Restless night

Well, I barely got any sleep last night. I think I got in bed around 2:00, but I couldn't fall asleep right away. I'd taken the dogs out for their last stroll around the yard and as I waited for them to finish their business, I looked up and noticed that the moon was full.

Where does the time go? Last time I looked up, the moon was only half-full. But days pass, no matter what we do. I really should look up more often.

My next thought wasn't a good one. Yes, time passes. Unfortunately, some things linger. Like a certain time of the month that, for me, comes around the full moon and just seems to never go away. If you don't know right away what I'm talking about, then you don't want to know. So don't worry about it.

I headed back in, reasonably satisfied that the carpet was safe for another night. I get in bed, TQ gets in her chair and curls up, but she doesn't really sleep. She stays fairly alert during the night. She's a pretty good little guard dog. All 40 pounds of her. Max gets behind my chair (I'm sleeping in an easy chair. Don't ask.) I lay back and settle in, but I start out tossing and turning. I'm just not sleepy. Not at first.

I was surprised, to say the least, when Chloe decided to join me. Chloe NEVER sleeps with me. And, her presence keeps Mina away. Mina and Chloe are sisters, but they don't really get along all that well 90% of the time. Mina is my usual bedfellow. She curls up on my side and helps me sleep. Chloe, who is my tree-legged cat, tends to have the opposite effect. I'm not sure what exactly happened to her. When I lived in Elba, she disappeared for nearly three months. I thought, after month #2, that I would never see her again. I'd given her up for dead when she reappeared on my doorstep one night, skinny as hell and walking on three legs. I still don't know what happened to her, but today she's a fat, happy, three-legged, in-door cat.

Who doesn't sleep with me.

She likes to sleep with my brother. Right next to his head, purring LOUDLY. He, understandably, is not a fan of this. But Chloe always seems to find a way to get what Chloe wants.

Of course, it's Saturday night, and my brother is at work until 3:00am. So, Chloe settles for second best.

Me.

Unfortunately, she doesn't curl up next to my head and purr. I could have dealt with that. She curls up between my knees and makes a good, silent lump there. Like a big, furry, grey and orange stripped painted lump of cement.

A pretty good obstacle for someone as restless as I am. Even when I'm sleeping, I move a lot. When I'm trying to get to sleep, I move a lot. But Chloe is stubborn, and doesn't move with me, and she doesn't get down. And she has three legs, so I have to be careful not to just give her a random kick and send her flying. Most likely, she could still catch herself, but because the joint in her back leg is so jacked up (she still technically has four legs attached. One just isn't functional for more than a crutch, or for balance) I worry about her hurting herself if she falls from any sort of height. So, I'm careful. And awake.

Why don't I just put her down, you say?

Because I'm a sucker, that's why. Ever since Chloe reappeared from the dead she's pretty much gotten her way in anything. Except going outside. That's the one thing I don't let her do anymore, and she pouts a little. She's a Siamese mix, and Siamese cats invented pouting when they don't get their way. So, I try to make it up to her when I can.

Eventually, she gets down on her own and wonders off, and I'm free to toss and turn until I finally drop off.

For about an hour. Then Little B comes strolling in, (greeted joyfully but quietly by my little guard dog, who knows the sound of his truck and doesn't panic) on go all the lights, and he proceeds to start to put away groceries that he's bought (at like 4:00 in the morning. Really? Really.) So I get to lay there and listen to the sound of plastic bags making that funky plastic bag noise as they're emptied and shuffled and moved around and rubbed against each other and Ugh! And then, when he's done, does he go to bed? No. He puts a pizza in the oven and starts to do dishes.

Great big enormous dish-washing-pizza-cooking-plastic-bag-shaking-asshole. What's worse is, he seems to actually be trying to be quiet, which only makes everything seem louder.

Really. I used to have two roommates, a long time ago in VA. When one would start to talk while I was sleeping, the other would hiss *shhhhhhh* like a freaking librarian. Guess which noise used to keep me awake. Go ahead, guess.

I think sleeping people can assimilate normal, human, non-threatening noises. But when someone TRIES to be quiet, well...that's just being sneaky. And sneaky is bad. And someone hearing someone else being sneaky is, in my opinion, more likely to wake up. Make any sense? Anyway, it does to me.

Sometime around this point, Chloe re-joins me. Lovely. At least she picks the arm of the chair. She's obviously waiting for Little B to hit the sack, at which time she'll surely abandon me. Yippie. Can't wait.

It takes probably another hour to get to sleep. Which would put me somewhere around, what, 5? Which would explain why I slept till 10:30 this morning. Something I never do. Of course, as soon as my feet hit the floor, the rest of me nearly follows. Curse of the full moon is upon me. *Sigh*.

I'm going to take a walk, I think. Try and get the vice around my tummy to loosen up a little.

Well, Later days...