Sleep 'Til It Hurts

Good Morning Faithful Blog Readers!

Yes, it's me again....pick yourself up off the floor. I gotta tell ya....it's been so long since I've regularly blogged, that I had a hard time remembering my user name and password combination for blogger.com. That's pitiful. I did persevere through it and here I am.

So I'm currently on spring break. For all of you "haters" out there...let me explain something....there is a reason that teachers get two weeks off at Christmas, a week off at spring break, and two months off in the summer. It literally takes that long for to "reset" yourself. I've had regular jobs before and believe me, there's no comparison. I'm not saying that I'd like to dig ditches or anything, because I recognize that's a hard job, but I don't think the ditch digger brings his work home, nor does he ponder endlessly about how to be a more effective ditch digger. This is what teachers do. They work at home (many times to the neglect and detriment of their families), spend their own money for items in the classroom, go to training they pay for themselves in order to improve their craft, and think endlessly about how to do their job better. All of this on top of massive amounts of papers to grade, parents to contact, lessons to plan, and various things to cut, trace, or organize. I'm not complaining here...I'm simply laying the ground work for why spring break is so valuable and necessary.


Now don't misunderstand me....Since school got out on Friday afternoon, I've spent all day Saturday at school working (9 AM - 4 PM), and many hours on Sunday and Monday organizing and grading a mountain of papers. I say all this for you to understand that although I'm enjoying my time off, I am by no means "off" of work. I told the bank teller the other day that I work 365 days a year. That's a true statement if I ever heard one. Which brings me to the title of this post.......


When I was a kid, I remember not really wanting to go to sleep. I can remember sneaking out of bed and laying on the floor just outside of the hallway to my bedroom and if I situated myself just right, I could watch TV. Some people say that little kids fight going to sleep because they don't want to miss anything. I'm not sure if that was me or not. But I do remember being a teenager and listing my hobbies as sleeping and eating. So, somewhere between my childhood and being a teenager, I started liking to sleep.


As a grown-up, I've continued to enjoy sleeping. David likes to sleep too, but he's a different bird. He tends to stay up late and tries to sleep in the next morning. I can't do that. I remember when we first were married, we'd wake up and I'd immediately get out of bed to start my day. Lingering in the bed made no sense to me. David, on the other hand, had no problem dozing on and off and lingering in bed until late morning. Of course, this was before we had Raelynn. But looking back to that time in my life, I'd have to attribute my early rising to being raised by my parents. They were the type that felt that if you slept past 8 on a Saturday morning, you had wasted the whole day. I'm happy to say now that the urge I felt to jump out of bed and get started on my day has slowly dissipated. Now that Raelynn is old enough to get up and entertain herself (thank goodness for TV and video games!), I can "relax."


I say "relax" because it's not truly sleeping/relaxing. During the work week, I wake up at 5 AM and am walking out of the door for work at around 6:15. Doing this for a number of years has trained my body to wake up early. On Saturday and Sunday, I'll wake up around 6 on my own, go to the bathroom, check on Raelynn, and then go back to bed. There, I'll doze off and on until 8 or 9 or until David wakes up. When we were first married, David could sleep until noon. I can't do that. Now that he's "seasoned" (I don't call it old) he's up and moving around 8 or 9 on the weekends too. But I was proud of my sleeping hours Saturday, the first official day of spring break.


My usual bedtime is 10 PM during the week. For whatever reason (probably because there was nothing decent on TV), I went to bed Friday night at my regular time. I did the whole get up at 6, use the restroom, check on Raelynn thing, and then returned to bed where I slept until 10 AM. That's right people, I slept for 12 hours. What's awful about that is the fact that the more "seasoned" you get, the more sleeping in like that starts to hurt. I can't explain it, but there's something about lingering around in the bed after a certain time that makes my back and legs hurt. Maybe it's because I sleep with about 4 pillows at different heights and my back isn't aligned, or perhaps it's a sign that I'm supposed to get up....I don't know. But suffice it to say, that when I got up on Saturday, I was both pleased with my 12 hour sleep record and stiff from staying in bed so long.


But really, if I have to suffer some stiffness and soreness to sleep that long, I'll take it. After all, my hobbies are sleeping and eating. And how am I supposed to get better unless I practice? Anyway, enjoy your day today whether you are working or not. Some of us are in the process of "resetting" so we'll more effective next week. If you get tired, take a nap. I hope you sleep 'til it hurts!!!


Toodles!