My Crazy Night

Okay, it's only crazy in a self-indulgent, tee-hee, I'm-a-36-year-old-pretending-like-I'm-18-tee-hee kind of way. But as a 36-year-old, work-at-home mother of two fully entrenched in my rut routine, it felt crazy to me. And, of course, since I'm 36, I will pay for it severely. But not until tomorrow.

Here's my night:

5:45 p.m.
Reach the end of a chapter on Hummingbird (work in progress) and realise I have to add another chapter between this one and the next one, and that means I won't finish the read-through of the 127 pages I have currently written. Stop for the night.

6:00 p.m.
Kids are away for the night, and I screwed up the plans with the long-suffering husband. Make popcorn for dinner while he goes to play City of Heroes. Something different.

6:30 p.m.
Start watching disk 3 of Gilmore Girls. Something different.

7:00 p.m.
Receive text from Lainey saying "T minus 5 hrs! Can't wait!"

7:37 p.m.
Get cursed at by husband for sucking him into yet another TV show he had no interest in watching.

9:30 p.m.
Finish GG and go upstairs to read White Knight, the Dresden Files book MIL got me yesterday at the library since I can't buy the hardcover and no library in my county has it or can get it.

11:15 p.m.
Leave for theater.

11:29 p.m.
Get text from Lainey saying "I'm here!! Yay!"

11:31 p.m.
Join Lainey in line for concessions. Make her buy my drink since I bought her ticket. She owes me $5 but didn't have change. Refuse to take her tenner.

12:01 a.m.
Lights dim. Crowd cheers.

12:09 a.m.
Commercials end and previews start.

12:22 a.m.
Movie finally starts. Crowd cheers again and gets shushed as the strains of "Hedwig's Theme" rise around the theater.

1:12 a.m.
Lainey asks if any other actress gets more worse with each performance than Emma Watson.

2:29 a.m.
Leave theater, uncertain how I feel about treatment of Order of the Phoenix. Some parts were perfect, others fragmented and annoying, leaving me feeling like I'd satisfied a craving with inferior chocolate.

2:48 a.m.
Arrive home. Not sleepy, idea of lying in bed wide awake unthrilling. Start reading Dresden again.

3:45 a.m.
Get ready for bed. Big battle about to start, go back to living room to keep reading.

4:47 a.m.
Finish book. Now that's satisfying. Still not tired, despite only drinking half of small Coke three hours ago.

4:48 a.m.
Decide to take daily walk before going to bed. Consider watching sunrise.

4:55 a.m.
Take off headphones in the middle of "Mardy Bum" to listen to stillness. Disappointed by highway sounds and hum of power lines overhead. But no natural sounds.

5:03 a.m.
Finish walk, recline on car to watch sunrise.

5:05 a.m.
Sky is getting whiter in east. Clouds, cottonball kind, moving in from west. Dirty glow from city to the north starting to burn away.

5:10 a.m.
Music starts. Robins, starlings, sparrows. Loud trilling from the tree behind the house across the street, followed by similar trilling to the east, and then again, further away. They're talking to each other.

5:17 a.m.
Plan for morning: Shower, write new chapter in book, blog about crazy night. Sleep all day.

5:18 a.m.
Think about content of book chapter.

5:19 a.m.
Think about blog post.

5:20 a.m.
Go inside and retrieve Neo so can compose blog post while watching sunrise.

5:21 a.m.
Climb with amazing lack of grace to sit on hood of car. Appreciate everyone else being asleep and not witnessing lack of grace.

5:22 a.m.
Sweat. Air still and muggy. New robins awaken at house to the right. Wonder where they are all hiding.

5:23 a.m.
Notice sky has slight pink tinge. Can see Neo now, typos fewer.

5:27 a.m.
Car goes by. Realize bugs come out with the birds. Possible correlation. Scratch scalp, slap upper right arm, brush off left shin. Wonder if this was a stupid idea.

5:30 a.m.
Second car goes by, doesn't even slow at stop sign. Idiot. Realize the temperature is suddenly much, much cooler and more tolerable than half an hour ago. Appreciate light breeze. Sky that perfect shade of whitish-bluish-pink that can't be duplicated by humanity.

5:35 a.m.
All caught up on blog post. Consider abandoning sunrise watch. No patience. Plus, the cottonball clouds are now obscuring horizon.

5:36 a.m.
Decide to make up rest of blog post so can go inside and shower.

5:40 a.m.
Go inside and shower.

6:00 a.m. 5:51 a.m.
Sneak into bedroom for nightshirt. Wonder if husband will freak when he wakes up and I'm not there.

6:05 a.m. 5:54 a.m.
Go downstairs and open manuscript.

7:00 a.m.
Yep, husband freaked.

8:15 a.m. 6:48 a.m. (was wayyy optimistic while faking rest of post)
Check e-mail. Give up when fifth jaw-cracking yawn causes pain eyes start closing mid e-mail.

7:00 a.m.
Husband didn't even seem to notice I was not in bed. Humph. Tell him to feed the dog. Go to sleep.

8:30 a.m.
Go to sleep smiling.

1:30 p.m. 12:50 p.m.
Get up and eat, read e-mails, review new RWA policies, discuss new RWA policies, then upload this post. Realize I really COULDN'T see at 5:17 a.m., not sure what I was typing. Revise for readability.

1:33 p.m. 4:04 p.m.
Publish blog.