is time really relative?

so today . . . is the day we change our clocks to go back to standard time from daylight savings time. usually it means an extra hour of sleep for me. it is my favorite day of the year--except maybe for christmas . . .

i love to sleep, but i don't get to sleep as much as i would like to.

this is partly due to the fact that i have a real job where i have to get up every morning and punch a time clock--which precludes sleeping until i feel rested! i'm not sure how long i would have to sleep to feel rested, but i know it is later than 7:15. or 7:20. or 7:25, which is when i actually get up and race around trying not to be late . . . today i slept until 10:00 and still felt tired (but i blame the nyquil for my grogginess.)

it may be due to the fact that i rarely go to sleep before midnight anymore. i try. i start to bed earlier. but even when i make it to bed at a reasonable time, there are the dueling dogs to deal with. it is a nearly endless battle over who gets to lay RIGHT NEXT to mommy's left side. and then when i look at the clock, i see that it is almost tomorrow before i am unconscious.

but today we set our clocks back one hour. you would think this would result in an extra hour of sleep for me. but it doesn't. and it is all rollie's fault . . .

we have a lot of clocks in our house, largely because of all our electronics. and so, it takes a while to change them all. rollie is the one who is responsible for this task--because you know if it was me, the clocks would probably not all have the correct time for a week! usually he does this right before he goes to bed, but today he did it at 5:00--there was a big game on that he didn't want to miss (although as it turns out, he should have just watched old episodes of wipeout!) this was somewhat disorienting for me. in fact when he said, "what do you want to do about dinner tonight?" i looked at the clock and said, "well, i'm not hungry yet. it is only 4:15 and we didn't eat lunch until 1:00!"

"actually," he said, "it is 5:15. i already changed the clocks."

ok then. i tried to adjust. every time i looked at a clock, i had to remind myself that the clock said it was actually an hour earlier than it was.

this should have been easy for me, as i have sort of been doing this with one of my watches since we turned the clocks ahead last spring. i have two watches that i wear most of the time, but one of them is a little hard to change. and so, last spring i just left standard time on it. but then every time i looked at the watch, i had to add an hour to it. most of the time this wasn't a problem, because i usually know the hour--it is the minutes i am checking. however there were a few times where it was an issue . . .

but tonight when i looked at the clocks, i kept thinking, "oh good! even though the clock says 8:00 it is really only 7:00 because of the time change." this is the sort of thinking that leads to an extra hour of sleep. but tonight the clocks had already been changed, so my thinking went like this--"oh good! even though the clock says 8:00 it is really only 7:00. no wait, rollie already changed the clocks, so it really is 8:00. no, it is really 9:00 because the time change doesn't officially occur until 2:00 a.m. and then it will be 8:00. no, it will be 1:00 at 2:00. but now it is actually . . . AAGGHHHH!!!"

and then this thought entered my head--"what will hsn (my shopping channel of choice) do with that extra hour? it isn't on the schedule? how would they put it on the schedule--that would totally mess up the scheduling grid!!! and how can i sleep not knowing what they will be selling during that hour? what if it is something i want? and what time would that be really? midnight? 1:00? 2:00?"

maybe i should just take another swig of nyquil and call it a day . . .

**whiny blog alert**

so today . . . i cannot blog. i keep trying, but nothing is funny.

here's the thing. i've been going nearly non-stop for the last two weeks. my brain has been full of everything that needed to happen before our big event at church last week. there were lists to make, emails to send, sessions to write (i spoke four times during the weekend,) and a voice to protect, as i was also leading the music. usually i am not responsible for so much, but this time there were circumstances.

then, i missed two days of work so i could attend pastors retreat with rollie. that sounds restful, doesn't it? but it really isn't, although i did sneak in a nap one day. i returned to work on wednesday, only to find that the substitute on tuesday didn't do any of the work i left for the kids to complete--which might not have been such a big deal, but i spent a lot of time preparing those materials and this is a short week anyway because of our "harvest festival" on friday. so that made me feel lethal. really lethal. i was "mean" teacher miss julie on wednesday. not to mention, i am still coughing which is affecting my ability to get a good night's sleep, so i am tired too.

all of which results in my lack of a blog today. nothing is funny. i feel tired and a little congested and did i mention I'M STILL COUGHING--even though i have been on medication for a week.

but i am no longer lethal, or even really cranky--mostly just tired. today i was back to my usual "mostly nice, but you'd still better follow the rules" teacher miss julie. i spent more time talking to kids, but we just had normal interactions, nothing funny. or maybe there were funny things and i just missed them . . . either way, it was a much better day. just not funny.

i wasn't going to blog--i hate it when my blog is whiny! but today it was a whiny blog or no blog, and since i haven't posted in a week, i needed to get something up! so whiny it is . . .

and now my nyquil is kicking in. my mom told me to take it. she said it would help me sleep. i'm sure that is true, because i can barely keep my eyes open--i only hope i can wake up in the morning . . .

anyway, don't hold your breath for blogs throughout the weekend. i think i am going to spend some serious time in bed or bundled up on the couch, trying to get well. but that won't expose me to much blogging material, so it may be a quiet weekend. hopefully by monday, i'll be back up and running again, random thoughts flowing from my brain and out my fingertips . . .

a short break

so today . . . i'm really tired. we are having a special weekend event at our church and it is wearing me out! and then as soon as it is over, we will be out of town for a couple of days. i know this is not vital information for any of you, except that it means there will probably not be any blogging going on until the middle of next week.

unless something blogworthy happens and i can find a starbucks with internet . . .

a 15 minute adventure

so today . . . i needed a treat. and you know what that meant . . . a mad dash to 7-11 during my break.

i could have gone during my lunch break, but i only have half an hour for lunch, and i hated to spend it getting food. so i decided to go during my morning break. i do this about once a week, and usually it takes me exactly 15 minutes--occasionally a little more or a little less. but from the minute i walk out of the door of the school, i worry about getting back on time.

it was a beautiful day and as i walked to my car, i debated--leave the top up or put it down? it only takes a minute to put it down, but i didn't want to leave it down all day, which meant i would have to put it up when i got back which only takes a few minutes, but what if i didn't have time . . . so i left it up and headed out to 7-11.

once i'm at 7-11, the only decision i have to make is should i get two brownies or three? today i opted for two, but on my way to the cash register i had to work my way around a guy in a uniform who was buying juice. i thought he was a police officer, so when i went to the parking lot, i checked to see where he was parked, because part of my worst nightmare is crashing into a police car . . . but i didn't see one. so i watched where he went, and he headed for an ambulance. and this got me thinking . . .

where do ambulance people hang out in between saving lives? the hospital cafeteria? the fire station? the police station? the mall? in a metropolitan area like ours, there have to be thousands of ambulances, each with their own crews, but they aren't rushing around responding to 911 calls all the time. so what do they do when everyone is seemingly safe? inquiring minds want to know!

after today, i am guessing that they hang out in the home depot parking lot and buy juice at 7-11 . . .

i started back to school, and the lights were with me! i was cruising along, thinking about ambulance crews and their free time and could i make that into a blog, and i happened to glance at the clock--i had only been gone 8 minutes! yessss! i was going to get back to school in time to use the bathroom before my break was over--whether i needed to or not! green light, green light, green light . . . oh wait! shoot!! i green lighted right past the street i needed to turn on to get back to school!

you are all thinking, "just make a u-turn!" yes, that would be so simple . . . if i wasn't inside the city limits of cerritos where they have recently banned u-turns with signage.

i didn't have a lot of choices, so i kept driving until i approached the first opportunity for a u-turn--illegal or not (ok yes, illegal) but there was too much traffic to risk it, so i drove on. the next cross street happened to be a freeway and guess what? there was no sign banning u-turns!! so i put my left turn signal on, pulled into the turn lane . . . and saw a police car approaching from the opposite direction.

what to do, what to do. technically, there was no sign prohibiting u-turns, but maybe it was illegal to make a u-turn at a freeway entrance. normally this wouldn't be a problem--i'd just assume it was ok and go. but should i risk it RIGHT IN FRONT OF A POLICE OFFICER IN A REALLY FAST CAR?!? probably not. i contemplated doing it after he went on down the road a bit, but there were no cars behind him! not one. (where was all that traffic now?!?) if he happened to be looking in his rearview mirror, i would be toast. so back out into traffic i went, to the NEXT cross street where u-turns were actually encouraged--there was even a sign to prove it. but of course the light was red. and then i noticed the pedestrian, who i KNEW would cross the street when i had the light, and i would have to sit there in the intersection blocking traffic while she sauntered across. because i KNEW that she was a "saunterer." i could just tell.

but to my amazement, she was not a saunterer! she was a "walk across against the light" person. which was fine with me, so i just prayed for her safety and watched for a green light.

i revved my engine--just so i would be ready. but i forgot that i had just purchased this humongous lemon coksi which didn't quite fit in my cup holder. so i had to dial the speed back a bit, because i had to hold my cup with one hand and try to make a u-turn with only one hand on the steering wheel, which left no hands for shifting. (breathe, mom, it was perfectly safe! well, maybe not perfectly . . . )

i finally reached the school parking lot, careened into my designated space, grabbed my snacks, and ran to the building. only to be thwarted by the security door. (why is it that when i am late it takes FOREVER for someone to buzz me in!!!)

as i waited and waited and waited for that door to open, i could think of only one thing . . .

thank goodness i left the top up . . .