Anyone else's sleeping patterns all wonky lately? And some Highland dance news...

[lothiriel_1]

The past couple of nights I've gone to bed at reasonable hours (Saturday at 10:30 - I worked at the store until 9:30 - and last night at 9:00). I lie down, get comfortable, close my eyes, relax, slow down my breathing, and - nothing. Even taking a dose of Tylenol PM wasn't effective last night. I got up yesterday and this morning feeling somewhat rested, but not really awake. This morning I'm just kind of in a fog. I can barely type a complete sentence without making a typo somewhere and having to go back and fix it.

Gonna be a fun day. *yawn*


Yesterday I was in F'burg at 8:45 to take a "medal test" for Highland dance. My dance teacher and another teacher in the area arranged for a woman from the British Association of Teachers of Dancing to come over from Scotland and evaluate both the dances themselves and demonstrations showing understanding of the terminology used (ie. "Show me 4th rear aerial position."). I decided to try out for the bronze medal, which meant that I had to do the fling and the sword dance. Bear in mind that this was not a performance or competition, but a test.

Suffice to say that my nerves made an impact on my dancing. :-b Yes, I made mistakes in both. I just completely blanked out on one of the fling steps and I lost count during the first step of the sword. However, I did find my place in the music both times and managed to finish both dances. I'll find out how I did tonight when I go to class. Provided I passed, I'll get a lovely, suitable-for-framing certificate and a bronze medal.

After the medal testing, I went to the Home Depot and spent money on soil, mulch, compost, flower bulbs (tulips, crocuses, and irises), and two large buckets of fall mums, went home and did some yard work. The flowerbed in front of my house is now completely redone and LOADED with bulbs, and the two wooden planters I bought last year are home to the mums.

Good weekend overall, but too short. Plans for next weekend (which includes Friday) will feature trips to the gym, grocery shopping, home cleaning chores, and spending Saturday at the Highland Games in Richmond. Bagpipes! Dancing! Men in kilts! :)

Comments

[ex-king-ink.livejournal.com]

I recommend, on occasions when you can't sleep, tired or not, to do what your body tells you and not sleep. Read a book, watch an infomercial, create an infomercial, kill your neighbor's cat/child or even cat-child, anything your head can dream up. We don't actually need 8 hours of sleep each night, so I view insomnia as a retaliatory concept constructed by the human body to make up for the agglomerated hours of sleep it didn't need (but took anyway).

[lothiriel-1.livejournal.com]

Thing is, I wasn't actually awake either. I'm not sure I can adequately explain it - it was some weird state where I wasn't completely asleep or completely awake.

I'm definitely no stranger to insomnia and I do what I can to avoid recurrences of it (avoid caffeine after noon, keep to as regular a bedtime as possible, don't sleep in too late on days off, exercise regularly, etc.).

I can function fairly well on 7 hours of sleep, although I do better with 8. Six hours or less and I'm not all that productive.

[reckless-saturn.livejournal.com]

oh my god i totally know what you are talking about. i find myself sleeping in that state often especially when i take a nap. sometimes i get so i know that i am awake and i am aware of what is going on around me, but i can't open my eyes. strangely i often wake feeling rather refreshed- not all the time, but some of the time. it reminds me of when my reiki teacher would hypnotis (sp?) me and i would go into a deep trance like that and feel as if i had slept eight hours.

i wonder what that feeling is? or why it happens. i notice i sleep like that a lot when i am at the farm.

you are also making me want to hunt down a place near me that i can find dancing, bagpipes and kilts. just seems like such a fun fall activity- plus i could stand to hear some bagpiping right about now:)

[lothiriel-1.livejournal.com]

Richmond (and the Games) is easily accessible via routes 301 and 95 - not sure how close to 301 you are, though.

[etainwilson.livejournal.com]

"Bagpipes! Dancing! Men in kilts!"

My mantra. ENJOY! I'm so jealous!

[lothiriel-1.livejournal.com]

You REALLY need to consider making a trip to the New Hampshire Games sometime. The weather is always a crap shoot (it can be hot and sunny or cold and rainy or anything in between), but the location - Loon Mountain ski area in Lincoln - is absolutely GORGEOUS. Plus, there are plenty of free parking lots with free shuttles running back and forth all day. Planty of places to stay in the immediate area and further afield, but it's a good idea to plan ahead for that sort of thing - the Games are really popular and people come from all over to go to them.