Deborah Lipp

I left the house without earrings this morning. I feel totally undressed. And weird.

And normally I’d have gone back into the house and gotten the earrings. But it’s six degrees outside. And the thing is, if I’m late for work, I end up in the back of the parking lot. And it’s a looooong walk in six degree weather to the entrance to the building. Just for earrings.

It’s amazing. Every morning since this cold snap, I’ve been totally motivated to get to work on time.

Okay, I don’t have new cat pictures this week. But, I have something almost as good.

For Yule, my friend Dave gave me a lovely secondhand drum. Since the outside was a little beat up I decided to paint it.

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I drink a lot of coffee. A lot. I’m thinking oh, a cup before I leave the house, then two or three cups in the morning at work, then one or two after lunch. But never in the evening unless there’s a special reason.*

Now, my story about this is always that it doesn’t interfere with my ability to go to sleep. I’ve had touches of insomnia from time to time for twenty years, but I’ve never related it to coffee. Largely, this is because sometimes I can’t sleep because of an evening cup of coffee (or two), and that has a very specific feeling, which is different from my “normal” insomnia feeling.

Okay, so when I’m sick I switch to tea. Gotta maintain the caffeine, but I find coffee too dehydrating when my throat hurts. So Earl Grey with honey. I switched to tea about December 28 or so, and have been tea at home and coffee at work** since. Since I was out sick Friday it’s been just tea again.

Yesterday in the early evening I got a headache and felt very sleepy. Fell asleep from 7 to 9 pm after taking ibuprofen. It was a sudden, heavy sleep that surprised me. I attributed it to some kind of reaction to the ibu. Then I went back to bed and slept heavily. When I rolled over and woke a little around 6 am, I realized it was my first time awake all night. That’s when I realized that headache-plus-sleep equals caffeine withdrawal. Yesterday I had just one cup of tea in the morning, and one glass of Coke in the afternoon. Not. Enough.

So this says to me that the increasingly troubled sleep I’ve had over the past six months is caffeine-related, and the story I tell myself is a lie. So as of today, I’m down to three cups a day; one at home, one at work in the morning, one after lunch. That’s a sizeable decrease that should still avoid withdrawal symptoms. We’ll see how I sleep.

*Special reasons include: Have to drive late at night, have been at a party drinking and end the evening with coffee, or long-haul road trippin’.
**Tea at work doesn’t work out for me because of the honey. Bringing honey to work is messy. Drinking tea without honey sucks.

I don’t understand why cough syrup comes in little bitty bottles with a measuring cup. Cough syrup should come in quarts with a sippy top, like spring water.

Who’s with me?

I forgot to post anything about being maybe less available this week. My lovely and amazing fifteen year-old goddaughter Sylvia is visiting from Florida. We’ve been having such a great time.

Wednesday we went to Rockefeller Plaza, saw the tree, the skating rink, and went up to the observation deck. Thursday we visited the Palisades Center Mall. Which isn’t special to Arthur or I, seeing as we live here, but for a teen from Florida, the second-largest mall in the U.S. is definitely an attraction. We shopped together a little and then I let them off to be teens on their own.

Friday was goof-off day. We stayed home, and I did Sylvia’s makeup and taught her some girlie arcana. Then Arthur wanted to play so I did him up “emo.” Then we drove around Pearl River looking at audacious holiday light displays.

Today it was Woodstock, where we shopped, visited an art gallery, looked at waterfalls, and hung out with the hippies. Big fun. Tomorrow morning EARLY I take Syl to the airport.

Regular blogging will probably not resume until after the New Year.

So I had about twenty people in my house Saturday night. Good time. And someone pranked me.

Two pairs of drawers in the dresser were switched. Someone actually removed two drawers, put them in each others’ place, and then did it again. They’re a little bit heavy, too.

The light bulbs in my only bedroom lamp were loosened just enough so that the light didn’t go on.

Two framed pictures in the dining room were switched.

The calendar in the kitchen was turned to June.

So I’m thinking, this is the stupidest prank ever. The lamp actually went right over my head. I went to turn it on as I was getting in bed and I thought, Oh, must be loose bulbs, and tightened them. I have no idea why I thought that but it didn’t even occur to me it was a prank until the next day.

It’s not like it’s crazy funny or elaborate, like the foil office. It’s not a look-on-her-face prank, ’cause (1) they didn’t see me, and (2) I wasn’t exactly shocked. Mildly befuddled. There could be no thrilling “wait’ll she…” thoughts, because seriously, no water splashed upon my head, my hands did not turn blue, I didn’t faint or laugh or scream or giggle or fall down. So what was the point?

There was, I should point out, a lot of booze and food and drums and funny people downstairs, so leaving all that to go upstairs and switch drawers strikes me as not as much fun.

So. Dumb prank. Meaning one of my friends is…not very creative.