My Life Schedule Is Reversed

Most reasonable people are asleep as I write this. Some are already getting up to go to work. I will only go to bed around Noon and sleep until 5 pm. I have always been a night owl. For many years I was the evening Chaplain at Western Baptist Hospital. Most recently I worked the 3^rd shift at Wal-Mart. Since Dad died I have often stayed awake until at least 2 am. Gradually, I have stayed awake later and later. For several days I have had increasing problems falling asleep. It seemed like I could not sleep until sunrise. This week I found myself staying awake until the sun was high in the sky. As I tried to go to bed, I saw a lot of house work still to be done… the pantry needed to be cleaned, dishes needed to be washed, furniture and furnishing needed to go into the yellow room, laundry needed to be done, carpets needed to be vacuumed. Before I knew what was happening it was noon and I was still awake. Today I still have a lot of work to do. I made stew yesterday and I need to put the leftovers away before I go to sleep. Mind you, I am not complaining. The remarkable thing about it is that when I do go to bed, I sleep like a baby! And when I wake up at 5 or 6 pm I am fully rested and want to get out of bed whereas before I just wanted to sleep all night and then all day too. I do not what to change back. This schedule may sound very unorthodox. However, it works for me.

Am I in a manic phase? I do not know that for sure. It is hard to be your own therapist. It does not feel like I am manic. I am not trying to do everything perfectly. I do feel a great deal of anxiety about how the house looks and that Christmas is just a few short weeks away. In less than four weeks my siblings, children, grand-child, and ex-wife will be here and so much needs to be done.

• Yesterday, I took out all the sheets from the closet and sorted them according to the bed(s) they went on. I was amazed to find so few that will fit the yellow room bed… and all of them are pink. But I do not have the money to buy new ones so pink it is… at least for a while.
  
• The basement is still full of boxes. If my siblings bring their children, the basement is certainly where they will want to go. But cleaning it will be a giant task. I have hardly made a dent in it. Without a pickup truck it is so hard to take thing anywhere.
  
• I did fix the kitchen faucet which started to drip none stop. That leaves the bathtub faucet and sink faucets to fix.
  

I could go on and on. If I were in a manic phase I would try to do them all. I will do what I can and live around the rest. But my new life schedule is helping.

Ahh, to be young again