The Witching Hour

I've been waking up lately at 3am and wind up entering this partially awake, partially still dreaming hallucinatory state where lying in bed becomes this pseudo game, a complex one that doesn't make any sense and I can't fall asleep until I figure out the game. What's spooky is that this lines up with what is known as the witching hour. So I wonder what ghosts and ghouls are whispering taunts into my ear inducing such head games.


The neighbors below moved out. I wouldn't put it past them to put a curse on us to keep waking us up in the night without music. Will be looking for sage to burn. And Nyquil liquid gels. Sleeeep is a seven letter word.

I Could Sleep...

I wrote a post yesterday about air traffic controllers sleeping on the job and I definitely felt the desire to do so today! I awoke this morning with the Velvet Underground lyrics "I Could sleep for a thousand years" whispering throughout my dim, tired noggin. Luckily I was able to make use of my girlfriend's car this morning, which allowed me a few extra minutes to zone out in the shower. I think it turned into a 40 minute shower. Shame on me for wasting hot water. I crawled into bed after midnight last night. My body's a bit more persnickety than it was last year. Less than 7 hours of sleep renders some slowed effects in my effectiveness. Last night Wood Sugars did the very first installment of the Playground Theatre podcast. Donny Kevin Rodriguez and Ever Mainard hosted interviews with Boyish, a group of regular performers at the Playground Theatre. Two other podcasts performed and recorded within the same hour as the Playground Podcast; Jessie and Matt's podcast, two very like-able hosts, and Ted Tremper, a very creative man, did the Near Death Podcast. These will all be coming very soon. I've mostly performed at the Playground Theatre, and last night was my first chance getting to sit back and enjoy the show. I enjoyed a pint of Fat Tire Amber Ale. I ran into my friend Dan at the 7/11 when I bought this bottle earlier in the evening. He recently popped the question to a lady and she said yes. The whole "live before studio audience" feel was pretty neat. Eliaz of Wood Sugars did a very nice job orchestrating the evening's show. This is a man who functions well creatively on 3 hours of sleep.

Just now my long curly hair shifted, almost felt like a bug knocking about my locks, but nonetheless it seems to have just been the weight of my hair falling over the crest of my ear upon which it rested. This startled me, like an angry hallucination. I could sleep for a thousand years.

Today I cold called someone who couldn't seem to hear what I was saying and so they kept on shouting "Who?! Who?! Who?!" repeatedly for almost a minute. It appears I spoke to an owl today.

On my drive home today I passed by the last chunk of the Cabrini Green buildings being torn down. It is all gone but a dismantled corner. Graffiti adorned one of the walls. By early next week I imagine it will all be rubble being discarded from trucks. It made me slightly sad. Especially seeing that etching of graffiti. That was once someone's decorative touch to a place called home.

Sleep Blip

Everyday when I leave work I notice there is a touch of coffee left in my travel mug. I tend to forget about that touch in the early morning when I arrive and smell the fresh brew, as I gravitate to pouring that fresh cup. So I dump the touch of coffee out in a patch of dirt with now budding flower poking up. I wonder if plants feel the effects of caffeine and bop microscopically.

I read today that a 3rd air traffic controller has been caught sleeping on the job and terminated from his position. I do understand that the air traffic control field is probably one of the most stressful fields, yet I'm curious for the sudden trend in sleeping in front of the radar blip. It certainly calls out for more attention to be garnered if you get caught sleeping while governing the safety of the runway strip versus sleeping at an accounting desk. No one's truly at risk if you sleep during an audit. So I'm on the side of the terminators in their canning of those sleeping in front of that radar blip. Despite the stress of the job, which I can certainly understand the desire to sleep after the anxiety wanes, I do believe if you want to keep that job, find a way to stay awake. If my bus driver fell asleep I'd want his head. I work in sales, and that can be a stressful job, but I've yet to fall asleep at my desk. But if I do one of these days, in my field, I'd probably only hurt my companies revenue, and my income.

Coffee. I may be immune to it to a degree yet, coffee can be a good decision if you start drifting at the sleep blip. Perhaps diet may be making them so sleepy. Are these air traffic controllers gorging at Chili's Too on their breaks(I ate at one of these twice in 24 hours)? I learned today that different types of foods such as meats and starches and fruits digest at different rates, and it is therefore ideal to eat them separately, not as one big square meal, as some of those foods types can get clogged and gunked and ferment behind the slower digestion of a different sort, which can also hog necessary enzymes for the other. I did not know this. A co-worker informed me. So tonight I focused on the meat type for dinner. And I do not feel so sleepy as to crawl into bed at the 9 o'clock hour as I usually wish to do.