I was sick all week. From Monday night when I had a sore throat to yesterday after work when my stomach was churning away, I was sick. I tried to get extra sleep and take it easy, but the bug stuck with me.
Last night I had lots of trouble sleeping. I finally dozed off (on the couch) after 5am, and was woken up when Amanda came out to the living room around 8. I was really tired, and somewhat cranky, for a large chunk of the day, but guess what?
I'm feeling better. I'm not back to 100% yet, but I feel the best I have in a week. I can't believe it happened after a night like last night, but somehow it happened, and I'm very happy about it. With that, I'm off to bed, hopefully for a full night of sleep this time around.
Showing posts with label sleeping. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sleeping. Show all posts
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Friday, May 18, 2012
Quiet Contentment
Right now I'm borrowing Amanda's Macbook while she sleeps beside me. She's curled up against her pillow, breathing softly, and the cares of the world are nowhere to be seen on her face.
Regardless of my happiness in seeing her, I'm also glad for another reason. Glad to be seeing her hair spread across a pillow, glad to feel the bed move slightly when she rolls onto her side, and glad to be hearing each breath because it means one thing:
I'm not alone tonight.
So I'm going to carry on looking up places for us to visit in Edmonton and marking them on a map while Amanda visits dreamland beside me. It's times like this that I realize that I was merely okay before I met her, not truly happy. When I look back over the past few years before I met Amanda, they seem very quiet and empty.
Well, my life is currently full, as is my heart. I've got a small smile on my face as I type these words and glance over at Amanda, still slumbering peacefully.
And there it is. That elusive feeling that doesn't come along *nearly* often enough:
Quiet contentment.
Thanks for reading, folks. I should have another post up tomorrow morning just before we leave for Edmonton.
Regardless of my happiness in seeing her, I'm also glad for another reason. Glad to be seeing her hair spread across a pillow, glad to feel the bed move slightly when she rolls onto her side, and glad to be hearing each breath because it means one thing:
I'm not alone tonight.
So I'm going to carry on looking up places for us to visit in Edmonton and marking them on a map while Amanda visits dreamland beside me. It's times like this that I realize that I was merely okay before I met her, not truly happy. When I look back over the past few years before I met Amanda, they seem very quiet and empty.
Well, my life is currently full, as is my heart. I've got a small smile on my face as I type these words and glance over at Amanda, still slumbering peacefully.
And there it is. That elusive feeling that doesn't come along *nearly* often enough:
Quiet contentment.
Thanks for reading, folks. I should have another post up tomorrow morning just before we leave for Edmonton.
Friday, April 13, 2012
Contrasts...
Amanda's recent (and sadly, ongoing) illness and my trouble sleeping last night (woke up at 3am, couldn't return to sleep until after 6) got me thinking. There is a major gap between how the world works and how the world should work.
Let's look at sick days for example:
How the world works:
You call in sick, deal with a potentially unhappy supervisor, and lay at home feeling bad, and feeling worse when your next paycheque is short as a result. The other option, frowned upon by most employers, is working through your illness so your paycheque isn't affected, though the health of your co-workers and customers is.
How the world *should* work:
When you call in sick, your supervisor encourages you to stay home and get better soon, and reminds you that you'll still be paid. If you're sick on your days off, you receive normal working days off to compensate for it.
Or what about sleeping problems? What if on a particular night you didn't get nearly enough sleep through no fault of your own?
How the world works:
You go to work exhausted and struggle to stay awake by consuming generous portions of caffeinated drinks. Your work suffers, frustrating your co-workers, customers, and supervisor.
How the world *should* work:
You arrive at work and your employer notices the bags under your eyes and sends you to the back office couch for a two hour nap. Instead of producing eight hours of poorly done work that may have to be redone, you produce six hours of your normal quality work with a much better attitude to boot!
I know these ideas would lend themselves to widespread abuse. I also know that employers, particularly small ones, can't afford to pay their employees to be sick or sleep on the job. But in my pie-in-the-sky world as it "should" be, they make a lot of sense! :-)
Let's look at sick days for example:
How the world works:
You call in sick, deal with a potentially unhappy supervisor, and lay at home feeling bad, and feeling worse when your next paycheque is short as a result. The other option, frowned upon by most employers, is working through your illness so your paycheque isn't affected, though the health of your co-workers and customers is.
How the world *should* work:
When you call in sick, your supervisor encourages you to stay home and get better soon, and reminds you that you'll still be paid. If you're sick on your days off, you receive normal working days off to compensate for it.
Or what about sleeping problems? What if on a particular night you didn't get nearly enough sleep through no fault of your own?
How the world works:
You go to work exhausted and struggle to stay awake by consuming generous portions of caffeinated drinks. Your work suffers, frustrating your co-workers, customers, and supervisor.
How the world *should* work:
You arrive at work and your employer notices the bags under your eyes and sends you to the back office couch for a two hour nap. Instead of producing eight hours of poorly done work that may have to be redone, you produce six hours of your normal quality work with a much better attitude to boot!
I know these ideas would lend themselves to widespread abuse. I also know that employers, particularly small ones, can't afford to pay their employees to be sick or sleep on the job. But in my pie-in-the-sky world as it "should" be, they make a lot of sense! :-)
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Late Evenings
It's funny, but when Amanda and I are together, we usually call it a night earlier than when we're apart. On weekends when I'm in Grande Prairie or she's in Tumbler Ridge, we're often in bed and asleep some time between 10 and 11.
On nights when we're both at home, that's not the case. Neither of us can sleep in excessively on work days (6:45 for her, 7:15 for me), but that doesn't always play as important a role in our evenings as it should. Most nights we're chatting online until at least 11. Part of it is that we've fallen into the habit of chatting right before bed. One day last week we chatted earlier (around 7:30 or 8ish, I believe) and finished chatting by 9, but it felt extremely weird going to bed that night without talking to Amanda immediately beforehand.
I think the other part of us chatting so late is just us not wanting to say goodbye. While we're chatting, we're together, albeit in a very limited way. As soon as the chat window closes though, we're back to reality where we live three hours away from each other, and shortly have to go to bed alone.
So if you are ever in the library in the morning and see me yawning, it's not from a late night movie marathon, or from me staying up until 3am playing a video game -- it's because I spent as much time as I could chatting with Amanda and being in denial, refusing to believe that I'd be sleeping alone.
On nights when we're both at home, that's not the case. Neither of us can sleep in excessively on work days (6:45 for her, 7:15 for me), but that doesn't always play as important a role in our evenings as it should. Most nights we're chatting online until at least 11. Part of it is that we've fallen into the habit of chatting right before bed. One day last week we chatted earlier (around 7:30 or 8ish, I believe) and finished chatting by 9, but it felt extremely weird going to bed that night without talking to Amanda immediately beforehand.
I think the other part of us chatting so late is just us not wanting to say goodbye. While we're chatting, we're together, albeit in a very limited way. As soon as the chat window closes though, we're back to reality where we live three hours away from each other, and shortly have to go to bed alone.
So if you are ever in the library in the morning and see me yawning, it's not from a late night movie marathon, or from me staying up until 3am playing a video game -- it's because I spent as much time as I could chatting with Amanda and being in denial, refusing to believe that I'd be sleeping alone.
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