Work went quite well this week, almost. A consistent sleep schedule is more important to me at my advanced age than it was a decade ago. I still can't believe that, every week for well over a year, I'd "go to bed" at 8AM or even 10AM, then "wake up" at 11AM to drive to Norman for a noon appointment, then drive back later that day.

And that was on my "day off." It's no shock that on the next day, I did little more than sleep. I can't believe I did that for so long. These days, as I approach yet another triskaidekaphobic multiple, I can handle my day ending within about a 2-hour window, but I pay for anything else. I can't go to bed at 3 AM one day and 7 AM the next, or at 4 AM one day and 1 AM the next unless I really exhausted myself that day.

And so, after a promising start, that's what sabotaged this week. On Monday, I got home and to bed at 5 AM - not bad. I prefer to leave work no later than 4 AM, but we got an issue out. The next day, Tuesday, some news came in late, and I didn't go home until 7 AM, and didn't get to bed until 7:30 AM. That in itself wasn't too bad, as I could have slept until about 2 PM and worked the schedule back over the next few days. Not optimal, but workable.

Except that I had a doctor's appointment at 12:30 PM. Ouch. Even with them running traditionally late, I knew I'd have to be up by 12:30 PM, and when I know I have to wake up for something, I don't sleep well. I typically wake up every hour, and that's what I did on Tuesday. I remember seeing the clock when I woke up say 8:30, 9:37, 10:29, and 11:35. I was going to get a call on my cell phone when it was time to go, but I was getting 0-1 bars of reception in my bedroom, so I wasn't sure it would get through. Unease = no sleep.

I probably should have cancelled the doctor's appointment, since it was just for a regular checkup, but then I would have owed $20 or something and had to reschedule in a month or two when they could fit me in. I hadn't had a full physical in awhile and I wanted to see if it was time. (It is - I'm going to do lab work next Friday. Apparently I'm going to have a CRC and have my LIFO checked.) But I didn't cancel it, and I went to it after about 4 hours of sleep, on and off. After that, I just couldn't get everything done that needed to be done on the new schedule. I didn't get it reset until today, and today I spent catching up and dealing with office issues (like supplies, not like Word 2004).

Now, however, comes the real trick. I'm not supposed to work on Friday or Saturday, but I'll have to do that this time. What I have to do is get enough for MWJ done as soon as possible, and then take two days off, not dive right back in after one day or, more typically, zero days. That makes the next week shorter, but it gets things back on track. It's still very hard for me to do that - if enough work isn't done by Friday, I have to fight myself like hell to keep from working through the weekend and then starting right back up again on Sunday night. In anything but the short run, that's a very bad idea, but I keep doing it, and then after 3 months, when I'm so zoned out I can't even type, I feel even worse.

But I saw earlier this week that, barring stupid scheduling issues, it's going to work. And in mid-July, I'm actually taking real vacation, as in "I want to go somewhere." I have no idea where and don't have much money for it - that went into the mattress I bought in May, the first new one in 17 years. (That's helping, too.) Any suggestions for cheap, relaxing vacations? I can't afford to go lie on a beach somewhere, which is what I want. Maybe I can afford a simulated beach in Las Vegas or something.