Happy New Year

I've been making a couple of lists lately. One is a list of things I would like to do/have/be in the future. I made a list several years ago and did/had/was a lot of the things on it. I'm not too keen on making resolutions as they seem almost made to be broken. Fiona and I worked on two lists today of things we like to do and places we like to go. On Friday we will go to the craft store and buy some card stock and brads so we can make a couple of spinning wheels that will have the list of things written around the edges. The idea came to me when I was thinking how some days I don't want to play princess for the 10,000th time that day, but I can't think of anything better to do. A friend recommended that I make a wheel of things that she can do by herself, when I am unable to or disinclined to play.

It has been a stressful month/month-and-a-half. There have been many nights when I've seen the clock tick over to 3AM. I received a prescription for Xanax about a week before Christmas. It helped me fall asleep perfectly. I also realized that I am a light sleeper. It wasn't until the second day that it dawned on me that I hadn't woken up when the cats climbed on me, or when I turned over and dislodged one of the cats, or when the dog scratched, or when my daughter cried out in her sleep (I know this sounds terrible, but it happens every night between midnight and 2AM, she has night terrors), or when my daughter climbed in bed with us. It has been amazing. I've actually woken up after eight hours of sleep and felt like getting out of bed. So, we are making changes, because I obviously can't take the medicine for ever. The cats are now shut out of the bedroom at night. It makes me sad, because I have loved having them with me. One would sleep between my feet and the other on my hips. We put a new door handle on the bedroom door, so that Fiona can open it without a lot of noise. We took the collar off the dog. I'm going to look into getting one that has the name and phone number stitched into the fabric of the collar. Of course none of this deals with the initial insomnia that I've had trouble with, but I've been visiting with my therapist rather frequently lately and things in general are doing a bit better.

I found this article on the New York Times* to be interesting. It is about how people deal with regrets.

I found this article on the New York Times to be utterly distressing. It is about companies creating virtual worlds for children to visit and pay money for etc, online. It makes me think of the writings of Neal Stephenson and William Gibson.

Here is a bit of fun. You can make a South Park character that looks like you. Here I am. My husband says the expression is just perfect, but that is only because he constantly says things that make me roll my eyes.


* If you don't have a login for the New York Times and it asks for one, you can use craigslist for both the ID and the password.