats,usually around 3AM.

The Hus gets up at 5AM which wakes me up, again. Not great because I would have most likely gone to bed at 2 if I didn't work and 3 if I did.

Then I have to get up out of bed for 7AM to help the kids get on the bus. I go back to bed at 8 and sleep, no wonder, until I barely have time to do anything before the kids get home or I go to work.

My morning sleep is, for the most part, my best sleep. Lately however, this sleep time has been unkindly interrupted too. And it always seems to happen at around 9AM, when I am in a deep sleep.

First I was awakened by a "CAW CAW CAW!!!". I opened the shade and of course saw a crow which I yelled at to shut up and go away.



A few days later, I opened the shade again because I heard what I thought was my cat on the screen. AAHWHWHWHWHGG! (this is not the actual squirrel, as I don't sleep with a camera)

Then a few days later, I heard a loud "HeeQUACK HEEQUACK HEEQUACK!" and I thought "What the FUCK, is there a G-DAMN duck out there now?!!". I opened the shade and found a Guinea Hen, much like the one in this picture, staring up at me and yelling. He/she(?) had traveled from my neighbors, about a tenth of a mile, across the road and through a small wooded area to get to my house and to my bedroom window. FUCKER! I'm going to have to report this trespass to my neighbor.

Hope you all get a good night sleep.

Miscellaneous Manure 12

*I've been taking Requip for a week now. I'm not sure if it's working or not. It seems that I have more trouble falling asleep initially,but then wake up more refreshed. I might also be sleeping better because of my exercising too. I'll give the med another week or two and see what happens. So far I haven't experienced any side effects. I'm just waiting to be visited by someone who isn't really here and I hope it's someone good.

*T started baseball tonight and all the helmets were too small for his head! He does have a big head.

*I joined the local gym four weeks ago. They were offering a 16 week weight loss special and because I must have been on drugs or something, I did it. So far I actually don't mind it. The gym is not a fancy hoity toity, skinny bitches wearing spandex, type gym. But more of a local, muscle dude, old lady and mommy wearing daddy's T-shirt, dirty punching bag hanging in back room (can't wait to try that!), type gym.

There are also fun signs located around the gym, for example:

"Squat till you puke!"

"Rack the weights! I wouldn't want to have to get your grandmother to do it."

There are also signs on each weight machine to tell an ignoramus like me, what they are.

*Do you Tweet? For those of you who don't, those that don't follow me, and those that don't know what Tweeting is, the following are some of my own favorite Tweets.

~I don't ever want to murder anyone, but if you taste almonds in my home made cookies, I've changed my mind.

~I don't agree with the "Family Table" commercials. We always eat together and our kids are still little assholes.

~6yo son told me "when I grow up, I want to be a writer and a draw-er, I'll be the next Dr. Seuss"

~Why is it I always feel guilty asking someone to return something they borrowed from me?

Thanks Suzy for Re-Tweeting!

*I've had some silly dreams lately. In one I was at the supermarket and a stranger kept trying to get me to buy a cantaloupe from him. The next day I was at the supermarket and the first thing I noticed was that the cantaloupes were on sale, so I bought one. Weird.

In another dream, Hus and I were traveling in Africa and we were helping out natives, living on a farm there and then we were trapped in flood waters until I woke up. Weird.

I also have dreams weekly where I am late for work, like hours late, or I'm at work but can't find my patients. Once I couldn't find my shoes, so I had to run across a field to the shoe store to buy some. Another time I showed up at work wearing a dress uniform. Weird.

Pathological Gambling, Impulsive Behaviors, Increased Libido...

Binge eating, hallucinations, and (Hus's favorite) hyper sexuality are just some of the potential side effects from a medication I'm going to start taking. The results came back from my sleep study-I have mild to normal sleep apnea, which isn't bad enough to qualify for a sleep apnea machine. I also have Restless Leg Syndrome, which could be the reason I'm not sleeping well at night and feeling unrested after a long nights sleep.

The med my doc wants me to try is Requip for the RLS and while normal medication side effects like nausea, vomiting, allergic reactions etc., don't worry me, the above ones I mentioned, sort of do. The med has been ready for me at the pharmacy for over a week and I still haven't picked it up. Then today, because I overslept and still felt too tired to get out of bed, I decided I'm going to get it this afternoon and start it tonight.

I told Hus to watch me for side effects. For example, if I start coming home with scratch off lottery tickets, which I never do, or start talking to people who aren't there, hardly ever do, or take up binge eating again, he needs to tell me so I can stop taking the med! I doubt he'll tell me if I suddenly have hyper sexuality. Heh Heh, he is a man after all!

Wish me luck with my new med. Hope I don't go crazy!


Not a particularly flattering picture of me sleeping. Do you love my Mr. Magoo pillow case and all the red white and blue. I'm thinking 1976?

Nighty night!

And The Winner Is...

Yay! Congratulations to Joanna from wisdom within, ink ! I randomly picked her name out of T's Indiana Jones hat and bizarrely enough, I picked the only other Vermont blogger, and someone I know in real life. I can also say that it's a lot my fault that Joanna started blogging in the first place. She's a wonderful writer and also a certified Journal Writer Instructor (sorry if I got the title wrong Joanna). So go on over and visit her lovely blog and congratulate her.

And Joanna, send me your address via email and I'll get it to Stef. I know you will love the book.
The rest of you must either buy the book, so Stef can continue to help support her three children, or get it from the library. You can also read excerpts from in on Stef's blog.

Thanks everyone who commented and especially thanks to those who became followers. I'll follow in return.