Insomnia Has Its Benefits

Woke this morning at 5:35, hot, uncomfortable, thirsty. After a drink of water, back into bed, I tossed and turned for 45 minutes before finally giving up the fight and getting out of bed. My mind was racing with no sign of stopping and I'm learning that when that happens, I'll be racing to work after drifting off just before the alarm sounds. So I got up, which has been productive.

I went out last night with Hot Padraig (that's pronounced Poor-Egg and is very Irish) for a quite meal in what turned out to have been a mostly deserted, rather eerily quiet Dublin and 6pm quickly turned into 11pm, as it often does with him. He's great fun and time just doesn't seem to exist when we get together. Chat, chat, chat. Laughter, chat some more. So instead of coming home early and cleaning the house as planned, I went to bed, which may have contributed to my mind racing at 5:30. I had wanted to tidy the place before Flatmate Suzie returned from her birthday trip to Lisbon and was feeling like a rather crappy flatmate for leaving the place in such disgraceful state. It was fine last week while I was sick and not at all energetic, but I'm fine now and have been milking that excuse far too long. One of my pet peeves is coming home from a trip to find a mess of the place, which is why the night before any trip, short or long, I can be found at home, music blaring, wine in hand, cleaning like a mad woman.

This morning, however, I was found, music at a dull roar, coffee in hand, cleaning like an ordinary woman. And doing laundry. I managed to clean the whole place including the bathroom, do a load of laundry, listen to Snow Patrol and Scissor Sisters (Flamenco on the stereo now), take out the garbage, scotch-guard my new shoes and brag to you about it all. And it's not even 8:30 yet. I'm most likely be flagging around 2pm, struggling to stay awake at my desk, but hey... the house looks great and my conscious is clear. Although I didn't manage to vacuum. Seems cruel to the guys downstairs to wake them with the Hoover on Monday morning.

And it is a beautiful morning at that. The lunar eclipse was something to see here over the weekend. We didn't see it red but as we were in and out of restaurants and pubs on Saturday night, we saw it in many stages. The entire length of Dame and Georges Streets were lined with people pointing and looking at the sky. What aliens would have thought had they landed just then... One girl, a little worse for the wear that early in the evening, was heard to ask her friends: does this happen every Saturday? Last night the moon was full and bright in the very blue night sky. Crisp is how I remember the scene in my head. Which made for a beautiful sunrise as I was puttering around. It's now bright and blue and quite possibly will be sunny all day. Here's hoping...