Yawn (..............)!

Here it is 10:33 a.m. and I can't wake up! More appropriately, I'm falling asleep! I feel like that lady in the commercial who has fallen and can't get up. Well, I'm awake and I can't stay that way!

Now for Donna 101 - I've always been a night owl. That's not to say I can't get up in the morning. I was never one of those kids who's parent's needed a bull horn to get out of bed. Matter of fact, my mother was usually still in bed when I left for school because I went in so early and she didn't have to go to work until later. She was a night owl also who stayed up past midnight, too. I can get up - if I have to - that's the operative phrase! Also, when I get up, don't expect Miss Donna Dew Eyed - I'm a bear. I figure out what is last possible moment I can stay in bed and still get all I need to get done in a morning and still be where I need to be at a specific time within a five minute window. Then I count back and stay in bed until I have to positively, absolutely, can't put it off any longer - get up.

My grandmother gave me a portable TV as a birthday present one year when I was very young and I became hopelessly addicted to TV and we all know the good shows were on after 9:00 p.m. So I'd say my good nights at nine, go upstairs and pretend to be in bed. (You see, my Dad was convinced children needed 12 hours of sleep or whatever. Me, I'd do just fine on 7 or 8.)

I'd tip-toe to the TV in my room and turn the switch on and turn the channel selector til I found the station that had my 'must see' show on. I was convinced my Dad could hear every little sound that clicking TV made so I had the process down to a fine art.*

*Time out for all you newbie kids out there, born after the ice age. This was in the old'n days, the days before remotes when you had to manually turn on and off your TV and change channels by, gasp! getting out of your chair or off your couch and walking, that's right using your two legs and going to the TV set to change the channel. Two other archaic notes, first, we only had about 7 channels and my little set was black and white - NO COLOR! How's that for the stone age!

I'd lay at the foot of my bed with sound down really low and watch whatever show it was and then at the end try and turn the set off without making a sound. I got away with it most of the time, but when my grades went south, so did the TV eventually being put into the basement so that video temptation would be farther away.

Anyway, I'm still a late owl for the most part. I'll be awake all night and fall asleep during the last five minutes of 'Law and Order', you know, when the verdict comes in. I wake up just in time to see Dick Wolf's name plastered across the screen. Then, when I should go to bed, I get my second wind and can stay up for hours - just because I slept for five minutes!

I've tried going to bed early, I just stay awake in the dark. I try and read - I'll finish the whole book and turn out the light at three in the morning. I've tried Tylenol PM and all the other PM's out there. I'll go to sleep - and then wake up at 2:00, 3:00, 4:00, 5:00, 6:00, 7:00 and then, when I've got to get Alexa up at 7:30 - I sleep until almost 8:00 and have Miss Pris whining at me, "MOM, why didn't you get me up earlier!" Do you think she would have liked 3:00 or 5:00 a.m.?

So here I am instead of taking a nap, blogging! Hey, if I can't sleep - neither can you!