what keeps you up at night?

Back in my early blogging days when I was an uber geek posting on LiveJournal daily and modding communities, I was a survey/list fiend. Whatever I was “tagged” in, you could be sure I was reposting. I guess I’m feeling like reliving those days, because I can’t help myself from participating in this little “10 Things That Keep Me Up At Night” meme that Amy (who I conveniently met on LJ) just posted on her blog, Rainy Saturday.

photo: coso_blues

Lord knows there is plenty that can keep me up at night, though not many things that can get me out of bed in the morning. What can I say, I like to sleep. Just hope you’re never the one that has to wake me up… I give Oscar the Grouch a run for his money.

Onto the evil things that prohibit me from catching zzzzs:

1. Nightmares. You know, I don’t really have that many nightmares (though I do dream a LOT, and really like to tell people “I had a dream last night ____” – people usually don’t care, can’t really understand why, I think my dreams are pretty interesting) – hello run on sentence! K so, I don’t have that many nightmares but when I do, I’m up. For example, when I saw the horror flick Saw for the first time, I couldn’t sleep for a month, I was convinced Jigsaw was on my balcony ready to come at me with a pighead and a drill. I did have a pretty terrifying dream the other night and it was awful. I also have a problem with that half-awake half-asleep still-dreaming thing.

2. Scout. This should really be number one because she is by far the one thing that keeps me up more than anything else (reference this post, for example.) She can be cute as pie but is a real terror when you’re trying to sleep and she is hungry/bored/lonely/wants the faucet turned on/breathing. She is very smart, she’ll knock things off my bedside table to wake me up, too, which is why I have about 3 water glasses left unbroken. She also knows that by pushing it with her paw a little, I’ll jump up and then she’ll stop pushing, jump off, and run the direction she wants me to go. Scout also really enjoys pawing at the windows, clawing at my dresser, or if I lock her out of the bedroom, clawing at the bottom of my bedroom door. I frequently find wood chips and paint flecks on the ground. Let’s just take this moment to appreciate having hardwood floors, because when I lived in homes with carpet, the little brat would fully tear a hole through the carpet if I locked her out. But seriously – if you met her, you’d love her. She’s evil like that.

3. Prayers. I really don’t pray enough, mostly when I’m in the shower in the morning or when I’m walking down the long hallway at work, praying for patience with something or energy to get through the day, or today or example when I was praying for that poor kid who was set on fire down in Florida over a stolen bicycle. I happen to remember to pray as I’m falling asleep, when I run down my list of “things” that I want or need… mostly other people who I’m praying protection for. Anyway, this isn’t a bad thing, but it does keep me up at night. I’ve also been known to wake up in the middle of the night and start praying.

4. Work. Is this on everyone’s list? Give me the name and number of the person who isn’t kept up by work problems at night, because I’d like to hire them as my life counselor. I would pay money to be able to flip the switch and forget about things happening at the office, but alas, I am usually up too early or too late thinking of story ideas or projects that we should be focusing more on.

5. Money. Do I have enough this month? Am I saving enough for the future? Crap, I just remembered I need to order new contact lenses this month. Will I have enough to buy ____ a birthday present? That reminds me, ____’s birthday is next month so I should budget for that. I wonder what kind of a hit my 401k took this month. I really should get rid of my cable to save some money. I could just sell my car. Should I ask for a raise? Do I deserve the money I make? These are all questions/thoughts that I have, really any time of day, but quite often when I’m laying in bed at night.

6. Reading. Ok, if you know me at all you know reading is pretty much my favorite thing to do, aside from talking that is (and if you haven’t had the pleasure of meeting me IRL, well let’s just say – I LOVE TO TALK.) I have a stack of books the size of my car that I still need to read, but between work, errands, cooking, cleaning and spending time with the BF, I hardly have any time to read. So the only time I read is on the weekends or in bed before sleeping. Most of the time, reading can help me fall asleep, but if I’m really into the book, it is not uncommon for me to stay up until midnight, 1am or even 2am reading. This is kind of embarrassing to admit but the night I read Twilight I stayed up ALL NIGHT reading it. Yes, teen vampires. I should be publicly shamed for that.

7. TV. I hardly have time to do things I enjoy (reading) much less “filler” activities like TV. I have a DVR so I usually watch episodes of shows I like weeks after they’ve aired, all in a row, marathon-style. This sometimes stretches into the wee hours of the night. Plus, if I can’t fall asleep at night I sometimes come out and watch shows because I refuse to lay in bed awake for more than 30 minutes… it’s not healthy!

8. Family & Friends. It’s super hard being so far away from my family, who live in Virginia, plus I have a GINORMOUS family (four parents, five siblings, six grandparents, countless aunts, uncles & cousins) and then of course, there are my friends, both in LA and back home. I always feel like I’m not keeping well enough in touch and that because I’m so busy out here with my own life I’m being a really crummy sister/daughter/granddaughter/friend. This is why I texted my brother at the crack of dawn the other morning, because I felt so much time had gone by without talking that I just couldn’t waste another moment having him thinking I don’t care. Still haven’t figured out how to manage having a life, a relationship, a job, and a big family all at once.

9. Twitter/Internet. Ah yes, really this should be higher on the list. I, like many, use my iPhone as an alarm in the morning (I really do enjoy that Belltower ring… so lovely), so the phone is right next to me as I’m falling asleep. This makes it WAY too easy to make a last minute check on my e-mail or on Twitter to see if anyone @ replied me. Because you know, that is oh-so-important. I mean, it’s Twitter! They wouldn’t possibly call me if they had an urgent message to deliver. I’ve spent way too many hours scrolling through my follow list to see what everyone is doing/reading etc. What a true waste of time.

10. Julian. Once again, not a complaint… as there is nothing else I’d rather be doing than spending time with the person I love more than anything else in the world. But this is a man who needs very little sleep and frequently stays up very late and wakes up very early with no problem at all. I, on the other hand, need at least 8 hours of sleep at night or I’m a wreck. Me = infant. Him = teenager.

Now that I’ve whined enough to last me an entire week, I think I’ll stop. I really shouldn’t complain, as I usually haven’t got that much of a problem staying awake. If I ever do have problems getting sleepy, my Traditional Medicinals Organic Lavender Chamomile Tea usually does the trick. That stuff is redonkulous, you just have to try it!

What keeps you up at night? Repost on your own blog and leave a link in the comments, suckers!