A Bad Pattern.

I love this song.

What I don't love is how often I'm actually seeing 3 A.M. these days.  

I had to guess this would happen.  Two months off, with barely any days in there where I have to get up, and I am completely a night owl at heart.  I kept staying up later and later and later, and here I am, stuck in the 3-to-4-a.m. pattern, losing every morning to blissful sleep and calling an 11:30 wake-up "surprisingly early."  I mean, it's not like I'm sleeping too much, or losing sleep, and my nights are often spent doing productive things (I made two kinds of sugar-free jell-o tonight!  And flax crackers!  And edited photos until I couldn't tell if what I was looking at was an Emerald City Guard Doll or a pair of Flying Monkey Slippers!  [Note to those who don't know: I used to collect Wizard of Oz stuff.  I still love it, but there's not room for it anymore, it is a bitch to move with, and I'm gladly trading it in for money!])

So, I'm not in a bad sleeping mode where I'm tired all the time or anything like that.  I don't take naps, and since my days are so busy (I normally don't even have time to check e-mail more than once when I get up and again after Neil gets home and I'm slowing down with the house-duties), I am subsisting just great on eight or so hours a night.

Okay, maybe it isn't such a bad pattern.  But I seriously went to bed the other night, at like 4:30, and Neil woke up when I went in, and after talking and cuddling for a bit, he got up for the day.  It was turning light outside.  

I really do love the mornings.  I feel so awesome when I actually can get up before the clock strikes noon (on a day when I don't have to already) and have a productive day.  Maybe if I ever live in a house with a pool, I can get up and swim that early.  That would be some kind of cool wake-up.  I used to take swimming lessons in the morning, and while at first I cursed it, after it was over, I missed that jolt of cold water and exercise right away to cure me of the grogglies.  

In other news: Lily was here last week!  We squoze each other in when we could, and had a super time.  We took a sisterly trip to Sam's to get dad's Father's Day gift (a chair massager he's always liked, but never would have bought for himself), had dinner out that night with the fam (minus Steve, of course, and Neil, who stayed home after a cruddy day at work) at this wine bistro on Cherry Street (Lily got beef cheek!  Like, the damned cheek of a cow!  Good though), she checked out my wedding/reception dresses and gave me the awesome advice I really needed, and Neil &I took her and Dad to Madison's in JC Friday night for a late, late Lily-birthday present.  We took a walk around the capitol building and downtown while Dad smoked his cigar, and it was the most pleasant evening I have had in a long time.  I was reminded how much I love, love, love summer nights (though it was more like an early fall night...so breezy and almost cool outside).

The only bummer was the drive home.  I adore night driving, especially if I don't have to drive, particularly on a longish drive such as the one from JC to Columbia.  I know, it's a weird thing to look forward to, but I was.

Unfortunately, my bladder wasn't going to let me have a good time.  I spent the whole trip counting down the miles and cursing being born as a girl, as I couldn't hop out of the car and let it all out behind a bush.  I do not squat, and I do not use any sort of natural substitute (i.e. leaves) for toilet paper.

Is it uncouth that I just talked about peeing for a full paragraph?  I'll change the subject for our more sensitive viewers.

My to-do list is slowly being hacked at, thanks to the goodness.  As disciplined as I'm trying to be every day with my mini daily to-dos (written on paper), with items like "1 hour: work on eBay photos" or "Swiffer and wet-mop kitchen and bathroom floors," I just can't work that way--yet.  I'm getting better though.  So if I do eBay photos, I know I may not have the drive to do it again tomorrow, so I do as much as I can before I lose my eyesight for the day (and I played a little Keith Urban today during my first go, which made it go by fast).  Wedding planning is going decently enough.  I can't say anything is definitely figured out (I just changed my mind today about my reception dress, currently hanging in the closet), but I feel more comfortable about what I need to do in the coming weeks.  I'm meeting with Emz next Monday, and I have lots of ideas about where to start, invitation-wise.

Do you think rugs shrink?  Because we washed the kitchen one, and it had rug tape under it, but today when I put the rug back, it didn't meet the ends of the tape.  We wash our bathroom rugs all the dang time, so I figured it would be okay.  In other sad news, I can't find my personal property tax receipt.  I lose this thing every time!  I even have a hanging file folder with "Personal Property Tax Receipts" on the tab.  What is wrong with me?  Is there some receipt imp that comes in every other July, right when I'm looking for it, and throws it in the toilet?  What would he look like?

I'll keep an eye out.  I bet he just sneaks in my folders, and clips all the important registration documents together, and clips 'em away somewhere.  That has to be it.

I think I'm getting tired.  But Steve will be here soon!  Whoo-pee!  I loves me some Steve.