Daily Archives: April 7, 2008

Guest Photoblogger.

Tomorrow, I’ll post my entry in the April Blog Chain. Today, I’ve asked Unfocused Girl if I can post some of her pictures from the walk she, Unfocused Junior, Grandpa Unfocused, and I took at the North Park Nature Center on Saturday. With her permission, I’ll put up some of the best of them.

Important legal notice: Unlike most of my posts, these pictures are subject to Unfocused Girl’s copyright, all rights reserved, rather than a Creative Commons license. She’s a minor and can’t waive her rights. Frankly, I’m taking a risk posting them at all, since the license she’s granted me wouldn’t be enforceable, either. It’s a chance I’m willing to take.

Glad that’s out of the way. Here are the pictures (click the thumbnails for larger size):

A great day was had by all. We didn’t see the deer that left the tracks and the droopings, but we saw the turtle, many geese, two ducks, and a diving beetle. Most important, the kids started to work off the cabin fever that’s been building for the past few months. I hope the weather holds for a while.

And Now For Something Completely Different: Insomnia.

I have never had any trouble falling asleep. I see television commercials for Lunesta or Ambien, and they don’t make any sense to me at all. I’ve been practicing law for 13 years, and a handful of times I’ve woken up in the middle of the night and stressed out about something, but I can’t remember the last time I got into bed and simply lay there, unable to fall asleep. Normally, the amount of time it takes me to fall asleep is immeasurably short; a “long time” is five minutes. (One exception: I often have trouble falling asleep in hotel rooms, for a variety of reasons that boil down to being uncomfortable. Special case.)

All of this is to underline how unusual it was last night, more than half an hour after Mrs. Unfocused and I turned out the lights, for me to still be wide awake. I wasn’t panicking about anything, or stressed out. I was physically wiped out from chasing Unfocused Girl on her bike and Unfocused Junior on his scooter up and down the block all afternoon, and had nodded off on the sofa before coming up to bed. I had no good explanation for why I couldn’t sleep. We had gone to sleep a little earlier than usual, but not by much, and considering how tired I was, it shouldn’t have been a problem.

Finally, I slipped out of bed and went downstairs. I spent an hour on the novel, which I had ignored all weekend while my father was in town and we were out enjoying the weather. After about 800 words, I went back upstairs, and fell asleep within a couple of minutes. This morning, I’m exhausted, but at least I have something to show for it.

I’m hoping this was a one-time problem, and not the beginning of a serious problem, where I can’t sleep if I don’t write. There are going to be plenty of days when I’m too busy to work on the novel, and I can’t afford to kill a night’s sleep every time that happens. I’d try warm milk, but I’m lactose intolerant. Maybe next time, I’ll just take a Benadryl.