Okay, so it ended up being boringly newsy

I'm debating between waxing poetic and being boringly newsy. I guess I'll just type and see what comes out.

I had to work at 5:45 this morning, which meant waking up at 5:00, which meant going to bed at 9:00. Which I didn't do, in spite of my best efforts. I got off work at 5:30 last night, then came home and made sushi for dinner, and by the time dinner and daily exercise were taken care of, it was already after 9:00. So I went to bed and didn't fall asleep for over an hour, then woke up a couple of times throughout the night to notice that my husband was still not in bed. I think he came to bed at about 3:00. Then, for no apparent reason, I woke up at 4:00. And I couldn't fall back asleep. I know this is common for a lot of people, but I am one of those people who might take a long time falling asleep the first time, because my brain just won't shut up, but once I am asleep, I usually fall back to sleep easily. Too easily, in fact. The nine minutes between hitting my snooze button and being woken again by the alarm feels like a whole extra night's sleep, complete with full-blown dreamscapes and utter, blissful unconsciousness. But not this morning. After lying awake for 45 minutes, I finally gave up and got out of bed.

The weirdest part about this "middle of sleep wakefulness" is that, although I don't recall it being a common occurrence before, I do remember it happening fairly recently, at some point in the last month or so. I don't appear to have mentioned it on my blog, although maybe I did and just can't think of what search terms to look for. I also didn't mark it on my chart, which bugs me immensely, because I think it might have happened at about the same time in my cycle last month. If so, that would be a really handy secondary fertility sign to watch for. Have any of you ever heard of such a thing before?

Okay, so that was a tangent. I really should draft these things out in point form before writing them. Ah, who am I kidding, I would never pay attention to point form outlines. Tangents pad word counts. Long story short, I was groggy at work today, and three iced double tall lattes didn't do anything for me. But it was still a pretty good shift.

After I got off work, we (Jer and I, Jer's parents, Jer's brother and girlfriend, and Jer's sister) went to an art gallery that was having an Ansel Adams exhibit. It took us a really long time to get there, and we got lost several times, but fortunately, it wasn't a very big exhibit, so we still had time to see it. I really enjoyed the exhibit, although I was frustrated afterwards when I discovered that there were no postcards of my favourite photograph in the bookstore. I always seem to like the wrong pieces of art - it makes me feel like I'm a bad art appreciator. Oh well, what I think's pretty is pretty to me. So there.



After the museum, we came home and I went to bed. I think I might have been planning on sleeping for an hour, but I slept for three. But I don't feel bad about it, because I needed every minute of that nap. Unfortunately, this means that it is once again late at night and I haven't done my daily exercise. Four days in and I'm already floundering. Sigh.

I've come to think of this fitness regime as my Inverted Lent, since Brian pointed out how close my timing was to being a mirror image of Lent. To be honest, though, 40 days was an afterthought. I decided that I would exercise every day until Memorial day, then I got out my calendar and fortuitously counted exactly 40 remaining days. If I had been smart and thought of this a few days sooner, then I could have actually been done my 40 days before Memorial day weekend, instead of on the actual holiday Monday. Oh well, maybe next year.

I received news yesterday that a wonderful woman from my home church in Ottawa passed away. I'm a little sad that I can't be in Ottawa for her funeral, but I'm more sad that my mom can't be. Irma has been a part of my family's life for as long as I can remember, and I know it's hard for my mom that she can't be there. But, she is in Australia, visiting many of her family members for the first time ever, and coming back early is not really an option. My prayers go out to my church family right now, and although I am sad, I am happy to know that her suffering is over and that she is with her Lord. But I wanted to share my one-paragraph eulogy before I sign off from this rambling and non-point-form-organized post.

Have you ever had a time in your life where you were completely broke, and a bill came in that you needed a specific amount of money to pay for, but you had no idea where that money would come from? And you prayed, but you didn't mention it to anyone because you were too embarrassed to ask for help? And then one day, someone would press an unmarked envelope into your hand, which you would open up later to find contained the exact amount of money that you needed to pay that bill? It was Irma who would press that envelope into my hand. God answers prayers, but he enlists people like Irma to do the hands-on work. Because he knows that they will smile and do it, every time, blessed to have been of service.