Monday, August 22, 2011

Two kinds of tired

This is not going to be a complaint about how tired I am. For many months, I've been concerned about feeling weary and tired about the swirling worries, occasional dizzy spells and moments of sheer physical exhaustion. I know that most of that kind of tired - the bad kind - if brought on by relentless hours of work and worry, with no break for fun, or a little bit of taking care of myself.

But I am only writing about the feeling I'm experiencing with the good kind of tired. The kind of tired that comes after a week of focused exercise, capped off by a long weekend of not sleeping because I was having too much fun to sleep.

My last night of 8 hours of sleep was last Wednesday night. Thursday was a long run, a kayak trip and a lot of upper arm exercise folding laundry after a six hour drive back from a Canadian paradise. That night, I got about four hours sleep finishing laundry so that I could pack a clean bag for the Milwaukee weekend. Had to get to the airport early. Barely any time to putz on things like dreams...

Friday night was a reasonably good sleep. Maybe about seven hours. Saturday night, I stayed up too late with an old friend. Tis friend is the kind of friend where it doesn't matter how much time passed since we last saw each other. We just pick up where we left off. After a few rounds of friendly insults, we catch up on kids and spouses, work and music, and then launch again into more jokes, jabs, and stories. I tried to hang on until the seissun, but when 4 o'clock rolled around, I gave in. I wanted to get to mass Sunday to be with my mom, aunt, sister and brother and I knew that Monday was going to be a long one. So like the grown up I'm supposed to be, I caught about four hours.

I was fine during mass. And a third day of endless but informative walking the festival grounds. Each time through areas, we kept seeing new ideas and got to hear more bands. That night, I stayed up a little late, this time with my new friend bonding with my old friend. My new friend s just as comfortable sparring with the craic as I am. Fortunately, we were both a little more sensible at went to be around 1:30am, so we could have a little rest before getting up at 4:30am in order to catch the early flight back.

I had some really weird dreams on the plane. I only wish I could remember the details. I just remember waking up as the beverage cart was coming to our seats. The nap and crappy airplane coffee was enough to give me the energy boost I needed for some meetings and the rest of the orientation activities with the students. Sometime around 2:30pm, I finally bonked. I had forgotten to eat.

After quickly fixing that need, I was able to keep an even keel of energy before finally calling it a day at the office by 9pm. As I write this now, my eyes are struggling to stay open. My voice is deep from days of too much talking, loud, belly aching laughing and hooting at the music. My legs are stiff from all the walking on concrete. My head is full of ideas and stories.

I wanted to write about my anniversary - but I'll save it for the time when we really celebrate it as a romantic night. Whenever that will be. (Goodness, I hope not too long from now.)

I'm just so tired now.

It's just a good kind of tired.

*****
#67 of 90in90 for #LUBlogTribe

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