Booth duty, an attempted nap, a great dinner and a wedding

I have the afternoon "booth duty" shift today, so I was able to "sleep in in a bit".


Normally, I don't sleep in, but I hadn't really slept much the previous night. My plane got in much later than I wanted and by the time I got to my hotel and settled it was 12:00 pacific time, but my body was telling me it was really 3:00 am eastern time.


I have become a really bad sleeper lately. I get anxious about not getting enough sleep and then I end up tossing and turning telling myself: SLEEP, dammit...SLEEP!


It has the opposite effect obviously and I end up tossing and turning and looking at the clock.


Sometimes I can't even sleep after taking a sleeping pill.

Anyway - I had an 8:30 AM appointment on Saturday, so....in my usual anxious about sleep frenzy...I didn't sleep. Well, maybe a little hear and there, but definitely not a restful sleep.


I managed well through my morning appointments, and booth duty and actually got to leave the conference early! I headed straight to my hotel for a nap.


Napping used to be an activity I enjoyed. Since I was little I remember my Mom taking an nap in the afternoon and I used to lie on the opposite side of the couch from her and kind of tangle my feet in hers and we'd both take a little snooze. Sometimes I would just lie as still as I could and watch her sleep. She looked so beautiful sleeping...and I would not want to wake her up. After about an hour or so...she'd would slowly wake up and we'd play this little footsie game for a while. Pushing our feet back and forth...kind of wrestling to see who could make each others knees bend first.


When my kids were little, whenever they took a nap...I did to. It was our cuddle time and all three of us would look forward to it. Just listening to their quiet breathing and inhaling the smell of their hair and skin would immediately calm me down and relax me.


Usually I would wake up to little eyes just staring at me.


I don't know how you know that someone is looking at you when you are asleep, but I think most parents can tell you that if their child comes into their room in the middle of the night and just stands by the bed without making a sound...it wakes you up in an instant.


Call it instinct or whatever...it's kind of a freaky thing.


So...back in the present day...and up to my hotel room, I pulled all of the blinds closed, hung the "please do not disturb" sign on the door and lay down for a bit of a snooze. I had plans for dinner with a friend that evening, so I set my alarm just to make sure I wouldn't "oversleep".


I crawled into the bed...got the pillows just right and slowly drifted off to.....the...sound....of....


What the fa?!?!


Construction on the floor below me.?


AAAAAGGGGGGHHHH!


It wasn't really loud noise, but more of a consistent: bang, bang, bang, bang....pause, pause, pause...then another, bang, bang, bang, bang.


Sometimes the pauses were a bit longer and I'd think..."oh yay!...they've stopped". I'd snuggle into my pillows again...kind of start to drift off...and the freakin' noise would start up.


ugh


Stuff like this happens to me at home too. I would go to take a nap and as soon as I was falling off into slumberland either the phone would ring or more likely my dogs would start barking their little heads off.



The little buggers would time it perfectly too.



I'd start nodding off...they bark...I tell them to shut up....I start nodding again...they bark...I yell at them to shut the hell up...and off I'd go to try and sleep and the little fuckers start barking yet again.



I should just give up on naps. They make me more tense and anxious than relaxed and restful anymore.



:::sigh:::


Finally resolved that I was not going to get a nap in, I got up and putzed around on the computer for a while - work stuff, called M to check in and let her know I was safe and sound and it was hot and humid here in California and then got ready for dinner.

I had a great dinner with an ol' friend who I haven't seen in almost 10 years! She and her partner live in Long Beach and they drove out to see me. We went to Joe's Crab Shack...I guess it's a chain restaurant, where the food is so-so, but it was a lot of fun.


L was very curious about a drink they had on the menu called a Shark Attack. It was primary blue liquid, with red grenadine syrup floated on top and a plastic shark sticking out.


20 years ago...I may have tried it...nowadays...I have 2 glasses of wine or 2 beers and I'm done.


It's great to catch up with old friends. I've been lucky to have been able to do that on the past 3 business trips I've been on...so I will count those as blessings for sure!


After dinner - I came back to my room and thought I'd go to bed early and try to play catch up on my sleep.


I don't have booth duty until 1:00 - no appointments in the morning...nothing to be anxious about and I slept like the dead until about 7:30 am!


YEAH BABY!


I feel so much better.


I ordered up some room service for breakfast...and set down to finish my book when I heard some kind of drumming noise?


It almost sounded like a marching band.


Well, since I was well rested and relaxed...this noise did not irritate me in the least bit...it sounded kind of happy and celebratory so I checked outside to see what it was.



A wedding!



Or the after wedding celebration I guess.



In the parking lot...lot's of brightly colored middle eastern men and women were dancing around in celebration of some kind.

They were having a good ol' time dancing in the parking lot. I kind of wanted to join them.

I watched for about 15 minutes. They would make a circle around the happy couple, then break apart and then other people would be in the center...maybe the parents...grandparent...then they'd break apart and so on and so forth.

Finally - bride and groom climbed into the car that had two big flowered hearts on the hood and drove away with everyone shouting and cheering!

Best of luck to you both! I waved from my hotel room!

I didn't even mutter my usual sarcastic - "suckers" under my breath!

ahhhh...it's a good day!

I'm off to a shower and to get ready for booth duty. Not exactly the most thrilling thing to do, but eh...it's only for a few hours.

I hope you all are having a great weekend in your part of the planet!

Be well!