Yawn, I'm Soooo Tired

Singing on the ferry

Love all the tunes and the harmonies

There's this old saying "youth is wasted on the young". I'm not so sure that's true if you keep your youth in your head and heart. I vividly remember my mother saying when she was in her seventies, "out of these eyes is a 38 year old." I have the exact same feeling now, today, especially since I've gotten more than eight hours sleep. When I've had less that five hours, all bets are off: I become a stumbling, bumbling, crabby idiot of the first class. This was brought home to me the day last month when we, my two sisters and I, were leaving from the guitar workshop. We'd attended that camp for a week and had a marvelous time and yet I nearly wrecked our final day together by barking at them. As one of my sisters said about another trip we took, "Susan, this trip is not about sleep." Camp life proved to be the case in spades...

The reason guitar camp was such a great time was all of the spontaneous singing, playing, performing, dancing, and meeting new people who all had the same interest we did. We jammed especially late on the last night. We stayed up singing at one of the cabins until 2 AM. I was still jazzed when one sister and I left for our cabin. Unfortunately because I was over-stimulated I didn't fall asleep right away. Then two sisters- who shall remain nameless- came crashing in an hour after that and pushed my falling asleep time further into the morning. Ugh.

After a solid four hours sleep, I dragged myself up for breakfast on that last day of camp. We said our good byes, gathered up all the extraneous gear, guitars, etc., hugged everyone we liked and because we had a ferry to catch, I urged the sisters into the car. It wasn't happening. So I told them, "I'll be in the car," thinking surely they can't be long and will follow. Did I mention we had a ferry to catch? Well apparently in my semi stupor I didn't stress this point and what seemed like hours later, I see the two sister casually chatting and strolling their way to the car. I lost it. "Where have you been? Didn't you know I wanted to leave?" "Yes, but you're ruining my good bye experience!" In her/their defense they didn't know that missing the ferry is approximately the experience of missing a plane. Plus, I was driving and didn't know exactly where I was going, always a nerve wracking experience for me. 

Well, to my relief and semi embarrassment, we got to the ferry in time. An additional plus we went upstairs bow at the back of the ferry and, with several of the other camp students, sang for the entire trip. Five part harmony. Loved it. Happily that was a redeeming experience [to my hissy fit] and then miraculously, with ease I navigated our crew to niece Joc and Kevin's house where we were spending the night. Much to my relief, when we asked them out to lunch as a thank you, Kevin offered to drive. I was toast by this time.

After a swell lunch the sisters and I fell into beds for a nap and didn't awake for two and a half hours. Much refreshed we talked for hours, watched some of the performances from the camp and had a lovely night then went to bed. 

I awoke at 3AM and had a bad feeling. "Where are the car keys?" So as to not wake Kathleen I stealthily rummaged through my backpack---no keys. It hadn't rained in two months yet when I went outside to look and see if I'd left the keys in the car, it was raining. Couldn't see but my heart sunk and I thought, I'll never get back to sleep. But I was so exhausted, I did. When K's alarm went off at 6AM I went out, again in the rain, to see if I could pop open the door with a metal clothes hanger. No such luck though I tried for half an hour. Kevin was up and he helped while I went to call the lock and key guy. He got it open! I threw open the car door gratefully and search in all my usual spots for the keys. No keys. Now, time was of the essence [we had to leave for the airport or we would be missing the plane, see above, and it would be my fault]. I raced back into the house I picked up my back pack and gave it a great shake, there among the tea bags were the keys. I had only my exhaustion to blame.

I am living proof that corroborates every study you read pointing out that seven or eight hours are the minimum amounts of sleep required for functioning well. Four hours proved to be my undoing and my third helping of humble pie.

susansmagicfeather copyright 2013 Susan R. Grout all rights reserved