So, as I said yesterday—or, rather, early this morning—I was up all night working on homework. Not crawling in to bed until six meant I operated on about four hours of sleep today. And, at the risk of repeating myself, I’m getting way too old for that. My instinct is that this week seemed crazier/busier than it really was simply by virtue of being relatively busy but following directly behind a full week of loafing around. Still, whether it’s all in my head, or it’s been really busy doesn’t make much of a difference; I am still exhausted, and glad my weekend is here.
Oh, but you know one way I know I really have been busy and not just imagining it all? Because I haven’t turned the TV on all week. Yep, whatever I watched Sunday night (maybe The Mentalist, though I have no actual memory of it, but I definitely remember The Good Wife) is the last thing I’ve watched this week. Just about unbelievable, right? You have to know I’ve been otherwise engaged to go four entire days without watching any television. Not even Castle, which is almost always on my same-day viewing list.
Image courtesy of Ambro at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
So, anyway, the point is, I’m worn down and sleepy, and altogether feeling kind of old right now. And the worst part is my all-night session didn’t even help that much; my in-class presentation tonight still didn’t go all that well. But, that’s not really the point. What the point actually is, is that there’s a list of things that make me feel old, and these days, it seems to be getting longer and longer.
- Might as well start the list with the thing that started the list: worn to a nub after one short night of sleep. I can remember the days when that was nothing.
- Today’s the anniversary of the 3 Mile Island accident. Which wouldn’t make me feel old in and of itself, but it came up in class today and some of my classmates had never heard of it.
- Hearing songs of my youth on the “oldies” radio station. That’s been happening more and more lately, and it stops me cold every time.
- Turning on the “top 40” type station and not recognizing any of the songs—and not wanting to.
- When I get really excited about an upcoming weekend, it’s usually because I know there’ll be time for a nap.
- It’s not just music catching up with me. Do you know what they show on nick@nite these days? Full House. And Friends. Friends! That’s not even from my childhood, but my young adulthood. How old do you have to be to have your adult shows already showing up on classic TV?
- A lot of noise makes me a little crazy. Us old people like things to be quiet and orderly.
- Most of my teachers are at least a year or two younger than I am.
- I make “sleep noises” when I am just drifting off and then wake myself up. I’m not sure if that’s the exclusive territory of age, but it certainly happens more now than it used to. Including, incidentally, just about five minutes ago.
- And, finally, to add the final insult to injury, when I went to find an old granny photo or something to use for this post, the first page of the “old woman” search looked like this:
My God! If those women are old, what in the hell am I?
So, now that I’m thoroughly depressed, I think I’ll go ahead and turn in, and see if I can manage to sleep through my own strange sleep noises.
