On Sabbatical

After yet another night of being awakened by drunk people, I've checked myself into a fairly decent hotel to get some sleep. The funny thing was, a good majority of the people on my crew felt that I should not have to spend money on a hotel to get some sleep and that it was my home too and I should be able to sleep just fine at home. Their chivalry did not make it to 1:45am. Once again, the giggling and the cooking started, but this time it was accentuated with several people saying "sshhhhh!". I gave up.

After breakfast I went back to my room and went on hotels.com to find a hotel that didn't cost too much, but also had amazingly comfortable beds. I decided on the Country Inns and Suites. You know if they have big heavy down comforters then the bed is comfortable too. They've got an indoor pool and jacuzzi and a fitness center. The staff is very friendly.

Years ago when I couldn't sleep, I didn't fight it too much. I simply got out of bed and found something else to do. And if I got tired during the day, I'd just drink more coffee. I found a book for my kindle called Restful Insomnia that didn't promise to solve my sleep problems, but would make me feel rested despite not sleeping. I put it on my wishlist and basically forgot about it. Every night that I didn't sleep I would think about it.

Yesterday I checked in to my hotel completely exhausted. I had an overwhelming need to fall asleep and instead of getting coffee, I waited until it was time to check in, closed the black out curtains and got into bed. I snuggled into the down pillows and concentrated on sleep. After about 20-30 minutes, I began to fade off. Then my arm jerked and shot out from underneath my pillow and into the empty room. Damn it. Ok, I thought. No big deal. I'll try again.

I closed my eyes, tried to focus on nothing at all and let my eyes soften into my skull. Another 15 minutes later I was drifting off into sleep and the hotel phone next to my bed rang and jerked me out of sleep yet again. Are you kidding me? Who on earth knows I'm here?! I picked up the phone and it was the guy down at the front desk wanting to know if everything was acceptable in my room. Jeezo.

After a brief conversation, I hung up the phone and tried to go back to sleep. I wasn't laying there long before I decided it wasn't going to happen. So I got up and made a cup of coffee and watched a terrible love story (Something Borrowed...I don't recommend it) before going out to meet some of my crew for dinner at Frankie Bones.

My sleep last night was a little broken, but every time I woke up, I fell back to sleep. No one woke me up at 2am, I wasn't josteled awake by heater noises and the bed didn't creak and squeak every time I moved. My hand towel in the bathroom is also shaped like a swan.

I have to check out by 11am, which is a bummer. I'm definately over living with 16 other people (we lost one to injury, it used to be 17 other people). I miss having my own home with a comfortable bed and a more quiet means of heating the house. The heater in my room sounds like a diesel truck starting up every 10 minutes or so.

Oh yeah, so after the front desk guy woke me up yesterday I decided to purchase the book Restful Insomnia. I'm a quarter of the way through it and not totally convinced that this lady can teach me how insomnia is actually a blessing. I guess we'll see.