Weekly News

The funny thing about occasional insomnia is that here I am on Saturday morning, wide awake in the 5 o'clock hour. It would have been ideal for me to wake up this way yesterday as there was a 6:15 am spinning class I'd hoped to attend. But, no. Thursday night I went to bed resigned to the reality that I would likely be too tired to rouse myself at 5 something to get to my class. At 6:00 am on Friday morning, my standard alarm went off and I ignored it. At 6:09, it sounded again. Only my arm decided to reach from my cocoon of blankets - it hastily turned off my alarm before I realized I needed to get up. At 6:18 it did the same thing. At least I think it did because I don't remember 6:18. At 6:27 my arm woke up again, as did my face- but just long enough to turn off the alarm and glare at it.

Finally, the rest of me realized I needed to get out of bed for Lord's sake, so at 6:30 am I finally set my feet on the floor - begrudgingly.

And now here I am in the darkness of the living room writing in my blog on Saturday pre-dawn morning.

This was a busy week. Busy good.

Monday was one of those insane and not at all normal days that used to be a normality for my work day. It's the kind of busy where you hardly sit down because you're rushing around all day. Strange things happen. People say inane things and you have to pretend as best you can, to take them seriously and then erupt into laughter after they leave - because laughter is better than frustration. Everything is urgent and of extreme importance but none of it is actually important. A good level of strategic pessimism is required. A la meme temps, an unyielding optimism.

By my evening spin class, I had no idea where the day had gone and I was happy. 

Tuesday was similar, only much longer. In the evening I attended a fashion school's senior portfolio review. I still adore this type of event because I feel at home. 11 students present their final runway pieces and resume to a group of "discerning" critics. There are 11 tables set up, one student and 4 critics at each, and  maybe ten of the student's favorite pieces they've designed. They bring them off the rack one-by-one to show us the construction, speak about the fabric choices and seaming as well as any extra embellishments. We look through their flat sketches and costing sheets. We ask questions. 

They talk about their inspiration and collection's theme. If I close my eyes for a second, I could be talking to Marc Jacobs himself. The reality is there is at least a tiny chance that one of these students could become the next Marc Jacobs. At 8:00 pm, when I'd been wearing the same 3 1/2 inch heels for 13 hours, a dinnerless me drove home. I ate dinner close to 9:00 pm and was asleep within an hour.

Wednesday was unremarkable except that I got to teach my evening spinning class. 

Thursday I was assigned to shuttle a Swedish girl to the Social Security Administration on the Westside so she could apply for her card. When I got back to work at noon, I had a million things to do and I ended up staying at work until 7 pm and skipping exercise. Then I made dinner for me and MJC and watched TV until I fell asleep.

Which brings us to Friday - I skipped the am spin class and was mad at myself for it. I spent a couple of hours at work before driving to a different fashion school to review portfolios. I dashed back to work to make half of my favorite yoga class. Then I worked at a frenetic pace until 7 pm, drove home in Friday night traffic to meet MJC, drove to Glendale to get groceries for dinner,  and by the time we got to Ralph's, started acting like an absolute space cadet because I was so tired and hungry. When we got home I cooked a yummy dinner for me and MJC, which included "Mock Mashed Potatoes" from the So. Beach Diet. Basically, you steam and mash cauliflower instead of potatoes. We chose a white and a purple cauliflower, which made for a delicious lavender side. I severely burned my fingers by grabbing the handle of the stove-to-oven pan (which MJC &I had only moments earlier been so excited about because of it's versatility) after it had been in the oven. Yikes.

We ate dinner shortly before 9 pm.  I held an ice pack in my right hand, and fed myself with my left - an interesting challenge.

I struggled to stay awake for as long as a could but still crashed before 11 pm . 

And here I am at Saturday morning, My eyes blinked awake an hour and a half ago and for some strange reason it is still dark outside. I'd better investigate.