Last night, poor Jed tried to calm me down over the phone with readings from The Hobbit and some Winne-the-Pooh, but charming as that was, it didn't relax me enough to fall asleep -- I finally risked going out into the living room and turning on the tv, with the sound really low, so as to hopefully not wake anyone else up. That got me to sleep around 4-ish, I think, and luckily I didn't have to get up until after 9, but I'm still pretty wiped. Fretting now about tonight's sleep. Sadness. Woe.
The plus side is that I go home tomorrow, so that even if I completely fail to sleep tonight, I should survive. Last night when I was failing to sleep, I was seriously considering trying to change my ticket, to leave today instead of tomorrow. But I got about five hours in the end, so I was okay for most of today. Just tired -- it's been three nights of bad sleep in a row, and I just don't handle that so well.
Anyway, enough whining. Essentially the conference went very well, met some great people, perhaps a longer report later. Took lots of photos of Philly, will put some up soon. I had a really nice time with Sharmi and Ryan, ate some great food at Fork, bought some pale pink and green yarn and started crotcheting a zigzag baby blanket for Kira's new little girl, found a Christmas present for Kevin in a local artists' store, along with a very pretty pen and a bloodwood letter opener for me, and did generally manage to have quite a bit of fun in the last few days despite the sleep problems. And now I'm watching the Red Sox kick some ass with Ryan and his roommate, and am tired, but enjoying myself nonetheless.
Apropos of nothing – I was just thinking that you never talk about music. Food, people, ideas, books, yes. TV, even. Do you not listen to music? I mean, the way that most people do, to where certain pieces of music imbed themselves in you? For example, the album I’m listening to right now is a Jane Monheit, “so many stars”, and in particular I keep returning to her rendition of the famous song by antonio carlos jobim, “waters of march”, even though it’s about spring and not fall, it strikes a chord.
I listen to music all the time, but I listen to the same music over and over — it’s really rare that I’ll seek out new music. My favorites folder in iTunes has 200+ songs, and I appear to be pretty content to listen to that most of the time. I know a lot of people would get pretty bored with that, but apparently I have a high tolerance for repetition, like a three-year-old. 🙂
Have you tried taking something to help you sleep? I’m a chronic insomniac and I’ve had two doctors (and several friends) recommend Benadryl as a sleep aid. Most of the time, I don’t mind being an insomniac. But when I travel, I need to sleep. I take it about two hours before I want to go to bed. It doesn’t knock me out, but it does help me relax enough to sleep.
I sometimes take Dramamine, because it settles my stomach, and I’ve been known to take NyQuil, but maybe Benadryl is worth trying, especially since the Dramamine doesn’t knock me out the way it used to. I’m trying to not take anything when I can, just so I don’t build up a resistance to the drugs (and thereby not have them as options when I *really* need them).
Benadryl often works for me, though not quite as well as NyQuil. I’ve also had a lot of luck with Valerian extract (available in health-food stores and such, at least in California — want me to bring you some?); it’s basically a muscle relaxant, and when it works for me, it completely knocks me out. Oh, and alcohol has also been known to help for me, but I imagine that’s largely because I have it so rarely.
Sure, if you have some to spare. I’m dreading sleeping at World Fantasy, and in Utah for my defense, and for the two weeks I’m travelling around Christmas…
Kevin takes melatonin, as does Karina, which supposedly helps. Haven’t tried that yet.
Just a quick note re Mr. A., Mary Anne is not the only person for whom music is not very important (in fact Mary Anne’s 200+ itunes is vastly longer/larger then my own music listening). Probably I’m an exception in this, but for me music is nearly unimportant and often stressful. I rarely buy music and very rarely listen to it – not that I don’t like it, I enjoy it sometimes, but it almost never inspires passion in me.
I listen to the radio, but usually to talk radio. When I work there is usually music in the background (in cafes) but I rarely pay it much attention. While I own CD’s I probably have listened to less than 10 of them in the past YEAR.
So if you read my journal you will see someone who listens to even less music.
Shannon
Mary Anne, do you like filk? I do not sing myself, but I enjoy filksings at cons and collect filk recordings, some of which I really enjoy.
Sure, I like filk. I have all of _Echo’s Children_, and some other random things here and there. I tend to prefer the stuff that’s pretty songs, as opposed to the ones that are very specific to one author’s work or another.