All Nighters Suck

I used to be SO good at all nighters. In college, I would curl up in chair in the dorm lounge, surrounded by a cold soda, a pile of M and M's, my textbooks and notes and study up a storm. I memorized really well and in the late night hours, everything seemed so crystal clear to me. I would go in the next day and ace the test, then spend the afternoon celebrating instead of napping.

Such is youth.

Flash forward to today, or to be more accurate, yesterday. It became abundantly clear to me by mid afternoon that what I had figured would take me 6-7 hours was actually going to take more than 10. As the evening wore down and everyone began to get ready for bed, I knew I was in for a long one.

At midnight, everyone was in bed. I shifted to my upstairs office because at night it feels cozier and more comfortable than the one I have in the living room. I put on some stupid sitcom repeat that keeps me company without acutally having to watch it closely and typed away. One became two became three became . . . well let's just say that when J got up at 7:30, I was just finishing up. It was one L O N G night.

At 7:30, I crawled into the best bed in the universe and closed my eyes. 50 minutes later, the phone rang. J was gone, taking Nicole to her bus stop, so I had to answer it (yes, it's a compulsion). It was a fax which meant I had to get up, go push the button and then stand there to get the (sigh) nine page fax. By then, J came home. We chit chatted, I answered some emails, looked at the day's schedules, read the newspaper's comics and then at 9:10, I laid back down. 70 minutes later, the phone rang. J was on his cell phone so he couldn't answer it. I did and guess what? It was another fax. Sigh.

I gave up. I got up. I've been going ever since.

So my eyes feel like sandpaper. I have a sore throat. My mind feels pretty dull. I work for 10 minutes and take a break. My all nighter abilities have clearly faded away (although I bet I'd perk up if someone would only bring me some M and M's.) The day seems really, really long and it's only 1:00.

It's a long way to 11 tonight and if I could only perk up just a little bit, I could get so much done. Today was supposed to be the first day of my week off, but it ain't happenin. I fell behind and now I've got stuff due all week. It is lighter than usual though, so I am hoping to only put in 5-6 hours a day and then claim the rest for the fun stuff I had planned like reading, going shopping with my good friend Susan, spending a day out with Nicole, having a family slide show, reading, rearranging my office somewhat, going to a homeschool conference to do a book signing, reading and of course NAPPING without guilt.

But before I get there, I have two 120 question tests and a book to write. Is it vacation time yet? You can bet when it is, I will NOT be pulling any all nighters.