Tired @ MindSay

LAST.NIGHT.WAS.SO.GOOD.


I don't know if I slept after I got home at 1 (note to all:  NOT a mature decision to stay out until 1, even if you were driving like mad to get home...when you have to get up at 6); I just kept thinking/dozing about having to drive around to get people/places.  Not very restful.  And the WORST Sunday possible to not sleep, as I am about to embark on a 4-day/3-night overnight trip with my 5th grader and the rest of the 5th grade at my school and probably should have been in bed at 10:30.... but SO.GOOD.

They were so on last night.  And I loved every minute.

Pictures of this and hopefully my excursion into nature when I get back.  I 'ope, I 'ope.

<33

I've had so many chances
turned my back and I ran away
I've (not) had so many chances
to. see. you.

Got home just before 5:30am, fell asleep before 6am and now I'm fucking awake?

no no no no no no this will NOT last long.




happy 1st birthday Busterrrrrrrrrr<3333

Last night, one of my closest friends called.

I was already pretty much out. But, as we get a chance to talk once a week, and I wasn't going to miss it, staying up 'til midnight with him was preferable to sleep.

It just hit me what a profound statement that is, from one overworked college student to another. Staying with you is preferable to sleep - you don't know what that means until you've realized how valuable sleep is. But it's true. I'd rather talk to Signscout than sleep.

He was a little fussed about this, because a) he called me to tell me to go to the doctor (which I have no intention of doing) because I'm sick, and b) I had to get up at six the next morning. What Signscout doesn't realize is that I've loosened up my schedule from days past. Yes, I have class at 0800. Yes, my last class can run until 2100. But, somewhere between those two, I have a five hour break.

You read that? Five hours. I can do anything with five hours.

I can finish a book or two. I can walk downtown, have lunch with a friend, explore around, walk back, and still have time for a nap. I can do every bit of homework that's due for the week. I can get in a half-shift at work. If it weren't for when those five hours are, I could drive up to the Cities to this amazing Italian place and have this fantastic gelato that I someday wish to be part of my fiance's proposal dinner.

It's really good.

And, on the subject of napping. I'm a commuter student to FCC. That means that Charlie is no longer a car, Charlie is pretty much an apartment on wheels. I eat, sleep, store stuff, and study in there. Once in awhile I use my laptop, because I'm between the two main buildings at FCC, and the wireless works fine.

There are three classroom buildings at FCC. The main one is a compilation of about nine smaller buildings, constructed with the oft-seen philosophy in Minnesota architecture - don't go outside if you don't have to. Mayotown employs skyways and subways for this, and in Minneapolis you can walk for a few miles without ever once going outside. We love our winters, but there's always some foreign dignitary coming to the world-famous Mayo hospital to get our spleen relocated, and since he's from the Philippines, we're not going to make him learn how to handle a wheelchair in the snow.

The others are the athletic complex, which isn't huge but nicely big, and an old highschool less than a mile away that the college purchased when they realized that they were running out of classrooms. We're entertained, because they both have the name 'Center' as part of the name, and neither one is the main hub of activity.

And the latter is so distantly located that nobody with a class there walks to it.

But between all of this, I have Charlie.

Charlie holds, in addition to the instruments, books, laptop, and myriad other items that more frequently travel in and out; my pajamas, a change of clothes, toothbrush, my sleeping bag (no pillow), other such nighttime necessities, and three fleece blankets (because nobody with a lick o' sense goes driving in Minnesota in the wintertime without something to keep you warm in case your car breaks down or slides off the road forty miles from civilization - which in this case might be a dairy farm).

 - Y'know what? I'm going to take a break from this wandering description to heighten that point, for anyone who's from somewhere further south and planning to come up here. It happens, and it's always the kind of death that's easily preventable. You slide off the road, or your car quits, and you're someplace without solid cell phone reception. Or, if you're really clever, your phone isn't accessible. There's nothing but shorn cornfields for miles. And you or somebody in your party goes off for a walk to get help.
Really. Wait it out. And keep something in your car to wrap yourself in. It's just like a boat - you don't legally need to have everyone wearing a life vest, but you should have enough PFDs for every person in the boat. It's not that hard to keep enough blankets for as many people as your vehicle can hold. Your body produces enough heat that if you're wrapped up, and you stay in the car out of the wind, you'll make it through the night. You might even be able to sleep, though if you're feeling cold-sleepy, I wouldn't recommend it. You might not wake up. Someone will see your car in the daylight (we do have days where it's high noon and I still wouldn't walk more than a half-mile outside for risk of exposure), you just have to wait it out.
Dad also makes all of us keep snacks, like granola bars or something that you can still eat when they're frozen solid, and water. Yep, it freezes. It'll melt again, if you can use your body heat.
It happens where someone goes off looking for help, and ends up freezing to death before they can get there. Stay with the car - it's big, it's more visible than you are, and it's more protection against the wind than anything you've got. -

But, at the moment, it's September, and we won't have proper snow for some time. I crack the windows, grab the giant sunglasses my sister picked out for me in Chinatown (these are great. My lashes are so long that I can't wear most sunglasses without brushing the lenses, and these block almost everything from reaching my eyes.), and snarf a blanket. Doesn't matter that I'm warm already - it's a vulnerability thing. To sleep in my car, I need the doors locked and a blanket over me.

Actually, I can sleep almost anywhere as long as I have a blanket. On a carpeted floor works, as long as I've got something to suffice for a pillow. I just need that nearly-insignificant barrier between me and whatever's out there.

Upon reflection, that was Sunday night. I think. The nice thing about sleeping in my car between classes is that I only have to get enough sleep to charge me for half the day. I can recharge for the evening, whether it be class or work, by grabbing a nap and getting some food. The weird thing is that it resets my inner clock. The dreams are weird and intense, and I'm gambling on whether I'm going to be dragged into such a deep sleep that I can't claw my way out of it until something's willing to let go (it's happened). So, I've actually done this for two days now - gone to my morning classes, slept through lunchtime, had a bite to eat and trotted off to the library to work on a paper or talk with my friend.

Thinking about it, it's probably not a good sign when I'm sleeping in my car. It's the kind of good like having a life vest is good when you're out in the open ocean. Very good to have that option - still not the place I'd like to be in. It's a sign that I'm doing too much, and it's all at opposite ends of the day, so I have time to sleep in the middle.

Similar to the way my room being a mess is a sign that I'm far too busy to clean it. It's nice that I don't share my room with anyone, and so I can gradually let it build up if I'm too harried to get to it, but it's also building stress. I don't like my room being a mess. I like having everything put away and having the place look neat.

This should be the last week until Christmas break that I have too many closing shifts on nights when I have to get up at six the next day. I can't do anything about Signscout - I love him too much. :)

I am ridiculously tired today, maybe I will feel like talking tomorrow. 

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I didn't go to nana's today.
I'd already been earlier in the week, and I just felt far too tired to even be bothered doing anything.
So instead of Sunday lunch, I ate hotdogs - and I laid on my bed for most of the day, listening to Blind Guardian and Anthrax - playing on my Wii.

I've started chipping away at my unfinished games.
I worked it out to be something like 54 games in 24 days - which of course, I won't manage - but I'm going to see how many I actually can.
I go back to college in a week or so, so that'll obviously reduce the time I have - but we'll see just see how it goes.