Sleep GOOD!

It’s gloomy and wet outside today, and, while I haven’t been out there at all, I doubt that it’s any too warm.
Overall it’s a very dismal autumn day here in Northern Virginia.
I can’t complain too much, though, as my mom tells me that back home in Michigan this past week they got 8 inches of snow.
I did miss having actual seasons when I lived in Tucson, but snow was one thing I definitely didn’t miss. 28 years of winters in the Snow Belt were more than enough.
So far I guess I’ve accomplished a fair amount today, all things considered, what with the creation of another blog for the purposes of writing a novel, finishing two pictures of RLC, and doing my laundry.
Well, the colors at least, and while I haven’t folded all of them, I did finish the majority.
I’m feeling very tired and a bit loopy, as I was up for most of the night last night.
Why is that, you ask? Well, my co-workers Brian and Kathleen are getting married in Vegas this weekend, and they asked me to bring them to the airport this morning.
Since they’ve brought me to the airport and picked me up a couple of times, I could hardly refuse to return the favor…even though their flight left at 6 am, which meant that I had to pick them up at 4 am.
Typically on Wednesday nights I’m up until sometime between 2 and 3, so I decided that I might as well not even bother going to sleep before picking them up. I did try to squeeze in a nap during the afternoon yesterday, but without success.
Because they had more stuff than would fit in my car, once I got to Brian and Kathleen’s, I drove them to the airport in Brian’s truck, which meant that I had to drive it back, drop it off, pick up my car, and then drive home.
The end result was that I didn’t get home until sometime around 5:20.
Because I would have to go to bed early tonight in order to get up for my workout and first day of my work week tomorrow I didn’t want to go to bed at that point and end up sleeping all day and totally throwing off my sleep schedule.
However, it’s been a very long time since I stayed awake for much more than 24 hours straight.
I can’t even remember my last all-nighter, though I’m fairly sure that a tremendous amount of alcohol was involved.
In any case, I didn’t feel like I was up to the task of staying awake.
I decided that I could squeeze in around three and a half hours, since getting up at 9 wouldn’t throw my Thursday routine off too much.
It took me a while to drift off, so I’m operating on about three hours of sleep within the last 30 hours or so.
So far I haven’t made any peanut butter cookies and I don’t think I’m going to. I just don’t feel up to it. I guess I’ll have to try to find a way to get through a weekend without them.
I did do some cooking this week, though. I really didn’t need to; my freezer was already stuffed full of enough leftovers to provide me a month's worth of lunches at work.
I didn’t make anything too fancy; Tuesday was some simple roasted chicken breasts with white corn and brown rice, and yesterday was Tuscan Pot Roast, which sounds slight fancier than it actually is.
The Tuscan Pot Roast was an all-day affair, with eight hours spent inside my Kitchen Kettle (the versatile appliance that can function as crock pot, vegetable steamer, and deep fryer; it’s one of the coolest cooking accoutrements I have) just slowly cooking away.
It turned out pretty decently, though I think that if I ever make it again I’ll use a larger roast.
I managed to get in a proper workout yesterday, as there was no one in the weight room to impede my progress. I didn’t see that cute(ish) girl who told me that I smell REALLY good in the rental office when I walked by, though I did talk to her on the phone twice this week, with one of those times being yesterday, shortly before my workout.
At least, I think it was her. On the phone she identified herself as Kelly, and so far as I know there are only three people working in the rental office: the Property Manager, who’s named Shannon, the older lady named Mercedes, and the cute(ish) girl who told me that I smell REALLY good, which, by process of elimination, would make her Kelly.
The reason she called was in reference to some maintenance requests I had put in.
Last week when I signed my lease I mentioned that the fan on my HVAC system wasn’t working, and that the light in the dining room was burned out.
When I came home on Friday evening there was a note on my door stating that someone from maintenance had been in my apartment.
I walked in and noted that the door to my laundry room was open (I always leave it closed), and that there was a note on my thermostat explaining that the transformer had been replaced. I tried the fan and it worked. I then tried the dining room light. The dining room remained dark.
I came to the conclusion that the maintenance person must have thought that the light was burned out in the laundry room.
I wasn’t overly concerned, as I don’t really make much use of my dining room anyway.
On Monday, when I was on my way home from my abortive trip to buy a desk, my phone rang. It was Kelly verifying that the maintenance requests I had made had been tended to. I explained about the dining room, and she told me that someone would be in to take care of it.
Later that afternoon the young guy who replaced the batteries on my smoke detectors came in and replaced the bulb.
Yesterday morning Kelly called to, once again, verify that my request had been attended to. I said that it had and thanked her.
Thanks to Kelly and Kathleen, calling to confirm that I would be bringing them to the airport, my phone was unusually busy this week. Yesterday alone it rang on THREE separate occasions (Kelly, my mom, Kathleen). That might actually be a record for me.
I still don’t know what my blog novel is going to be about.
I don’t think it’s going to be a science fiction or fantasy story, though I was thinking that I might experiment a little with magical realism, though I think that idea probably stems from the title, “15,000 Years,” which brings to mind “100 Years of Solitude.”
(If you don’t know what I’m talking about, don’t worry about it; none of this will be on the test.)
In addition to some more RLC pictures done in varying styles, upcoming posts may include a new Britney pic. I haven’t done any in a while, simply because ever since she hooked up with her new husband she hasn’t been doing any photoshoots, so new material is scarce. New, worthwhile material, at any rate. There are lots of shots of her walking with the guy, shopping with the guy, throwing food at photographers, and so forth, but no good, posed images.
I do have a lot of older images I could choose from, and quite a few unfinished pictures that I could just finish, but I don’t feel like going back to the old stuff.
In any case, I found halfway decent paparazzi shot of her that I think is worth rendering, so that should be appearing soon on a blog near you.
I’m almost hoping that baseball will preempt The Simpsons again tonight so that I can go to bed even earlier.
Still, there are a few things I should tend to before I finally crash, so I will sign off for now, and in case I don’t return before Monday, I’ll wish you all a good weekend.