Dear...

Dear Sleepless Night,

Your presence here has been most enlightening. I've learned a lot of things about life during our HOURS together beneath the full moon. You've educated me on the world during the twilight hours, when half the world is asleep, and you continue to do your tap dance on my brain. I can hear the crickets and the frogs and the birds doing dances of their own.....you must be two-timing me, because they're awake, too. Could they also be contemplating the same things that my mind has been churning around and around like a rock tumbler?

Last night I spent a good hour on how nice those little salad forks are that are made of wood and look like robot hands. A FULL HOUR!!! I've always wanted some of those. A modest wish...

I tumbled around some menu ideas for my upcoming lunch with my book club ladies. A pasta salad, perhaps? What about a strawberry spinach salad that would be perfect with the aforementioned tongs? We read "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" but I don't think a potato peel pie would be edible for our rather feminine palates. And yet, I contemplated...

I made mental lists of food needing to be purchased, abandoned projects that needed to be revived and windows that are so filmy with little hand prints that they look frosted. Nice for privacy but not so nice for aesthetics. And still, I pondered...

And I thought about kindergarten.

I mulled over how I felt about sending my child off with strangers for 8 hours and how I was informed that 10 days advanced notice is required to take my child on an extended vacation. 10 days!!! And I have to get "approval" for MY child! MY child.....or is he now Prince William County Public School's child?

Can't we talk about these things at three in the afternoon instead of three in the morning? My dark circles would be so appreciative.

Sleepless Night, you weren't so bad to have around when I had to study for a test. But when my alarm clock squeals, "MAMA!" from its crib at 6:30 a.m. and I have to attentively listen to Captain Owen talk about how he "dream-ded" about putting eggs in the wrong place (which was this mornings dream conversation)......well, I need all my wits about me.

So I've devised a plan to make your transition OUT of my life a bit easier.

I bought myself a pair of these.....

I wrote down all my lists and checked off a few to-do's.

I've tumbled and pondered and contemplated and mulled and wished and listened. What more could you want from me?

Please. Go. Away.

Thank you, and good night.