1/23/09 The Joys and Pitfalls of 8:43 Bathroom Time

The batteries died in the clock in my bathroom.

I just want you to know that fact first thing so that the rest of what I am about to say makes sense. Because the batteries died, and I used the last two three days ago for the Wii controller so that I could continue stomping Tony's rear in Mario Cart, and that is why there weren't any left for the clock, and why it has been stuck at 8:43 for the past month or so.


And even though the clock said 8:43, it was actually almost 10pm when Tony went to bed and I sat around feeling completely awake and alert and with waaaay too much energy to go to bed. (Sadly, this is par for the course when you're a night owl and the rest of the world runs on "morning person" time). And since I hate hate HATE just lying there, staring up at the ceiling, listening to everyone else snore and waiting for the ever elusive sleep to finish mocking me and just get on with it already, I decided that a nice warm bath would be just the thing to relax me enough to board the train for Sleepyville.

So at precisely 8:43 bathroom time, I grabbed a book and got into the bathtub to read and soak. (The book, if you are curious, is Dragon Weather by Lawrence Watt-Evans. It was surprisingly good, and I ended up reading the first half pretty quickly). The water got cold, but it was only 8:43 bathroom time, so I ran more hot water and started in on the second half.


By 8:43 bathroom time, I was seriously pruney. The California Raisins had nothing on me. Plus the water was cold again, but I only had 100 or so more pages to go, so I took another hot water hit, and settled in to read the rest.

I finished the book at (you guessed it) 8:43 bathroom time, and while I was just as awake as when I started, the water was cold again and more importantly, I was out of book. So I hauled my pruney self out of the tub, toweled off (I had wrinkles on top of wrinkles!), and figured that I could maybe watch a little tv or something until I was tired. There has to be something decent on tv at 8:43 bathroom time.


The only problem with this is that the rest of the world does not stop for a dead clock, and while it may have been 8:43 in the bathroom, it was 5:30am in the bedroom. I read all night long. (For those of you keeping score at home, that's seven and a half hours that I was in the tub...that's a new tub world record for me). And while I've pulled all nighters before, I usually know it when I do. Even worse, I was just as awake as when I started.

Tony wakes up to go to work at 6am, so I just hung out until he got up. He's used to my insomnia, but spending the equivalent of a workday in the bath tub was a new one for him. I did nap for about four hours while he was at work, but I didn't want to sleep too long or else I'd be stuck on the all-night tub-athon cycle for who knows how long. Tonight I'm shooting for bedtime between 10 and midnight. No books, no tv, and definitely no tub.

And tomorrow I'm going out to buy more batteries.