Good night, that's an early morning.

I haven't slept since July.

I think it was July, at least.

July is the month that I've attributed to long, restful nights of 8+ hours of sleep. July is when I gave up caffeine. July is when I read summery book after summery book.

And then it all changed.

I've been trying, since July, to figure out whose fault it is that I don't sleep anymore. I think it's MB's fault.

When she signed a lease up at 125th and Columbus, her move to NYC became more than a fluttery little dream. Part of facing the reality that was coming on September 1st was a commitment to 'do something fun in DC every day' until MB left.

This is where the problems arose.

See, for one of the two of us (hint: she's taller than 5 1'), this kind of socializing had to be intentional. For the other, who has long suffered and recently been diagnosed with FOMO (fear of missing out), a challenge like this was just a needle in the hand of an addict. A no-max credit card in the hands of a shopaholic. This is what this excess of plans were like for me.

It's a real problem. A very real problem.

I keep telling myself that it's a good problem to have. I mean, it is, right? To just enjoy humanity that much that I can't say no to hanging out?

Just to be clear, it's not always a plethora of plans that keeps me from sleeping at night. There is another culprit. It's the simple fact that many (a possible majority?) of my friends fall into one or more of the following occupational buckets: unemployed, partially employed, or bizarrely employed.

In contrast, I would just consider myself traditionally, 9-5ishly, suit-wearingly DC employed.

Unemployed, partially employed and bizarrely employed do not follow the same schedule as the rest of the universe. For some, evenings begin at 12 am and breakfast doesn't happen till afternoon of the next day. For another lucky crew, the whole day is spent in the comfort of Tryst, or a living room, or a park, solving the issues of the world one Gmail ping at a time.

They generally aren't forced to look alive by 8:30 (or 9 if I'm pushing it). So when they want to laugh til dawn, or bake at midnight, or go for a late movie on a Tuesday, it's simple. I just give in.

But there are some things, as the CEO of the org where I work likes to say, that are just true.

For me, the truest thing at the moment is that I will just die if I don't get a grip. My October Mom, MD, is reminding me of this every morning, smilingly saying that if we have an in-house H1N1 outbreak, I'm going to be the first to go.

Here's what I'm proposing for myself:
Mondays - sleep by 11
Tuesdays - sleep by 11*
Wednesdays - sleep by 11
Thursdays - sleep by 12:30
Fridays - ???
Saturdays - sleep the heck in

Stay tuned.
Maybe I will be able to start my next post with "I've been sleeping since October..."

*Tuesdays when Hanson is playing do not apply to this schedule.

Because I promised.

(this is life right now)

Accio, writer-Hanna (!)

The crowds are clamoring, so here I am, back. By 'crowds,' of course I mean EH and LC, the only two readers of this online chatterboard where my brain unloads from time to time. This is for you, my dears, so when I look back in a year or two (or a month or two?) horrified that I thought I had something worthy for the world to know -- you're the ones to whom I'll direct all the rolling eyes and embarrassing references.

With that disclaimer, I proceed.

It turned cold again, yesterday. Like, COLD. The cold has made me want to suggest to the director of the universe an amendment to the current layout of seasons -- my recommendation would be as follows:

January-April: 60-76 degrees
May-August: 78-89 degrees
September-October: the 60s
November: the 50s
December: the 40s, with 6 days of frigid weather

In addition, I would request a few days of rain in April and October, and the occasional breeze to spread around the Vitamin D in June/July/August.

I just don't know how much longer I can stand it. There are no hints of tan lines anywhere on my body. In fact, I could probably just have the Origins lady match a makeup to a white piece of paper and it would be perfect for my skin tone.

Ugh.

It's time for some life! It's time for some green grass and neon pedicures! Knock knock, spring -- come save me before it's too late! Why am I using exclamation marks?! I hate exclamation marks! The winter is making me go off my rocker!

To give it some credit, this winter did mark some big milestones in the life of this summer-souled Texginian. I learned how to change a license, title and register a car, and attach license plates. It's hard to express how adult-like I felt after this hurdle was crossed. Also, the license plates sat in my windshield until I was pulled over for expired registration and the very confused officer saw my current plates sitting in my windshield and stalled for several minutes acting like he was going to give me a ticket for stupidity and then just said, "Ma'am, go find a screwdriver. Put these on your car." Yowza.

Also, it marked a year of living in the hometown of American democracy. The faces that were new when I first moved to 21st Rd are the familiar ones now. People are asking me for directions, and I can give them. I know where I am now, and I know who I am here.

This winter, I skiied for the first time this side of the Mississippi with new friends and my own ski goggles (slowly owning more, borrowing less). I experienced the inauguration on the slopes, humming hail to the Chief as I froze my face off on the slowest lift in America -- and let the 2 million visitors freeze their faces off on the Mall. I thought I'd finally get warm driving back in RG's XTerra, but his dictatorship over the floor heat (read -- NO heat) made BG and I rebel by playing Rockapella and dcTalk the whole way back from West Virginia. Good times.

I passed the half-a-year mark at my job and continue to thank my lucky stars that I get to work in such a great environment. I also continue to thank my lucky stars that they implemented the mandatory administrative skills test (a practical where you have you use Outlook, make a travel advance, manage a calendar) after I was hired. I still hire KM as my e-mail organization consultant regularly. I've learned a ton this year, and I'll take anyone on who says they might have a better boss or better coworkers than me. It's impossible.

This winter was my first Obama NPB, my first time to be visited by SJE and my first time dance at a motown club (!!). I'm trying my hand at web-text writing for the relaunch of some friends' NGO site and delving deeper into the world of atrocities facing children that just need to be told. The savvy ones around me have gotten me hooked on Twitter (which I once hated on as 'facebook for old people') and I lost another retainer, so it was me and the bracefaced 14 year olds back at the ortho all over again. He laughed actually, and said, 'Well -- you only wear this at night, so it should be pretty hard to lose, unless your dog eats it.' I said, 'Well, funny story...' (Miss you, Jorge) I've continued to buy books all winter and I'm slowly getting through them. Latika's Theme and long conversations with KPA have been distracting me from the frigidity of my basement apartment (what Emma calls 'legit cold'), and Sadie's laughy stories are keeping me close to ATX (at heart).

The tune of my life is coming together -- it's an off beat melody with high highs and low lows, but is being made interesting by loves and lovers from Highland Park to Addis Ababa and everywhere in between.

So, yeah. The winter's been alright, I guess. But I'm readier for spring than I ever thought I could be. I've set a date for my foot tattooing and I've recruited a friend to hold my hand. It's time.

You Texans enjoy that sunshine; I'll keep taking my Vitamin D supplements and hunker down till April explodes.

X's and O's,
hs