A decent night’s sleep

For whatever age, stress, or health-related reasons, I cannot sleep. I go to bed around 10, then wake up at midnight, then multiple more times before my alarm goes off before 6:10. Sometimes I am awake for hours, and sometimes when I wake up at 3 or 4 I’m up for the day. I’ve no idea.

I did finally put together that when I wake up, I’m parched, so I finally decided turning off the dehumidifier. I’ve resorted to melatonin, but it seems when I take that, it doesn’t help me fall asleep, but once there I sleep deeply. However, when I wake up, it’s with a jolt, no matter the time.

When I packed out the couple earlier, I donated most of the booze to the Marines but kept a Maker’s Mark bottle with about 1/16 remaining. I’ve tried it straight and it tastes like cough syrup, but once it helped, or so I thought. Since, I’ve tried mixing it with hot chocolate and Kool Aid. It tasted better, but not enough to continue to experiment. I still kept waking up.

But on Saturday, I went to some hot springs that are nearby and oh, man, that was fabulous. About 10 of us went. The others lost out. For whatever reason, people just didn’t sign up. I’d been before and it was a lot of fun and tried to convince others to go, but they just didn’t. Losers.

The hot springs area is pretty fabulous. Last time around it was rainy and chilly (which made the hot tubs all the better!) but this year it was sunny and not cold. Not really warm, either, but not chilly. The weather was just great.

We soaked in wine, tea, coffee and flower-infused hot tubs, then I stood under the equivalent of a fire hose and let it beat down on my neck, back, shoulder and arms. It was fabulous. One of the tubs was a two-in-one called “fire and ice.” The “fire” side was incredibly hot and the “ice,” was damn cold. A colleague and I sat on opposite sides and every 60 seconds leaped over the barrier to swap. We amused the locals and even inspired others to try it, too.

I finished with the sauna, something I’ve been missing ever since the one at my apartment burned. Neither it nor the steam room has opened up again, so I enjoyed spending time in the one at hot springs.

And wonder of wonder I managed to nod off and get some sleep. I only woke up one time and when I slept, I really slept. It was really nice. I honestly can’t remember the last time I got a decent night’s sleep, even if I still woke up once. It was progress.

Today, I’ve done barely anything. I went to a friend’s house to help a bunch of kids decorate cookies. There were several icing accidents, and some of them definitely set records for how many gummy bears a child could fit on a single cookie.

It’s been a very nice weekend, my fifth-to-the-last here. I’m really almost down to my last month. It doesn’t feel that way and I’m super busy.

The rest of my weekends are pretty much booked, though.There is a baby shower next weekend, then I’m going to Hong Kong, then Perth. The following weekend is the last weekend. I’m toying with the idea of going to Hong Kong again, but there is an office party the day before Easter and I’ll probably hang around for that.